Time4learning review

Well here we go! Review time!! Okay so I am a bit excited about this review. I was asked to try out this program for 30 day’s in return for an honest review. This will be a very honest review in my own words. Time4learning did not have any input on my review at all. Now that being said lets get down to the review.

Well first off I was very excited to get this program started. Because we only had one computer at the time of starting I was able to sit thru all the first lessons. which was great for the fact I was able to see what the program was really like. Well to say the least we had fun with it. Well all of us except for Croix. I think it was a bit babyish for him. But that is not the programs fault at all. It is more our family that does not do the silly songs and things like that with our kiddos so I think that that is why he thinks it is a bit babyish. I did switch his grade level to 1st grade but I had to switch it back because it was just too challenging for him after he did it for a couple of weeks. So what I ended up doing was skipping half of the Kindergarten program and now. He still does not like the fact that the lessons have so many songs but he is learning and that is the important part.

Will had enjoyed the program from the beginning. I have caught him cracking up during the lessons. He is also enjoying the science and social studies program that they have for his grade level (3rd grade). Some of the grades have a social studies and Science program and some do not but luckily for him he had it on his so we are doing the his whole school day by using T4L. The extras that he does is reading for 30-45 minutes after and our Bible studies. I just love the Language arts program on T4L. It is put together a way that it is easy for him to “get it”. The same goes for the math program. Those are the 2 main programs that they have for T4L the science and social studies is just a bonus. It took me a couple of weeks to relize that there were worksheets that could be printed off for some of the lessons but once I figured that out I was pretty happy. I was having a hard time having the boys only d stuff on the computer. I am a firm believer that kids need to learn to write well.

For Vinny he has been doing Switched on Schoolhouse this year so he didn’t have any interest in trying out this program at all. So I asked him to give it a try and he loved it! He did not go back to SOS, He has had a lot of fun. I had never seen him laugh and be excited to get started on his Language arts. He has hated Language Arts and now is enjoying it and understanding. Math he has struggled with for a long time. T4L it seems to give him that extra help. It repeats lessons in different ways so they are not bored with them . He really needs this. I do see improvement with his math. I am now working with him to be able to do math independently. He does not have much confidence in himself when it comes to math so if I even just sit next to him while he is doing his lesson and I don’t say a word he is able to get thru the lesson with no problems. For the Science and Social studies program for him he is using T4L also. It is pretty cool. He has done 2 experiments for science, so t T4L does us a hands on approach for this.

He had to learn Greek numbers this was very cool.

So the program itself is pretty easy to work with once you dive in and play around with it. I was frustrated at first because it was not very self guiding. I watched every video on there and I looked thru so many T4L reviews and now I am getting it. As I said before it took me a while t figure out there were worksheets for a lot of the lessons. I am sure I will still be finding out things the more we us it.

One of the things I do not like about the program is that it is a secular learning tool. That was just a more of an opportunity for me and Vince to step up our home bible learning as a family. So I guess in a long run it has been a blessing for our family to use this as a tool for our family to spend more quality time together learning about our Lord.

I love the grading system with T4L. I can print it off or just leave them on the website. One thing that we do is there is an area for the kids when they finish their lesson and they can click on this icon that looks like a backpack and they can see what their score was. They do this and then if they get anything under an 80% they know they have to redo it. They were not happy at first when I told them this but I explained to them that they had to do this before also. What they missed on a worksheet they had to fix. We also explained to them that the point of school is to learn and not to just finish the lesson. We want them to understand the lesson not just pass it by.

Pricing is pretty low for someone who is just doing 1 or 2 kids but when you add 3 it does seem like a big chuck. So for a family on a strict budget here this was a big decision. We did sign up and are going to keep using T4L right now. We will use it as long as I need to. I will probably go back to an eclectic style of learning one day but as for right now with the baby coming soon this is an answer to my prayers. I may keep 1 or 2 of them on T4L for a couple of years but for Vinny when he finishes this 2013-2014 school year he will be going back to Switched on Schoolhouse then he will be off to high school after that. As for Will and Croix maybe be I will keep them on the program for a few more years I just don’t know. One thing I love about T4L is that you can pause your account at anytime. So when I have this little one I will pause it for a few weeks and get right back into it. I am sure I could just let them keep going with it which we may try but I have the option to do so. Also when Summer hit we can pause it for the weeks we take off and get back to work when we are ready.

