Friday, March 24, 2006

Eagles Peak Charter School

Eagles Peak Charter School of California Provides Time4Learning to Elementary & MIddleSchool !

Time4Learning was requested by some homeschool parents in California and Eagles Peak Charter School can now provide Time4Learning.com to their students as part of their overall homeschool program.

But, for the 2005-2006 school year, the deadline to add them to your program is March 31, 2006.

For further info on adding Time4Learning to your Eagles Peak Charter School Program.

Would you like to Review Time4Learning?

Would you like to be a Reviewer?
Attention Bloggers & Aspiring Journalists


Time4Learning is a new online educational program. I am inviting you to review our system in your blogs, in your parent or church forums, in group newsletters, or in homeschool support groups.

Terms & Methods
For participation, you get a free one month membership (no credit card or payment required) for up to four children. If you are interested, please send us an email saying where Time4Learning will be reviewed (URL), your full name, phone, and address, and we will provide you details and a free month to Time4Learning.

Review Suggestions
We would ask that you focus your review on something of importance and relevent to you. For instance, if you have a fourth grader struggling with reading comprehension, a kindergartener ready for more advanced math, or a homeschooled child with special needs, please write the review from that point of view. If you are busy and you are looking for help organizing the lives
and education of of four children, talk about how it affects your situation. This keeps the reviews from being too general.

Why are we doing this?
We are doing this as a way to help get the word out about Time4Learning to the homeschooling community without resorting to big budget marketing (which frankly, we do not have the budget for anyway). Much of our growth has been due to word-of-mouth and this seems the best way to build on it. We are a small family-owned business and would be interested in working with others if possible. Also, we are very proud of our service and interested in feedback

Contact info:
reviews@Time4Learning.com 954 781-7723
http://www.time4learning.com/

I just did some work on MSN search to find personal sites' links to Time4Learning. Here is the start of a list...http://www.iKeepBookmarks.com/OnlineKidsLearning

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Parent Discussion Forum

Time4Learning is pleased to announce that it has opened an online discussion forum open to all parents interested in home education and online learning for their children from preschool through middle school. Here are a few comments from this week:

debbie24 wrote:
Where can I find information on the FCAT (Florida)? Does my child need to take it?
Fort Lauderdale Homeschool mom in need.


The FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test) is required of all public school students in FL as part of the NCLB mandate. Florida private school students and homeschool students are not required to take the FCAT.

"Home education" families in Florida have three ways to meet the State's legal requirements:
1 Establish and maintain a Home Education Program;
2 Enroll in a non-campus based Private School (sometimes referred to as a "cover" or "umbrella" or "600" school);
3 Hire a Private Tutor.

What's the Difference? In all three cases you can educate your children at home, using the materials and methods you select. The key difference between enrolling in a private school and registering as a home educator is this: Private school students are overseen by administrators you select. Identifying data about the student and samples of the student's work are never shared with anyone outside of the private school (other than at your request). Home education students are overseen by government employees at the school district. Parents must file annual evaluations with the district and are be required to show their record-keeping and samples of the student's work upon demand by the Superintendent. by enrolling them in a "homeschool private school".

Quoted from and for further details: http://www.southcountyhomeschoolers.org/SCHS/How%20to%20Homeschool.htm#_Choices

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I recently joined Time4Learning to help out my 1st grader.

I initially thought Time4Learning would just be computer games. Now that I see how great and substantative it is, I would like to use it differently next year.

This year, I am just using it for reinforcement (so I pick the lessons out that she needs) and frankly, as a good learning tool that she can be on while I'm doing other things for 45 minutes before lunch every day. I would like to put her on Time4Learning next year as the primary curriculum for math. When she doesn't do well on a unit (as measured by the test at the end of each unit), I plan to do additional instruction using a text book.

Here are my questions: - Have any of you tried using Time4Learning this way? - Has anyone organized the 2nd grade math lesson plans on a calender (we go Labor Day to Memorial Day with a winter special studies unit from Thanksgiving to Jan 1? - Any thoughts on what the best math textbook and source of worksheets are to do indepth work in areas where she needs it? I will keep using it for the other subjects but as the secondary curriculum.

