Time4Learning.com & Lucas

Lucas and I completed our second week of Kindergarten at home. Our second week was just as successful as the first. This means that we have been using the online curriculum at Time4Learning.com for two weeks. Before we started, I was concerned about signing up for an online course. Seriously, who chooses to teach their child at home only to send him off to the computer for lessons? Thankfully, they have a 'cancel at no cost within fourteen days' policy. Even if we were not certain within the two weeks, a twenty dollar hit per month is better than over a hundred dollars for a program you would rather not use.

In the end though, it was not the cost that convinced me to try the program. Lucas was and is my reason. As I sit here and type this review, Lucas is sitting with his daddy, learning to write programs. He calls me over every couple of minutes to show me what he has programmed the turtle to do. When picking a curriculum, it helps to know your child and we know that Lucas LOVES computers, video games and technology, in general. So, we never doubted that Lucas would enjoy educational games on the computer. My concern was about the lessons. Do the educators working with the programmers know what my child needs to learn? The only way to answer these questions was to do it.

When we first began, I had a lot of technical issues with Time4Learning.com. Lucas runs the program on Chrome, using his netbook. Some of the issues were on our end; the netbook is small, Chrome is not the desired brower, and we even forgot to unblock the pop ups. There were some problems that occurred no matter which computer or browser we ran. After a few frustrating nights, we were able to fix/change enough to be able to run the lessons without major problems. Yes, we are still using the netbook and Chrome.

The funny thing is, even while frustrated with the technical aspects of Time4Learning, I was so happy with the actual curriculum that I had already, a week into it, decided to continue with the program! Yes, it is that good. At least, the Lucas levels are that good! Lucas is currently doing a first grade level for Math, Science, Language Arts (LA), and LA Extensions. Since there is no Social Studies for the lower levels, the Time4Learning people were awesome enough to include the second grade level for Lucas.

Lucas's favorite lessons, by far, is the Language Arts. As soon as we complete our morning "rug time," Lucas begs for the next lesson to be Time4Learning, specifically LA. It really is hard to say no to a child who is begging to learn how to read properly. They teach Lucas how to read properly in a fun and addictive way. Having been a teacher, I understand what Lucas has learned and what comes next. I even have ideas on how I would teach it in a classroom setting. What Time4Learning does is teach it in a way Lucas loves.

Each subject is separated into chapters or topics, which are broken into sections, which are sometimes broken down again. Lucas gets so thrilled about finishing these sections that he will ask to do two when they are the final two. The Language Arts, for the first grade level, teaches phonics and basic reading with the silliest of games like Space Man and Bug Band. They are fabulous because Lucas loves them. My only complaint is that Lucas loves the catchy songs/phrases so much, he (read: we) sing them all day long!

Example of catchy song/phrase: "When you have a word like cat, take an h and make it hat!"

Lucas and I always sit together while he does his lessons. I watch to make sure he is absorbing the information. If needed, I pause him to explain further or ask him questions to make sure he does understand. I do ask him to do the quizzes without my assistance. However, if it is clear that he missed the actual teaching, I will reteach the lesson without the computer. I also assign previously completed lessons as homework. While Time4Learning is not the teacher, it is a wonderful teacher's aide!

With twelve days of school completed, we are very happy with Time4Learning as our school's curriculum for Lucas. He is learning and learning fast. He looks forward to his lessons. Thanks, in part, to Time4Learning, he is truly enjoying his Kindergarten year. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking into it for a full curriculum or a supplement. Like anything else, Time4Learning is not for everyone. However, if you feel like it might work for your child, I believe there is a good chance that it will. Try it!

Life is good.

We did it! We successfully completed a full week of school at home. This is such a relief for me. I understand that I used to be a certified teacher. I have my Masters in Elementary Education. I have experience in a school, actually working with children. None of that kept me from questioning if being a teach at home mom would go well. Despite all the pretending Lucas and I do, I still lacked the ability to see into the future.