You do need an internet connection at all time for T4L. That is a pro and a con all at the same time. I like the fact I didn’t have to take up all that room on my computer to download a program so that was nice but them we cant do school on the road if we want to. I have taken the computer out to let Vinny work on his school when we go somewhere in the car so he does not get behind when we used SOS. Also our internet provider is not always the best so when if it ever goes out again for more then a day at a time I will have to just take the kiddos to the library to use their Wi-Fi.

All in all I am going to say that this program is a great program! They have a 2 week money back trial offer. So you can try it and see if you like it or not.

Well I hope that you enjoyed this review. I know I enjoyed the last 30 days of using this program. I am excited to see how this program will work for us in the long run.

God Bless,

Jen

What to do when they don’t want to do school?

Well we have our days where someone is just not wanting to do school. We had a day like that Monday. Will might of just had a case of the Mondays but he was not wanting to do school.

Here is a picture of what it looks like when this little man decides that he wants nothing to do with school. This picture was taken after I had tried many different things to get him motivated. 

So what to do in these times? I have a few ideas for you that I have used. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. It depends on the day.

• First don’t get angry!!! Most important is not to lose your cool. This can be hard. I mean really hard on days that they are pushing ever single button that you have and you just cant take it anymore.
• Leave the room. If you are about to lose you cool, leave the room. I will sometimes just say mommy needs to go “somewhere” and do “something”. I then leave them to maybe start doing what they were supposed to be doing and all is better when I get back. Other times I come back and they are playing on the floor or just sitting there still *sigh*. But at least mom is not angry. 
• Take a break. Maybe it is time to take a break. Kids need to run and play, laugh and just be kids. So let them go outside and run. We have a trampoline so that is a huge help. I have a friend who has a small trampoline that they have in their house which she uses it to burn off some of those crazies during the day. Hopefully they are ready to get back to work. And maybe not……. But don’t get angry!!!
• Switch subjects. Sometimes I know that my kiddos get frustrated and it is best to set it aside and work on something else.
• Set a timer. There has been times where I set a timer for a certain amount of time. I make sure that it is plenty of time to get the subject is done. I have also done this and said that if you don’t finish it you will loose this or if you finish this in this about of time you will receive this. I only do this in extreme cases, I truly believe that children need to learn to obey first time not be bribed into obeying.
• Move locations. Sometimes I have noticed if I just have them move to a different place. This could mean the couch, a different table, the bed or the floor. Can make a huge difference.
• Wait until Daddy's home. I have had to this a few times. Sometimes a fresh mind can help in so many ways. Plus this is “OUR” family, and we both play a very big role in their educations. He may not always be a part of the everyday lesson planning or teaching of nouns. But we are both play a very important part in their education.
• Call it quits for the day. Okay I know you are probably thinking this is a big no no, but seriously there is nothing else to do but just set everything aside for the day. Now this does not mean you don’t do anything. What I do on these days is get out the book that I have chosen to read aloud. This day we usually read a bit more then normal. Sometimes I grab a bio and read it. A good documentary to watch is also great.
• Food. Food sometimes gives them the boost that could help them get through the rest of the lesson. I caution you not to feed them a sugary snack. That will not help at all that will just make things worse. 
• DON”T GET ANGRY!!!  I had to put this one on there again. Because this is very important. Not only am I reminding you, I am reminding myself how important it is.

Our children feed off our attitudes. I wish I was one of those soft spoken moms that always stays calm but I am human and I am not perfect. I think most mom are not. But this is where God comes in and He helps me through these kinds of days. Usually when these days happen more then once in a couple of weeks I know that I am obviously trying to do it all on my own and I get a check and figure out that I am not relying on God. He wants us to need and want him. And he will always be there when we ask.

