TOS Review: Time4Learning

Sterling (6) has been working on the Time4Learning website for many weeks now. As part of the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew, I’ve received a six month subscription to their website to try it out. Sterling is in first grade, and that’s the level I put him in at Time4Learning as well.

I have to say, at the beginning of this review, I wasn’t so sure. Getting Time4Learning set up wasn’t hard; Sterling didn’t have a hard time figuring out how to do it – I just wasn’t so sure this was quite up our alley. I tend to keep our school off the computer. I’m not opposed to them using it, I just like them to learn without electronic devices. In today’s day… I’m strange.

So Sterling jumped in, unsure if he liked it, having to be reminded to use the site, and anxious to get off as soon as his first little lesson was finished. And then. One day, he asked if he could do what he’d done the day before, because “That was fun!” Progress. I didn’t have time to search out his finished lesson, so I encouraged him to try another, and lo and behold, that was pretty fun too. I’m not quite sure how much he was learning – I pulled his reports and he scored 100% pretty consistently. I wish I’d done that sooner – I’d have moved him up a bit to keep him better challenged.

I love all the reports. I can see how much he used Time4Learning, how well he scored, what he did… it’s all there. He definitely appreciated the Language Arts sections better than Science or Math – the Science I was a little disappointed in, honestly. I dug around a bit, but unless I’m missing something, he was quizzed without having the opportunity to learn the material first. He did fine, but I had to explain a lot to him. That was the one and only time, though, that I had to look over his shoulder as he worked to help him out. If I’m going to have him learning on the computer, I’d like for it to be independently. It’s nice to have something that doesn’t require anything of me! Time4Learning did a pretty good job of that.

In the end, Sterling really enjoyed using Time4Learning, and it’s been really nice to have something to send him to do, something that’s learning, when I’m busy teaching one of his siblings. With a classroom of four, with four grades, I struggle keeping them all busy all the time. I get one started on a subject, get another started, get another started… and child #1  is finished and waiting for me to help with another subject. When that happened with Sterling, I sent him to work on Time4Learning. It bought me some time, he was still working on schoolwork and staying in “school mode” (as opposed to heading outside – where I’ve lost him). It is a good addition to our current routine. I’m not sure if will replace anything we’re already doing, but I think it could, if you wanted it to teach some of your lower level subjects.

Time4Learning for PreK-8th grade is $19.95 per month. Additional students are $14.95. High school levels are $30 per month. No contract is required, and they offer a 14 day money back guarantee. Sign up here.

To read other members of the review crew’s thoughts on Time4Learning regarding this and all the other grade levels offered, visit the Review Crew Blog.