Experiences with time4learning

[onlyzombiecat]

I'm looking for some input on using time4learning for homeschooling.

Some questions for those who have experience with it-

How old was your child who used it? How did they feel about it?

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given? How long would your child typically spend on it per day?

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented? Did your child use it for all subjects?

Do you feel it is worth the money?

Is there any religious content or is it all secular?

We've been using Sonlight curriculum as our basis for a few years now. We've done core 1, 2, part of 3 and are currently doing 5. I think it is a good curriculum but dd says it is too hard. I think she would like to try something different and she loves using the computer. We are using Sonlight science 5 this year and it is okay. We use Math U See for math and various resources for language arts. I really like Math U See for dd and would continue with it.

Thanks for any input.

[NishaG]

How old was your child who used it? 6 years old. For first grade. How did they feel about it? He likes it generally.  Loves computer games.

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given? Everything is online.  There are some LA parts than can be printed, though.  How long would your child typically spend on it per day? 2 hours max.  I tend to break it up.

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented? I supplement some on LA, because he picks up reading faster with a different curriculum.  Some supplement with Saxon Math and I use SOTW for History.  Did your child use it for all subjects? First grade only has LA, LA Extensions, Math and dome Science.  The other subjects starts in 2nd grade.

Do you feel it is worth the money?  So far, yes.  (I should mention that my charter school pays for it) Is there any religious content or is it all secular? All secular.

[eviemp]

I'm looking for some input on using time4learning for homeschooling.

Some questions for those who have experience with it-

How old was your child who used it?

Since he was four, is now six.

How did they feel about it?

His favorite program so far.

He has ADD but is able to complete all his work.

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given?

I think a lot of people don't realize there are a lot of printable available for language arts, math and some for science too. His charter requires paperwork so we print everything. So he does 75 percent online and the rest is "homework" to reinforce what hes learned.

How long would your child typically spend on it per day?

Maybe an hour online and an hour one printables. Often we find other stuff online to extend what he's learning.

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented?

Math and Language arts is complete but you have to watch your child to make sure they understand the math concepts as there is not a lot of repetition on some. If you have your child do the quizes and tests with each lesson that really helps with concepts that are harder for them to grasp (that is an extra 15 questions). History and science are not complete at my sons grade level (first). I have the "what your 1st grader needs to know book and follow their schedule in those subjects.

Did your child use it for all subjects?

He has used it for math, language arts and to supplement science.

Do you feel it is worth the money?

Yes. It's the best program we've used.

Is there any religious content or is it all secular?

Secular.

[marimara]

• We're using it for my advanced 4yo on the K level.  She's doing math K and Lang. Arts 1st grade.
• She LOVES it
• We do it all online, I don't print anything out from T4L, though there are some printables are ofther pps mentioned
• I don't feel it's complete for my child.  The K covers math and language arts, and some science.  She has an insatiable love of science so I supplement lots in that dept.  She did the 4 science units in 2 weeks in T4L.  I also supplement reading because if focuses mostly on phonics and she's already reading at a 1st or 2nd grade level but she does do the work so she will build a strong foundation in phonics.
• yeah, I feel it's worth it.  20/mo and I don't really "have" to supplement.  If your kid is pretty much at grade level (or age level) that it should work really well
• all secular, no religious content that I've seen
• It's great for visual learners, which my dd is.   

[roadfamily6now]

We used it in California when we were living there. 8th, 6th, 1st and K.

My kids loved and my 6th grader really flourished on it. My 8th grader (girl) did not but did some eventually. The younger kids really liked it and some would work 4 hours at a time if I let them.

[cappuccinosmom]

We used it when my two older kids were 6 and 4 (so first and K).  They. Loved. It.  Absolutely loved it.  They would spend hours and hours on it if I let them.

We only used the online stuff.  Didn't see anything religious (???).  If we didn't already have a curriculum, I would consider purchasing the subscription.  As a supplement, to me it's not worth it but if it was the foundational curric, I think it would be.

