Search This Blog

Don't Miss A Post!

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Organic Products for Your Body & Your Home

Organic Products for Your Body & Your Home
Products that are so natural, you can eat them!

Grab My Button!

Photobucket
Business 2 Blogger

Friday, December 17, 2010

Time 4 Learning Review

You may remember I posted at the beginning of November that I was given the opportunity to review the Time 4 Learning website.  Let me tell you, I was impressed!  I really just thought it would be a fun site the kids could go to when they wanted to play on the computer.  I didn’t expect them to learn a lot.  This site was great!  I was especially impressed with the science section.  My kids learned a lot about bees and spiders (and other things)!

There are lots of things I love about this site, but my favorite part is that you are not stuck with just one grade level.  If you place your child in 2nd grade, they will be able to do activities in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.  I think that is wonderful!  Most children have varying degrees of mastery in the subjects they study.  They may excel in math, while having trouble in language arts, while at the same time is right on target (according to their grade level standards) with science.  AND… you can change their grade level at any time if you see that he/she is not in the right level for a particular subject.

I actually placed both of my children a grade level below where they are currently.  I really just did this as a test to see if I was heading them in the right direction. (Apparently I don’t have a lot of faith in myself… maybe I should look into that) 

Well, my daughter was upset with me about that when it came to language arts because she is a very good reader (no thanks to me… that’s just the way she is).  And, it really was too easy for her.  It was nice that I could just change the grade level and give her something more challenging.

My son had a blast!  He didn’t care what level I put him at as long as he got to play on the computer!  A couple days after we started using the program, he asked me, “Mommy, can I play on that fun website today?” and once at dinner he told his daddy that we didn’t do school that day.  We did school, we just did it on the computer with Time 4 Learning.  He loves it so much he didn’t realize he was learning!

For the sake of reviewing the product, we used Time 4 Learning as our only schooling for an entire month.  It was great.  I was still able to be hands on and watch and hear what they were learning and they had fun!  I was also able to do other things while they were on the computer if I knew it was something they wouldn’t need a lot of assistance with.

You don’t have to be a homeschooling family to get a benefit from this site.  It is also perfect for children to use as a fun site to go to after school to better their skills in subjects in which they need extra help or just have fun.

Some other fun facts from the Time 4 Learning website:
  • Online Curriculum for
    PreK to 8th Grades
  • Access to 3 Grade Levels of Lessons
  • 1,000+ Student-Paced Multimedia Activities
  • Language Arts, Math, Science & Social Studies
  • Interactive, Project-Based Activities
  • Detailed Reporting for
    Easy Record-Keeping
  • Lesson Plans & Teaching Tools for Parents
  • Lessons Correlated to State Standards
All in all, I think the system is wonderful!  The only drawback for our family is that I don’t want all their learning to be on the computer.  I just don’t want them staring at a screen for that long every day.  That being said, you don’t have to use it as your sole curriculum.  You can just use it as extra learning and it is perfect for that!  You can check out their site by clicking on the picture below. 


If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.  Or if you have already used this site and want to add to the review, I welcome that as well.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi :)
I am wanting to start home-schooling my son next year, I have read others raving about http://www.time4learning.com and it has peaked my interest. I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the subject and was curious how much time do you spend using the computer Vs your old way?
I guess I am wondering if T4L will be faster for my son to do...
TIA
Jessie

Nicole @ Some Call It Natural said...

Hi Jessie,
I'm not sure that T4L would be faster necessarily. It partly depends if he is an independent reader and how involved you would need to be. Mostly, for us, it just made school a little bit more fun. The kids love to play on the computer so now they get to play on the computer while getting their school done! Win-Win! If you have any homeschooling questions along the way, please feel free to contact me. I am in no way an expert, but it's nice to have support. :)
Nicole

Andrea Kruse said...

Sounds like an interesting product! I am following from ABE. Glad to meet you.
http://adventuresinallthingsfood.blogspot.com

Mari said...

we use time 4 learning as well. and love it too.

we use it as supplementing, yes it has tons of great things, but my boys juts always want more, they are "unsatisfyable" education wise i guess lol always wanting more.

you may contact me, i home school and have also lots of experience with public school as well, i have stories form both sides lol.

new follower here, come check out Mari's Fun!