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!

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!