Most parents have probably heard of Time4Learning by now. Time4Learning is an online program that provides students with technology-based, student-paced curriculum for grades PreK- high school. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum for homeschooling families, or for after-school work and summer enrichment for those in public school. The cost of Time4Learning is $19.95 per month for one student, and $14.95 for each additional student in grades PreK-8. For high school students, the cost is $30 per month. Schoolhouse Crew members received a 6 month membership for the purpose of this review. We reviewed the 3rd grade.
The subjects that Time4Learning provides are Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Once you choose your child’s base grade level, you also get access to work in both the grade above that, and the grade below, so you can ease their load, or challenge them more if needed. As the Parent Admin, you have lots of options in your “back office” area of the website. You’ll have access to Time4Learning’s spelling word lists, Language Arts reading lists, science lessons supply list, changing your child’s grade level, making your account dormant for vacation or other purposes, and an activity scheduler.
There are also adjustable timer settings, where you can set your child’s minimum time spent on each lesson, and the maximum time they can spend “at the playground,” which is a fun game area kids can play after they finish their work. Each timer goes up to a maximum of 59 minutes. The default timer is set to 15 minutes.
If you wish to use it, the Activity Scheduler allows you to plan our your child’s school year work yourself. You simply choose which child you’re working with, the start and end date, which subjects you want to include, which activities (learning, worksheets, test, and quizzes), and you can plan by the year, or plan by first and last chapters for each subject. I chose not to do any real planning, because I am not a detailed planner, and this would just stress me out. Time4Learning also keeps track of times that activities, lessons, and quizzes are completed, as well as grades! I really like the automatic grading aspect.
For the parent resources, such as spelling lists, Science supply lists, and the reading lists, you can view quite a lot of grade levels for those. You can view K-8 spelling lists, grades 1-8 reading lists, and grades 3-6 Science supply lists. These lists are in PDF format and easily printable.
The Playground area contains 6 game categories: Action, Kid Places, Activities, 2 Player Games, Puzzlers, and Educational Games. There is a running timer in the upper-right corner so the student knows how time they have left to play games.
Depending on your grade level, you child will either log into the Upper or Lower Level Login, and a new window will pop up for them to work on. Your student can then choose which subject to work on first, or they can view their portfolio of the work they’ve completed.
Here’s the Grammar area of the LA Extensions.
As you can see, it delves a little further into specific areas of Language Arts. When a certain subject area is completed, it is marked by a green check mark. You can see here what has been completed in the Language Arts section so far.
Each lesson has a set number of activities to complete, and those will vary. Some of the passages are narrated aloud, and some your child will read on his/her own. The student will do more self-reading for Science and Social Studies.
The Science portion covers Scientific Investigation, Nature of Matter, Energy, Effects on the Shape of Earth, Ecology, Light & Sound, Astronomy, Eras on Earth, and Life/Environment Interact.
The Social Studies portion covers Vikings, Alaskan Inuits, The World on Spatial Terms, Exploration of the Americas, North American Colonization, Economics, Citizenship & Government, Chronology, and Rural, Suburban, and Urban Region.
The Math portion covers Number Theory, Adding & Subtracting, Multiplication and Division, Fractions & Decimals, Money, Patterns, Algebra, Time, Probability, Metric-System, Problem Solving, Properties of Shapes, Coordinate Geometry, Transformations & Symmetry, Customary System, Perimeter & Area, and Display & Interpret Data.
The Language Arts portion covers Vocabulary Skills, Think Aloud Process Skills, Comprehension, Text Features, Point of View, Compare & Contrast, Family, Community, Friendship, Tall Tales, Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, and Animals.
Time4Learning is very flexible and child-friendly. Your child can even personalize their page color! The site is very colorful and engaging. For the duration of the review period, Ethan used Time4Learning as his base work. He worked through each day’s work in only about an hour, so I had him do other work as well to flesh out his day, such as writing and copy work, and of course our Bible reading. He did each subject and lesson in order to keep things simple. He is improving in his reading, but still struggling, so I did have to help him with some of the reading portions.
I personally like what Time4Learning has to offer. For Ethan, though, it was hit or miss on whether or not he liked it. Some days were better than others. Because of how fast he worked through the days, I’d maybe recommend this more as a supplement instead of a full base curriculum. With that being said, I would not use this for all 4 of my children at once, as the cost would be around $65 per month, which is way out of my budget. I am pleased with the subjects covered and the lessons. I really like the automated grading, worksheets, and the lists available in the parent section as well.
Be sure to click below and read reviews from my fellow Crew members!
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