TOS Crew Review: TenMarks

One thing I have always done with my boys when working on math is making sure they knew the right answer. If they did any of their problems wrong, they have to redo them. I'm striving for mastery not 99% but total mastery of the subject. Here is where TenMarks comes in.

TenMarks is a web based computer tutoring program. Each week your child is assigned worksheets to complete and the goal is to get "ten out of ten" on each worksheet. If a problem is done wrong, they can look to the hints to see what they missed. They are shown step-by-step on how to get to correct answer.

Basics: 

• Grades 3-10
• Covers over 100 skills per grade
• Hints and video helps for each lesson
• Covers state standards
• You can easily personalize the curriculum for each child
• Costs per student are $10 a month or $49 for six months or $89 for a year.

There is really a lot to this program. In fact, so much that I think I'm going to let this video showcase a bit more before I share my thoughts on it.

What I liked:
I really liked that there assigned worksheets given each week. It didn't fall to me to remember either. I received a weekly email (and reminders if it was nearing the end of the week) that the boys had new worksheets up. I liked that they had the chance to use hints and video helps to find their answers. I know it helped cement concepts they are learning while also teaching them new ones.

I also liked the "Report Card" I could view for each of the boys. This let me know what they were having problems with and what they had done well with for that week. It showed their progress as well including giving me feedback on the strength they had for each concept.

My oldest son, B14, struggled some with this program simply because he is delayed in math. It's something we've been working on. In fact, when I originally sent my sign-in information to TenMarks for him I had him in a level far beyond what he could manage. While I could rearrange his curriculum through my parent account (i.e. remove worksheets, change grade level, and rearrange the order of the worksheets), I could not remove the ones that were already there. A couple e-mails later it was taken care of and the owner personally responded while on vacation to make sure it was all set. I liked that!

My middle son really liked it. I think his favorite part was the reward system. He loved getting them and making sure they were redeemed. I tended to give him free play on the computer. He also loved the games you could play on TenMarks as well.

Overall I thought it was a really solid program. It was simple to use. It wasn't full of frills but it got the basics done very nicely. And with math - a no-frill program that gets the basics done is what I really want.

Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew members had to say about it.



Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. TenMarks gave all Crew members a six month membership so that we could test out their site. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.