I hope that something in here will help you on your days of craziness. Just remember that what you are doing as a homeschooling mom is so important. It is a loving and wonderful thing you are doing for your children, and for the world. Training up our children in the Lord and to have morals is so so so important.

God Bless,

Jen

What to do when the baby comes?????

This is something I worry about often and I am trying to prepare myself for when the baby comes and we still need to do school. I have heard some people just take 3months to a year off of schooling and just catch up later on. I am not sure I want to do that even though it sounds like a good idea sometimes. I do know I will take a month off at least. Or just enough time that this guy is nursing well and has some longer naps.

I am also guessing I will be doing a lot of reading aloud before then with baby in my arms. Well I am guessing we will be doing a lot of schooling with baby in my arms, I know that I can do it but I am a planner and I need a plan. If the plan is not followed to the “T” I will be okay with that but I just need a plan.

Another thing I was thinking I may do in the beginning is to school in the evenings when daddy is home so that way he can be here if I need help with anything that I need help with.

I just need some ideas. HELP!! Any ideas would be great.

God Bless,

Jen

Our daily Schedule

Just thought I would share a couple of pictures and our daily schedule. We are in the full swing of school this year. During the summer we have been doing more of a relaxed schooling and now it is time to buckle down and get some serious work done. Okay so not that ruff. But we are doing more of a scheduled day. So here is what our schedule looks like on days where nothing get mixed up.

• 5:00 am wake up Brooke for School / cheerleading practice
• 5:25 am take Brooke to school
• 6:00 am personal Bible time
• 7:00 am shower and get ready for the day
• 7:30 am start a load of wash
• 7:45 start breakfast
• 8:00 am wake boys up
• 8:30 eat breakfast
• 9:00 am ~ 10:00 am morning chores
• 10:00 am I read Bible story to boys
• After I read bible time we start the rest of school. We start with Math including flash cards (memorization is very important). I teach the lesson then they work on it. Next we start Language Arts, spelling, While Vinny does his reading lesson Will does his reading lesson with me.
• 12:00pm they both read while I am making lunch
• 12:30 pm eat lunch
• 12:45 pm Vinny leaves for band at the middle school
• While Vinny is gone I help Will finish up school. We work on science and social studies. Usually he is done with school by the time Vinny returns from Band.
• 1:45 pm Vinny returns and we do science and social studies he then finishes up anything he needs to finish then he practices his instrument. (when he decides what he wants to play)
• After everyone is done with school it is free time for them and for me it is time to do my homemaking chores that I didn’t get finished in the morning.
• If your wondering about Croix he does his school things right along side of me. There is usually time in between me teaching the boys something and them doing there work on their own that is when I do Croix’s Kindergarten. If you think about Kindergarten it really is mostly play along with some sit down learning. He is doing well. He is right on track. I am not pushing him at all I let him lead his learning. He is very excited about learning. I haven't had to tell him yet that it is time to get started on school he is sitting next to me waiting for me to help him start the next thing. I want to make sure he loves to learn and not to start thinking it is a chore. Learning is a life long process.

This is Will working on his Language arts. Do you see our sticking our charts behind Will these are incentive charts. We have them for good behavior and for finishing Books. Each sticker earns so much money. 

Here is Vinny reading out of his science text book. We read this together out loud. I feel like he retains more information when he reads out loud. We then notebook what he learns. This really helps him retain the information. I do the same with Will.

Well that is what our school day looks like. There are days we need to go to the library for library class, field trips, doctors appointments, grocery store and well what ever else life brings to our days. I do have to say that a schedule does help us stay on track. It helps daily life go smoother.

God Bless,

Jen

A school day in the summer

Most of the homeschool families around here do not school during the summer. But we do because we like to take days off all year long. This way we get all of our school hours in even if we take of a Tuesday in February. Or a week off because everyone in the house has the tummy flu. I do not schedule the way some people do I make a schedule but do not put dates on it. I just add the dates when we do the assignment then I keep a daily journal of our school days so I can see progresses. Well I thought that I would share with you what we have been doing.

