Alicia64 Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 A friend says her son loves Teaching Textbooks for math. If you use it, do you love it? What do you not like? Thanks for any advice! Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddle Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 This is our 1st year homeschooling and my daughter (6th grade) was using a different math program to start- and was in tears everyday-high maintenance. We took a suggestion and put her in TT7, and we LOVE it! She can see EVERY problem worked out if she wants. It keeps a record so we know which ones she's missed and whether she bothered to view the solution (this is great- otherwise our kid would not look back to try to figure out what she did wrong). You can redo lessons if they need to- Love, love, love the automatic grading. Barring unforseen circumstances, we plan to use this all the way through. Now, I will say in all fairness that my dd is NOT a math-gifted student. I've been told by many homeschool veterans that if your child is math-gifted or plans to do hardcore math field that Saxon is far better at covering all the bases and kids tend to score higher on SAT, etc. BUT, we looked at Saxon and it would have produced even more tears than the other programs we used/tried. No more tears over math in our house- BIG improvement! Oh, I'm also going to be doing LOF Fractions with my dd over the summer, because this so far has been hardest for her- so going to try to reenforce with a different, light-hearted approach. Good luck with whatever you decide! It's so hard narrowing down curriculum when there is so much to choose from (and btw, my youngest does NOT use TT- she's dyslexic and MUS is a better fit for her).... Paula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Had the privilege of using only Geometry and it was great! For a mom who has no math skills beyond elem. I needed something that would teach my child for me, and it had to be economical. Comparing other vid maths this was what we needed. My ds soared with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 My DS12 finished TT5 and is now working on TT6. We love TT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Read this thread. It is VERY informative. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259625&highlight=teaching+textbooks If you go to the search function at the top of the page and click on it. Do an advanced search. Type in teaching textbooks (or TT) and title only then select the k-8 boards. you will find all the detail you want to know about TT Here are a few more 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 We love it! Do a search, you will find tons of reviews on the boards of TT:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Read this thread. It is VERY informative. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259625&highlight=teaching+textbooks If you go to the search function at the top of the page and click on it. Do an advanced search. Type in teaching textbooks (or TT) and title only then select the k-8 boards. you will find all the detail you want to know about TT Here are a few more 1 2 :iagree: (and yes, I use and love it, and if you look at those threads you'll know exactly why lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplykim Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 We really love it at our house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 My daughter was absolutely struggling with SAXON math. Mid year we jumped ship and went to TT6. She flew through that, went right into 7 and is now in Pre-Algebra. When people ask her what her favorite subjects are, she actually says MATH! That says a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Peach Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Yes, love it. DS 12 is in his second year of using TT. He is actually a mathy kid, but I needed something independent that he could use and that we wouldn't butt heads on. :tongue_smilie: It has worked beautifully. If we were going to be hs'ing next year, I'd get for all 3 of my kids. Yes, it's expensive, but it's worth every dollar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 You have probably noticed the other TT thread on this page . . . there are a few "alternative" views expressed there, if you are interested . . . ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I loved it. My DD hated it. We went back to MUS after that school year. It might really come down to the learning style of your child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backpew5 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 We are finishing up TT5 for 5th grade. We were doing Saxon Math and it was a daily battle. For some reason she responds better to the voice of the cd-rom guy better than the Dive cd one. I did find that about 1/2 way thrpugh that I really could pick which problems we could skip. every few days we skip some of the repetitive ones. I know that is the precept that the repetition makes for mastery but I believe the constant repetition was driving her crazy. She started asking for 2 lessons a day. Who would have thought that was possible. Not me until this program. Will continue down this road as long as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KayT Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 We tried it for prealgebra and dd hated it. We are