I believe I first came across t4l a few years ago on the internet. At some point, we tried the demos, but my learning disabled(LD) son was so easily frustrated then, he didn’t like them.When I first saw it, I was deterred by the cost. T4l is reasonably priced, but it seemed like too much since I have 4 children.

As the kids get older(one is finishing 7th grade), and as we have discovered some special needs, we figured a raise in the school budget was warranted. It is worth it for our family( and everyone’s situation is different :) )to invest in whatever we need to school our children. At this point in my life, I do not have the time, energy and everything else that is necessary to seek out freebies on the internet, make frequent trips to the library,etc. And in the end, it is cheaper than private school.

It was very hard getting started w/ t4l. Thank goodness, I visited the forums frequently and already knew it would take about 2 weeks to feel comfortable. I would get discouraged and want to give up, but I kept going.

And now, I could do commercials for t4l!

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!

We took our spring break this week instead of next, so we could focus on Easter crafts and learning about Easter. Taking breaks with an autistic child is usually harder than if we just don’t take them, because change is something that usually isn’t tolerated well. I proved myself right again, by Tuesday Tim was making life REALLY hard. He just wasn’t coping with the change in routine, and was getting into so much trouble. So I had to revise my ‘break’ by having him use Time4Learning and we watched some educational videos online, just so he felt like he was on some kind of a schedule. This is why I love T4L, because he’s learning but doesn’t realize it! It’s just fun to him.

Before we joined T4L he wasn’t getting as much of the visual learning that he needed, it was mostly my reading from sites or books that we found on our topics. I do use brainpop and that is visual, but there’s not a big selection on movies for his grade, so it was still lacking. Using a site that is so visual and interactive REALLY helps him connect with what he’s learning, and that is crucial with a visual learner. I never would have expected him to be so far ahead in grade levels as he is since we started using T4L. I’m seeing that it’s helping make connections in other areas, too, as if the visual stimulation is getting him thinking about other things, too. The other day he asked me if Z-O-O spelled zoo, and I said it did, but asked him how he knew that. He had seen it on something two days before, it was on a sign above a zoo on some show, and he put the pieces together that it spelled zoo. But the amazing thing is, he retained it. That’s been his toughest area, is retaining what he’s learned, and he’s making so much progress now in that area.

Wednesday I had my 3rd grader and 4th grader work from their Sonlight language arts and then do the other subjects on t4l. The newly revamped Sonlight LA program focuses on being a good writer. My special needs son prefers t4l learning LA because he doesn’t have to come up w/ the answer on his own, he gets to choose the answer. And he doesn’t have to write! He feels the same way about math!

I would like to have them do some Sonlight LA more regularly, but I love though that if things get hectic, I can depend again on t4l LA.

Also, I signed up for a free month of Pokemon learning league for my neighbor’s grandson(age 11, almost 12). My kids never watched the show, but this kid loves it. Everyday I let him do one lesson of t4l and then the other subjects on the Pokemon site. Anything to help the medicine go down, I say. He has some learning differences, too. I just love hearing the Pokemon characters teach what he has already been taught on t4l w/ a “Pokemon” spin to it. I hope it really reinforces the lessons for him.

My daughter who is a first grader is doing awesome. I tended to let her just listen in to lessons as she wanted to, many times skipping activities I had planned just for her. Sometimes she would just play in her room or maybe watch a movie or play on the computer while I tended to the other kids. Now she gets on t4l and does the most lessons and the most subjects of all my kids!  We were all telling my husband Wednesday night what a hard worker she is. I am so glad; and she is very proud of herself.

Until very recently, I had no idea that gifted and autism could go together, but I’m learning real quickly that they can! Tim is very scattered in his abilities, but mostly ahead of his peers. I know a lot of this is due to the therapy I’ve given him myself over the last two years, he’s passed so many milestones that I didn’t think were possible when he was three and moderately autistic. But, he just has amazed me since starting kindergarten in August.

This week he has been working on 1st grade math on T4L, and he’s working on place values. I wasn’t even going to touch this yet, I thought it would be too confusing for him and the last thing I wanted to do was confuse him! But, I’m a little bit OCD when it comes to him having to move from one lesson into the other and not skip around, so I had him do it just to experience it. Once again, he just blew me away! He understood what it was about, without any help from me. And, this is the funny part. The whole ‘place value’ thing never really made sense to me, and just seemed to be more confusing than just flat out counting. But, I understand it now myself, and why it makes sense to look at numbers that way! Ha! That’s what I love about homeschooling, is if we don’t understand something we get to learn it right along with them, and it just really helps our bond as he sees that you never stop learning, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that you don’t know something. It builds his confidence, which is a big issue with him.

I babysit an 8 yr old that I help homeschool after his mom goes to work, and he uses T4L as well. He has Asperger’s, and is behind academically. T4L has really helped him connect to what we’re trying to teach him in ways that are just wonderful to see. He’s JUST understanding multiplication, and the online school he’s using is expecting him to start in division, which is crazy to me. I’ve been working with him this week on memorizing his times tables, we’re working on his threes. She had an especially hard time with him yesterday, he just wasn’t understanding what he was supposed to do, and was frustrated. I reminded her to check on T4L to see if there was a lesson on it, which of course, there was. He did the lessons, and that helped a lot, but still didn’t quite sink in. He came over here and I showed him the relationship between the numbers when you multiply and when you divide, and he got it! I truly did not feel he was ready for this, but T4L really helped pave the way for him to be receptive to what I showed him. He’s still going to work on memorizing his times tables, but while using a multiplication chart in the meantime, he can now do the work his school is wanting him to do and not fall further behind.