Saturday, July 27, 2013

Coming Soon: A Review of Time4Writing



We will be using Time4Writing as a summer writing program for the next couple of months.  We are excited to get started with the interactive lessons.  Our online tutor will correct our work and give us writing tips on how to sharpen our writing skills.  Come visit in a few weeks to see how we like it.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Review: Time4Learning


Pros:   
  • Fun lessons cover lots of material in small amounts of time. 
  • Animations, colorful graphics, and interactive funny dialog keep kids engaged. 
  • Clear explanations and feedback for right and wrong answers. 
  • Parent access to quizes and grades, easily printed for record keeping.  
  • Clutter free schoolwork, great for big families or small living spaces.  

Cons:    
  • Using Time4Learning on a tablet is a little tricky and can be slow.  
  • Parental controls do not include the ability to digitally assign specific lessons or assignments.

Summary:  
If you are a busy parent and looking for an effective educational tool that your children will love to use either as a curriculum, supplement, or tutoring alternative for preschool through 12th grade...Time4Learning is a excellent resource!  

Try it:   Time4Learning.com  

Review:  
There are many things to love about time4learning...but I will keep it simple and just name a few.

1. Effective teaching tool
Time4Learning is both fun and really great at teaching concepts and skills to a large spectrum of learning styles.  The lessons are very well written and designed to help children learn and retain the material. We were pleased with how well our kids did on standardized tests this year.

2. Makes life easier
I don't know about you...but as a homeschooling mama of four, it's hard to juggle everyone's schedule some days. This program is kid and parent user friendly and keeps track of where everyone is at. If a subject comes easy for your child, they can fly through...if its more difficult, they can watch the lesson again until they get the concepts.  Work that is finished and graded for you is easily printable for record keeping and reporting.

3. Stuff Free!
Having had a child in public school, I was amazed at the volume of paper that came through the door! It was a constant battle to stay on top of it all and I found myself having to recycle 99% of it to reclaim the space it took up in our house!  Although Time4Learning has optional printable supplements to go with lessons, the work is almost completely digital. It is an ideal curriculum for families living in small spaces as it eliminates the need for many text books. It's also great for traveling as all you need is a computer (or tablet) and an Internet connection. 
 

Overall we really love this program (we have been using it for years) and we are excited that Time4Learning is launching their new high school program this fall! We hope Time4Learning will become more iPad friendly in the future.  

Disclosure: The opinions we have expressed are honest opinions and have not been influenced by Time4Learning. Compensation was received for this review.


Thursday, July 18, 2013

Make your own ketchup


 
When I use to teach preschool, as far as the kids were concerned, there were the 4 basic food groups...and one of them had to be ketchup! We decided to make homemade ketchup and we really liked it! No chemicals or corn syrup like the store bought brands and the kids still love it! :)

Ketchup Recipe

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic

Blend all ingredients together well and pour into empty ketchup bottle and refrigerate.  :)