Old Schoolhouse Magazine Review of Time4Learning
Product Review by: Nancy Wagner, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
This [Time4Learning] is an on-line educational website for preschool ages through grade 8. It focuses on the subjects of Language Arts and Math, but also has some Science and Social Studies units as well. I signed my son, finishing grade 4, up for the 2-week trial period. On set up, I decided to set the timer for 30 minutes of lesson before he is allowed to go to the “playground” to just play games. The playground actually amounts to links to child safe places on the web including PBSkids.com and games from Clever Media. There are even two-player games available with both students using the same keyboard. I set the “playground” for 15 minutes and then he would have to quite or go back to another lesson. Also on set up, I was asked some questions about my son’s abilities so as to place him in the appropriate level in each subject.
You can jump to the following sections:
- My Son, His Friends and The Lessons
- As A Parent
- Any Limitations?
- Key Features of Time4Learning’s Home Education Program
My Son, His Friends and The Lessons
My son absolutely loved the site. He would work on a lesson and often ignore the timer, going beyond the 30 minutes until it would be finished before going to the playground. I was gone for a couple days after he had been on the site for a week or so and he went to some friends during the daytime, another homeschool family. The first day when he worked on the site, their daughter watched everything intently. She was so interested her mom signed her up for the two-week trial and then went to monthly subscription despite limited finances. She absolutely loves it as well.
As A Parent
After a week or so, I went onto the site and signed in as parent. I was able to view a list of the lessons he had worked on, whether completed or not. I was able to see what was completed, quizzes he had completed including score, and the amount of time he spent in each lesson. If I wasn’t able to determine exactly what a lesson covered, a simple click and I would see the actual lesson. The content of the lessons is licensed from Edgenuity, reorganized and configured for homeschool users to increase the flexibility and control given to the parents.
Time4Learning is vibrant, engaging, educational, and funny. It sure beats our previous homeschool curriculum which was textbook/workbook based.
Time4Learning is so effective that very little intervention is required. This works great if you're homeschooling multiple children.
Any Limitations?
Limitations? In my opinion, a lesson should be repeated if the child did not seem to learn the lesson. I asked John, the owner, about this and said he had that feature originally, but parents objected to this. Children are, however, able to redo exercises as many times as they like, though not quizzes and chapter tests. Another limitation, in my opinion, is that if a child is having trouble, it repeats the same verbal tutor each time instead of changing to go at it from another angle. I don’t know if it would be feasible to repeat the tutor x number of times, and then change to y tutor assuming the student isn’t going to get it with tutor x instructions.
I do recommend this site highly and after I extended my trial period and he did it for two months, I liked it even more.
Product Review by: Nancy Wagner, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
Key Features of Time4Learning’s Home Education Program
Time4Learning.com combines 1500+ multimedia lessons, printable worksheets and graded activities in a student-paced environment that brings concepts to life. Math and language arts lessons are correlated to state standards. Science, social studies and art are also provided to most grades.
Parents get access to lesson plans, printable worksheets, teaching tools (located in the Parent Dashboard), detailed reporting and parental support through our online Parent Forum.
Other key features of the program:
- Students get individual logins and work on their own schedule and pace
- Parents can set the grade level independently for each subject
- The grade above and below are available in most grades for review and additional study
- Detailed lesson plans available for parents who wish to review lesson contents
- Access to an online playground that rewards and motivates
- An automated system grades lessons and keeps reports for homeschool portfolio usage (shown below)
- Sign up and get started on the same day!
Time4Learning is entirely web based, so there is no software to download, no CDs and nothing additional to purchase. Students will be able to access the program 24/7 from any computer with an internet connection.
Time4Learning offers a 14-day money-back guarantee and the ability to stop, start, or pause anytime. Browse lesson plans, try the interactive lesson demos, read curriculum reviews, or view the curriculum overview to see what’s available.
