Review: Time 4 Learning Preschool

Looking for a fun and educational online preschool curriculum? Is your 3-4 year old ready to "do school" like their older siblings? Want something more than just dollar store workbooks for your eager to learn preschooler? Consider Time 4 Learning Preschool for your smart preschooler.

As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was given the opportunity to review Time 4 Learning Preschool with my 3 year old daughter. As part of her preschool learning I have exposed her to online preschool educational games. She loves learning online and playing what she calls "her school games". She was thrilled when we started Time 4 Learning Preschool. Not only was this a new online experience for her but she was also learning new things that she had not been previously exposed to. Each time we sat down together to do her "school work" a few minute session quickly blossomed into 20 minutes or more of fun and educational learning.

The Time 4 Learning Preschool curriculum includes two levels, pre-K 1 and pre-K 2. Both options are easily accessible from the preschool learning page. The preschool page is nicely and colorfully arranged to make navigating the learning centers very easy. Both the pre-K 1 and pre-K 2 main pages start with cute main topic icons. Once you select a topic of interest, for example insects you are taken to the insect subset page. Within this subset page your child will have 5-6 educational activities to complete the insect unit. When each activity is completed a red check mark appears on the icon letting you know that activity has been completed. Once the entire unit, i.e. insects is complete there will be a red check mark on the main preschool home page. I found the red check mark system to be very easy to manage. At a quick glance I could see the progress my daughter was making with this program. I should also note that just because you have completed an activity or unit does not prevent you from repeating those activities. Your child can repeat the games and activities until their little heart is content.

Main Preschool Unit Page

Preschool unit subset page

Within the review period for this program (8 weeks) my daughter was able to complete about 90% of the pre-K 1 units. Please keep in mind we did not get online everyday to play on this site. Some days time did not allow for computer learning or she was in the mood to do her workbooks instead of working on the computer. When we were utilizing the Time 4 Learning Preschool site her favorite activities in each unit were the story books, movies, and matching games. The matching games in particular noticeably helped her to begin associating capital letters with their matching lowercase letters. During our time on this site we got to learn about the human body, weather, farm animals, the alphabet, and a whole host of other wonderful unit topics. Because my daughter's fine motor skills are not developed enough to accurately move a computer mouse I did the clicking for her while she told me the answers to the activities. This adaptation worked out very well for us. She was still actively involved in her learning and was not hung up by the frustration of not moving the mouse accurately. Older children will not experience this problem and should be able to navigate the Time 4 Learning site on their own without hesitation.

The Time 4 Learning site is not just for preschoolers. This site is a wonderful homeschool, after school, or summer enrichment curriculum for preschoolers through eight graders. Do you have a child who is on different grade levels in different subjects? Time 4 Learning will customize their curriculum based on information you provide during the online registration. You can also easily register and manage more than one student in your family. During the registration you can assign each child their own log-in and password information. This convenient option makes managing their progress incredibly easy in the reports section of your parental screen.

The Time 4 Learning curriculum includes language arts and math. Science can be added on for first through sixth grade and social studies can be added for second through seventh grades. The monthly pricing includes one or all of the subjects. There is not a discount if you want to use only one subject. Not sure if you want to take the plunge and pay for this program? Time 4 Learning has a 100% money back satisfaction guarantee within the first 14 days of your membership. Based on my experience, within 14 days of regular use you will know whether your child is benefiting from the program and if it is a good fit for your family.

Pricing: $19.95/month for the first child*
             $14.95/month for each additional child*

Time 4 Learning provided me with a free trial membership in exchange for my honest review.


*prices in effect at the time of this review. Prices may vary after this posting.

Fine Motor Activities for Young Children

Are you wondering about how to maintain your young child's fine motor skills during the summer? Are you concerned about your child's fine motor skills and want to work with them over the summer to get them "caught up"?


The following ideas are things I do with my youngest or plan to do with her this summer .

1. Write letters in a bowl of flour (or sugar, salt, etc)
2. Do dot-to-dot pictures
3. Cut shapes, pictures out of a magazine in a specific shape or outline of the object.
4. Roll playdoh into little balls using both the palm of her hands and then only the tips of her fingers
5. Transfer cotton balls from one bowl (or ice cube tray) to another using tweezers or kid chopsticks
6. Handwriting sheets found online or at discount stores (dollar stores, etc). Be careful to look through the font style though, some sheets use the wrong script of letters like "a". Kids don't learn a's like this.
7. Sidewalk chalk writing
8. Write on whiteboards
9. Finger painting

Self-care lessons also increase fine motor skills in preschool and young elementary school children. 

