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!

Unschooling, Really School?

On top of a mountain

We didn’t plan on breaking out the Kindergarten so soon by our little is just a sponge like most and just couldn’t wait to get started. I figured we would take it nice and slow and drag Kindergarten out over two school years, but he just gobbled every book and every assignment up like the natural little learner that he is. It was a lot of work, but it passed by so fast because we made it all fun and play and enjoyable.

 

My hope is that he will always enjoy learning has he does right now. I realize to maintain this love for learning it will require some purposeful parenting on our part. I absolutely love that we starting this homeschooling method from the beginning because our little definition of school has been redefined from my own definition.

 



Lego

School for him is every aspect of life. Because he has friends public schooling he will often ask “is this school?”  I do my best to answer him “Yes, but all things are school. We are always learning and growing.”    We celebrated his “kindergarten” year of completion with some of our homeschool friends.  We had a lot of fun and was amazed at how well the event was put together by our homeschool friends.  Although the youths were recognized for their years accomplishments it was done in such a way that it wasn’t forgotten to be fun and enjoyable for all ages.  So I was so happy we were able to be a part of it. I thought it was a great way to wrap up a period of learning although we homeschool year-round it was wonderful to be a part of like-minded people, both in faith, parenting and homeschooling.

Graduation with his witness homeschool group

We went through some amazing curriculum and I love how we didn't "plan" every aspect of everyday out. It amazed me how one simple question each day led to so much learning "What would you like to do today?" I am by no means an expert on all things schooling, but as a child that has was in the public school system and in homeschool myself and now pursuing homeschool for my own family I see what kind of opportunities can open for us if we don't try so hard to do "school" at home. I can see where a teacher would need to select a topic for a class of thirty plus kids, because if you asked 30 plus kids what they wanted to do you would probably get 30 plus different answers and nothing would get accomplished. But, when you are at home with 1 to 6, give or take a few, this question posed to your learners makes a lot more sense doesn't it?   

 

Learning about days of old

  

   History: Cars, Planes, motorcycles

Art/Nature Study













When I stopped saying "today we are going to do this..." and started asking "What would you like to do today?" I noticed a huge shift in his both our attitudes and happiness levels. There was no longer a struggle to do this or that. The interest level in whatever we do is beyond anything I ever imagined and the learning is happening! We both are having so much fun "outside of the box". I love listening to him tell his friends all the things he has been learning and you can tell that he loves learning.

Determined, R/C

The Homeschooling Style of Unschooling

When I first heard this term unschooled about three years ago, I thought that is CRAZY! Parents actually NOT schooling their children, that is just awful! Well the more I read about it and learned the more I realized my initial perception of what unschooling is was nothing like what I thought. It may make up the 1%, but it has nothing to do with the other 90% - plus. Basically speaking unschooled is just a style of homeschooling. If you spend anytime surfing online you will find, what feels like, a zillion different homeschooling styles. All of it can be a little overwhelming and confusing when you start researching if you let it. I have even found there are different types of unschoolers as well.

(Above, mom and son playing Indians)

So what is an unschooler? Well it varies from one family to the next so I can only speak from our family. A general definition IMO is: An unschooler is a student of life that learns from ones environment, things of interest and persons surrounding them and ones they may meet. Instead of having a teacher a parent is more of a facilitator. Unschoolers are not typically anti-school or anti-education, but just the opposite. They desire for each child to take an active role in their own education and pursue the styles of learning they best relate to and apply them to their interest of study. They do not force or manipulate the student to learn, but help the student to identify his/her love of learning and help them achieve their learning goals.

I have heard many times that unschoolers do not use a curriculum and if that is the case than our family is NOT an unschooled family. Why do I say that? First of all, I hate labels and much prefer to be called Life Learners or learning from home. I like it better than the term unschoolers, but that is just me. I hate the stereotypes labels put on things. Just like my misconception I had in what an unschooler was at the beginning. In general, when someone asks us “oh where does your son go to school?” I reply “we do learning at home. So back to the curriculum. Some of you unschoolers reading this blog post, I hope you are still breathing while you are waiting for my response about the curriculum. (BREATH!) Yes we use a curriculum. My child loves books and loves a lot of hands on activities and learning new things so I do use a curriculum, although (there’s the but) unlike maybe, a traditional school or homeschool there is no force or manipulation to use the curriculum. If my child said I don’t want to read that or do that, then we don’t, simple as that. There is always something else to learn so why teach them something they’re not ready for yet or have no interest in and will never use? I can see some mouths drop off here and saying: But you have to teach IT, what if they are at their job someday and need it? I can answer that, but first I have to ask you a question. Can you remember a time in school when you had to learn something because it was required to pass the class or test and you had no interest in learning it? Do you still remember it? Some of you may answer yes, but I can almost guarantee that the majority of us at on more than one occasion forgot that concept shortly after that class or test was over because it held no importance to us beyond that point. Yes there is some thought in the fact that it may stick, but if they really don’t like it what is the point of making it stick? Just because they know it, they should choose to follow a career to do something they dislike or should they follow their interests and passion and follow a career in that pathway? There may be an argument there to be had, but that is my thoughts on the topic.

