Thursday, January 23, 2014

Time 4 Learning Review

I am overdue for giving Time 4 Learning their review, and I thank them for their patience. In November/December I accepted a month's trial free in exchange for an honest review. I don't have screenshots of the program like I prefer to have when I write a review because at the time my kids were using this online program I was dealing with postpartum depression. The timing was perfect because school was just not getting done when it was something I had to be responsible for. But the kids really liked doing school on the computer and would work away contentedly for some time.

There were several parental controls that I did not take advantage of, like setting time limits that had to be met before the "playground" unlocked and test score reports. I very much liked that kids were not limited to their own grade level, but had access to both one grade above and below thier registered level. Which was very helpful when you have a child that has asynchronous developments, or a child that finishes all of one level in a subject and wants to move on to the next without having to do every other subject in the level.

I did not regulate or dictate what subjects they had to do, but rather let them make their own choices. Most of the time they chose science or social studies, though occasionally they did some math or language arts. I do like that for the price of Reading Eggs plus Mathseeds you got ALL school subjects with Time 4 Learning.

I was not sure how much of the material my boys were actually retaining. They went through subjects very quickly at times, couldn't always tell me anything when asked, and often did poorly on the tests. But when it snowed outside, Builder Boy said to me "it must be zero degrees Celsius out there, because that's what temperature water freezes at!" so he clearly did retain some of it, because I hadn't taught him that.

Looking at what they had when I had access to it, I would not use it as my main curriculum. But as a supplement, a summer program, or a needed break for Mommy, it's very good and worth the money if you can afford it.

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