Los Angeles, Homeschool mother of 1st grade student
For the answer to this question on Getting Started Homeschooling
John Edelson It's Time 4 Learning. And Fun!

Saturday, March 18, 2006

CompassLearning for home education

Time4Learning provides CompassLearning Odyssey® - the premier online learning system - to home users for homeschool or enrichment use.

CompassLearning's Elementary & MiddleSchool Programs are still available!

Time4Learning provides to individual homeschool users the complete PreK to 8th grade interactive curriculum including language arts, math, science, and social studies. The CompassLearning® Odyssey program, known to some as ChildU, was previously provided directly to homeschoolers directly or through some websites such as Homeschool.com .

The good needs for users of the Odyssey Program is that it is available, with great customer support, from Time4Learning. For more info and to sign up online, just click on CompassLearning

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Home School Curriculum Reviews

Here are some recent home-school curriculum reviews that I liked:

Many children, especially otherwise reluctant learners, love to use computers. My children are no exception and my children absolutely LOVED Time4learning.com. There were many things about this program that impressed me.The first was that my children begged, I mean literally begged, to do “school on the computer”. The program was easy enough for the non-reader to navigate and provided challenging topics of study for the proficient reader.
by Meg Grooms - BellaOnline "Voice of Woman" Homeschooling Editor

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First, I need to mention that I am new to homeschooling; this is my first
year. I have five children; but as a start, I decided to homeschool only three
of them: a twelve year old, an eleven year old, and a five year old.

For weeks I searched the internet looking for an online homeschooling
curriculum that would meet my needs for simplicity, ease of use, and low
cost—Time4Learning was the answer I was looking for! My children and I
have been using the Time4Learning Homeschool Online for the past couple
weeks and we are extremely satisfied....Time4Learning Review by Christine Rissew

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My son absolutely loved the site. He would work on a lesson and often ignore the timer, going beyond the 30 minutes until it would be finished before going to the playground. I was gone for a couple days after he had been on the site for a week or so and he went to some friends during the daytime, another homeschool family. The first day when he worked on the site, their daughter watched everything intently. She was so interested her mom signed her up for the two-week trial and then went to monthly subscription despite limited finances. She absolutely loves it as well..... by Nancy Wagner - Old SchoolHouse Magazine Homeschool Families
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....The Math area was very helpful to both of us. We had to miss a Prealgebra class the week after my surgery, but were able to review the material we missed using Time4Learning. Speaking of my surgery, having educational activities that KJ could do alone while I recovered was very helpful. KJ enjoyed the Science sections the most and will be continuing through those for sure. ...Time4Learning has a parent login where I can see what he has completed and how well he did on the quizzes so I can keep up with what he is doing. Overall, I think Time4Learning is an excellent supplement to our homeschool curriculum.

by Rebel Hart 3/15/06 - http://www.mindspring.com/~rebel_hart/
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I was excited to learn that Time4Learning had expanded their online curriculum to include all subjects and now through eighth grade. So I decided to take a new look at this site, thinking of my fifth grader who loves to learn online.
With permission from the owner, John Edelson, I signed in and took a peek at the middle-school level courses. The topics are greatly enlarged from the former math and language arts with just a sampling of science and social studies. Now the subjects include Brain Buzzers (art, music, and health), Thematic Projects, and algebra, for a total of seven full curriculum subjects.
http://www.theoldhomeschoolhouse.com/reviews/reviews.php?rid=1183

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Since Kaitlin is a highly visual learner/kinesthetic learner, her ability to interact with the subject matter made learning come alive ... Second Grade Software - Time4Learning
Looking for second grade software? Time4Learning is a comprehensive educational learning system that offers second grade worksheets, activities and games geared to help 2nd graders develop a solid reading and math foundation. ... through examples of the reading. Second graders have challenging worksheets and reading exercises, and should be ... Audio Books for Kids. Homeschool Curriculum. Kids Typing Tutor ... http://www.time4learning.com/second-grade.shtml

Second Grade Worth Seek
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Time4Learning is an online curriculum. Actually, its more than that since it has a system for playing games but only after you do your work. Focusing on the math, I have experience with my kids at the preschool, 2nd, and 5th grade levels.