[nicksmom03]

We've only been homeschooling a short while.  We use Math-U-See and MCT language arts and supplement with T4L.  It seems like most kids love it, based on the posts.  My 9 year old son hates it, especially the cartoony-ness of it.  There is a lot of that in the LA section, which again I only use to supplement in areas I notice weakness in his learning.  I'm going to keep it one more month and probably cancel it if he doesn't warm up to it.

One thing I've noticed is there doesn't seem to be a lot of teaching.  For example, I wanted him to do the section on synonyms and it rolled right into examples and multiple choice options that were way too simple, no challenge at all and it is delivered by obnoxious, loud cartoon characters.  I think maybe he just takes to more serious learning styles? 

[treemom2]

We moved this year and used T4L during the prep for the move and while we were living in hotels.  I'd say we used it for 4-5 months.  

How old was your child who used it? I used it with two children, DS age 5/6 and DD 8/9.  My DS is considered "gifted" while my DD is pretty normal.  DS would be in Kinder this year (we homeschool so he's not really in any grade) and DD is now attending school in the 3rd grade.

How did they feel about it?  At first they both really like it and zoomed through their activities.  Then it kept moving forward and completely lost my DD.  She started hating it!  DS was absolutely bored with it after finishing pre-k through 2nd grade.  Neither of them liked or did well with the math.  I though the math was horrible!  When DD started 3rd grade in the fall she was way behind her peers in all areas even though she completed T4L 1st and 2nd grades (she attended Japanese school until we started T4L so I wanted to start her in 1st grade for the reading since she couldn't read English).

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given? Most is online.  There are some worksheets you can print up as well.

How long would your child typically spend on it per day? DD would spend an hour to an hour and a half.  DS was finished in less than 30 minutes.

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented? I think it absolutely must be supplemented.  It is not a good curriculum in my opinion.  I thought it was great at first with getting DD to like reading. . .but the rest of it wasn't very good.

Did your child use it for all subjects?  All except math, none of us liked the math at all.

Do you feel it is worth the money? No, I think there are many things online you can use to teach your children for less money or for free.  Check out this site for some great resources: http://freehomeschoolresources.webs.com/

Is there any religious content or is it all secular?  It is a secular program.  

[lu<3BnaMom]

How old was your child who used it?  My oldest DD was 1/2 way into her 1st grade year when we switched & my son started in Pre-K

How did they feel about it? They really enjoyed this program and still do :)

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given? Mostly online thou they do offer available printables and some projects if you want then

How long would your child typically spend on it per day? This depends on the child IMO~> we kinda go with the flo some days my kids will spend 1/2 an hour others 2-3 hours ;)

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented? Complete

 Did your child use it for all subjects? Yes

Do you feel it is worth the money? Yes

Hope this helps :)

BTW they have a forum if you want to get more insight into thier program ;-) http://www.Time4Learning.net

[accidental_hs'er]

I'm looking for some input on using time4learning for homeschooling.

Some questions for those who have experience with it-

How old was your child who used it?  I have two children using it, ages 5 and 8 next month.

How did they feel about it?  They love it.  My youngest wasn't really into it last summer when we first bought a subscription but asked to try again last month and is going strong.

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given?  Well, as far as T4L is concerned, we only use the online components.  Any written work is done through their own initiative or through some of the other curriculum we use not related directly to T4L.

How long would your child typically spend on it per day?  I have no time limit set.  I will say something like do 3 math sections and 3 LA before you...  Depending on how easy they find the work that day, they can whip through a math section any where from 5-15 minutes.  There is a timer that sets a minimum amount of time that work has to be done before they are allowed in the playground area.  We set it at 45 minutes.

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented?  I think its great but still needs to be supplemented.  It doesn't necessarily cover everything that I think is important, not to mention no Canadian content.

Did your child use it for all subjects?  I mainly use it for Math and Language arts.  They kids can play around with the other areas if they like.  We use Real Science Odyssey for Science.  We have hired a teacher for French.  History mainly happens through books, conversations and documentaries, etc.. 

