Teaching Textbooks Math 3

I had posted a few days ago about deciding to switch to Teaching Textbooks for math. We have been using Singapore for the past 2 years and I have been happy with it.  I use the textbooks along with extra practice workbooks and the challenging word problems book.  We sailed right through the workbooks last year so it was an easy decision to decide to use Singapore again this year. 

Kiddo did ok with the workbooks at the beginning of the year a little slow in getting his work done. It has gone downhill from there, he complained about having to do his math, he claimed he couldn’t do it, he took forever to get  one page done.  I was pulling my hair out and he was getting frustrated. After trying different ways to get him to do his math better, and none of them working, I decided maybe it wasn’t’ him maybe we just needed a different way of doing math. 

I already knew a little about Teaching Textbooks from a friend of mine,  who is using it with her kids. I thought Teaching Textbooks started with grade 4.  While I was researching different math curriculums. Saxon, Horizons, MathUSee, private school(joking), I discovered Teaching Textbooks now has grade 3.  I was thrilled they now had grade 3 but I wondered could he do that level. I looked all over for a review of Grade 3 and could not find one.  I went to their website and printed off the placement test and he got ever answer right.  I then printed off the placement test for grade 4 and he got more than half of those answers right but I do not think he is ready for grade 4.  After looking at the placement test and sample pages online, I agree with most, Teaching Textbooks is a year behind from the grade level they provide.  For example, we have been using Singapore 2A and 2B workbooks and Grade 3 of Teaching Textbooks is about the same level or even a little behind what is in the Singapore books. 

I then had to decide if I wanted to order just the cds or both the cds and workbooks.  I decided since we still have the Singapore workbooks to use that I would order just the cds.   I ordered the cds from ChristianBook.com for $99.00. They arrived 3 days later, and Kiddo was ready to use his new computer math right then. 

He loves getting to work on the computer and he having his own password to use for the curriculum.  He has done 4 lessons so far, I will be able to tell better about the curriculum after he has completed more of the 118 lessons.  The first 3 lessons have been very easy, learning the even and odd numbers,  the vocabulary works sum and difference.  The math problems are very easy 9+0, 1+2, etc. The first lessons are definitely a review. 

If you are thinking of using Teaching Textbooks head over to their website, they have placement test and several sample problems for each grade to try.  Having the sample problems really helped me to decide this curriculum was worth a try for us.  The Grade 3 curriculum came with 4 cds, and has 118 lessons.  Each lesson has a short lecture, practice problems and 22 graded problems.  There is a hint button and a detailed how to solve this problem button. Kiddo can do this on his own with no help from me.  It took just a little instruction on using the keypad on the laptop and he was ready to go. 

I will still use the Singapore workbooks in addition to Teaching Textbooks.  I have high hopes that this will work for us and make learning math easier.