When I discovered Time4Learning in the summer of 2006, I felt like we had found oil in our backyard. My ten year old had been through umpteen different programs, and none of them had quite “fit.” I had looked at the Compass Learning software in the past and had been impressed with it, but the program seemed incredibly costly for homeschoolers, so I kept looking. But when I discovered that Time4Learning allowed monthly access to the Compass Learning system at an incredibly reasonable price, I was hooked! And when I learned that T4L took care of the record-keeping, provided lesson plan help, and allowed customizable grade levels, I immediately signed us up.
My son has dyslexia, and the majority of the homeschool curriculums we tried in the past made him feel inadequate. But immediately upon beginning the Time4Learning curriculum, his whole outlook about homeschool began to change. The fact that the speech engine software would read his lessons aloud for him made him feel more independent. Mom didn’t have to be looking over his shoulder every minute to see if he was “getting it.” The interactive multimedia lessons made learning grammar more fun, and I would often hear him laughing aloud as he completed his lessons in the next room. Even writing became less of a chore thanks to the Compass Writing software, which includes graphic organizers to aid right-brain thinkers like my son.
We’ve been using the program for three years now, and I am still just as enthusiastic about it. I love the printable reports for keeping track of what my son has been doing each day or each week. Even his computer-scored quizzes can be printed off and used for further study. I also love being able to see at a glance where we left off the day before in each subject just by following the arrows! One of my favorite parts of T4L is the parent forums. I so enjoy checking in and seeing how other families are using the program, how they are planning their days, and how they solve any problems that come up.
Every curriculum has problems, and the Compass Learning system is no different. We have discovered that some math lessons are a bit out of order, and a student may be asked to complete something in a lesson before he has been instructed how. I wish the science and social studies lessons in the upper grades could be broadened to encompass a full year’s worth of study. And the teacher’s guides would be more effective if they were expanded to cover each lesson of each grade. But these are small complaints, and they have certainly not dampened our zeal for the Time4Learning program.
Discovering Time4Learning was one of the best things that has happened to us since we began homeschooling seven years ago. As “seasoned” homeschoolers, we have tried many different curricula, spent hundreds of dollars on books and supplies, and sampled an incredible array of educational software. Without a doubt, Time4Learning encompasses the best of all that we have tried, at an affordable price. I don’t feel the need, as I have before, to be on the lookout for something better. Time4Learning fits our lifestyle, it fits our budget, and best of all . . . it fits our son. Thanks, Time4Learning!!
