Some Stuff I Tried Over the Summer...

[Brenda B]

School has been back in for awhile, and I never took the time to mention the various websites, books, and pc programs I tried out over the summer, while making my homeschooling decisions. The one that's always been on my to-do list is the Time4Learning website. I thought I would let all of you know what I thought about the site. It seems to be a great curriculum that saves a lot of work on us homeschool parents. I didn't decide to continue on with it this year, but this will still be on that to-do list in the following years as my kids get older and the grade levels get harder :O)

At first I was a little disappointed, but once I got to clicking around a little further on the website, I realized that it is set up nice and is very user friendly. Each time I would click into a subject, it would bring me to more things to go with the topic being covered. I didn't have a problem finding any of the materials for any subject. All of the major subjects have multimedia lessons, quizzes (that are graded for you), record keeping, worksheets, lesson plans, and more. The worksheets are excellent. The multimedia lesson are more than excellent. I tried out the lessons and worksheets randomly with my six children ages 6-12. Each of them enjoyed the multimedia lessons the most. I believe if I were to continue this subscription, all of my children could work on this website with little to no effort on my part. It's simple to follow, the child is instructed on what to do, and everything you would need for the lessons is provided.

If you've ever taken the time to browse over the scope and sequence on the site, it is a good example of everything that actually IS covered in this curriculum.

Sometimes, websites like this really slow my pc down, even with a broadband connection. Time4learning ran smoothly the whole time. I didn't find any glitches, or dead links. (I can't stand a site with a bunch of dead links!)

I contacted customer support a few times to ask questions and they were friendly and quick to respond. They also offer a discount for multiple children. Each child gets their own account to log in to, but I was also able to change the grade levels and access important features from my main parent account. This was very handy since I had several different children at various levels.

I truly believe that over time, as they continue adding to the available resources, Time4Learning is going to be one of those homeschool curriculums that I've always been looking for. Something thorough, easy to follow, and learning that the kids will enjoy. The only con that I personally found was that I felt they could use some more worksheets. Some of the topics didn't have many available. I am a heavy worksheet user, so this is just my opinion. I don't think they need to change anything else.

I plan to buy a membership for this site in the future. As my younger kids get older I will need this. I wasn't disappointed with my month's subscription, so Time4Learning earned an A+ from me :O)