Teaching Textbooks Math 4.0 Review

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

I've been homeschooling for over 16 years, and the last five have really been heating up for online, independent learning options. Teaching Textbooks is one of the options I hear about the most, so I was thrilled to get the chance to try it out with a couple of my kids -- one in the 7th grade and one doing Algebra. Here's what we thought of the Teaching Textbooks Math 4.0 online subscription. Maybe it will work well for your family, too!

What is Teaching Textbooks Math 4.0?

The 4.0 version is the latest and greatest version of the Teaching Textbooks curriculum. It's found online, with everything needed to teach available through your account. The 4.0 version does require you to purchase and activate the course of study for your individual student, then download the software to a computer for daily use.

As your student does their work, the progress is saved so that the parent can log into their teacher account from anywhere and see what their student has done from their device where the software was downloaded. (This is different than in past years and the 3.0 version where everything could be accessed online from any device.)

What's really cool about this 4.0 option product is that it's hybrid in nature. You need internet to access new lessons and to update the grade book with the student's progress, but it also downloads the next 6 lessons at each online session. If you didn't have internet for a few days, you could do some lessons offline (it just wouldn't update the online logbook with grades until the next time the student connected.)

How does Teaching Textbooks Math 4.0 work?

If you've never used this program before, it takes a bit to acclimate. Nothing complicated, mind you, but you'll have your teacher manual and coursework and exercises all online. For parents who are used to physical teacher's manuals or gradebooks, this is a nice change of pace.

When you buy a course, you get lifetime access to the grade book and 12 months of content access. You can also "pause" the course for up to 3 months for times when your family is away from their schoolwork (such as summers or vacations.) That time doesn't have to be taken all at once, either. Pause for 7 days, for example, and it will show you how much pause time you have left.

What if a student finishes early? They still have to purchase the next level to move on. 12 months is more than enough time for most students to progress through the lessons, however.

Big families may be eligible for a discount, if they are buying for 4-8 children every year. Each child does need their own account, as the pacing is entirely based on an individual's understanding and progress. Teaching Textbooks offers a free trial of the first 15 lessons, as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What's it like?

Now, for the good part! Teaching Textbooks is 100% hands-off for parents, aside from just checking in and seeing that your child is progressing. All of the video instruction, animation, quizzes, testing, and assessments are handled by the program. When parents log in, they can see the grade breakdown and progress and any time:

Parents can look ahead in the "textbook" to see what their child will learn, as well as get detailed looks into how many attempts they needed to answer a question. For kids that use the provided "hints," parents can take a look here, as well.

A student's perspective

Not every student takes to online math learning, but for those who want to give it a try, I think they will be pleased. The animation is superb, with fun sound effects that reinforce actions but aren't distracting. There are neat animations, a simple interface, and a focus on math (which is what you're paying for, right?)

My student will sit and work on his math lesson for between 20 and 30 minutes a day, less if it's review and more if it's a new but difficult concept. My sons in the higher grades did use a notebook to do their work so that they could type in the correct answer on the screen. There is no real "workspace" for figuring out problems on the actual software.

One useful perk is that the software provides some direction to guide a student through. When doing a problem, there is a note as to where that concept was first introduced. That way, if the student is unsure how to proceed or forgets what they've learned, they can go back to that lesson in their virtual "textbook" and review. No one is penalized for taking time to master concepts.