Review: Time4Learning.com

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

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I was very excited when I heard of the chance to review Time4Learning.com’s program. Being in a hotel makes trying to do any homeschool . . . interesting. And my resources are pretty limited. I am always looking for something to keep the girls occupied.

Time4Learning.com

In fact, when we first began the program, I went straight for the math addition facts exercises, as we had gotten a bit stuck on these, and I was a bit desperate – trying to figure out how to get these concepts through my oldest’s head.

But, surprisingly, my oldest didn’t really respond well to the program. And I’m not quite sure why.

I do know what a major part of our problem is – and it has nothing to do with the program. Being in a hotel, we are working off laptops, and our laptops do not have a mouse or even a “button.” We have the touchpad box. And most of the exercises we tried required a huge amount of dragging. And dragging on the laptops without a mouse needs a HUGE amount of physical coordination. I haven’t spent a lot of time doing computer “training” with my kindergartener so this is just beyond us right now.

And unfortunately, this frustration caused my daughter to refuse to even try the program again.

So, my best advice with the program is to make sure you have a mouse! I finally found one this weekend, and hope to try her out on the program again, maybe even at a lower level, so she can gain confidence and then move forward.

I will say that I liked the “lesson/explanation” part of the particular lesson we tried. They turned it into a story, and I liked how they made math “interesting.” So, while we didn’t get a lot of time with the program, I do recommend the program – as long as your child has at least some computer experience and ability. It is not really for a beginner computer user.

And having an online “school program” is very convenient in a lot of situations, whether you are using it as your full curriculum, or just enhancing what you are already working with. Or, if you don’t even homeschool and are looking for a bit of afterschool tutorial help, I think this would be AWESOME for that.

I received a short-term membership from Time4Learning.com, in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

First Things First: When Life is in Limbo

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by MP31W! in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

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First Things First, Foreign Service, Hotels, Moving, Prayer

Last week was NOT a good week. Dealing with getting the car repaired after a fender bender, dealing with the other person’s insurance company, buying new car seats, getting a rental car, and dealing with packers and movers who came and got all of our stuff — can you believe it THAT was the easy part of the week?

But then, add in the hotel that sprung a massive leak. As in, the leak was on the seventh floor. Our room was highly affected.On the third floor. Yeah. Thankfully, we were dealing with soggy carpet and not ruined STUFF because all of our stuff was gone! Now, we’re living in a reconstruction zone with industrial fans, de-humidifier and holes in the walls.

To top it all off, after all the toys are packed up, the car is getting repaired, and we’re living out of suitcases, we find out that our move has been delayed at least two additional weeks.

Which began my complete and total freak out.

Yeah, we all know I have issues with the lack of control over my own life in this Foreign Service lifestyle. So the fact I’ve held it together this long while living in a hotel, it quite miraculous.

All the same, it was a pretty ugly sight.

The weekend was spent just coming to the point of acceptance and resignation. And we’re back to waiting. Just waiting for answers, decisions, and a chance to move forward.

This period of waiting with seemingly no direction and no “purpose” can be so demoralizing. And that, for me, leads to just being completely frozen in procrastination. What to do?

So, today, I am pretending to erase last week entirely and declaring a do-over.

In addition, I’m starting to realize certain daily routines that will need to be added to our daily schedules once we eventually DO move . . . somewhere. In order to keep on top of the house insanity, we will all have to pitch in and do one hour of hard-core housework each day, on top of regular pick-up. That should keep us from living in a total pig sty. I don’t know how much of the deep cleaning can fit in that hour, but that will be my goal. Right now I think my idea will be to focus on a certain area or chore each day, just to keep up. I hope our budget will be able to grow and allow us someone to come in once a week and do some of the heavy-duty cleaning and ironing.

So for today, we spent the morning getting Mt. St. Laundry folded and completely put away. Quite an endeavor, but the girls are getting much better at helping – they now sort and fold all the socks and their underwear. As soon as we do one day move, I’m going to start them learning the towels and wash cloths next, since those are the next easiest part of the task. One thing I am trying to teach them is that when we all work together, we can get more done more quickly, and then we can move on to more fun things!

For the rest of the day: I do have a client call this afternoon, so I plan to spend some time writing and catching up on blog work, and paperwork like balancing the checkbook and paying bills, that sort of thing. (All I seem to be behind on at the moment.) And while the girls are playing nicely together right now, I’m going to take a break and get back into my devotional study which I am really looking forward to. Might as well look at the positive of this “limbo-ness:” more time without a plan or schedule means I can devote time to things I want and need to do, like prayer and study time with God!