No, successfully completing a week of school did not give me any superhero powers, but it sure did make me feel like I could fly! Each day began with Lucas and me looking forward to what we would discover that day. Each day consisted of lots of fun and learning. Finally, each day ended with the both of us feeling positive about what we had accomplished. Lucas and I actually ended each day KNOWING that he had learned something! For a mom and a teacher, being equipped with that information is empowering. Almost as empowering as it is for the child to be able to show off his new abilities to his family.

What did Lucas learn this week? He learned that practicing improves ones ability to estimate. He learned that there is a way to read that does not involve automatically memorizing a word. He doesn't know that it's called phonics. He doesn't realize that we have tried telling him about this method of reading before. But he does know, now, that if you say hog, the first sound is /h/, the middle sound is /o/ and that the last sound is /g/. He can put /h/ /o/ /g/ together to make the word hog. He has learned that he can impress his family by knowing the sounds in words they mention, even if he has been able to read the words for a long time.

Our second day of school was voting day, so he received a quick civic education. Why is it important to vote? What if the president has plans to name someone as the best Superhero in the world? You know that the Green Lantern is the best but your teacher thinks that Phoenix is the best ever. You are certain that she will go vote. Can you count on the rest of the Green Lantern supporters to vote? Even if the rest of the town agree with you, it will not mean anything if they do not vote! The only thing you can actually DO to support your man is to go vote.

Not everything Lucas learned this week was as exciting... or exciting at all. He learned that a lesson can be quite boring if you already know the topic at hand. A lesson on time for a pirate-themed day because pirates need to learn to be at the right place at the right time: cool. Answering questions such as "What month is after March?" and "What day of the week comes before Sunday?": not cool. I tried not to think it but I thought it anyway, "What would it have been like for him in someone else's Kindergarten?" I told you, I tried not to think it!

Whatever I was thinking or not thinking, the week was successful. The important thing about schooling is to learn and Lucas learned. The important thing for me was that my son enjoy learning and Lucas spent a full week enjoying school. How can I be so certain of this? Lucas asked to continue schooling on Saturdays! Even when Saturday came, he asked for school! We will be running school six days a week, at Lucas's request. Saturdays will be different though. We will only do half days, and they will be in our pajamas!

Life is good. I feel very confident, going into week two, that we have made the right choice for our family. This, in the end, is all we can really hope to do. Even our concern about Lucas in social settings is melting away as we watch Lucas interact with other children in swim, karate and T-Ball. He even has a standing school playdate with his best friend and her little sister every week. Lucas is happy. I am happy. The rest of our family seem to be happy just knowing that we are happy. Yes, life is good.

Learning Time

They say that teaching is the best way to learn something. Well, I am definitely learning that teaching Lucas is the best way to learn about Lucas. You might think that spending day after day with someone would give you all the information you could possibly need about him/her. Perhaps it is the change in setting that is helping me learn more about my son.

The number one thing I have learned about Lucas: he is excellent at compartmentalizing! Did I learn this from actually teaching him? No. I learned this because I allow him to call me Ms Rummi during 'school hours' as long as he calls me mommy the rest of the day. Mommy woke up with Lucas, played with him, helped him get ready for school and walked him to the door. Then, Ms Rummi walked him into the school, showed him around the classroom and taught him the lessons. Of course, it was mommy who picked him up at the end of the day. However, it wasn't remembering to call me Ms Rummi or mommy at the right times that impressed me. It was his accuracy in referring to his mommy as mommy when speaking to Ms Rummi and vice versa.

"Hey, mommy said the same thing to me this morning!"
"Ms Rummi, I can't believe mommy forgot to pack me a snack!"
"Of course your hair looks brown in the picture, if it was black people would think you were my mom!"

With that said, the first two days of school were fantastic! The two days could not have been more different. Lucas and I are learning what it means for school to revolve around life.