1. Tying shoe laces
2. Buttoning shirts
3. Snapping pants
4. Zipping jackets
5. Washing dishes (plastic is best at this age) :)
6. Vacuuming
7. Sweeping
8. Using hand tools (screwdriver, hammer, wrench)
9. Locking/unlocking doors
10. Cooking (stirring, rolling out dough, using measuring cups, cutting with a blunt knife)
11. Bathing
12. Dressing
13. Opening jars and bottles

No matter what you do to help your child improve their fine motor activities this summer, remember one thing! KEEP IT FUN! This isn't calculus and they will have plenty of fine motor skills by the time they leave for college so do not stress about it now. Enjoy your kids and have fun. They will never know they are learning.

Teachable Moments During the Day

A few months ago I realized that my youngest does not know the same things her older brother knew at the same age. Simple things like colors, alphabet, etc. No, I am not one to compare my kids amongst each other, but I do believe that because she is otherwise very smart she should know these simple things already. I wholeheartedly take the blame for not spending more time with her individually to teach her these things over the past year. Being that it was our first year of homeschooling, I think her educational foundation fell by the wayside. I truly feel bad-mommy guilt for that! Thankfully, these simple things can be taught at any time of the day and anywhere. Like today for example, we did a quick 5 minute lesson on opposites and colors.

Our lesson took place in the pool of all places. We were playing with 2 balls and while we were throwing the ball back and forth between ourselves I asked her questions comparing the two balls. For example, which ball is heavier? Which ball is louder (when it hits the water)? Which ball is bigger? After each question I would turn the question around a bit. Something like, which ball is smaller? Which ball is quieter? Which ball is lighter? I also asked her to point to the red ball then the orange ball. Not only was this lesson fun but it was purposeful. My daughter never knew she was even learning, it was just a fun game for her.

Which over the years I have come to realize that early learning is all about fun! It doesn't have to be formal. I don't need to spend hard earned money on a formal preschool curriculum. Everything I need to teach my kids the early fundamentals is right at home, at my fingertips. Much to my relief after working with my daughter for just a bit these past few months she has caught up to where she needs to be. And best of all I can save all that money and just buy her fun stuff to use for school when she is older. :)

Other teachable moments during the day include:
Driving;

• ask your child where the "x" colored car/truck is
• if there are older siblings in the car with your preschooler play eye-spy
• "I spy with my little eye, something "insert color"

Cooking;

• Ask your child to hand you things, but ask in a descriptive manner
• "Please pass me the white flour."
• "Please hand me the yellow lemon."
• "Can you please give me the smallest spoon?"
• "Can you get me two forks please?"

Playing; (these options are endless)

• sort colored cotton balls in groups then count the balls in each pile
• coloring; "Please hand me the red crayon."
• place flash cards with numbers, letters, or colors on them on the floor. Have your child jump on or hand you the card you ask for.
• bath time; I bought colored bath letters and numbers for my kids. My 5 year old essentially learned  all of his letters and numbers this way. I asked him to hand me a letter or number. This eventually progressed to spelling words in the bathtub.

I'd love to hear more of your great ideas. Please share!!

2010-2011 TOS Younger Crew Member

I am excited to be able to announce that I have been asked to join The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew for the 2010-2011 school year. Specifically I will be reviewing products for young children; ages preschool to 6. Stay tuned for exciting and helpful reviews on curriculum and products for your younger homeschool kids. I am truly looking forward to this wonderful opportunity and all that I will be able to share you my readers.

Clothespin Counting Activity

Whether it be during homework after school or during school time for homeschoolers, younger siblings are typically disruptive and distracting because they are bored. In an effort to keep my young preschooler busy while her older brothers do school I have been searching for activities she can do on her own or with little supervision. Not only are these activities a sanity saver for me but it also teaches her to work independently.

Clothespin counting activities have been around for a long time. As I was searching the internet for free printable clothespin cards I was disappointed in the lack of color and creativity. So I decided to just make my own. My version not only teaches numeral recognition and number word reading, but I have also added color recognition.  You will see that each smiley face on my cards are a different color of the rainbow. You can purchase inexpensive clothespins at your local discount store if you don’t have any laying around the house. Also, today I used colored bingo markers and they worked just as well. Both the clothespins and bingo markers help your preschoolers fine motor skills. As I mention in the file below I recommend printing on card stock and laminating for durability.

Clothespin Counting Acitivity

If you use these sheets with your preschooler please let me know. I’d love to hear if you enjoy them or have suggestions for improvement.