Laycie is turning 5 next month and with her impending birth date, comes the realization that it’s also time to start a more structured version of homeschooling with her. As I was researching curriculum ideas, the opportunity to review TouchMath came. Needless to say, I was estatic to be offered the TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool program for product review.
TouchMath is a multisensory mathematics program developed to be used with children in grades Pre-K through 3rd. The TouchMath program uses TouchPoints to teach children important counting skills, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and more. This innovative math program allows children to touch, count and repeat which reinforces the math problem with audio repetition to better establish fact mastery.
Since this program puts all of Laycie’s senses to work, I immediately knew it would be the perfect curriculum to use with her! We began with the TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool program which covers counting, number sense, comparing, classifying, sorting, graphing, patterning, identifying and so very much more. Since we were given this product as a review, we were gifted several of the basic manipulatives to use along with our TouchMath Pre-K lessons. Laycie absolutely LOVED the manipulatives and I must admit that I do too!
Our absolute favorite of the manipulatives has been the 3-D Numerals. These solid plastic pieces are vibrant in color and sturdy for even the most active child to handle. They have the signature touch points on them to be used specifically with the TouchMath program. But even better, they are in the shapes of the actual numerals which allows the child to see and feel the number shape, better allowing them to absorb and learn each specific numeral.
Another favorite manipulative for us was the Texture cards. Being able to touch the numbers and touch points with various textures helps Laycie to learn the numbers through sensory. She loved the cute character drawings on many of the cards. This manipulative really brought learning to life for her and coincided so well with the actual printed lessons from the Homeschool program.
The bulk and best part of the TouchMath Pre-K Homeschooling program is the actual curriculum itself though. As great as the extra manipulatives are, they work best with the program itself, allowing the student to get the maximum sensory learning experience. For purpose of this review, we received the full Pre-K unit download of the TouchMath program.
As I mentioned above, the TouchMath program is designed to teach counting numerals through touch. Numerals one through five have single TouchPoints meaning each point is touched once while counting, and numerals six through nine have double TouchPoints meaning each point is touched twice while counting. As students learn the numbers they also learn the number value by counting the TouchPoints.
The TouchMath Pre-K lessons are broken into 6 lesson modules containing around 15 workmats to be completed in while using each module. Each lesson module focuses on a different aspect of Math. Module one teaches counting and number sense, module two covers comparing and classifying, and so on as the modules are broken down to teach important concepts.
The workmats are blackline masters which is really nice since they don’t take a lot of ink to print out. The programs PDF download itself is in color and black and white but does not need to be completely printed out. It can simply be viewed on a computer and only the blackline master workmats need to be printed out for use off the computer.
The workmats are fairly simple, yet challenging enough for the Pre-K child. Coloring skills are implemented throughout helping the child develop better writing skills and also occupational skills. Simple activities like color one pig pink and color the group with four milk cartons.
Laycie really loved completing her workmats. She enjoys coloring and caught on really easily with the materials, allowing her to work through fairly quickly. I found as she worked that she knew quite a bit of the material in the lessons. Had I begun using this product a year ago when she was 3 turning 4, we would have benefited from it greatly. The lessons were great for me to use with her to ensure that she has learned these important early math skills though and we will continue to use this program for her math for this year and possibly into the future.
The TouchMath Homeschool program is available online. TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool Program cost $59.95 for the program unit download. This includes the implementation guide, workmat activity sheets, module guides, answer sheets and more. It does not include the math manipulatives to use with the program. The manipulatives are a wonderful addition but they are not necessary for completion of this program. If you are interested in using the manipulatives, you can find the links to each specific one at the bottom of each product download page. Many of the manipulatives can be used with each subsequent product download.
For more reviews of the TouchMath Homeschool program and to see other reviews of different Math grade levels with this program, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!
