Time 4 Learning Review

*Full Disclosure*

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received access to Time4Learning for my four students for review purposes for 30 days. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

This is what we had access to by kid--

BigSis-9th grade Physical Science-switched out to Earth Science, Algebra 1, World Geography, and Health.  Big Sis is actually 13 and supposed to be 8th grade but has been working high school level for over a year.

Tadpole-8th grade plus Honors Algebra.  Tadpole is 12 and supposed to be 7th grade but is working on 8th grade work alongside 3 high school courses in our regular curriculum.

Bubba-5th grade with access to 4th and 6th grade.  Bubba is diagnosed with dysgraphia and dyslexia.  Bubba is actually a good reader but is behind in math.  So he worked 4th grade math mostly.

Wiggles-1st grade.  Wiggles is actually in 1st grade.  However, he is a fluent reader and excels in math.

How we used Time4Learning-

• Supplemental
• Used during testing weeks for kids that weren’t testing as their school for the day.
• Reviewed High School seriously to see if some of the courses could fill our credit recovery.

1st Grade

• Typical 1st grade scope and sequence
• Language arts does not assume fluency until 3rd grade so even though I placed him in 2nd grade T4L…I had to ask for them to up him to 3rd grade language arts.  Language arts/Reading will drag if your student is a fluent reader prior to 3rd grade.
   2nd Grade is totally Phonics Fluency
  3rd grade language arts is exploring genres and is much better if your student is already fluent.  I moved Wiggles up to 3rd grade where we would still have access to 2nd but also had access to 4th.
  
• Math is done in a fun game style that I believe is great for supplementing, but I don’t think retention would be great long term.
  
  Math 1 is pretty typical and engaging for Wiggles.  Here he has access to k and 2nd as well.  If we were to continue and purchase for him, I would choose to move him up to 2nd grade math where he would have access to 1st and 3rd instead.  As he would not benefit from access to k at all.
• Social Studies and Science was fun.  Both courses were also significantly smaller than the 3r’s. 
  
  Social Studies apparently begins in 2nd grade as we had access to 2nd and 3rd.  2nd is 4 topics with them having 1-4 subtopics in each.
  
  As you can see 3rd grade is much meatier.  If we were to continue, I would place Wiggles in 3rd grade Social Studies to have access to 2nd-4th grade levels and let him work at his own pace. 

5th Grade

• History was the best feature of this grade level
  
  The amount of topics covered alone and the expanse of time periods makes this a really great overview year of history.
• Bubba really enjoyed the science
  
  I forgot to mention originally that the middle school science is by topic and you don’t have access to other grade levels.   Bubba was doing Earth and Space Science.
• Again, math is done in a style that is a fun game, but I am not sure retention would be achieved long term if this was the sole curricula.
  
  Bubba has dysgraphia/dyslexia and we chose to place him in 4th grade math having access to 3rd and 5th as multiplication and division has caused him grief.  This was the best choice for us b/c he could take the topics and work through them in 3rd,4th, 5th grade level and hopefully achieve grade level mastery this way in those topics.
• Language arts was much better at the higher level.  It is very similar to the 3rd grade language arts set up exploring genres and learning about inferences and such.

8th Grade

• Seemed like the courses were just a little bit more advanced each year. 
• Same game style format essentially
• She loved the Honors Algebra!!! 
  
  Honors Algebra is not Algebra.  This was a big issue for me.  Here in our area we can count science, math, and foreign language for high school credit in 8th grade.  I would have assumed Honors Algebra was a high school level course not Pre-Algebra.  When I called to ask questions, I was informed that it is really Pre-Algebra. This needs to be more clear to parents or they may inadvertently count Pre-Algebra as their child’s algebra course. 
• History is really well done.  It is American History and complimented our main studies well.
• Science is similar to the 5th grade and in middle school they choose between Earth, Life, and Physical Science courses.  Tadpole chose Life Science mainly b/c that is the typical course of study here where we live for 7th grade.  She is working mostly 8th grade material but is technically 7th grade.  Here it is normally 6th-Physical Science, 7th-Life Science, 8th-Earth Science.  Normally 5th grade is still in the regular overview of science so if we were to continue, I would probably place Bubba in 4th grade Science so that he would be on a more typical scope and sequence as where we live.
  

