Time 4 Learning Review with Pros and Cons

Time 4 Learning has been available to homeschoolers for quite a while now, but I had not been able to see the program for myself until just recently. I received a 30 day review access and had a chance to play around with it and test it with my son.

Basically, it can be used by public or homeschool students to promote learning in a fun way using the computer. There are four subjects available - Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The student can choose any sets of lessons in any order except Math. The Language Arts and Math subjects are most animated while the Science and Social Studies are mostly reading and answering questions.

Students who are quick learners or who already know the material can move ahead, but students who don't know the material can watch the videos and move more slowly. One very positive part about this program is that the students get immediate answers. There is a quiz after each section of lessons. This is helpful to both parents and students to have immediate correction because then the parents know if the students are understanding and the students find out right away if they are getting the answers that are needed.

Pros and Cons of Time 4 Learning

Pros:

  • Immediate answers
  • Students can choose any subjects in any order
  • Can move slowly or quickly through a lesson or series.
  • The interactive and animated sections are lots of fun yet educational for students.

Cons:

  • There is no succession of lessons. You just pick any order and don't really have a way of knowing what you completed except from the parent reports.
  • Science and Social Studies sections are just sections of reading and answering questions - not animated at all.
  • There are a few secular items that I noticed that might be offensive to some homeschoolers like the use of the word "darn" and the magic 8 ball.

If your child enjoys working on the computer, then I'm sure they will like this program. My son spent a good amount of time on some of the animated lessons and didn't even realize he was learning something.

They have a page just for homeschoolers that explains how it works for homeschooling - Time 4 Learning for homeschoolers. They have another page that answers the questions most homeschoolers would have abouthow to use Time4Learning with homeschooling.