Curriculum Review–Teaching Textbooks 4

Last year I wrote a raving review of TT3 you can view it here: http://jacksacademy.blogspot.com/2012/03/teaching-textbook-3-review.html 

I am sad to say that this years review is not as positive. My daughter started using TT4 in July. She loved it. She loved that it was on the computer, that it was  visual. that it was interactive with the characters. She also loved that it was “easy”. I was not concerned at all as she aced every quiz, and really seemed to be doing quite well. However, I began to notice that she was not able to complete seemingly any math problem on paper, or verbally. It seemed as if she had never done any math other than basic addition. Now, I will not leave that negative as TT does offer workbooks, which I chose not to use, and had I used them this either would not have been an issue, or I would have caught the issue sooner.

She became increasingly frustrated that she could not do math, yet continued to ace all of the quizzes. This is something I simply cannot explain. On paper and verbally my daughter had dropped two grade levels in math, but was answering every question correctly on the computer. So, I downloaded a few math games on her iPod. Guess what? She was not very good at them, and became very frustrated. So, we switched gears in December. We went with a different math program, and with a little catching up to do things are going really well.

I’m not sure whether this issue was an issue with TT or if it was simply one of those “things”. Either way, I was sad to see it go, but it did not work out for us. I know MANY families that are still using and loving this math program. So, please research for yourself if this will be a good fit. I hesitated about writing this review, but I think it is important for people to hear both side. Positive, and negative. I hate when I read nothing but positive reviews, and then we start to have an issue, and suddenly people come out of the woodworks with the same issue.

So there it is. I will make a suggestion. Should you decide that this is a good fit for your family, add some sheet work so that you can catch a potential problem before it get’s to where it is a big deal.