I was recently given the opportunity to try out Time4Learning's online subscription program for a month. Time4Learning is an online program of educational games and programs for children in Pre-K through to grade 8. Stephen is 3 and a half, so we tried the Pre-K program and loved it!The Pre-K program has two levels, so we started on level 1. The majority of level 1 was the perfect level for him. With numbers and letters recognition, shapes, colours, animals etc it covered the full range of what I would expect in a Pre K program. At this level, Stephen was able to "work" on most of the games by himself, (especially the numbers and colours games) with just minimal assistance. Often, I was told, "Muumm...I can do this myself!". Since he was pretty good with level 1, we then tried level 2. Level 2 covers pretty much the same topics, but either in more depth or at a more challenging level. The English based games at this level were definitely beyond him and we carried on working at level 1 for those. Stephen is still at the level of letter recognition, so it was not unexpected that syllables, rhyming etc would be too challenging. For the maths games, level 2 was the perfect level. The rest of the games we tried, like colour mixing, were great as a "work with mum" to push Stephen to the next level. He really learnt a lot from the games at this level, rather than reviewing what he already knew.
I don't have a set curriculum for Stephen; he goes to a play-based pre-kindy two mornings a week, and at home we really just work on things that he enjoys or learning through doing (such as counting when he helps me bake etc). So while I wouldn't use the program as a full-time curriculum (especially since I don't believe in a lot of screen time for young children) I found Time4Learning a great supplement to what we already do. Over the last month, it has become a regularly asked for activity, and I will probably schedule in two or three half hour sessions a week going forward.
Disclaimer: I was provided with one month's access to Time4Learning for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.
Labels: homeschooling, product reviews