Are you curious about homeschool math options? Here are my thoughts on the NEW Teaching Texbooks 4.0!
It’s one of the most common questions asked in homeschooling circles: How do I know when it’s time to change curriculum or programs?
After years as a classroom teacher (where I had ZERO input in the textbooks chosen for my students), I’ve been pretty confident that I can make any program work for my own children with a few tweaks or environmental changes. Honestly, I just wanted them to have a strong foundation during their primary grade years, and I worried that jumping from curriculum to curriculum could leave them with gaps in learning.
But after nine years of being committed to one homeschool math curriculum — well, it’s natural to want to look around a little, right?
I received access to Teaching Textbooks 4.0 (grades 4 and 7) and was compensated for my time writing the review, but all opinions are my own! You can see our full disclosure policy here.
Teaching Textbooks 4.0 Overview
We bought a new Lenovo laptop for the girls’ schoolwork at the end of 2020, and we downloaded Teaching Textbooks 4.0 for them shortly after. Living in a small town, we don’t always have reliable internet access, and the fact that the program doesn’t have to be 100% online all the time is helpful for us.
The updated Teaching Textbooks interface allows students to work on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or even a phone. It’s an app-based program, which makes it a little different than web-based homeschool math curriculum. Whenever my kids login, the app downloads a handful of lessons and lets us know if we need an update.
Each child has their own account, with their own password. They can watch lessons, do practice problems, take quizzes, access their gradebook, and view the text-based e-book. Students can also customize their background, pick sound effects, and choose their “stickers” for each lesson.
“I like that you can skip around the lessons, that you can change the hint sounds and animation, and that you can have an e-book to read and a gradebook to keep score. You can also go to Controls and tap on Lecture and Problems to find out which ones you got wrong. 6 stars!” -K, age 9
Teaching Textbooks 4.0 Benefits
- Even though my children have done well with traditional math textbooks, it has been nice to try something new — especially in the middle of the winter slump.
- Both of my girls have enjoyed personalizing their accounts with different sound effects, animated buddies (wallpaper) and stickers (fun, encouraging memes that appear after each question).
- The teacher has a casual, conversational tone. Each lesson blends auditory and visual learning styles seamlessly (with lots of quirky elements to keep kids motivated). There’s also a “scratchpad” available for writing out the steps, a really helpful tool for read/write learners like me.
- The interface is SO interactive. Throughout the lessons, students are asked questions to check understanding. And the practice problems vary from multiple choice to true/false and even short answer to keep kids focused and engaged.
- I love not having to prep their lessons or check them! Honestly, I typically spend up to an hour everyday with their traditional math textbooks, and not having to check lessons and re-teach missed problems this month has freed me up to do more fun things, like art and music.
- My children like having complete access to their gradebook. I generally teach for mastery, not grades — so my data-loving child geeks out every day about her daily average, course average, and bonus points! (The chance to earn bonus points is GENIUS for those of us who are raising perfectionists.)
“I really like Teaching Textbooks! It’s fun and exciting and the way you can switch wallpapers and stickers is really cool. The teacher is really helpfuI, and the gradebook is awesome for monitoring your progress. I also like the hint sound settings and the little stickers are cute. Teaching Textbooks is great! 5 stars!” -A, 12
If you are looking to switch up your homeschool math curriculum, you can sign up for a free trial of Teaching Textbooks 4.0 to see if it’s a good fit for your family!
One of my girls has asked to switch completely to Teaching Textbooks for the remainder of the year. My other daughter wants to use it as a supplement — and I never say no to extra math practice!
You can follow along with our adventures on Instagram, too! Just click on the homeschool math highlights to see more.
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