(Above chemistry experiments, left: Density Right: solids verses liquids)

I can remember taking Algebra in middle school for advance credit. In order to pass I had to make an A or a B. I really tried hard to learn the concepts as the overachiever that I was. My teacher told me “you’re just not working hard enough”. That was just not true. She offered me after school tutoring, which I jumped at. I brought my score from a D to a C, which was not enough to get credit for. I was proud of my efforts despite still not understanding what I had learned. With the advantage of the tutoring she gave me the skills to pass the test. Did that mean that I finally got it? Far from it! As soon as that test was over my Algebra skills left the building. Years later while in college learning something I was interested in learning I saw an Algebra concept in action and saw a real life example of it. I learned that algebra equation, although I have never put it to use as my interest have changed, the point is if it’s something of interest to you that you desire to know you will learn it when you need it. There is no cut off for learning. My mother is 56 years old and is a college student. She has been in classes ever since I have known her. She is known for breaking electronic devices until they are not even repairable. She took her computer in to a computer repair shop a few months ago and they said “throw it away”. She took a computer class and repaired the computer herself. Why? Because it interest her and she wanted it fixed. We are all natural learners are we not? At least we were until education and test got in our way.

(Below, Five in A Row, Study of Paris, France, Madeline)

So our little natural learning, unschooling-homeschooling family uses Five in a Row and additional curriculum as well. My child loves it at this point keeps asking for more and more. We also do a lot of Charlotte Mason style learning like nature walks and nature journals and collecting and natural reading. My son loves doing workbooks sometimes too, so you will often see us working in a school workbook. My child LOVES anything hands-on. Last week he was really into volcanoes so I checked out a bunch of books from the library on volcanoes and we learned all about them and built our own volcano. This week I found a chemistry set and every day we have been a different chemistry experiment. Today we read a book about Japan, located Japan on the map, talked about the geography of Japan and the culture and distance from Japan to us here in the USA. He doesn’t recognize that he is doing “school” like most traditionally schooled children because there is not division between our life and school. He is learning every day from the things we call “life” and the intentional persons, places and things we put into our environment as well.  Sometimes, because I am have to retrain my thinking as well, I will say this is for school and our son will ask “that was school?” Ha-ha! He really has no idea what is school and what is not because he is a natural learner and whether he realizes it or not everything is a learning experience and we are all being “schooled” every day, intentionally or unintentional.

 (Below, Study on Volcanoes)

Can Your Baby Really Read?

Can your baby really read? No really, I am asking you. I bought a program I saw on one of those info commercials when my little was just a babe. I was so excited and bought into all the hype and actually imagined that I was giving my child advantage on life he would be off doing algebraic equations while everyone in his future Kindergarten class was drawing snakes shaped likes S’s. In reality, I would put the DVD’s in and show him the flashcards just as the directions said, every day. Sit there with him doing it with him and trying to get him excited about it.  I did this for nearly two years, but my kiddo never read the first word. I just didn’t get it. I saw the videos with toddlers and preschoolers reading, so why wasn’t my little? Was he just bored with it? Could he read and not able to tell us? Did he have a learning disability? Was he not as bright as these kids on the television? Had I been ripped off on some phony system? You can’t help but to wonder why one thing can work for one person and not another.

My little is a very bright, intelligent, active and happy boy who loves books and wants to read. I frankly think the program that we tried and failed with as a baby was boring. He was always more interested in what was going on around him than what was on the tube, although at first it was new and appealing, but like any old toy after a while it lost its appeal. But my gut feeling as to why the program didn’t work for was that my child was just not really ready yet. How so? Recently I read an article by Sarah Bernard about research that points to changes in the belief system of literacy development.  Bernard quoted Martha Bridge Denckia, director of development cognitive neurology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and neurology professor at John Hopkins University: “The past decade has seen tremendous push for earlier and earlier emphasis on reading skills.” Denckia has studied reading acquisition for forty years further was quoted stating: “It’s well meaning, but possibly not good for a significant subset of children.” Further reading of Bernard’s article lead me to conclude that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my little guy’s ability to learn to read he was just not ready yet.

I learned that some students are early readers as early as age three. I know I was an early reader. I was reading prior to entering kindergarten. I also remember my peers not being able too yet. But we all eventually get there with the right variables and desire, no? Some might not learn till their nine, but that is okay too. The lesson is that earlier is not always better. I mean seriously, is there a cutoff time where if you don’t learn to read by THIS age than that’s it, you’re doomed to be illiterate.  I mean if the grocery store opens at 8 am do you have to get there at 8 am? What if you decided to go to the museum and learn some history, stop at the park and go for a walk and visit a friend who shows you the newest additions to their fossil collection, than you go grocery shopping and it’s now 8 pm. Did this hurt anything? Actually if you had gotten your groceries first and went and did all those things your groceries would have probably spoiled waiting in the car. :D No, going later didn’t hurt anything. Early isn’t always better. Ever heard of better late than never (I always hated that saying, but hey it goes with what I am saying).  We are all people who are unique and different and have different styles of learning and timeframes in which we learn. Some of us are morning people, some of us are night owls, which is better? Point being our children are natural learners and no doubt, like the sponges for knowledge they are, soon in their own time they will read. They may not be a baby and reading the Great Gatsby, but they may be eight and enjoying some of Uncle Jeremey’s old batman comic books.

So where is my five year old in reading? Well every day after dad leaves for work he brings me a stack of books he wants me to read to him. So a good part of our day is spent reading. He absolutely loves the Bible to be read to him and really gets into it and ask a lot of questions. He loves memorizing quotes from different characters we read about.  His favorite stories so far are the story of Jacob and Esau from the Bible and the Book Lentil.  He would go to the library everyday if there was one closer to our farm, but we still manage to go usually 1-3 times a week and have a wonderful collection of books in our home library as well as electronic books and books on DVD. He loves the reading activities at the library, especially the reading tutor dog. Can he read yet? No, but I know at the rate he is going with the love he has from reading and learning that in no time he will be.

 

Special thanks Kristie Lynn for sharing the referenced article with me.

 To read more from the referenced article please visit: http://www.edutopia.org/brain-research-reading-instruction-literacy