First, I would like to thank www.time4learning.com for the opportunity to review their program for 30 days. It was a great opportunity for our family and came at a very good time for us as we adjusted to Daddy's new work schedule. The weather here is still not great most days so it was okay for the kids to be inside.
We set Nathaniel up at 8th grade level to review skills. Virginia did 3rd grade level for most subjects and I set her for 2nd grade in Math. This did not matter much as she did not do much math. Naomi started at 1st grade in all subjects except math which I did K. I eventually changed Naomi's math level to 1st grade as the K was too easy for her. She also excelled on certain subjects and moved up to 2nd grade level after completing 1st grade.
This program is a complete curriculum. Every level we did had Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. Virginia loved the Language Arts. She is a reader and loved learning about point of view, fact versus opinion, and compare and contrast. Nathaniel focused on Social Studies and Science. It helped fill in some gaps in his mind of WHEN things occurred. Naomi hopped back and forth between them all as she really liked the whole program.
It was nice to have this program as it was a good review for certain topics. Maybe it is just me and the moms I know, but how many people remember off the top of their head what are the definitions for the words palindrome, homophone and simile? I know I have taught Nathaniel these things and some to Virginia so far but it is always good to review.
Naomi's section started with a lot of review of letter sounds. While this may seem boring, the activities and games are different enough to keep it fun. There are review questions throughout the lesson, followed by tests and quizzes. There is a parent section to review your child's work and you can print off reports for your portfolios.
Another aspect the kids really liked is the playground section. After a predetermined amount of schooling (set by the parent), the kids get time at the playground. There are online games (I believe mostly educational) that they can play until their time is up. My kids gravitated to the pbskids.org site. This was a nice reward built into their day.
If we were going to use the program full time, I would assign each child to one section from each subject every school day. As we were doing the free trial, I made them try each section a few times and then let them just continue work in their favorite subjects. This curriculum is self directed, I only needed to help Naomi a handful of times when she did not understand what was being asked. This could easily be used by a work at home parent who could not supervise much homeschooling.
I only see one negative with the program. This is not a Christian website so their was some evolutionary theory included in some areas. There may have been more talk on evolution and stuff, but we only started seeing this at the very end of our trial period.
The cost is comparable for our family to buying a year's worth of curriculum for the kids. I would recommend this program to many of my friends. The cost of membership is $19.95 for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child per month. That is not bad for a complete curriculum especially if a family's circumstances were such that a parent could not do much for teaching time. I note that for our family, using this curriculum is equal in cost to driving our children daily to the local Christian private school. Add tuition to that list and the fact that we have 3 children in school, and check your circumstances to see if this might be a good fit for you.
If you are considering home school for your family, be sure to check your state guidelines and be sure that you fulfill at least the mandatory minimum requirements for other subjects such as physical education and fine arts, etc.
We set Nathaniel up at 8th grade level to review skills. Virginia did 3rd grade level for most subjects and I set her for 2nd grade in Math. This did not matter much as she did not do much math. Naomi started at 1st grade in all subjects except math which I did K. I eventually changed Naomi's math level to 1st grade as the K was too easy for her. She also excelled on certain subjects and moved up to 2nd grade level after completing 1st grade.
This program is a complete curriculum. Every level we did had Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. Virginia loved the Language Arts. She is a reader and loved learning about point of view, fact versus opinion, and compare and contrast. Nathaniel focused on Social Studies and Science. It helped fill in some gaps in his mind of WHEN things occurred. Naomi hopped back and forth between them all as she really liked the whole program.
It was nice to have this program as it was a good review for certain topics. Maybe it is just me and the moms I know, but how many people remember off the top of their head what are the definitions for the words palindrome, homophone and simile? I know I have taught Nathaniel these things and some to Virginia so far but it is always good to review.
Naomi's section started with a lot of review of letter sounds. While this may seem boring, the activities and games are different enough to keep it fun. There are review questions throughout the lesson, followed by tests and quizzes. There is a parent section to review your child's work and you can print off reports for your portfolios.
Another aspect the kids really liked is the playground section. After a predetermined amount of schooling (set by the parent), the kids get time at the playground. There are online games (I believe mostly educational) that they can play until their time is up. My kids gravitated to the pbskids.org site. This was a nice reward built into their day.
If we were going to use the program full time, I would assign each child to one section from each subject every school day. As we were doing the free trial, I made them try each section a few times and then let them just continue work in their favorite subjects. This curriculum is self directed, I only needed to help Naomi a handful of times when she did not understand what was being asked. This could easily be used by a work at home parent who could not supervise much homeschooling.
I only see one negative with the program. This is not a Christian website so their was some evolutionary theory included in some areas. There may have been more talk on evolution and stuff, but we only started seeing this at the very end of our trial period.
The cost is comparable for our family to buying a year's worth of curriculum for the kids. I would recommend this program to many of my friends. The cost of membership is $19.95 for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child per month. That is not bad for a complete curriculum especially if a family's circumstances were such that a parent could not do much for teaching time. I note that for our family, using this curriculum is equal in cost to driving our children daily to the local Christian private school. Add tuition to that list and the fact that we have 3 children in school, and check your circumstances to see if this might be a good fit for you.
If you are considering home school for your family, be sure to check your state guidelines and be sure that you fulfill at least the mandatory minimum requirements for other subjects such as physical education and fine arts, etc.
