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2020 was a year that no one expected. There were many parents searching for options for school since many schools were closed. Homeschooling can be quite overwhelming and as a homeschool parent I think we are all looking for something to make our lives easier as the teacher and for our homeschoolers. Between lesson plans, schedules, reading lists, field trips, the library runs not to mention all our other daily obligations, our lives can be a bit crazy. This is why I choose to Homeschool with Time4Learning.
I have always considered homeschooling my child. She attended a Montessori preschool but I also substituted learning at home. The idea of homeschooling her in elementary was always there but I knew I wanted her to have the social life that a public school could give her. With the shut down of everything in early 2020 I decided why not homeschool her for Kindergarten and see how it goes. So summer of 2020 I started looking for an online curriculum and that’s when I found Time4Learning.
Read more on: Teaching Preschool at Home
What is Time4Learning
Time4Learning is an affordable online curriculum for kids from PreK-12th grade. Starting at $19.95 per month for grades PreK-8th and $30 per month for grades 9-12. Time4Learning incudes Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies and Art lessons. Plus you can purchase additional courses such as Math Facts, Time4Writing and Foreign Language classes (powered by Rosetta Stone). Math and Language Arts are taught at state standards where as Science and Social Studies will likely need supplemented depending on your state requirements. Check out the requirements to homeschooling in your state! Time4Learning also makes makes life easier as the teacher by including lesson plans, grading, and reports
Time4Learning combines 1000+ interactive animated lessons, printable worksheets, graded activities to help teach your child Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. This online program is not only a homeschool curriculum but it can also be used as a summer program, afterschool program, or a supplement curriculum if your child is struggling in a certain area.
Parent Dashboard
One thing I love about Time4Learning is that there is a separate Parent and Student Dashboard. Within the parent dashboard you have access to so many tools to make learning successful with this program.
This view is from the home screen. You can see the amount of time that has been spent on the different subjects for the week. Along with the last time your student log in, the recent lessons they have completed and the grades on the recent lessons.
The second screen is on the Lesson Planning and Reports page. They give you different options to create the perfect lesson plan for your student(s). Under Lesson Plans you will find all lessons for the grade levels, Spelling Lists, and supplements. For Activity Planner you can build your student(s) planner. I love building a planner with this feature. You have the option of doing a detailed one or using there curriculum calculator to build a planner based on the amount of weeks you are planning on doing school. I used the curriculum calculator to build our planner. This way gives you the amount of classes you have to complete each day in order to finish the grade level in the desired time frame.
After you have built your lesson planner you have the opportunity to choose the days you want certain activities done or leave all the activities for the entire week and have your student choose when they want to do each activity.
Student Dash Board
Inside the student dashboard, your children will be able to access the playground, art gallery, and other fun features as well as their lessons. I love that they have the freedom to choose which subject or topic they want to learn about and in what order (you can control this as well if you have set out a specific lesson plan you would like them to follow.) Students have access to the grade level above them, and below them, this allows flexibility to meet the student’s needs, which I think we all love as homeschoolers.
Time4Learning Subjects
Time4Learning offers 4 different main subjects. Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Even though its not a main subject they also off some Art courses. All subjects offer interactive videos, graded lessons and quizzes.
Language Arts
My daughter has really enjoyed her Language Art classes. The interactive videos are wonderful at getting her attention and helping her understand what she is suppose to do. When it comes to quizzes they offer short and to the point quizzes that make it easy to understand the question and the answer.
Math
Math is very similar to Language Arts. My daughter really enjoys the way the go about teaching Math. The lessons are very catchy and entertaining. Even with my daughter being in Kindergarten she enjoys sitting down and paying attention to her different lessons.
Science
This is one area that I do feel could be improved. Maybe its just the Kindergarten level but the first week I feel the science lesson started in the middle. There are things it expects my daughter to know that she doesn’t know yet. This is a subject that I supplement with other materials. I do like that they have science experiments for the children to do but that is about the only thing we really like about the science.
Social Studies
Social Studies is not offered to Kindergarten students so I have not had a chance to explore those lessons.
Pros vs Cons
Pros
- Affordable all in 1 online homeschooling program
- Fun and interactive lessons
- Little Supplementing needed
- Can do at your own pace and on your own time
- Easy Lesson Planning
- Building a schedule is easy
- Record keeping made easy
- The grade above and below are available for review and additional study
- An online playground rewards and motivates
Cons
- Science and Social Studies may need supplementing depending on your state
- Does not work well on a tablet of phone
- Computer needed to work successfully on Time4Learning
Overall thoughts on Homeschooling with Time4Learning
We absolutely love Time4Learning and we are beyond impressed with how well this first semester has gone. My daughter is eager to do school each day and really enjoys her lessons. The record keeping and lesson planning on my side is made so easy with Time4Learning. They have the program set up perfect to help first time homeschooling parents. I will be continuing Homeschooling my daughter with Time4Learning.
If you are looking into homeschooling your child I recommend looking into Time4Learning for your homeschool curriculum.
