Include the little ones with Time4Learning!

As a member of the TOS Crew, my 4-year-old and I have had the opportunity to review the Time4Learning website and its many offerings for preschoolers. Let me say first of all how refreshing my dealings with their customer service representatives have been! I was able to get fast responses to my emails and even talked to the same person I'd emailed! I was very impressed with the graciousness and attention to helping me as the customer that was displayed as my questions were taken care of.

What is Time4Learning? To call it a website seems an understatement. It is a site that has a variety of components to stimulate learning in a fun and safe way, simple enough that my 4-year-old can navigate semi-independently. We are enrolled in the preschool section, so what we found were a collection of topics that each have a short song/video and correlating games, art, and writing activities. There are matching games, memory games, pre-reading and counting/early math skills games, just to give you an idea. Different topics include, but are not limited to:

• human body


• nature


• pets


• measuring


• making music


• rhyme time


• numbers


• weather


• on the farm

There are two levels within the preschool age category, so it can serve both those little ones just starting out on their educational adventure as well as those who are practically ready for kindergarten. I found that my four-year-old benefited from a mix of both, and it was as easy as clicking a link on the side to go back and forth.

Something else kinda cool is the "playground" feature. What it is is a page with educational games, puzzles, and activities, and external links, like to pbskids.org . I like this because I can let him choose where he'd like to go for his "recess" and feel confident it will be to a safe site, and he likes to be the boss for a little bit, too. You cannot be careful enough these days, it seems, so I really appreciate this feature. I was familiar with some of these links, but not all, so I had something to learn here, too. This playground feature is a timed one, also, which I like because it makes it more of a special deal to get to play those games. By the way, as a parent, I can set up how long his lesson and playground times should be.

And the lesson plans....this is where it gets good to me. This site has tons of lesson plans, from pre-K through 8th. Each lesson has the learning objectives, activities, and resources it covers or includes in the scope and sequence parents can access.

While we have gotten to experience the preschool level of Time4Learning, there are features for both elementary and middle school students as well. In fact, according to their site, some homeschoolers use Time4Learning as the core of their curriculum. Time4Learning has built-in progress reporting features, too, which can be a huge time-saver for parents. I will say, though, that the preschool version of this is in progress. On the FAQ page on their site, there is an explanation of what subjects and objectives are covered for different levels. In fact, the FAQ page really explains a lot about what all this site can be for students and how parents can make the most of it, too. What is the cost? $19.95 for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child monthly. There are no other costs to use this site. If you're curious about how it works, you can access demo lessons from their site. Okay, here's my take on the cost. If you are like me and thoroughly enjoy the challenge of staying up all night to find internet games and activities that align with your lesson plans, the price may give you pause. Otherwise, you are really paying for someone else to do the hard work here in providing a meaningful educational experience for your students on the computer. You just will have to check out their demos and the rest of the site to decide whether the cost is justified in light of what your kids will get from it.

You can check out what other TOS Crew members have to say here. Be sure to head on over to the Time4Learning site to see for yourself, too!