I have to admit that I struggled a bit with T4L at first.  Getting started was very easy.  Signing up….a breeze.  Teaching each child to log-on gave them a true feeling of independence.

Choosing the levels for each child was easy, yet a tad weird since I have a child in need of access to both the lower and upper levels.

My boys automatically wanted to follow the guiding arrow.  Such a great idea!  I was disappointed that I could not move the arrow when skipping or rearranging the activities to fit our other studies.  It would be great to have more control of this handy tool.  The boys could be truly self-starting if they could just follow that arrow.

Setting up a schedule was a struggle.  I really needed more guidance with the lesson plans.  Wondering if my daily plan was lacking or too much, I searched the parent forum for advice.  That left me just as confused.  No one seemed to know what equaled one lesson: a bubble, an icon,  __ number of activities??  

The new, improved lesson plans are very nice!  However, I still believe a sample lesson plan each for full homeschooling, supplementing, and after-schooling would be really helpful for the beginning user.

After a very short time with the program, we have totally embraced T4L, making all of these issues seem pretty trivial in light of what we’ve gained.

We all have some sort of bump, don’t we?

We have to deal with a lot of medical-type interruptions in our house.

Our youngest is a CHD Warrior!  Eli was born with complex congenital heart disease.  He has a very rare defect, along with three very common heart defects.  We found out during the pregnancy and were encouraged to terminate the pregnancy-that week!    

We immediately chose life and had to re-plan our delivery hospital, OB, and even the pediatrician we planned to use.  We expected Eli to have surgery a couple of days after birth, then another at about 6 months, another possibly at a year or so.

Eli is 2 years, 4 months old and has not had any surgeries yet!   However, we are looking at a possible surgery later this spring/summer.  He is truly a miracle…..

He has many, many doctor appointments….in two other cities.  So, we attempt to work around them.  

I was sincerely concerned about my first grader’s schooling.  I felt he was getting lost in the shuffle.  Not anymore, thanks to T4L.

By the way, Eli is our second heart kid.  We lost our oldest son after heart surgery in 1993.  

Over a year ago, I was clicking the random blog button on Homeschoolblogger.com.  I came across the blog of a young, African-American mom.  She was a real writer-her blog was amazing!  Her posts were filled with the details of life at home with her children.  As I read through the entries, I noticed something called Time 4 Learning mentioned many times.  I clicked on the link she had in the sidebar.   It looked great!  I looked at the site and at her blog entries and thought how easy she made it all sound.  I saw the price and thought about the cost for all of my kids.  Not a bad price, but not exactly cheap. (One income for 7 people-you all know how that goes….) Also, I knew nothing about it.  So, I pushed random blog again.  Later, I realized that I hadn’t saved that blog under my friends.  Oh, well.

Fast forward to last fall.  A good online buddy of mine posted a T4L review on her blog.  I emailed her and asked lots of questions.  She sold me!

I’ve been thinking a lot over the past year about the concept of unschooling.

I know that unschooling means different things to different people.  To me it simply means self-directed education.

Even though I am quick to link myself to the unit study approach, I believe I’m an unschooler at heart.  I try my best to supply the resources for my children, but I give them a choice in the matter.

This is why we do not always have a unit study going.  Sometimes we’re busy learning about Stan Lee or Japanese anime’, or graphic arts. 

Time 4 Learning has beome a great tool in our unschooling toolbox.  It’s so easy to use and it’s so fun!

Well, errrr….

You know what I mean. 

Over the years, I have tried many different programs, publishers and styles, always searching for the perfect combination for each child.

After much trial and error, I realized that the easiest and most effective choice in our home is the unit study.  My kids are all 3 to 4.5 years apart-big enough gaps to necessitate separate lessons for all.

The only problem I have had with the unit study approach is getting it all done!  If we concentrate on the three Rs first, we sometimes either rush through the unit study or worse, skip it for the day.   If we do the unit study work first, we get so involved we skimp on the basics-the stuff that really can’t be neglected.

With T4L, we have the best of both worlds.  I have solid proof that the all-important basics are being covered in a time frame that means the unit study work can be truly enjoyed.  I don’t have to halt those bunny-trails when the opportunities arise!

The ‘perfect’ combination in our home is T4L and Five In A Row, along with the occasional theme unit.