Monday's schedule was very broken up by things outside of the house. Lucas had swim in the morning so we had to shorten our morning routine and head out. We had enough time to come home for cooking class, aka lunch, before heading out to pick up Lucas' bajema (my mom) from work. Believe it, or not, while there, he actually asked to try out a lesson on  time4learning.com. Even better, he enjoyed it and learned from it! He was able to explain to his dad and Sano Mama (my youngest brother) how boulders get washed with waves and turn into sand. Lucas wanted to continue with school but after T-Ball practice, we were done for the day.

I was disappointed that we only had "rug time" and a little science, but happy to see that Lucas thoroughly enjoyed his first day of school. Rug time includes reading a book aloud to him, singing a song, and the calendar chart. Even though the day wasn't perfect, I was less nervous about the thought of homeschooling. Lucas was clearly ready to step into his role of student and accept me as his teacher. Oddly enough, he was even better behaved for Ms Rummi than mommy! How does that work??

Day two was more what I would expect of school. We started with rug time, as I plan to do each day. Lucas learned about estimating jelly beans for math. We even had snack time! We combined gym and social studies by walking to our local school to vote. Our cooking class involved making egg bagel sandwiches. Then, I did a horrible deed by choosing to watch Sid the Science Kid for science. Don't worry, we followed up by experimenting with 'germs' and finding out how we can defeat the bad ones. Did I mention that the theme of the day was 'superheroes'? He even pretended to be Phoenix during karate :-)

Lucas chose Language Arts for the Time4Learning lesson. He LOVED it. His comment during the lesson, "I guess it wasn't a lesson, just a game." For this reason alone, I might continue with the program, past the two week trial period. It has been difficult getting the website to work, using Chrome, on his netbook. This is when I am thankful for my Software Engineer Genius husband :-) Anyway, the Language Arts program was simple but fabulous. The lessons were separated into chapters, which were broken into sections: phonemes, phonics, high frequency and story. Lucas believes that they were broken into games, games, games and reading :-) For the moment, I'm happy.

I'm mostly happy with Time4Learning and homeschooling, in general. Things aren't perfect but being the teacher and the mom, I get to adjust things as I see fit. He doesn't have to sit through a lesson on what the letter "L" looks like because "that's what we do in Kindergarten." We get to spend the appropriate time learning how to do the hand movements for "Itsy Bitsy Spider" even if no one else sees it as a lesson to be learned. We even get quick reviews of what Lucas has learned when he tells his dad about his day. Yes, his answer to "what did you do today?" is still "I don't remember." Yes, it is still frustrating but, at least, I know the answer!

Curriculum

I don't like making decisions. Not even a little bit. Which means, the hardest challenge I've had to deal with in this homeschooling process is deciding on a curriculum to use. I had not realized there were so many choices! When I first started looking, I was excited! I had a good sense of the teaching style I preferred and even the learning style that Lucas seemed to be developing.

I think that a teacher is there to guide the student in his/her learning. Every human being has interests in something. Our curiosity is very strong, unless quashed. A child can learn anything and everything, if guided along the path. This is definitely true about Lucas. He isn't curious about everything but he is very curious about the things that make him think. He has an incredible memory that could take him to Mars, if he still wants, in twenty years. However, that same memory can also causes him to be lazy about topics that don't instantly latch on to his brain. See, I know myself and my child! My dislike of making decisions led me to put off making this important choice but at least I wasn't lost! Right?

Well, I was wrong. There were so many options that when I, sincerely, began the search, I was lost. Do I jump in and buy a huge curriculum? Do I pick out pieces of different ones? Do I pick nothing and just base it on what interests us at the time and find it online? On top of that, it felt as if every curriculum I encountered involved reading passages from the bible. I understand and accept that most homeschooling families are religious. The religion being included in the curriculum brought back memories of searching for private schools. I like the academics, I like the teachings, I like the people but the curriculum just isn't right for our family.

Of course, I couldn't just hide in the corner. That's the horrible side effect of being a mom. Then one night, while I braved the search again, I ran across time4learning.com. It is an online course for pre-K through 8th grade. They create lesson plans for the parent. The child follows the lesson plans on the computer. It keeps track of the student's progress. It sounded good and awful all at the same time.

