It was not until I kissed my boys goodnight tonight that I realized the impact T4L has really had on our lives. As I was walking out of the boys bedroom I heard my oldest (he always has to say just one more thing) “Hey mom? Is it okay that I get right up and start T4L before breakfast tomorrow?”. You have to understand that September and October are very busy months for us. It is probably the only time of the year that I actually keep a calendar close by and make copies for all the family members. We are running in so many directions because of the addition of our “back to school” activities. For either child to “want to” get right up and do work is amazing to me!

Fall for us means the addition of soccer, Master’s, home school group and now Boy Scouts. They have Karate all year and even though it is only one night a week, it still is challenging to keep up with everything else. In the past it has been difficult for the boys to sit and do their work (book work..ugg..) and still do the extras that they want to do.

Our transition from summer into fall this year has gone so much smoother than in the past years. T4L has really helped us stay on track and is so much easier on me. Gathering lessons, grading work, fighting to just get them started in the mornings has always been an issue with me. For my oldest to want to wake up and sit at his computer and do his work first thing in the morning is such a milestone.

I am still met with a bit of resistance when they are done with their lessons on the computer and I ask them to pull out their writing note books, spelling note books, boy scout note books or their Sunday school assignments because they know that writing is around the corner but it is so much easier to get through now.

I can not, nor will I try, to make everyone understand how much T4L has helped in so many areas. I am thrilled at the science and social studies and enjoy hearing the boys discuss the lessons to each other. They have also gotten into “googling” things that they learn in science or social studies to further along the learning process!

As just a side note, my youngest child is 6 and if not for finding T4L, I know that he would have had a very hard year. He is really doing well with his language arts and having the stress of “writing” off him I see him flourishing and enjoying every bit of school work now. I know that I will have to go back and have him review and re-take some quizzes but he is soaking up so much information every day that he would have never gotten in traditional book work lesson plans! DS2 really has benefited so much with the addition of this program in our home.

I don’t say it enough… Thanks guys! Our busy fall this year is a bit easier to handle knowing that every day my kids are excited to get started on school work. It is now 11:30pm and instead of putting together mounds of work for tomorrow I can go to bed and know that the boys can sign on and start first thing in the morning! (even if I am not fully awake!)

So my 3rd grader did his first lessons in Science and Social Studies today. We were both shocked (in a good way) at how incredibly different the science and social studies programs are this year as opposed to the 2nd grade levels. We were so used to the small, animated lessons that when he first logged in and we saw the first lesson on Vikings…our jaws dropped, lol. I had seen the lesson plans, but honestly only briefly.

We were able to sit and read together and even involved daddy, who enjoyed being able to help. As my son read through all the information in the activities, my hubby and I just kept looking at one another going “wow! this is great!” Even though these lessons were not even remotely similar to the 2nd grade lessons he remembered, my son was totally enthralled in what he was doing. When he printed out the little Viking cards and got out his first “notebook,” I think it finally hit him that 3rd grade is not the “little kid’s school” (his words) anymore. )

By the time he moved on to Science, got his next notebook started and did all the measurements that the first lesson asked him to get, he truly felt like he accomplished something today. What a proud moment for us all. And we are totally looking forward to what the next lessons hold!! )

My life as a home school mom has always been met with complaining from my boys. They really enjoy learning as long as it is not sitting for hours doing mundane work. Neither child enjoys writing and since moving into the T4L program we have been enjoying a calm through the house like never before.

This morning I had a list that we needed to do after they finished T4L. Both boys knew that a couple of the projects included writing and in order to stall they used T4L to their benefit. I was getting some stuff together to work on after lunch and both boys kept putting off getting through their lessons for the day. Finally I had enough and said “Common guys, you need to finish up.” For the first time ever I heard the words, “Is it okay if we go back and do one more in each lesson?” Of course I said yes and let them and as I continued to set up for the project that the needed to do; smiled at myself because they were actually enjoying lessons!

Every day is met with such a nice pleasant mood and it is not until I bring up that we need to do our writing projects that I am met with a little resistance. The writing goes so much better now though, because they have not spent all day working on problems in a work book that gives no satisfaction or interaction!

We have officially completed a year of Time4Learning! While it hasn’t been 12 months since we first signed up, my son has started and completed the 2nd grade with T4L. Yay!! He was so excited this morning when I told him that I had gotten the email confirming that he could officially start the 3rd grade. You’d think you just told him that he was going to Disneyland. Ok…maybe not Disneyland, but you get my point. )

I was SO proud of him today. He does NOT like math at all, but decided to just jump right into math today and that was the first subject he started! Having taken a little time off, he struggled initially but ended up doing well. The difference between 2nd and 3rd grades was very noticeable. The lessons were not (at least not today at any rate) quite as animated as we were used to, but he still seemed pleased. I know I was! We are keeping my 2 nieces for two weeks and they are also homeschooled. They use a different curriculum than we do and were very intrigued and watched my son quite a bit today. It will be interesting to see what the next couple of weeks hold for all of them! )

I can’t believe it’s been five years since my youngest daughter was born. Natalie, now five years old, started Kindergarten this week, but it was towards the end of this years school year that it hit me. She was moving from Pre-School 3 days a week, 3 hours per day to Kindergarten, 5 days a week, all day long. My first concern was making sure that Natalie was ready for school, no only socially and emotionally but also that she was ready intellectually. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t about to make my child spend the entire summer doing school work just so she could be “ready.” But I also did not want her to fall behind, so I did some research for books, online programs and other homeschooling programs.

I came across Time4learning in June and immediately enrolled her. I could not believe how much fun she was having learning. Throughout the summer we worked on several lessons per day, her choice not mine. We still went on vacations to visit family and Natalie generally asked to go on Time4learning as her down time, usually when everyone else was just sitting around chatting. It was so cool to be able to log on no matter where we were.
Since we started I have seen her improve in word recognition, rhyming and her biggest struggle, recognizing coins. I’m glad she had so much fun learning the fundamentals of Kindergarten over the summer. Now that she is in school we use the program as a great resource and support for what she learns in school, besides, she loves the fun activities used in each lesson as well as the playground activities, so as far as that goes, it’s a win-win situation.

I will continue to share her progress as we move through this school year.

Terie