Do you feel it is worth the money?  For us, absolutely!  We have a pretty good size budget for homeschooling material though.  I have friends that consider using it at the expense of doing without other things and I would probably go to something like IXL for just math is money was an issue.  My ds is not a strong writer and really responds to working on a computer.  As much as I like the program, I prefer to design our own content and wouldn't feel comfortable just using one online program for "everything".

Is there any religious content or is it all secular?  I haven't come across anything religious.  Secular content is a prerequisite for us.

[JuneCleavage]

My 6 year old daughter uses it. I was cobbling everything together myself but my husband was injured at work last year and our schooling was getting lost in the midst of all of his care. So finding out about it came at the perfect time for us. 

She loves it, and does it for about 1 1/2 hours every day. She really loves having part of her schooling something that she does independently. Its a complete curriculum to keep her on level with her peers in normal school, but I think she can do more so we do do more. She has completed all the first and second grade science curriculum in just a couple weeks and I don't think there are enough drills when it comes to math. 

So she does the Time4Learning each day, we read a couple books above her level each day together along with something from her Hooked on Phonics set, some kind of handwriting practice each day. Every other day we might do a couple pages in Miquon or do flash cards or a worksheet if I think she needs extra practice in something. Science and social studies we do more naturally as things interest us. I am an ecletic homeschooler so it doesn't seem unnatural for us to skip around on stuff. Time4learning is the perfect complement to my own style making sure she progresses in order with lots of room for above and beyond learning. 

Totally worth the money. I am not much of a record keeper so I can just print out reports if I ever have to and my butt is covered. I don't really think its the govts business or my job to write down every book I read with my daughter each day. So this is the CYA for my slightly anarchist tendencies too. 

[Jugs]

How old was your child who used it? About to turn 6 (Kindergarten)

How did they feel about it? He loves it! With his special needs (autism) T4L has been a really good fit for his learning style. We had tried other Charlotte Mason-esque approaches but it just didn't work for us at this point.

Is everything done online or will offline assignments/activities be given? At his grade level there are no worksheets, but I'm not big into seatwork at this age, so that's fine with me.

How long would your child typically spend on it per day? Maybe 35-45 minutes

Do you feel it is a complete curriculum or needs to be supplemented? Depends on what you are looking to do; for Language Arts and Math so far I think it is perfectly adequate, especially since you can adjust the grade level at anytime if your child needs more of a challenge. The science is okay to use as a basis, but I like to use library books and science-y websites to dig deeper into the lesson. Next year I will need supplement, but only because my state requires subjects that T4L doesn't cover (music, art, health and safety, penmanship, American history)

Did your child use it for all subjects? For the most part yes, although I do add in some of my own stuff when we have the time. Like ds wants to learn Spanish, so I've been teaching him a little bit (colors, numbers, etc). And we have an on-going "safety" lap book that we add to once a week (fire safety, stranger danger, water safety, etc) 

Do you feel it is worth the money? As someone who has a very limited budget, yes, it has been worth the money for us. I also have a 3-year-old and a colicky newborn (read: no free time to prepare lessons), so the fact that I need to do very little prep-work is invaluable to me. Any supplements or other subjects can be found for free (or at least very cheap) online, so I'd rather channel my funds into T4L. We can freeze or end our subscription at anytime, so for us it is less of a financial risk than buying more boxed curriculum. I love that we can go at our own pace, and that I don't have to be right there with ds the whole time; I generally sit with him to make sure he understands, but if I need to I can step away without derailing our entire school day.  

[rubelin]

we tried it just for math with my 10 yr old and 6 yr old. The older one didn't mind it too much, we mainly used it to assess what skills he needed to work on and the little one mostly hated it. He really liked the videos with the robot but couldn't stand the ones with the gorilla character, which ended up being most of them. I think it could be valuable, but the website wasn't built well, imo and your kids really need to connect with the presentation style, or it's worthless. We also don't regularly practice using rewards for anything, especially for something like learning, so the whole part of doing x minutes in order to get the reward of playing games (which were all links to exterior sites with advertising) really didn't sit well with me.