Non-Paid Review: Time4learning Online Program

I have looked into Time4learning several times, but thought my kindergarten/first grader would get bored being online so much as he is very active. But lately he kept asking to get back on ABCmouse and since he has been doing more first grade work I was thinking Time4learning may be a good match for him. I got an email that gave us a two-week trial so I signed him up for the trial.

The first two days he was so excited, but it was a struggle to get him to sit and do it again. I think the program is great for most students. My student is just more mobile and needs to move around and not sit at the laptop and work. He would get frustrated at the amount instructions given because he has a high level of comprehension. I sent Time4learning a email asking if there was someway to fast-forward through the directions, but they replied back that there wasn't. Also sometimes, according to time4learning, we would lose a connection to the Internet for a moment perhaps and the lesson that he just worked on and completed, but it wouldn't give him a check mark that he completed it because of some connection issue, which I am not all together certain of and think may be more of a glitch. He hated the quizzes, but I think there is an option to remove these from the program, as well as the worksheets that he didn't like either. What he absolutely loved was the videos and games and how interactive the material was with him. They were designed much like games.

My little superhero doing some hands-on play learning with this box and another child. Yes, that is a school uniform. Just kidding. But honestly some days it is. :-D

That was my child's review of the program after two weeks and now I will write mine. Time4learning made my job as a homeschooling mom so much easier. I could leave him to work on the program nearly independently except for some of the reading. I actually got a lot done during the times he was on Time4learning. The price is very affordable and the quality of curriculum I thought was very good. My child was learning. I LOVED that it would record in the parental portal how well he done on each activity. The aspects I didn't like were the playground. They were all very educational games, yet the child was limited on how much time and when they could play in them and no progress reports were generated on these aspects of the program. I also didn't find the customizing features very user-friendly. I never did figure out if I was doing that right or not. Again I found the actual material to be great and educational.

In conclusion we decided that  right now this program was not right for my son particular learning style, but I could see using this in the future if he developed more discipline and enjoyed sitting still for longer periods of time. I absolutely love all the freedom it would provide me. I would definitely recommend this program to others who have  different learning styles. So at last this program at this time didn't suit us and my child's needs, but if you are looking for something fresh to try or uncertain give it a try and see how it does for your student(s). They may just love it!

Also want to extend a thank you to Time4learning for providing a great program and extending a 2-week trial to us. Thank you very much!

Calming Down from the Storm

After a two eventful years of tragedy and things starting to calm down. I have found myself without a job. I also found myself very sad because I miss my folks. I started thinking about our life and what we wanted. I remembered our dream about homeschool. My son now 4 years old and I were finally free to do what we wanted. Sure money problems still existed, but I was not emotionally, spiritually or physically able to return to the workforce after all we have been through we needed some peace, sometime to figure things out for ourselves. I wasn’t feeling confident about being a homeschool mom yet so I enrolled our son in abcmouse.com. He loved it and breezed through pre-k.

                                                            Picture courtesy of abcmouse.com

I began doing a lot of reading and researching and honestly it all was overwhelming until I started to edit it down to what fit for our family. Our son was becoming a bit bored with the kindergarten abcmouse.com, he wanted to do more things than just be on the computer. I came across Five In A Row and decided to introduce the books and activities I gleaned from the book and he just became engrossed in it, to go along with it I let him be as much a part of what he was learning as I was.

                                                        Picture courtesy of fiveinarow.com

Before we knew it school had become so natural that my son really had no idea that he was actually doing any kind of schooling which defined success in my book, he was learning so much, but equally having so much fun. It was amazing. It had me thinking more about this learning lifestyle and how it effects how I parent.