Time4Learning Review | Your Morning Basket

We are big proponents of online learning here. We subscribe to a number of paid sites and visit many free ones that the kids love and ask to play. So, when we got the opportunity to try Time4Learning for 30 days in exchange for a review, we jumped at the chance.

I will begin this review with the caveat that while we are in a free trial of a program I never require that my children spend time at that particular website. The website must hold its own in the myriad of options that we have available to us or it is not something that we will spend our money on. Most websites do this. I had to peel Olivia away from Dreambox everyday when we first started. She is still enamoured with Headsprout and will often choose to complete an episode over other options even though she is well past the fiftieth lesson. So when we started the trial, I knew Time4Learning was going to have to sink or swim in this cutthroat computer learning environment.

Sadly it sank. The kids asked to play it maybe a handful of times with John asking for the “Big Blue Mouse” the most. He really enjoyed the color mixing lesson at the preschool level and revisited it every time he played on the website, but never seemed to latch on to any of the others in the same way. Olivia spent time in math and at the playground, but while standing over her shoulder one day I sensed that she was frustrated by having to wait until instructions were repeated after each question before being able to click on an answer. After the initial three or four days, the newness of the program had worn off and both asked to return to their old favorites of Starfall and PBSKids. I think as the month went on John only asked to play the program one more time and neither have mentioned it since.

The program was easy to set up and use. I wanted to like the feature where I could determine how much “work” Olivia had to do before going to the “playground,” but I couldn’t help but think that the compartmentalization of learning from things that are “more fun” is the philosophy we are trying to get away from around here. For other families this may be just the perfect fit.

We received a 30 day free trial of Time4Learning in exchange for a candid review of the program. The thoughts included above are my own.

About
Latest Posts

Pam

Pam is the author of The Your Morning Basket Guide and Plan Your Year: Homeschool Planning for Purpose and Peace. She also is the host of three popular podcasts -- The Homeschool Snapshots Podcast, Your Morning Basket, and The Homeschool Solutions Show. She lives in the Deep South with her husband and three kids, where she is the go-to lady for great curriculum recommendations or a just a pep talk on a rough day.