Time4Learning.com Review

Are you looking for a educational yet fun way to supplement your kid's homeschooling? Something with feedback for parents as well as for students?

Time4Learning.com has a fantastic online supplemental learning program. It's for grades Pre-K thru Middle School aged kids.

We used it with each of our four kids. My kids LOVED this program! (That would be with an emphasis of caps, underscore and an exclamation point!) Each one of them enjoyed it for different reasons:

Julia, pre-k, loved the painting.

Jaden, grade K, loved the Playground online games.

Jedediah, grade 2, loved the clickable online stories. (Best ever clickable online readers I've seen as yet. Each word is clickable and read to the student on demand!) His reading improved dramatically from this one feature of this program!

Josiah, grade 4, loved the story writing feature available at the end of each unit. The printouts of the great little stories he created through Time4Learning have been printed out and are a part of his school notebook for this year!

How does it work? Parents set up a login for each of their kids. During which time they let Time4Learning know which grade level the student is at. Creating for each child a personalized learning program. Then students login and use the program.

Time4Learning provides instant feedback for both student and parent. A check mark appears in top of finished levels. For parents there's a progress review sheet available for you to check to see if your student is understanding the course work. Feedback is provided in percentages (80% of 100%).

The Playground is where Time4Learning.com has fun yet educational online games. There is a neat timer feature for the Playground, so that students can only play for so many minutes (set by parent) each day.

What's it cost? Approximately $20 per student per month. So, for my four kids it would run about $80 a month. So, for our family it's cost prohibitive. Yet, if you have one child that needs some extra time with instant feedback, I would definitely recommend this program!

For the support side of things, they have an informational blog as well as a parent forum where you can ask other parents using Time4Learning.com questions about the program. And from personal experience, they have great email customer service!

Spears Art Studio Review

K-8 Christian Art Curriculum
A Teacher's Manual
By Diane S. Spears,
Doctor of Christian Education
Christian Education Artist

K-8 Christian Art Curriculum is an all encompassing Art Program for teaching the K-8 student available through Spears Art Studio.


It is a biblically based program, geared towards Christians. Made for teachers. Yet what I really appreciate about it is that it is completely adaptable for homeschooling!

Have you ever wanted to do art projects that really explain art? Have you ever wanted art to have more significance than just an outlet for creativity? Spears Art Studio explains HOW to teach art. It also has a biblical base, so every project has a related scripture and purpose, making it meaningful.

For those of us who are into scope & sequence, that information is included. For those of us who are on the more relaxed side of homeschooling, you can take the shopping cart approach to their program. Each project comes with a complete supplies needed list.

How is it set up? It's set up so that students do one art project per week for each week of the school year. Each week, there is at least one project, sometimes two, for each grade level. The art themes are seasonal, including holidays. I love the fact that, in Spears Art, at Christmas time we are studying the birth of Jesus!

In Spears Art Studio, there are plenty of projects and ideas so that you can teach multiple ages at the same time OR allow each student to do their own project.

Personally, I tend to do art projects where the kids basically have the same base project, and yet each child does a different level of work. Having the kids so the same projects really shows the differences in their learning styles AND personalities.









The pictures above (click for larger view) in pumpkin art are both from Spears Art Studio materials. The first project (picture on left), was color the pumpkin orange & green, then draw different shapes in each slice of the pumpkin, then cut the pumpkin out & cut it up in slices & put it back together like a puzzle. Glue on construction paper. Loved from my 3 year old to my 10 year old.

The bean pumpkin project (picture on right) was a take off of another Spears Art project. Julia, my 3 year old, had colored & cut three pumpkins. She still wanted to do another one while the boys were finishing up. So I had remembered that there was a bean project on the Spears Art Studios CD, and that I had beans in the pantry. So, she began and Jaden & Jedediah followed. We had just enough beans out of the 16 bean bag to do their three projects. We used elmers glue to glue on the beans. The kids were so proud!

There is enough material included on this CD, that you could buy it once, and use it for multiple children as they move through grades K-8. A complete set of art projects that you could use for multiple children for 9 school years! It's definitely worth the $39.95 (price includes CD with printable instructions. Hardcopy materials available for additional cost).

Click HERE to see a sample Christmas themed lesson!

They also have art materials for High School Art as well as Calligraphy. Visit www.spearsartstudio.com to check out their website or to buy Spears Art Studio K-8 Art Curriculum online.

One to Believe Nativity Set

Almost every Christian family puts out their nativity set in light of Christmas. We do. Yet something that has frustrated me year after year, with our four young children around, is that we don't ever let them actually touch the Nativity.

Instead of letting our kids get some hands on play time recreating the events around the birth of Jesus, we put it up on a shelf, where it is seen and not touched. The kids probably can't even see it for themselves without standing on a chair!

Why? Well, because it is breakable. Someday, I'll want to pass the Nativity set on down to one of my children. How can I do that if it's broken? You may not be in the same exact circumstances. Maybe you don't let your kids play with yours because you don't want to loose all of the pieces....

Anyway, I've often wished that I could find a Nativity set, that I wouldn't worry about getting broken. Don't want it to be broken, don't want to be upset with little Suzie for breaking it either!

With all this being said, a Biblically based toy company, One 2 Believe has come out with toys geared towards Christian families. One of their figurine sets is The Nativity: The Birth of The King.


A nativity set that has 17 cute little cartoon-like nativity characters that is also child friendly. It's made out of plastic, making it durable. It comes with a mini multilingual book telling the story of the birth of Jesus. This is one that I have no problems letting my kids play with! Retails $24.99

Their website is full of other bible based toys, figurines and dolls. There is also a kid section with biblical stories, coloring pages and wallpapers for your computer. Click HERE to visit One2Believe.com and see the Nativity set for yourself!