First off I want to share with you that the curriculum that we were going to use was not working for us. We have been trying to do it but it is not fitting our family. Everyone was in tears daily including me some days. Homeschooling is about learning not doing it a certain way. So since I spent my school budget for 2012- 2013 I could not buy anything else. Well until I sell the stuff I bought. Please don’t get me wrong the curriculum that we got was a great program but it just was not working for us. The best advice I have gotten from another homeschool mom was that if it is not working for you or your children change it. So we are going back to our eclectic style of school that we were doing before that worked for us but I changed for some crazy reason. *sigh*

If you have been reading a for a couple of years you know that we were using the Robinson Curriculum. We are going back to that and adding a different math which is actually from 1900 called Ray Arithmetic. You can find these free on Google books. Will is using the primary lessons Vinny is using intellectual arithmetic. Croix is working on memorizing additions facts. We are still using our McGuffey readers. I do have to suggest if you want to make it a lot easier on you if you use the McGuffey's or the Rays books buys Sherry’s helps. They are wonderful helps and not too pricy *smile*. One thing I did find out with Ray’s math is that America used to be way more advanced in school then our schools are now. I thought that it would be the other way around. We are also learning about Ancient times this year for history. Agani we are using another free book called, Ancient history told to children, and for science we are using The story book of science . The boy are enjoying these living books. Here are some pictures of a day this summer.

Will doing copy work from his McGuffey reader

 

Vinny doing some copy work also

Croix doing his Kindergarten curriculum from Rod and staff

Vinny working on his language arts I bought from an antique store. This is an awesome book!

Vinny and Croix playing War helping Croix with math. Kids learn so much when they can have fun.

Here is our History. We have are doing Notebooking this year with our History and Science. If you have not ever though of using this method it is awesome. Kids remember so much more about what they learned if you have them write, tell back in pictures, or essays they can go look back at their own notebook and remember so much. 

We were learning about ants and all the different things each ant does. This book is so detailed.

So this was a day for us a week or so ago. I just can not wait to get in the full swing of school and be back at it every day. I love the rhythm of our days when we have school daily.

  God Bless,

    Jen

Summer schedule

I know that most homeschoolers in my area take a summer break along with the public school kids but as I remember when my kiddos were in public school they spent most of there first few weeks of school re learning things from the year before. I myself do not like the idea of having to redo what we already went thru the year before. With that said we will not be doing a full days worth of work during the summer just a little. So here is what we will be doing this summer.

We first of all will be doing the summer reading program at the library that they off each summer.

Butterfinger

For math he will be doing half of a page a day in his workbook. I am not sure if I will have him do the top half then the bottom or odds on day and evens the next. I think it will depend on the page. We use Study time math for him. If you click on the picture below it will take you to it on Rod and Staff publications.

 

For reading he will read daily at least 30 minutes but 2 times a week he will read from his Pathway reader and answer questions to the story in his workbook.

Science once a week he will do this subject.

Social studies he will also do once a week.

So here is how the boys schedule will look for the week.

Monday- math, pathway readers

Tuesday- math pathway readers

Wednesday- math, Science, 30 mins reading

Thursday- math Social studies, 30 mins reading

Fridays – read 30 mins.

Tootsie Roll

He will have the same schedule as Butterfinger. But I will add pictures of what he is using and the pictures will link to the website its self.

 

If you noticed I have bought all of these book from one place. I do have to say I love Rod and Staff. Their shipping was so fast even though I pick the slowest cheapest shipping time. Also they as so nice. I am thinking we will be using this company for next school year. They also have such great prices too!

I almost forgot about Snickers. He is doing their Kindergarten program they don’t call it Kindergarten. They have 2 levels of preschool 3-4 and 4-5 years we went with the 4-5 some of it is very easy for him but that is ok we are just practicing doing school. Sitting in one place for a little bit and doing some school. We also do hands on things and some computer programs . Once he finishes his 4-5 curriculum he will start the 1st grade stuff. Well slowly I don’t want him to start to not like school yet I don’t want him to be bored.