back to BJU which we've used since the beginning. I was hoping she would since it's 1/2 the price of BJU DVD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie131 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I have a math program that I am using in the early years that I love, but am always thinking about down the road... Out of curiousity, what type of learner does well w/ TT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatLight Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 (edited) Since you also asked for reasons why someone doesn't like TT, and not just positive reviews, I thought I would chime in. My top 3 reasons: 1. The way the lessons are set up. The amount of newly learned problems are very few per lesson. A new concept is introduced each lesson. You and your child watch the lecture which explains the concept. Usually the child enters in some amount of information during the lecture, and then the lesson starts. There are 5 "practice" problems that immediately follow the lecture. Out of these 5 "practice" problems 2 of them relate to the new concept just taught. The other 3 are previously taught concepts. Then there are 22 more questions. Again, only 2 of these questions (out of 22) relate to the newly taught concept. 2. Completely spiral curriculum. I actually like a certain amount of spiral in my curriculum, and my daughter needs it. But I also want my daughter to have a mastery of a concept. TT textbooks jumps from addition, to subtraction, to missing addends, to place value, to line graphs, back to addition, to place value, to fractions, to multiplication, to money, back to subtraction etc. Every single lesson a different concept is being taught, and usually not in a sequential way. The way "mastery" is taught in TT is by having the child answer the same questions over and over again in each lesson. If they don't get it the first time, don't worry. They most certainly are going to circle back around to it again. And again. And again. That terrifies me. 3. TT is behind grade level, and not by a little bit. I'm aware that there are placement tests, but even with the placement test I just could not get the right fit. Since she hadn't yet been exposed to multiplication in her school before I pulled her out, we started with level 3 which introduces multiplication. Holy guacamole. My 5 year-old could do this math! I get that the first couple chapters are easy, for review purposes, but when we are in lesson 23 and still doing 3+5= or lesson 40 with 6+7=? Yikes. I contacted the company and because I had gone past the 30 day guarantee I could not get a refund, but they did let me exchange for level 4. (I have to say, their customer service was beyond excellent.) I know that a lot of people (and their kids) fervently love Teaching Textbooks, and my post in no way is meant to slight anyone's choice. If TT is what works for you and your child best? Great. I just wish I had had more varied feedback before making my decision. Good luck with whatever choice you make, and I hope that the program you choose ends up being the right thing for you and your child! Edited April 19, 2012 by WhatLight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Since you also asked for reasons why someone doesn't like TT, and not just positive reviews, I thought I would chime in. My top 3 reasons: 1. The way the lessons are set up. The amount of newly learned problems are very few per lesson. A new concept is introduced each lesson. You and your child watch the lecture which explains the concept. Usually the child enters in some amount of information during the lecture, and then the lesson starts. There are 5 "practice" problems that immediately follow the lecture. Out of these 5 "practice" problems 2 of them relate to the new concept just taught. The other 3 are previously taught concepts. Then there are 22 more questions. Again, only 2 of these questions (out of 22) relate to the newly taught concept. 2. Completely spiral curriculum. I actually like a certain amount of spiral in my curriculum, and my daughter needs it. But I also want my daughter to have a mastery of a concept. TT textbooks jumps from addition, to subtraction, to missing addends, to place value, to line graphs, back to addition, to place value, to fractions, to multiplication, to money, back to subtraction etc. Every single lesson a different concept is being taught, and usually not in a sequential way. The way "mastery" is taught in TT is by having the child answer the same questions over and over again in each lesson. If they don't get it the first time, don't worry. They most certainly are going to circle back around to it again. And again. And again. That terrifies me. 3. TT is behind grade level, and not by a little bit. I'm aware that there are placement tests, but even with the placement test I just could not get the right fit. Since she hadn't yet been exposed to multiplication in her school before I pulled her out, we started with level 3 which introduces multiplication. Holy guacamole. My 5 year-old could do this math! I get that the first couple chapters are easy, for review purposes, but when we are in lesson 23 and still doing 3+5= or lesson 40 with 6+7=? Yikes. I contacted the company and because I had gone past the 30 day guarantee I could not get a refund, but they did let me exchange for level 4. (I have to say, their customer service