Hello All! Nothing like a freebie to get me blogging again :).
I'd like to start this review out by declaring the fact that I am being compensated for this review.
As a member of Time4Learning, I have been given the opportunity to review their program and share my experiences. While I was compensated, this review was not written or edited by Time4Learning and my opinion is entirely my own. For more information, check out their standards-based curriculum or learn how to write your own curriculum review.
That should not, however, sway you in your assessment. Time4Learning is a pay-monthly online curriculum. We happen to use it for homeschooling so if you are a teacher and are looking for a review about how the interface works with 25 students, you're in the wrong place. The program is slightly different for use in group school settings. We'll get to that later. I am using this program with my 4th grade son, who we will call Neon (his chosen nickname, isn't that cute?!?!), who has been diagnosed with inattentive ADD, and my 1st grade daughter, Bellie (also a nickname). We have been using T4L for about 2 months. For those of you looking for a quickie, I give it a B as curriculums go. Overall, it is great. There are, however, a few issues that keep me from giving it an A. Keep reading if you want to know more.
Right off the bat I was struck by the somewhat moderate learning curve to getting started. T4L tries to make it easy by providing tutorials and lots of encouragement. I don't know if I am just dense or if I am left brained to the author's right brain or what, but the tutorials did me very little good. I have been homeschooling for many years (My oldest is 12, so that's at least 7 years of official schooling) and I have 4 children who have different needs and learning styles. What I'm trying to say is, I've tried a ton of curriculums in just about every form they come in. I think this was a disadvantage to really grasping what T4L was trying to get me to see. My expectations are high, and the tutorials were not what I needed. For a first time or relatively new homeschooler they are probably perfect. For an old hat like myself, they were lacking. I already know what I WANT to do, just tell me how. This is obviously subjective so your mileage might vary.
Once I figured out the very basics I just dove right in. I plopped my kiddo down in front of the computer, told him where to click, and off he went. Neon's form of ADD causes him to be very distractible. I like that he can put on headphones and shut the rest of the world out. This is the first time we've been successful in completing a number of lessons in a row without drama in a very long time. Shiny! Additionally, the fact that lessons at his grade level are short blurbs to be read by the student (as opposed to being red for them like in the lower grades) was a plus. For my ADD child reading is a significant challenge, and this makes him feel successful and not quite so stressed about the process. The fact that he's blaring (at a safe level, but to me its all noisy, lol) Skrillex in the headphones still makes me shake my head but hey, it works for him and so we go with it. The topics at this level are interesting and engaging and have already prompted Neon to explore some topics on his own. Current obsession: Vikings, thanks to T4L.
We are supplementing T4L's math because we were already using another program and it was working for us. I use the math section of T4L as sort of a review/extra practice and I don't do a lot of monitoring of progress. I don't see any reason that T4L's math couldn't be an "only" math curriculum in a child's life. It just took us forever to find a math we love, so I hesitate to change again. The old adage "If it aint broke, don't fix it" comes to mind.
For my 1st grader T4L is fun. Bellie likes the animations and cheesy jokes and she seems genuinely interested in what is going on on the screen. The lower grade levels (not sure where the cutoff is, but I'm thinking grades 1 and 2, maybe 3) are much more cartoon/video game-like. I think this is fine. Others may find that off-putting. As with Neon, Bellie has found interest in topics I may never have thought to introduce.
Bellie spends about 90 minutes a day on her T4L work. I honestly feel this is a bit too much for her and some days we barely get in an hour. Since we supplement with other learning opportunities this doesn't concern me. Neon spends about 2 hours/day on his school work. Again, I am not concerned by those seemingly short school days. I think 2 hours is perfectly reasonable for a child to be sitting in front of a computer. Novice homeschoolers take note: the challenge to a program like this is in continuing the learning after the child is done at the computer. State laws vary, but even in my very easy state, 2 hours isn't quite there. Don't be tempted to just call your day finished. Likewise, don't be tempted to push them to stay on the computer longer. T4L isn't meant to be a 6 hour school day. Finding activities that enhance T4L lessons isn't too hard if you think about it, and after awhile you start to teach without even knowing it. Just hang in there :).
One nice feature of this program is the ability to set/change grade levels by subject. This is nice since most children are not working at exactly the same level and pace in every subject. This is one of the features that drew me to this program. In the future I'd love it if the computer could set grade level for me. I'm not sure how this could be accomplished, but monitoring the time it takes to complete lessons, and the success of the student doesn't seem like it would be that hard. Even if it just results in an email to the parent saying "Your child completed all of of his math work in half the time it takes an average child at this level. We recommend you move them up", that would be nice feedback to have.
