Time4Learning is an online, subscription-based learning program that includes lessons in language arts, math, science, and social studies. Time4Learning’s claim is that it can be used as the core curriculum of a homeschool program, for after-school learning, or for summer use. It is designed for preschool thru middle school students, but this review will concentrate mainly on the Kindergarten portion, since that is Nadia’s current level.
Having just finished a 30-day trial* of Time4Learning, I can unequivocally say that I think it is an excellent program for our daughter. It starts with a basic tutorial of the program, and even shows the children how to drag and drop with the mouse in case they have never used a computer before. We started Nadia on the Kindergarten level, but the nice thing about the program is that you can see one level below you and one level above. The first few days Nadia thought that everything was way too easy and I quickly moved her to a section of lessons she had not been exposed to before, like time, calendars, measuring and parts of a whole.
Once you choose the section for the child to work on, they are introduced to the concept and then they go through a series of exercises to learn and apply the concept. The lessons include a number of colorful characters who appear thoughout the exercises. Nadia liked the four main characters and would say things like, “Look at Harriet’s money. Or look how cute they are.” Once several sections are finished there is a multiple choice quiz for the child to take. Then they can move on to the next area. Looking over the answers I could easily see when Nadia had been paying attention or was distracted. When she missed a lot of them, I had her redo that section of the program and then redo the quiz.
Nadia was happy to do this every day and didn’t even think of it as school work. She truly enjoyed it, and I know she liked feeling like she was independently working (and getting to use my laptop). I appreciated that it introduced her to new concepts in a way that was interesting to her.
Pros:
- The program is very well done. Step-by-step instructions are easy for the child to understand.
- The child can click a microphone button to hear the question or instructions again.
- The program is bright and colorful and kept Nadia interested.
- The main characters are fun for children.
- I like that you can access the grade-level above and below.
- I think it’s a great value.
Cons:
- The quiz section doesn’t seem as “slick” as the rest of the program and can be slightly confusing to the child.
- On some of the first lessons, when Nadia missed a question, it showed her the correct answer right away. For her it would have been better to be able to try a second or third time before before giving her the answer.
Conclusion:
We will be signing up Nadia for this now that we have tried it for a month. Nadia is ahead of most kids her age, but this is a nice filler for the areas we had not gotten to yet in a traditional Kindergarten curriculum. Looking ahead at the language arts lesssons plans for 1st grade, I can see a lot of great content for her as she continues to learn to read. I had Amelie signed up for a trial of the pre-K section, but I quickly found that at 2 years old she is still too young. As soon as she is ready, however, we will sign her up also. Time4Learning is an excellent program that we have whole-heartedly added to our homeschool curriculum.
*The opinions here are entirely my own. Nothing was written by Time4Learning, but they did compensate me with a free month trial.
