Time4Learning – Good for Homeschooling?

Time4Learning is another tool at our disposal as homeschoolers.

But is it something that would be of value to you and your home educated children?

It will very much depend on your education style and the goals you have for your kids.

I know that Time4Learning is a popular option for homeschoolers. It’s also used by some parents as a supplement to traditional schooling or as an after school enrichment program.

But what I want to focus on here is the potential use and value of Time4Learning for those of us who are home educating our children.

Firstly, this is good news: Time4Learning is accredited by the National Home Education Research Institute.

First, a quick overview of the most important aspects of the Time4Learning program:

• Standards based curriculum for preschool through 12th grade (aligned with the state and national standards for each subject).
• Automated grading. Time4Learning automatically grades your child’s work.
• Covers all of the major subjects, including math, language arts, science, social studies, and foreign languages.
• Interactive lessons, games, and activities for continual engagement and motivation.
• Flexible and student-paced.

Is Time4Learning Accredited?

This is a question I see home educators asking when looking at Time4Learning. Does it have any official accreditation?

Time4Learning is not accredited by a traditional accrediting body like the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) or the Association for Advancing Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

But:

It has been accredited by the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI). The NHERI is a non-profit organization that accredits home school programs and curriculums according to their own standards (a quality curriculum that covers all of the major subjects, qualified homeschool experienced teaching staff, suitable systems of assessment and evaluation, etc).

It’s not for me to recommend or not recommend Time4Learning as a tool for your to use in your home education. It completely depends on your curriculum preferences.

What I will say is this:

The best way to decide if Time4Learning is right for your child is to try it out for free.

The program offers a 14 day free trial so you can see if it is a good fit for your child’s learning style and needs.

This is a subscription program. So you need to have a good think about whether Time4Learning is a good fit for you.

Of course, you can cancel the subscription at any point and in all honesty, doing so is not going to have a negative effect on your child – as long as you have curriclum plans to go forward with.

If you’re a parent who wants 100% control over the design and content of your kids’ homeschool curriculum and learning, then Time4Learning probably isn’t something that’s going to interest you.

On the other hand, if you’re keen to get some curriculum support either as small or major part of your home education plan then Time4Learning is worth a look. I do like how it makes home education less daunting than if you’re starting from scratch on your own (which, again, is preferable and absolutely fine if that’s your goals for educating your children at home).

I’m going to briefly list some of my favorite features and benefits of Time4Learning:

• Resources and support for parents – online help, forum, toll free phone number.
• Student progress is easily tracked
• Customized learning plans can be created based on personal progress
• Interactive and engaging (videos, games, activities) + easy to use and navigate (you don’t have to be a tech savvy parent)

I’m not going to sugarcoat it though – there will almost always be some things I don’t like about programs like this. Nothing is perfect after all.

A few of the drawbacks (in my opinion) of using Time4Learning for homeschooling:

• It is a subscription-based service so you need to pay a monthly fee.
• Some parents have found that the lessons can be too easy or too difficult.
• There’s no live interaction with teachers or other students.