Time 4 Learning – Week 3 – Review

My children have completed their third week now with Time4Learning.  It is still the very first thing my son completes in the morning.  I give him a lot of freedom of choice as to which order in which he completes his schoolwork 🙂  He used to do his reading first, but now he pops right up in front of the computer to spend time on Time4Learning right after breakfast. 
My daughter continues to enjoy her Phonics lessons in the Language Arts section.  Here are some links to try some online demos of Pre-Phonics Lessons and Phonics Lessons.  Another resource on Time4Learning is their Reading Skills Pyramid which shows the steps a beginning reader takes to become a proficient reader.
With my two children, we have been mainly exploring the Language Arts and Math sections.  In the early elementary grades, such as my daughter’s Primary level, Science and Social Studies aren’t offered.  My son does have access to these two subjects though and we’ve been exploring them this week.  One thing that may be a problem for Canadians is that the Social Studies is heavily American-based, at least in Gr. 4 and Gr. 5 (you can peek at the year above the one your child is studying).  For us it is useful, as I have been teaching my son American history along with Canadian history as I believe he should know more about our neighbours to the south than I learned in school.  Also, the history is not chronological, and the ancient civilizations exist beside such things as the American revolution.  One of the reasons we haven’t spent much time in the Science and Social Studies sections is that they aren’t very interactive.  Unlike the engaging, animated, interactive Math and Language Arts, the Social Studies and Science offerings tend to be pages to read, like out of a textbook, with quizzes at the end, or in the case of the Science pages, experiments to do at home.  We have many books such as this here at home, so this does not appeal to me as much as the Language Arts and Math.  However, a new homeschooler without these resources throughout their home might enjoy the fact that everything is online.

Kimberly