TOS Crew Review - Time 4 Learning

Time 4 Learning is a online curriculum, for grades Pre-K - Middle School.  It includes Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies and can be used as a complete curriculum or for needed extra learning, such as during the summer or after school hours.

The program is deigned to be used independently by the student, with parental progress and attendance reports available to see how your child is doing, through the Parent Administration page.  It is easy for a child to figure out what lessons to do, as they are arranged in order and have visual prompts to guide the child along.  The main work the parent or teacher has to do to get a child started is to decide how many lessons of each subject they would like the child to complete in a day.

Here's a video demonstration of how a student would log into their account and access their lessons:

(You can see more Time 4Learning Videos on their YouTube page)

From each grade, the child or parent can also access one grade up and one grade down. This is an asset, because while a child might be on a certain grade level for Math and Science, they may need a higher or lower grade for Language Arts, or other variations.  So having a range of grade levels available is a real plus!

After lessons, the parent has the option of allowing the child access to the "playground" area, which is a compilation of various (age appropriate) games.  The parent can control both how long the lesson time should be before the child is allowed to access the playground, as well as how much time they are allowed to spend on the playground.  There is an option to restrict playground access completely, as well.

For this review, we used this program for several levels - Pre-K, 1st grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade.  Pre-K through 3rd grade are considered "Lower Level", while 4th -8th grade are considered "Upper Level".  You can see lesson plans and scope and sequence for each grade here. It appears to me that the levels are divided so that the games available on the playground are age-appropriate and easy to play.

At the Pre-K level, there aren't "subjects" as there are in the other grades, instead there are themes that a child can choose to learn about - rhyming, colors, numbers, shapes, feelings, and so on.  There is a Pre-K 1 and a Pre-K 2, with Pre-K 2 going a little deeper into the topics touched on in Pre-K 1.  If you'd like a little more in-depth review of the Pre-K levels, be sure to check out my review of Time4Learning from last year!

In 1st grade and beyond, they have the subjects that I mentioned earlier - Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies.  In the lower level grades, all of the subjects are taught through fun animations and activities, which really capture the student's attention.

At the upper levels, there are still fun animations and activities, but the lessons start transitioning to a more "mature" layout - more of a textbook-type reading, with one or two small activities. They also start requiring a few at-home supplies for science lessons, as well as written work.  For this written work, there is a composition and editing program included on the student's main lesson page, on which they can type their assignments and then "hand them in" electronically.  I did not have either one of my upper level students do this, so I can't go into how this process works.

The parental page was a little tricky for me to get - figuring out the icons and understanding the layout, but once I spent a little more time in it, I understood it more.  So while not necessarily intuitive, it was insightful and helpful to be able to monitor the children's progress.  Here is an example:

See more Time 4Learning screenshots here

Overall, my kiddos really enjoyed Time 4 Learning.  My oldest, Isaac, who did the 5th grade level, expressed some disappointment in how much less "fun" many of his lessons were, compared to his brothers' (even the 4th grade level) and did not like the text book style writing. However, the opportunity to play on the playground was incentive enough for all!

I believe that Time 4 Learning is a very good tool!  While our current homeschool style isn't one that requires a full-fledged online, independent curriculum, I can see that Time 4 Learning would well suit this need if it ever arose.  Using it for supplement use is also an option, and could certainly be helpful during times that more independent learning is needed, such as when a new baby is born or other family transition. I felt that the assignments for the grade levels were appropriate - not too hard, but not too easy, either, and I appreciated how easy it was for me to control/limit the playground time, so that the kids weren't wrapped up in computer games all day.

Time 4 Learning is priced at $19.95/month for the first student, and $14.95/month for each additional student.  It comes with a 14-day Money Back Guarantee, so don't be afraid to give it a try!  You can also sign up for a free demo!

As always, be sure to see what other TOS Crew Members thought of Time 4 Learning by checking out the links at the TOS Crew Blog!

Disclaimer: I was given this product specifically for the  purpose of reviewing here on my blog as a member of TOS Homeschool  Crew. I received no other compensation in regards to this review.