The preschool is a systematic set of learning exercises which does patterns, quantity, numerals, features, greater/less than, shapes, etc etc. There are animated exercises and printable worksheets.

The second grade lesson plan is more formal with each unit organized around a skill with lessons, interactive exercises, worksheets, and an assessment. Its a broad curriculum whose strength is covering the entire curriculum (arithmetic, measurement, data analysis, algebra, probability etc). In some places, I would like more repetition and depth as in the math facts.

The fifth grade lessons still has elements of the fun and playful but not all of the lessons are truly animated, many are text-based with interactive exercises at this level. Again, the programs strength is that it is a self-running system which takes the kids from lesson to exercise to reinforcement to quiz. And it is a broad thorough curriculum.
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/curriculum_reviews/time4learning.php

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For more reviews...

Title: Homeschool CurriculumURL: http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com/Description: A good source of homeschool teaching articles, teaching athome resources, and educational curriculum information.

http://www.homeschool-curriculum-review.com/

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Special Needs Learning

Did you know that more than 20% of the K-12 students in the U.S. are now classified as "exceptional"? Special need parents often ask if a child with learning difficulties requiring special education should use Time4Learning? While each parent must determine what is best for their child, Time4Learning can say that many children with special education needs are blossoming with Time4Learning.

When evaluating learning software for special education and needs, you should make sure that it:

  • Proceeds at the students own special needs pace.
  • Builds on existing reading, writing and math skills.
  • Allows placement and progress for eachchild at independent levels for math and language arts
  • Encourages kids to become active learners through exploration and discovery.
  • Introduces new learning opportunities in a safe, supportive environment.
  • Balances learning with fun!
Here are what some parents have said about Time4Learning and their special needs children:

Both of my boys really enjoy the Time4Learning program.
Of course, their favorite part was the play time but they enjoyed the lessons as well. Thank you Penny - Mother of twins with Learning Difficulties in Reading.

I just wanted to say thank you for Time4Learning...a great tool for Zac through the summer. He was asking yesterday to do "his work". I would definitely recommend this program to other families. I think it offers great characters and fun learning activities. It also gives you a chance to monitor the progress, and you can even print out reports and activity pages that your child completed what more could you ask for. Also this is very kid friendly. Theresa - Mother of a five year old with autism.

The content was varied and was able to keep Benjamin engaged without frustration. It also moved him gradually through the skills and once mastered was appropriately quized. The timer was also beneficial as Benjamin learned that once it got to "0" he was free to go to the playground. I also feel that the "Magic Hand" was instrumental in aiding Benjamin in how to proceed with the lessons. Ann - mother of a six year old with development delay, speech language impairment, ADHD.

Elizabeth really enjoys the website. She especially liked the language sections (stories, family trees, etc). She also found it easy to use. It is very good for children with Aspergers, as they are such visual learners and the computer gives prompt feedback. Marianne - Mother of a fourth grade girl with asperger syndrome.

Lena and I both found it to be age appropriate and interesting. I LOVED the fact that I could start Lena and she was able to continue at her own pace. Ninety-five percent of the time the language level was appropriate as well as the assignments. Initially, she rushed through to get to the "Playground", but as she became used to the lesson structure, she forgot about the time and "Playground". The graphics and sound were awesome. Both, Lena and I enjoyed all the adorable characters and narrator's voices. I would highly recommend this program as a support system during the school year, and SPECIFICALLY, during the summer months (especially if your child is not receiving any services.) Mother of daughter with ADHD and Tourette's Syndrome.

Time4Learning was the first online curriculum which help my sons attention. My son has attention issues and reading and learning difficulty and after difficulties in school, we find that homeschool works well for him. Time4Learning has made our days much easier and more productive. Mother of eight year old boy. homeschool Texas.
Time4Learningis a great homeschool and after school partner because it offers each child their own learning path, with animated lessons, interactive activities, unit assessments, and integrated printable worksheets for reinforcement.

Time4Learning's comprehensive Pre-K to 8th Grade language arts and math curriculum can enrich your children's educational programs, whether they are special needs, mainstream, or gifted.

Time4Learning has helped thousands of children, why not try it today? There is no long-term contract and it makes learning fun.