Now to the negatives. What's with the fact that you can "assign" lessons to kids if you're working with a large group, but as a homeschooler that feature isn't available? This was almost a deal breaker for me and I am trying to decide if I can get over it. The prep work involved in writing down/typing out and then showing my child what he needs to accomplish for the day is maddening when there is a system that is RIGHT THERE ON THE SCREEN, only I can't access it. Furthermore, I could find nowhere in the T4L tutorials that explained this lack of access. I finally figured it out via a Google search that led me to the T4L parent forums. I feel like T4L is under the assumption that I have all the time in the world to do extra prep work at home because I ONLY have 4 kids, instead of 25 to keep track of. I kind of feel like I do when a misinformed person thinks I sit at home and eat bon-bons all day (What is a bon-bon anyway? I might fit that stereotype if I got to try one. Maybe they are really delicious...), forcing my kids to do housework. I really, REALLY don't understand why homeschoolers don't get access to this feature. As far as I know, I pay just as much for T4L as group-schooled users do. I think we may even pay more. Like I said, this is almost a deal breaker and I have not decided to use T4L long term. This is one thing holding me back.
Most of my complaints stem from this one huge lack of planning ease. Instead of clicking a button to "assign" a lesson, and the child having the ability to click a button to access it, I'm forced to monitor what my child is doing in real time. For my 4th grader I am able to type it up. It looks like this:
Language Arts -> Vocabulary Skills -> Synonyms -> Interactive Guided Instruction
I do this for every subject, which means I have to go in and pretend to be him, click and write, click and write. It works, but it doesn't work well. With 2 kids this means about an hour of prep time/day. That's more than I was doing with my old curriculum, which detracts from the value of T4L. With my 1st grader, who is not able to read well enough yet to follow such prompts, I have to be nearby so she can say "I'm done, now what?". I still write up the list, but it's for my own benefit. I have to hover over her to make sure she's doing the correct assignments. Perhaps this gets easier with more time. Perhaps I'm a control freak and making it harder than it needs to be. I don't think either is true. I think it's just a pain in the rear, and unnecessarily so.
Going back to the tutorial issues, this is one of the things I found wrong with the tutorial. I was trying to find out how to enter assignments. After several frustrating hours I finally Googled it and found the answer to why I couldn't figure out how to do it. That's just silly! Put this info in the FAQ's and in the tutorials. That seems almost "Duh" worthy. I honestly feel like there's a bit of underhanded bait and switch here. Since "Assignments" is a visible aspect of every single screen, I assumed I could use it. Only you can't use it. So why is it there? It's like showing me a concept car with really cool features, then telling me they don't really exist in the real world. I have to wonder at the intent of T4L, and whether misleading me was part of the goal.
The "lesson planning" feature, which I think is the homeschool version alternative to the assignments tab for group schoolers, is clunky and fairly useless. It's also time consuming. It would be useful if you are entering at the beginning of the year and planning to spend an entire school year in this program. In my world, there is no such thing as a "school year" and the lesson planning feature doesn't really allow for a lot of tweaking without a lot of over thinking and trial and error. I finally did manage to print out a "lesson plan" that would allow us to complete the curriculum by the end of May. However, since I was a newbie and didn't know what I was doing, I'm forced to redo it all since we've changed grade levels and now have totally different lessons. Plus, the chances of us being done in May are pretty much zero, so it was already not very useful as a tool. You can't do anything with the lesson plans online (like entering grades, dragging and changing, omitting lessons altogether, rearranging). You have to print them out to do anything with them. All of my highlighting, red penning and index tabbing was pointless. The lesson planning feature doesn't allow you to say "I want my child to spend 2 hours/day", you just pick a date you want to finish, pick the lessons you want to accomplish (um, ALL OF THEM), and print it out. I feel like I should be able to say "I want my child to work 2 hours/day" and have the program give me an estimate as to when we'd be done with the chosen lessons. I didn't know what a reasonable school day would consist of with T4L. I'm figuring it out thanks to experience and trial and error, but the learning curve is very steep.
Overall, I think T4L gives a comprehensive plan for schooling a child. There is opportunity for supplementing the online work without screwing things up, and parents should expect to provide supplementation. Even though this is a full curriculum, it is not meant to be the only school experience your child has during the day. Hands on and active learning should be incorporated. I'm still in the process of deciding if this is the best option for our family and novice homeschoolers should be able to look critically at how their own child is functioning before deciding if this is right for you.
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