We all know that keeping balance with technology can be tough, but have you considered the amazing benefits of digital learning for students if they learn online?
We have been venturing onto this notion and, I admit, have been very excited about our findings from the past month.
We have used an online Math curriculum before, but haven’t actually adopted an online curriculum for more than one subject until now.
If you are wondering about the benefits of digital technology in education for your kids AND for you, or if you’re looking for the best homeschool science curriculum or other curricula as the homeschool parent, then please read on!
If you are a busy parents because you are homeschooling many kids, you are involved in many activities or you work from home AND homeschool, then check this out!
Here, you will get more information about what my family and I consider to be the best homeschool curriculum for those that want to go the digital route.
Best Homeschool Curriculum for Busy Parents
We have been reviewing the website Time4Learning for about a month with my two children.
You can see our starting blog post for this review here.
They each have been taking lessons daily in four subjects.
Those subjects are: Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.
There are additional opportunities for learning, such as foreign languages, but we aren’t members of those parts.
This curriculum goes all the way up to high school, so these educational websites are very complete.
Both are taking their lessons in the grade that they are in (2nd grade and 4th grade).
At first, it was a little bit of an adjustment from our typical or traditional paper-and-pencil homeschooling curriculum.But the more we used it, the more I learned about so many benefits of digital learning.
You are probably thinking that I am referring to benefits for the students, but I am actually referring to the parents!
YES! That’s right!
Of course I am also referring to benefits that I have seen in my kids since starting using Time4Learning, but we’ll talk about those a little later.
Right now, let’s talk about why online education is better than traditional education for homeschooling parents.
Homeschooling Websites for All Subjects in One
Online learning is better than traditional learning for parents for many reasons.
The more I have been using Time4Learning, the more I have been liking it!
I will give you the top 5 reasons why.
1 Time
First off, I love how much time it saves me.
I am just amazed at how much it does for me, without me feeling cut off from my parenting responsibilities.
I went into the parent login and set up a lesson plan for each of my kids.
It’s so easy to set up how many days a week we will be doing lessons, and which subjects will be done which days.
In the same area, I set up how many lessons per subject per day for each of my kids and even block off vacation days, sick days and co-op days.
Online lesson plans are done in a snap and are ready to go.
I chart out their week, print it out for them (optional because they can consult it online) and we’re ready to go in minutes!
It literally takes me 5 minutes per week to set up their lessons for the week because I have already made their overall plan.
Have you ever heard of that?! Not me!
2 More Time
That’s right! The second reason is more time saved! Time means money, too.
It’s so affordable and so worth it!
How? Well, Time4Learning does all of the grading and record keeping for me!
I absolutely love how much time I save on this!
I didn’t realize how much time I spent making lesson plans and grading papers, quizzes and tests until Time4Learning.
The grades are always accessible online, I can keep track of what they kids have done, what grades they’ve gotten and if they need to re-take a quiz or a test.
Checking is a breeze! I totally feel in the loop and not at all overwhelmed in keeping track of every subject daily for my kids.
3 Customization
Time4Learning lets me customize my kids’ learning, according to their personal learning style.
Not only through the lesson plans and schedules mentioned above, but also the grading part.
I like that I can determine the passing grade for quizzes and tests.
I can, for example, set the quiz passing grade to 80% and test passing to 90% or whatever I want.
This can be done for all four subjects. It’s an amazing online homeschool curriculum!
4 Freedom
In taking a look at advantages of tablets over textbooks (or laptops, if you prefer them over tablets), Time4Learning is definitely one of them!
I love the freedom to only needing two homeschool resources: a laptop (or computer or tablet) and wifi.
We can take them anywhere (in the house or outside the home) and do school.
Gone are the days of piles of bulky books, papers, pencils, traditional textbooks, notebooks and more!
It feels great!
The kids and I have done school with Time4Learning our living room, with our feet up, at the local coffee shop and at the library!
It is such a huge change! This great resource is definitely a game-changer for us.
I can see us going out and doing school anywhere, so long there’s wifi.
And if there isn’t, they have also used my phone’s personal hotspot to connect to the internet.
5 Accountability
I feel that as a parent, I have better accountability when I have less things to do, like grading and lesson planning.
It’s easier to feel more put together and on top of things.
I can then focus on other important things in our homeschool.
The kids also love the accountability that Time4Learning gives them.
It has been one of the benefits for kids that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post.
They like to take ownership of their learning.
They love to check off items as they complete them.
They enjoy the lessons and how interactive they are.
And they like to see their grades in online school.
My personal favorite is that it keeps them learning at all times because the lessons are thorough.
I can trust that my kids are at grade level, but also have the opportunity to move onto other grades, as they are ready.
Kids don’t have to wait until the next school year to move on.
Final Word
As I wrap this up, I want to tell you just how much we are enjoying Time4Learning.
My kids are refining their use of technology, typing skills, listening skills and following directions.
They are learning to participate in lessons, take over their own schedules and lessons and more.
When asked about Time4Learning, my children responded that they didn’t want to go back to the paper-and-pencil curriculum.
They are enjoying it a lot and they really do feel like they are learning in a fun way.
Time goes by fast when the kids are having fun. They no longer complain about doing school.
Out of the homeschooling programs we’ve looked at, all three of us highly recommend Time4Learning.
So, if you are a busy homeschooling parent and want to find a way to save time and be more on top of your kids’ learning, then give Time4Learning a try!
Do you have comments or questions? Their website is full of so much helpful information, as well as a way to contact them.
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