Homeschool?
Last Fall, we put Connor (then 4.5) in a Montessori preschool thinking that he would be able to be around kids a little older than him and have access to challenging materials. But that classroom wasn’t the right make up for him, so I brought him home and we started homeschooling.
I know…why would I think about homeschooling a 4 yr old? I would respond, why wouldn’t I? When that 4 yr old has the ability to read and do math facts. He memorized all 50 states and can identify them by shape. I think that he needs to be challenged.
About a month ago, I got a chance to have access to an online educational curriculum, Time 4 Learning, in exchange for posting an honest review. I jumped at the chance. Connor had started to give me some resistance to doing daily work, so having a chance to do it online was a welcome change.
Time 4 Learning
The Time 4 Learning software allows children to have access to the grade levels above and below the one they are currently working on to help with finding appropriate levels. We chose to do a 1st grade level so that he could access the K and 2 levels also.
We found this to be the perfect placement for him. I especially liked the Language Arts section (since I love phonics) and how each lesson taught a phonics lesson with examples in real words, then moved on to 3 sight words and then put them all together in a story. Connor learned to recognize the vowel digraphs (ai, ay, ou, ew…) more easily was able to read the stories and be successful because of the planning of the lessons.
We also made sure to do an activity in the Math section each day. We worked on days of the week, graphing, money, time, etc. It was a quick way to introduce some topics that we can now talk about later and refer back to the online lesson.
We only did the SS and Science sections a few times. These weren’t as extensive as the Math and Language Arts sections, but still covered some of the main concepts covered at the appropriate grade level.
My Opinion
Connor really enjoyed using the program and I feel that with only 20 min. a day we were able to make some good strides in both his reading and math skills.
This will definitely be a program that I consider in the future if we continue to home school. We would be able to hit all the main subjects and use the lessons as a place to start for further study.
Even if we do not continue to home school, I think I will still think about continuing with this program. It will be great for allowing him to work at his own level and reinforce what he’s working on at school.
You can try a free demo by going to Time 4 Learning.
Disclaimer: I received a free on month membership to Time4Learning.com to help facilitate this review. As always the opinions are 100% my own.