So there is something else I need to note about Lucas, he LOVES doing things on the computer. He loves video games. He loves technology. Then, there is something that I probably shouldn't note about me, I'm lazy and unorganized.

That said, the best reviews I found about time4learning mentioned how their children stayed interested because it was interactive and different. Parents commented on how simple time4learning makes it for parents to keep organized. Was it really this simple? I just pick a program because it does the work for me and Lucas gets to play games??

Then I remembered, I'm the parent and the teacher. I get to choose. I get to try out anything I want. Which means, I also get to change anything I want. So, why not!? We would try it out. They have no contracts and no obligations, just a monthly charge, which is cheaper than any private school. I could take this program and supplement it based on Lucas' interests and my experience as a teacher. We would need manipulatives for math, projects or art & science, paper for handwriting, books for literature and social studies. Now, my mind is racing! Decision has been made and I'm starting to become terrified, yet excited!

Excited is a great way for a teacher to feel at the beginning of the year. Lucas has even gotten more excited as his playroom becomes a classroom.  We were also lucky enough to have a friend lend us her K12 program to help supplement! (Thank you!!) We have one last weekend before Lucas starts Kindergarten. Honestly, we don't have everything ready, but we're getting there. We do have have a mommy and a son who are ready to put on our teacher and student costumes. He is eager to learn and I am ready to guide.

Benefits

I've started this blog to force me to keep updated records of my experience with homeschooling my son, Lucas. He is five years old now and ready to start kindergarten. My husband and I have discussed our choices: public, private, and homeschooling... and at least for this year, we have decided that homeschooling is the right choice for our family. We are only planning one year at a time. If this year is absolutely perfect, then of course we will repeat. However, we're not going to trap ourselves into a situation that's terrible for any one of us.

When discussing homeschooling, we included Lucas in our discussion. He is thrilled about the idea of mommy teaching him at home. We did preschool at home (with many classes being taken at the YMCA) but that was probably more unschooling than homeschooling. I admit, a part of the reason Lucas wants to homeschool  is that he feels that he's not ready to leave my side, except with family. This is a slight concern with me but he's five. I'm going to enjoy the times he WANTS to be with be, before we reach the time that he wants NOTHING to do with me. Still, since this is a concern, however slight, Lucas will be taking karate & swim classes at the YMCA. He's very good at listening to other teachers; always has been.

When my husband and I started looking into schools for Lucas, we decided that public schools weren't right for him. He's very quick in some things and hesitant to learn in others. He excels when given just the right amount of attention. He could read the alphabet before he could talk. This wasn't because I pushed it on him or even taught it to him. He was curious about a toy, one of those leapfrog buses, and whatever questions he had, I answered. I have the utmost respect for public school teachers. I was one and plan to be again, someday. But I know that public school teachers don't have the time to tender to one child when s/he needs it most.

Then, we looked at private schools. There are two types of private schools: religious & secular. Researching the secular schools around us showed that secular schools are very expensive. They may be worth it, but not for our child, not for Kindergarten! Then there are the religious schools... The things that "sells the schools" to most families are where they lost us. We are not a religious family and we don't want any religion being taught to Lucas as if they were facts. We are the parents and we get to decide what is best for our children and in the case of our family, the answer turned out to be homeschooling.

There are many benefits to homeschooling. The best, by far, is the student to teacher ratio! We have three adults in this house (one of my brothers lives with us) and right now, one child. No school can beat those numbers! Other advantages include letting the child set the pace and choosing what and how we teach. Right now, the one benefiting us the most, we get to choose WHEN we teach! We can take a vacation while other families are sending their children off to school.

I have decided that Lucas' first day of school will be September 13th. You can never fail when 13 is involved :-) We will spend the week buying school supplies and turning sections of the house into a school (rug, desk, centers, etc...) Then on the first day, I will take pictures of Lucas like every other parent, possibly even more! Then, instead of sending him off to a place that results in a day that was "fine," I will spend the day "playing" with my child!