Time4Learning Review

I was recently invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review.  My month has just ended, and I am here to give you my thoughts and opinions.  In case you are not familiar with Time4Learning, you can find their website here.  Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, afterschool enrichment, or for skill sharpening.

When our free month started, I explored the site a little and set up accounts for all of my children.  This is something that I really like about the site right off.  Each child has their own username (I just used my children’s first names) and a password (here again, I used something that they were very familiar with).  The children thought that it was great to type in their names and a password to access the site.  I let my 7 year old daughter try it first.  She LOVES school in general, but had never been much for “computer games,” so I wasn’t sure how she’d take to Time4Learning.  She bounced around from subject to subject at first, simply “checking everything out.”  Finally, she chose “Science,” something that she generally doesn’t like.  She liked it so much that she went to “Science” first the following day!  I was surprised!  She really liked the program, and would often ask during “after school hours” if she could do school on the computer.  It was a real hit with her!

Both of my boys enjoy playing games on the computer, so I wondered if the transition to “school” stuff on the computer would work with them.  I am now going to tell you my number ONE, favorite part of Time4Learning.  As soon as you log in, there is a little clock counting down at the top of the "page."  This is the time that you are to spend working on your “school” subjects.  After that, you are allowed to go into the “playground.”  The “playground” has games from many of the best known educational websites (such as PBSKids).  So, I told my boys that they had to do “this” amount, pointing out the clock, of “school” stuff, and after that, the playground would be “open.”  The timer also works during the “playground” time.  You are given a specific amount of “playtime,” and then the playground closes.  You can go back and do more “school work” to open the “playground” back up again.  This enticed my boys to try Time4Learning, and once they did, there was no stopping them!  My oldest son missed several opportunities to use the “playground” because the “school” was so interesting to him.  He laughed at the characters and really had a good time learning.

If I were to use Time4Learning again, I would probably move each of my children up a grade level from where they are now.  Some of the things that they were learning were things that we had already covered long ago.  I was glad to see that they remembered, though.  This is really my only “negative” about the whole experience.

I encourage you to look into this option for your children if you are looking for something along these lines.  There is a money-back guarantee after a two week period if you are not satisfied.  Even if you wouldn’t use this for your sole “homeschool curriculum,” it would be very valuable for supplementing! 

I must also tell you that my opinion here is entirely my own.  The content of this post was not written by Time4Learning, but, as stated earlier, I was compensated with a free month.