I think there comes a time in all children's lives where they want to do their school on the computer. At least that's how it's been with my kids. When they were younger it was more workbooks, hands-on-activities and reading out loud. As they got older and realized there were things they could do on the computer for school they wanted to head in that direction. Time4Learning is just the ideal program when your children are ready to transition to computer work. Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies are all offered in the monthly fee for Time4Learning. This program can be used from Pre-K all the way through HIgh School. I mainly wanted to focus on the Math and Language Arts sections for my son because those are where he seems to struggle the most. He has some developmental delays and often times witll have gaps in his memory that make it hard for him to do some of his work. I thought that maybe working on the computer would give him a different type of learning that he wouldn't otherwise get from a workbook.
My son is finishing 7th grade, but is probably more on a 3rd grade level in Language Arts. I wasn't quite sure where he fell in the Math, so we started on 3rd as well. One thing that is nice is that you can move up or down one level from the grade you put your child in originally. After the first lesson I realized that he was probably more of a 4th grade level in Math, so I was able to go in the settings and move him up. There are also lots of options for how you can have your child work in the program. At first I decided to have my child just take the tests in Language Arts. I figured I could tell based on how he did where we needed to start. That's when I realized that we needed to start from the very beginning of the 3rd grade level. I just had him working on the lessons, but I found that I would write it down on paper and then he'd mark it off. I figured it was time to go and check out the student planner. You can choose either of these two options to start.
If you go with the curriculum calculator it will figure out how to break down all the lessons over the time period that you want your child working. The detailed plan has more options and I wanted to go one week at a time, so that is the option I chose. In the beginning I had some trouble and had to reach out to customer service and I have to tell you they were amazing. I was apparently looking right over what I was needing, but they were wonderful and emailed me step-by-step instructions on how to do what I wanted. Customer service can make or break a company for me and this definitely made this company for me! By using the detailed plan I was able to pick which lessons I wanted my son to work on that way. Some of the topics he struggled with understanding, so I was able to go into the Lesson Planning section and print worksheet pages to reinforce the concepts.
We wondered through the Solar System a bit for some Science lessons. I liked that the lessons were colorful and interesting while having the lessons be things like drawing pictures of what you learned. I wasn't sure that my son would like the characters, that he might think they were too young. That happens quite often when you have an older child working in a younger grade level, but he seemed to enjoy them as well. I went in and changed his grade to Middle School and let him try a lesson there. I had been worried that there would be too much reading and that it would overwhelm him. I didn't have to worry about that because there was a great mix of colorful graphic as well as a "teacher" giving a short lesson. These lessons kept his attention, but weren't overwhelming him.
History is a favorite of Issac's and he's spent lots of time learning about the colonies and studying the wars. Again we tried out both the 3rd grade lesson and the 7th. I was pleasantly surprised that both were very colorful without being childish and kept his attention. I like that you can click on the vocabulary words and it will pop up the definition if your child needs it. Issac did get a little frustrated in the 7th grade lesson on Cultures of North America because he felt it was very long. I think because it had so much information on the various tribes, was showing lots of maps and information that it overwhelmed him a bit. That's ok because we are able to just go down a grade or adjust to make this program fit for him. That's the great thing about Time4Learning is that you have so many ways to customize the program to fit your child/children's needs.
There are several ways to check your student's work and reports that you can print. I like that I can log into the parent account and see how he's doing. I also like to print a daily or weekly report to see what all he's done during that time. It gives me a visual of what we need to double back and work on more as well. Since the parent can set what grade the student needs to complete the assignment I can easily see where he's struggling.
If you aren't sure if this program will work for your family there are lots of demos that you can watch to give you an idea of how the program works. That way you can get a hands on look at what the program offers.PreK-8th is $19.95 a month and for additional students it's $14.95 a month. High School is a tad higher at $30.00 a month. All in all the prices are reasonable if you think about the fact that you are receiving four classes worth of instruction for that price. There are also tons of resources from information about starting homeschooling, homeschooling in specific states, a parent forum and much more. They have provided lots of helpful information on their website to make your homeschooling journey easier.
I've been very pleased with Time4Learning and feel that it's a good fit for my son. Depending on his strengths and weaknesses I am able to customize his program to fit his needs. Most kids aren't a set grade level in all subjects and this program knows and understands that and is meeting the needs of the parents and children. This program is great for a base for your homeschooling, using to fill in gaps or maybe for some fun summer learning.
For additional information check out their social media pages as well as check out how the other reviewers used this program with their families.
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