9th Grade (High School Courses)

• World Geography-dd13 hated this in spots for one reason alone.  Geozar!!!  Do you remember the movie Big with Tom Hanks?  It is a guy dressed up like a gypsy that takes your high school student on a tour of World Geography.  OK maybe not as creepy as the Big gypsy but really creepy.

There are no words.

• Earth Science-we actually will probably use the Earth Science for credit recovery since dd13 started Earth Science for 1/2 a credit with k12 before we withdrew.  It seems easy to manage for our needs so that we can use a full credit for Earth Science on her transcript.
• Algebra 1-done in a format where it is video/white board style.  It was hard to follow in some of the videos where it would be smaller in the video but not carried over to the white board.  dd13 did not like it as well as dd12 loved the Honors Algebra.
  ETA-It seems the issues with the video may have been from using Google Chrome.  They recommend using Firefox as it is most compatible with the program.  Also upon calling and talking with someone, I found out Honors Algebra for 8th grade is really Pre-Algebra not Algebra which was misleading as I felt it should be called Pre-Algebra since lots of 8th graders achieve high school credit with Honors Algebra in middle school.  It should be more obvious that Honors Algebra is not the equivalent to Algebra 1.

So glad I could add screen shots. 

• Health-again had cartoonish characters like the World Geography used Geozar.  dd13 was not as enthused about the courses that were done in a game style manner. 

Here are my thoughts on it overall-

1. I would only use it for supplemental or credit recovery personally.  This is a personal preference as my kids have not done well long term on all computerized learning.
2. My dysgraphic/dyslexic student probably benefitted the most and enjoyed the visual style more than my other students.
3. The game style format was both a plus and a minus for our family. 
4. Overall, I feel it has a good scope and sequence and you could use it as a stand-alone curriculum in the younger years.  However, my student taking the high school subjects was not as amused with the game style.  She did not like Geozar at all. 
5. For us, the high school courses were very hit or miss.  The ones that were similar to the younger grade style were not enjoyed with our high school student.

Overall, I would recommend it to a new homeschooler wanting to feel out scope and sequence for typical grade level.  I would also recommend it to a home school parent that needs their students to work independently. 

Our family personally will probably utilize Time4Learning as a supplement for the younger kids to enhance our main curriculum. It will also give them a secular science viewpoint aside our curricula that is more creation based. My high school student will continue Earth Science so that I can award her a credit for Earth Science since she did 1/2 a year with k12’s high school Earth Science course. Health would also give her the needed credit for our state. Algebra 1 would be supplemental to our Saxon Algebra 1. World Geography would also be supplemental. Our main goal would be to recover the Earth Science credit for her.

I also wanted to talk about price.  For our family of 4 students (including 1 high schooler), the cost would be roughly $75 a month.  This may seem high to some when you think of school being 10 months of the year roughly, but for us it is the equivalent of 1 or 2 meals fast food or 1 sit down meal at a nice restaurant.  The monthly payments make it easier for me to commit than if they required the amount in full and a 10 month commitment.  This way I can pay as we go and suspend our account if need be for any reason.  My youngest, Wiggles, has been hospitalized a lot the last year and I would have the option of suspending his account when he is unable to work.  That is a big draw for me.

I will have to say Time4Learning’s customer service is excellent and I was able to edit my review with screen shots after speaking with them.  They also cleared up my misconception about the Honors Algebra and explained that Firefox worked better for their program.  While it is easy to set up and get classes going, I would recommend calling and asking specific questions if you may be going to use a class out of order or grade level to make sure it will meet your needs. 

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.