was beyond excellent.) I know that a lot of people (and their kids) fervently love Teaching Textbooks, and my post in no way is meant to slight anyone's choice. If TT is what works for you and your child best? Great. I just wish I had had more varied feedback before making my decision. Good luck with whatever choice you make, and I hope that the program you choose ends up being the right thing for you and your child! This is very well stated, and it fits our experience to a T. Miss P has been working through TT5 for review on her "independent work" days, and there is not a lesson where she has learned something new. Everything that has been presented has been covered, much more deeply, in MM4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maeintx Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 We used TT5 this year and we supplement with MCP workbook pages for extra practice once a week. My son is very hard on himself when he makes a mistake. TT allows him to see instantly if it was wrong and he can go back and review so he doesn't make the same mistake on the next problem. For us that is a big plus. We will be continuing onto TT next year for both boys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diaperjoys Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Oh, I was so hoping I could use TT next year - the perfect review program, so i thought. Then I had my son do a sample lesson. And wouldn't you know it, he figured out right away that he could guess at an answer, the program would tell him he got it wrong, and would then offer him two choices. #1) try it again #2) see the answer. Guess what he chose? :glare: For an unmotivated boy who has a thousand things he'd rather use his brain cells for, TT has an all to convenient way to get out of actually working the problems... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly1730 Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 W use it and love it! We used Algebra I one year that my daughter was homeschooled for high school and she went back to Christian school the very next year and had no problem getting right on track with the other kids. We have used TT 3 and TT 4 (this year) and my boys like it. We do supplement for mastery of memorizing the multiplication tables, TT goes over it too fast and they just weren't getting the facts down. I really dislike teaching math (please give me history, english, literature any day!) so this gets the job done and we are all happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 1. The way the lessons are set up. The amount of newly learned problems are very few per lesson. A new concept is introduced each lesson. You and your child watch the lecture which explains the concept. Usually the child enters in some amount of information during the lecture, and then the lesson starts. There are 5 "practice" problems that immediately follow the lecture. Out of these 5 "practice" problems 2 of them relate to the new concept just taught. The other 3 are previously taught concepts. Then there are 22 more questions. Again, only 2 of these questions (out of 22) relate to the newly taught concept. 2. Completely spiral curriculum. I actually like a certain amount of spiral in my curriculum, and my daughter needs it. But I also want my daughter to have a mastery of a concept. TT textbooks jumps from addition, to subtraction, to missing addends, to place value, to line graphs, back to addition, to place value, to fractions, to multiplication, to money, back to subtraction etc. Every single lesson a different concept is being taught, and usually not in a sequential way. The way "mastery" is taught in TT is by having the child answer the same questions over and over again in each lesson. If they don't get it the first time, don't worry. They most certainly are going to circle back around to it again. And again. And again. That terrifies me. 3. TT is behind grade level, and not by a little bit. I'm aware that there are placement tests, but even with the placement test I just could not get the right fit. Since she hadn't yet been exposed to multiplication in her school before I pulled her out, we started with level 3 which introduces multiplication. Holy guacamole. My 5 year-old could do this math! I get that the first couple chapters are easy, for review purposes, but when we are in lesson 23 and still doing 3+5= or lesson 40 with 6+7=? Yikes. I contacted the company and because I had gone past the 30 day guarantee I could not get a refund, but they did let me exchange for level 4. (I have to say, their customer service was beyond excellent.) :iagree: with all of this. DS easily tested into TT Prealgebra after MM5 (and could have started TT Algebra, frankly), and at first he was thrilled to have a math program that was so much easier than MM. Math is his least favorite subject and he could do a TT lesson in about a quarter of the time it took him to do a Math Mammoth lesson. But eventually the amount of repetition and the low level of the problem sets made it just seem like pointless busywork, and he asked to go back to MM. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wenwilli Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 We love it. DD 10 in TT5 and DD 12 in TT Algebra 1 after using every other math program! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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