It Always Helps . . .

. . . to have someone besides Mom giving feedback to a child.  Why is it that kids think moms are either hypercritical or hyperpositive?  Whatever the reason, it really doesn’t matter.  We have found a program that has improved my daughter’s basic grammar and mechanic skills, and it involves feedback from someone besides me.  That program is Time4Writing.

     Time4Writing in an online program with classes available for elementary through high school students.  All of the classes available focus on some aspect of writing:  grammar, mechanics, sentence writing, paragraph writing, essay writing, and advanced essay writing.  Each class last for 8 weeks and costs $99.  There is no set start date for classes (meaning, students can enroll at any time and their specific class begins when they are registered).  A student’s class ends 8 weeks from the start date.  If there are some type of extenuating circumstances (like an illness, for example), parents can request that the student’s class be put on hold for a specific time period.  That way a student can pick up where he/she left off when able to resume course work.  If there is one thing that has been a point that I have a love/hate relationship with about this program, it is that parent’s do not have access to student records when the course is over.  Parent’s can request a one week record extension; but, if you are as scattered as I am, it is better for me to have permanent access to records because one week will fly by with me never remembering to download and print off what I needed.  I think the structure and deadlines are a good thing with Time4Writing – I definitely need parameters; but, I would like for parents to always have access to records. We have been using the Middle School Mechanics program for the past several weeks.  It is extremely user friendly, easy to register and set up, and fun to use.

     As for the actual class material and structure, my daughter is absolutely loving Time4Writing.  She is able to login to her course, read her lesson, complete her assignments, check her grades, communicate with her teacher, and (if desired) communicate securely with other students.  Most of the assignments she completes are scored online immediately.  In each unit there is a combination of objective type assignments that are scored immediately and writing assignments that go to her teacher for scoring.  A grading scale is provided in information about the course, so there are no questions about deductions on a paper.  Also, the teacher has been really good at explaining why something needs to be corrected and how to correct it.  Caitlyn hasn’t had a lot of corrections / deductions on her work, so we haven’t seen a lot of feedback; but, what feedback she has received has always been courteous, clear, and easy to understand.  This is not a Christian-based program, so all of the sentences involved in the lessons are secular in nature, but we have not seen anything that was objectionable to our family.  As a matter of fact, many of the sentences are mildly humorous, which makes the lessons more fun to go through. 

     So far, Caitlyn has used Time4Writing as an 8-week grammar / mechanics review.  It has really been great for her.  She has reviewed and practiced identifying nouns, identifying common and proper nouns (including practicing capitalization), forming plurals and possessives, identifying complete subjects, identifying simple subjects, identifying complete predicates, identifying simple predicates, and recognizing complete sentences vs. fragments vs. run-ons.  I think the only time she has gotten frustrated with the program was when she completed a writing assignment and submitted it to her teacher, but wasn’t allowed to move on in the program until the assignment was graded.  Her teacher graded all writing assignments very promptly (always by the next day), but, for a ‘mover and a shaker’ like my daughter, she would have loved for writing assignments to have been graded ‘yesterday.’  It was good for her to have to slow down a bit and wait for the feedback before moving on.  It gave her a chance to digest what she had been learning.  I am looking forward to her completing the rest of her lessons.  I think it is helping her tremendously in her writing skills.  I am contemplating moving on and purchasing the paragraph program for her to do next. If it is as quality as this mechanics program has been, I think it will be a real winner for us!

     If you would like to explore Time4Writing in more detail, visit the Time4Writing website.  On the website, you can explore the different classes available, see placement information so you can decide on the correct course, register for courses, and (my favorite) get a lot of great freebies.  Many of my friends on the Schoolhouse Review Crew were able to use and review the Middle School Mechanics course as well as other courses offered by Time4Writing.  To read their reviews, simply visit the main Schoolhouse Review Crew page.

**As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew I received the Middle School Mechanics course to use in exchange for this honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  No compensation was received.**