Time 4 Learning

Saturday, November 22, 2008

November 22, 2008

 

I was recently introduced to Time4Learning. It was/ is of great interest to me and I am thrilled to use it with my 6 children.

Time 4 Learning (T4L) is an online teaching tool. It can be used for homeschooling, supplemental to school, study aid or just "fun" activities. We have used Switched on Schoolhouse in the past. I will be interested to see how this compares with that.

My older 2 are really too old for this program. It is geared for children K - 8. That being said, my older 2 have gaps and so I decided to use this with them also.

It is my intent to break my review up into several reviews as we try out this program.

So far I have found this program to be very user friendly. The set up was easy. Along the way, I have recieved emails asking how things are going and know there are tools, like a parents forum as well as customer service to help.

Well, got to run. My 4 year old is up from her nap and begging me to do Time 4 Learning with her. No joke! Upside is my kids LOVE to use this program and it is FUN for them. Downside so far?? I have to sit right beside my youngest 3. Plus, I found out my next oldest has been skipping over a lot of the reading (not all is read outloud) and so he is being lazy and not reading it!

Well, my 4 year old is pulling on my arm and  whining, " I want to do my school, Mama!! Stop, so I can do my schoooooollll." LOL! Got to go!

 

November 28, 2008

Yesterday is the first time in 8 years my children wanted to do school on a day off. They wanted to show my husband their Time4Learning school.

Mostly we have had a very positive experience. My youngest 2 (4 and 5) seem to just like to hear the wrong answers. That is unusual to me and I don't know they would do this.

One thing I did not care for was the way T4L occasionally links to websites outside their site. My children have very resticted internet access. I left my 5 yo on my computer while I had to take a phone call. It was only a couple minutes, but when I checked on his progress, he was on another site. I did not like he was asked to go their for an activity. Had he been on the kid's computer, he wouldn't have been able to get there. But since he was on mine he could. The link did not go directly to the activity he was supposed to do either.

Another thing worth noting is this program is marketed for public schools and secular environments. I sit with my younger children through the science sections because of this. We are Bible believing and believe in a literal 6 day creation. When I homeschool, we buy materials that support that. I am all for my kids knowing what the theory of evolution is, but I want to know what is taught. So, if you do not want your children being exposed to evolution this might not be the right tool for you. However, I think you can opt out of Science. I haven't looked into this.

My kids are starting to see that school and school activities can be fun. I have played (and enjoyed) some of the playground activities myself (shhh don't tell my kids).

It is very easy to check up on what my children are spending their time on and how they are spending their time. For instance, my 11 year old was "doing school", but apparently he likes to skip from one subject to another and find what he likes best. I could tell he was only spending a couple seconds on same areas!! Surely he didn't learn anything in that amount of time.

T4L offers a parents forum and has been very responsive to my customer support items.

I wish the program went through highschool instead of stopping at 8th grade.

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