My strong recommendation for those homeschooling and using the web is to check out the following.

 Time4Learning’s web-based online curriculum.  They have great interactive lessons for middle school, elementary school, and even preschool.  It’s highly interactive and full of animation and multimedia. Whereas some curriculum are just lots of text with an occassional video or animation, Time4Learning is an interactive experience.  All those tough math concepts seem simple when they’re explained in such alight-hearted manner.  Who says fractions has to be hard? Their great multimedia lays it out so simply.  Give it a try.  Time4Learning is a great homeschool partner. They let you sign up month to month and start and quit at any time. Start by looking at their lesson demos.
 

 Number 2 choice – Time4Writing.  If you are like me, you find some subjects hard to teach.  One of the hardest is writing skills, especially when the kids get into middle and high school.  Expectations are so high. And my kids just don’t react well to my correcting their writing. Want help?  This isn’t a “how to”, it’s an online tutoring course where they work directly with your student teaching writing skills every week and giving one-on-one feedback.  You get the same tutor for the whole eight week course which the kids really like. It’s definitely worth taking Time4Writing’s writing classes. They have sentence writing, paragraph writing, essay writing (these are for writing tests and college essays), and research paper writing.
 
 
Number 3 choice – Fun Building Vocabulary. This is not really a curriculum choice but a fun collection of vocabulary games. Vocabulary is Fun is a leading vocabulary website worldwide with the best flash online word games.  The vocabulary games include an online word search, an online crossword puzzle, and hangman online (their version is called HangMouse).  Users choose the vocabulary list that the online word game will use in the word game. So have some Fun Building Vocabulary.  
 
 
Number 4 Choice – Spelling City. This spelling program should be used by everyone. I would have put it first but I’m not a huge believer in the importance of spelling skills.  Despite that, now that I’m using this site, I’ve returned to having spelling as part of our weekly routine.  You know what’s really cool, check out how the vocabulary site’s science songs have put their vocabulary/spellinglist on SpellingCity.
 
 
Number 5 choice – This learning games website is really what it sounds like.  But they have the best collections.  For instance, they have keyboarding games, memory games,  science songs (also integrated with vocabulary lists), and math learning games.

I’ve been asked by a few people about the purpose and status of this blog so I thought I’d write up a quick summary of it’s history.  We will probably relaunch this blog soon as some new variant. If you have any suggestions or would like to participate, you can contact us at Time4Learning.

 This blog was started by Time4Learning as a learning experiment.

We asked half a dozen parents (actually, all moms) of students using Time4Learning to write on this group blog about the details of their homeschooling program. What their days were like and what they worried about. And were happy about.

More specifically, we wante to know what was working for them and what wasn’t in terms of their use of online educational materials.  At times, they wrote how much they and their children loved and benefitted from using Time4Learning. Other times, they expressed their frustration that Time4Learning was not everything that they would like it to be.  Often, being homeschool moms, they talked about cooking and their kids, and their homes. As far as I can tell, we never heard about their husbands (whew!)

Often, they talked about how their Time4Learning experience was affected by, or affected, another aspect of their homeschooling program. One mom, whose family used Time4Learning as a supplement to a traditional school program, asked the homeschoolers about their lives. And explained some of the realities of her own.

We ran this group blog twice: once in the fall of 2007, once in the spring of 2008. We encouraged the parents to be candid as we were interested in learning more about the day to day reality of how our service fit into their lives and needs.  To keep them focused, we contracted with them to write weekly over the four month course of each project and they all fulfilled the contract and then some. Apparently, it was a lot of fun.   Most of them posted and commented very frequently.

What did we learn? We learned a lot of details and about other products that are used in conjunction with us. We learned that most homeschool curriculums are a home-made eclectic mix optimized for each child.  And that there is different mix of planning, routine, and spontenity for each family.  We were stunned to find out how unique and useful our service really is. My favorite posts:

The gifted child, with autism, with Time4Learning
Lists of likes and dislikes about Time4Learning
How the Internet changes everything….for homeschoolers
T4L – How it helps everyone. Mom too.

I’m supposed to be setting up my curriculum for next school year, within the next few weeks. Since Tim will be official, I’m going to use my church as an umbrella, at least for the first year. They require me to turn in a lesson plan, I believe for a year, just a basic idea of what I’m going to teach.

I sat down to start this yesterday, not too concerned about it. I did this all on my own last year and had no clue what I was doing, but it worked, and it worked well! So, no worries, right?! I couldn’t figure out where to start! I clammed up, just like I did last year! He’s already doing 1st grade for language arts and math, so I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start, based on the skills they want him to be learning. He HATES repetition, so I don’t really want to start at the beginning of 1st grade. I’m really confused, and I hate that! I like knowing exactly what I’m going to be doing, it just makes everything run together more smoothly.

So, I’m going to pick a couple of online curriculums, T4L being one, and look at what is there in terms of grade level, then use that as a jumping point to write the rest. I don’t know any other way to do this and have it somewhat organized! I know I’m not the only one here that writes my own curriculum, so how do the rest of you figure out where to start for a new year?

Well today my T4L went dormant…Three of my students will be returning and I let the other 2 accounts drop.

As I was printing out the records last night and looking at the average scores of their activities, I found myself so grateful that I did t4l, esp. for the neighbor’s grandson. Here was written proof of what he had accomplished.

And for my son with special needs, when I meet w/ professionals about his strengths, weaknesses and school performance, I know what grade level he is doing and what kind of “grades” he makes.

It is such a relief to have these measurements of this school year!

I already miss t4l even though it hasn’t been dormant for 24 hours yet! It is quite a motivation to have everything ready to go for school. No one has to hunt for books or pencils, I don’t have to prepare anything…

Actually, I am glad for the break. I think I will continue to do 3 months of T4L and then breaking for a month to do special things that don’t get done.

Today I had everybody make up some spelling words pertaining to their special projects on spellingcity.com.That is a great little site! Normally I use Sequential Spelling. I started making lists on spelling city w/ those words, too.Now that everyone won’t be on the computer doing t4l, we will have more time for it.

I’d like everyone to brush up on typing. I have a typing program and the kids found a great typing game that looks just like guitar hero!

Also on the agenda is math drill sheets.

I’m probably repeating myself, but t4l really did give me a much needed boost just when I needed it! It’s good to have something to fall back on.

Since we missed some weeks from dh’s broken ankle I am going to continue on for probably one more week. But pretty much, we are finished with the school year!

I am so pleased to end on such a good note. This has been my best year yet!

Sunday after church, I ran into someone I hadn’t seen in a while. One thing she mentioned was that she wished she could homeschool her oldest child because he was having so much trouble at school. She meant to only comment in passing…and went on to list all the reasons she couldn’t and prepared to move on to the next topic.

I kid you not, as corny as this sounds, I got goosebumps as I shared w/ her a wonderful secret. I told her to investigate t4l, that it was the way to go for a new homeschooler(I think she also has a busy schedule). I suggested she should maybe do a month over the summer. She whipped out pen and paper and smiled, saying “What is there to lose, right?” I agreed.

 I love when I have a good suggestion for someone.

I love that T4L is so easy to use! I should have cards w/ the address written down. I have said SO many times ” time, the number four, learning, dot com”!!