 Hey everybody, welcome to the Waldoch Way. I'm Jessica. And today's video is going to be 10 things I bet you didn't know about teaching textbooks. Now we've been using teaching textbooks for the last three or four school years and it's something that has been kind of a staple in our homeschool math because we've tried a lot of things and they just haven't worked for us. And so today I wanna share with you 10 things that I bet you didn't know about teaching textbooks that you might want to know because they surprised me and now I'm really glad I know them so I wanna share them with you today. Number one, teaching textbooks uses real life examples which is one of the things that I think I love the most. So instead of Emily just learning these arbitrary things she's actually learning things by real life examples. So for an example, when she was learning area and perimeter they were using fences and grass instead of just these math squares that would maybe typically be used or just a square box like what's the area of this box? Why do you need to know that? But if you're trying to fence your yard that's important you actually need to know that. Number two is that kids get more than one chance. They don't get a ton of chances but they get second chances with teaching textbooks which for my kid who's a perfectionist is super important because sometimes she just clicked the wrong button or she forgot a comma and the minute that she hits it before it's even told her that she's wrong she knows that she messed up. Like I put the number in wrong I hit the wrong button I forgot my comma whatever but instead of being like nope that's it you got it wrong you can't do it over again they give kids second chances and so that's very important to me especially with a kid who's a perfectionist and especially knowing that like if she can figure her math out like if she got it wrong and then she figures it out and gets it right she should be entitled to a second chance and so I really really appreciate that teaching textbooks offered. Number three is that it can be customized. So Emily gets to customize her teaching textbooks to look like what she wants it to look like. She can customize the wallpaper and her little buddy that talks to her on the screen and it can really give her kind of a sense of ownership over her math. So like she opens up her app on her tablet and it feels like Emily and it really helps to motivate her to want to do math. Number four is that teaching textbooks is available even offline. So let's say that you're going on a long road trip or you're going camping or maybe you even live in an area that doesn't get great service or you want to do math in a time when it's peak and your internet's slow. Absolutely no problem because teaching textbooks is available offline. It will download the lesson, the kids can do it and then the next time it's connected to internet it will upload everything then which is amazing especially for as much as we car school and maybe don't have internet. She can always do her math on the go and I don't have to worry about. Number five is that ACT and SAT prep is built into teaching textbooks. Now I know I have many, many years that I don't have to think about that yet but that was important to me. It was important to me that we finally found a math that Emily could use not just now but in the future and one that was actually going to prepare her for her future. Number six is the scratch pad. It is so amazing teaching textbooks built in a scratch pad so that kids can actually do their work on the screen and not have to have like a scratch pad notebook paper to the side as they're solving their problems. It was just really nice that they thought ahead and put all of those things together in the app so you can open the scratch pad and you can do what you need to do which makes it really eco-friendly too because you're not having all this paper that you're having to constantly throw away from working out your math problems. Number seven is the automatic grading which makes my life so much easier. I don't have to sit down and grade her math when she's done. In fact, I don't have to do anything at all. I mean, I actually look things over but I don't have to. So she finishes the lesson it automatically tells her what her grade is and what is awesome is that at least for us I don't grade anything else for her but there is something about her getting a grade for her math that really like she will run to us like, mom, dad, I made 100, I made 100 like all excited and there's something about seeing that pride in her that is amazing. So I love that it's automatic grading that it tells her right then instant gratification how she did and then I can go in and see if there's things she needs to work on or if she really is just doing awesome and doesn't need any extra help. Number eight is that teaching textbooks can be used across different devices by the same student or different students but for me it's the same student because I only have one. So Emily can use teaching textbooks on my phone on her tablet, on her Chromebook. It doesn't matter what device we have it can be Kevin's iPad. Any of the devices that we have she can use teaching textbooks on which is a huge benefit because when we're on a road trip she can't say like, oh, I forgot my Chromebook so she doesn't have to do math. It doesn't matter. I have my phone, she can still do it. So that is definitely a benefit if you have multiple kids you can do multiple devices, multiple devices at the same time. It's just really nice. Number nine is that printables are available on teaching textbooks. If you have a kid who really, really needs extra practice on a specific thing they have printables available. You can print off worksheets on that specific topic or that specific lesson that supplement it and it's just nice to know they're there. We haven't ever personally used them because I don't necessarily love worksheets. I would rather pull games out that have to do with that topic to play with Emily to really cement a topic but they are available. Especially if you have a kid who loves worksheets they're there, they're available and it's just nice to know that you can access them. And number 10 is that teaching textbooks offers a 15 day free trial. That means that for free you can try two weeks worth of math out to see if it's a good fit. We actually did that in the very beginning and it was just nice to know that I didn't have to commit to anything or spend any money or buy yet another curriculum that wasn't gonna work. That I could try not just a portion of it but the full thing. Like you don't get limited access. You get access to everything for 15 days so that you can see what level your child needs to be. You can bump them in levels if you need to. You can see how the grade book works for you and you can kind of look at everything and just really find out is this a good fit for my home school and my child and you don't have to invest before finding that out which is a huge win for homeschooling in my opinion. Now I would love if you would tell me in the comments if you have tried teaching textbooks or if you're using it in your home school and if not what are you using for math instead?