Hi Everyone! I am new to homeschooling and am thinking about which curriculum to use next year. I've been doing a lot of research around the internet looking for a good program to use that is affordable. I came across a coupon code for Time4Learning and read some good reviews. My son is seven years old and it is hard to get him to sit still. Have you tried this program before? I am thinking about trying it over the summer to catch up on some work that he has missed. (The coupon code for anyone that is interested is FREEBOOK) Thanks for any advice or comments.
I used T4L this year. I started HSing my son in January... half way through the school year. He is in 2nd grade. I like T4L. I use a few other things and not just T4L but we use it as a base for our other stuff. However, I am looking for something different for next year. The main reason I used T4L is because I could pay by month instead of purchasing a full year when all I needed was a half year.
We use Time4learning, we use other curriculum for US History and Science. Every once in awhile we use Khan Academy for math. We've been using T4L for about 2 years. It has been working for us.
We used Time4Learning for my younger son from 5th grade through 8th grade (where it ends). My son is a really visual learner and it was the one and only program we could find that really held his interest for lessons. Up till that point we had tried literature-based curriculum, workbook-based curriculum, notebooking curriculum, and classical-style curriculum, but none of them were a good fit for him. It wasn't until we started using Time4learning with him that the learning just sort of "clicked." The multimedia-style lessons were exactly what his brain was craving, so for us it was quite a god-send! :angel:
My boys have been using T4L for more than 6 years. My oldest is in 8th grade, and is actually pretty bummed that it doesn't continue past 8th grade at the moment, lol. They are both visual learners, and gadget junkies, so having a program that is done on the computer and is interactive and engaging has been such a blessing! We have used it as our core program in the past, and were very satisfied doing so. Right now we are in a more unschool/interest led phase of our homeschooling, and we are using T4L to supplement between whatever project/experiment/unit study they are working on.
We've been using T4L a little over 4 years with our youngest daughter. Like someone else said above, it has been a God-send for us. She has some learning difficulties, and T4L has been the one program that has met most of her needs. (since there is no such thing as 1 curriculum to meet all of anyone's needs). She enjoys the interactive and animated lessons and is learning and progressing very well. I appreciate the progress reports that help me to see where she needs to do more review. I like that I can print these for easy record-keeping. Best of all, though, I love that she is having fun learning and that she can work at her own pace, repeating lessons as often as necessary when necessary. If you choose to try T4L with your son, since he has trouble sitting still sometimes, I would suggest you have him use headphones to avoid any distractions. We do that at times when there are too many things going on in our 'school room'. By the way, welcome to homeschooling. It's the best choice we've made for our family!!!
We used T4L for half of this past year, for third grade. My daughter is also a visual learner and could very easily stay focused on the lessons. The language arts sections are wonderful! The interactive video and graphics was a lot of fun for my daughter, although the J.T. and Rita show got really monotonous at the end of the regular LA lessons. I did feel that the math was awful though. My daughter could not learn from the format used and I think the math curriculum was lacking significantly. For example, a skill would be presented with maybe one worksheet to practice that skill. It was very frustrating for both me and my daughter. We went back to the Singapore math books for math, which are awesome for a visual learner, by the way. The science section did not interest her at all. The social studies was interesting and she liked it, although we didn't focus on social studies every week. What I love about T4L is the independence with which she can progress through the screens and she can just ask me for help when she needs it. I also love the record keeping and lesson planning. However, we are not planning to use T4L for the next school year. My daughter loves workbooks, and loves to skip forward through the pages to see what is there to be worked on in the future. She did learn a lot with T4L.