This is a picture of what you get with the curriculum.He is having fun at it too. We are also learning to read too.

I hope your summers go great too!!

    God Bless

  Jen

A day with a Kindergartener……

My little man Snickers is  doing such an awesome job learning. I can’t believe that he was ready to start school and not just fun play time school things. It is just amazing that he is learning so well. The curriculum that I use for him is considered a Preschool program From Rod and Staff but I incorporate more to it like the 100 easy lessons to read and some computer programs. We also are using this because they di not have a official kindergarten book. But if you look through these books they are pretty much what kindergarten would be doing. Learning shapes, letters, numbers, about the world around them and God.  This book is part of the curriculum we are using. We read a bible story and then he colors a picture for a color book that goes with this book.

 

Didn’t he do a great job!

This is the the workbook from the curriculum that we are on right now. We use this more like a review and also working on motor skills and working on his handwriting. Along with this book we are also adding and subtracting.

He loves to cut and paste!

After we are done with his workbooks and his reading lesson he does some online learning. As of right now he is using 2 programs one I pay for the other we are doing a review for the company which you will see in a couple of days. The one that we pay for is ABC Mouse and he LOVES it! He has been using it since the beginning of this school year and he is still loving it. It is a lot of fun with rewards and yet learning. There are I believe 7 levels to it. He is on level 6 now which is 5-6 year old kindergarten. I believe that you can do this program for free but it is limited use so you can try it out and see if you would like it.

Don’t you just love his mowhauk??

This one just happens to be a puzzle.

     God has blessed our family so much. When we listen to God’s calling for us He blesses us in so many ways. I know that when I felt the calling to homeschool I was like Really??? Me??? Why I am not that smart?? But now I see why. The blessing that we have received are so worth any stress that I have during the day. Also know that my children are not being left behind in a class room setting is so wonderful. One of my children struggles but is coming along nicely. he is almost caught up to his grade level. When I pulled him out of school he could barely read or do math he was in 3rd grade and at a 1st grade reading level and today he is 10 and is reading at a 4th and 5th grade levels and just starting 5th grade level math!! I am so happy for him. He still struggles a little but he is almost caught completely up!. Also one of the most important things that they are learning everything using Gods word to back it up. Like in Science 5th grade we are learning what you would in public school but praises are given to God in every aspect of life!

       I hope you enjoyed watching what a day in kindergarten looks like for us. It is a very fun time to learn and teach is this age. It is amazing the leaps and bounds you see daily.

  God Bless,

   Jen

Web Wednesday Snow days

 

• Simple homeschooling has 5 great ideas for this.
• I love these ideas for what to do on a snow and yet still have school.
• At the Well gives links and such for what to do on a snow day that would still be dealing with school.
• The Pioneer woman  gives you a look into her day when there is a snow day in Atlanta. Which I am guess there is not that many of them *smile* But me living in Nebraska well we get plenty.
• I absolutely love Lisa’s blog The 2nd Generation Homeschooling. She also give you some great tips for what to do.
• Snow Much Fun is also a great read on snow days

I hope you all got some ideas for what you can do on your next snow day. Be creative and have fun!

  God Bless

   Jen

What a day!

Look what Tootsie Roll worked on today. We made flash cards and had him match them up with the right words. Like I will is I’ll and so on. Using these flash cards he just got it. On his worksheets he was just not getting it so we had to try something else. I think it was the hands on that made it work for him.  They are also super easy to make.

Here he is working on his math.

Words words words!! We just keep learning more and more words!

Someone is concentrating on his math. Butterfinger is doing so well with his math as of right now. He was struggling there for a while but now it has clicked. I love seeing that when something clicks. He was getting frustrated about not getting it that I was afraid he was giving up but we pushed through and well he did it! I am sure we will have more times like that again but lets pray it doesn’t happen for a long time!

We also did Vermont for for geography. We had a great day today!! I how you all had a great day too!!

God Bless

Jen