Sunday, April 22, 2012

Time4learning.com Review

A great resource for a busy mom!

We have been using Time4learning.com for the past 30 days with Ian and Owen. I have to say, I was a little skeptical that I would REALLY like it when we began but I LOVED it!

I loved the structure that the program used and the topics that were taught were inline with grade level requirements. I really like that the language arts/reading and the math can be taken at different grade levels. Ian is a beginner reader but catches math and science concepts quickly. I love that, unlike public school, this program allows the child to do lessons at their level. The added bonus is that many individual topics can be "tested out of" essentially. So if your child has mastered time, money and patterns, they can simply take the test and then not have to repeat lessons. This is a great feature for my son who easily gets "bored" with repetitive tasks. That then leaves more time to focus on topics they have not yet covered like weight, geometry, etc.

A few improvements that I would like to see in the program:

1) A pause button! If the child is in the middle of a lesson and has to go to the potty they cannot pause the lesson. It does go in "pages" so they don't miss the WHOLE lesson, just what they are doing on that page. And if that is a longer lesson it means that sometimes we need to start from the beginning. This does not make my "non-repetitive" son very happy.

2) A link from the parents admin to the childs lesson page. If the child doesn't complete a lesson, you can click on the lesson and see what it was but a direct link to have the child complete it would be great. It isn't extremely difficult to go to their account and find the lesson but for a busy mom with baby in arms, toddler running wild at her feet, a one click option would be great. :)

We have been trying this program out for 30 days and we will continue. It is a great resource and easily used for a basic curriculum for homeschooling. It covers math, language arts, science and social studies for 1st/2nd grade. Owen (3) also liked to do his school work and learned about colors, rhymes, letters, numbers, feelings, weather, etc. He also learned some science by looking over his brothers shoulder.

For 2 busy boys, this program worked. Ian preferred it over his workbooks and the graphics were fun for both.

Give it a try!

1 comment:

Aandwsmom said...

Love that you loved it! We love it too. We have used it for the past 4 years and it has been a homeschooling lifesaver!
Happy Homeschooling!