Tips and Tricks for Creating a Detailed Activity Plan in Time4Learning

It's been a little over 2 years since I wrote a blog post.  Lot's has changed, but one thing has stayed the same - we still homeschool.

As I write this, my sons are now in 3rd and Kindergarten.  We are still using Time4Learning.com (T4L) as our primary learning program, and there are a few tips and tricks I have discovered as my son entered 2nd and 3rd grade. (We also use and love Readingeggs.com and Mathseeds.com, but this post is just about T4L).

We recommend Time4Learning as a fun, affordable, and flexible program.  You can use it as is, but we discovered a way to make it better (especially with Math 2nd grade and above).

The Math "Problem" (Starting in 2nd Grade) and How to Make it Better

As my son entered 2nd Grade, I noticed about three months into the school year, that he was doing really hard double digit subtraction.  After some discovery, I learned that most programs introduce this towards the end of 2nd Grade, and we still had 6 months left. Additionally, he had not visited the concepts of time and money for months. He couldn't remember how to tell time or count money. We both found this frustrating when he wanted to count his money in his bank or know what time it was.

After a little digging I discovered, Time4Learning does not take a circular or spiral approach to learning.  Their approach is very linear with each topic covered once. The main concepts are broken into chapters with arithmetic all being at the beginning chapters, so it is taught first.  The ending chapters have concepts like shapes, graphing, money, and time.  Instead of spreading all the material out over the school year and reviewing concepts often, Time4Learning's program has kids first learn all the arithmetic for the year, and then they look at other concepts like money and time. Additionally, since money and time are one chapter each, kids are only taught these subjects for about one month per year.  My son and I found this very difficult and frustrating (hence the need for Mathseeds.com).

Why is T4L's linear approach to learning a problem? Let me put on my professional educator hat for a moment and explain.  Learning theory is built on many principles, and two are exercise and recency (see Edward Thorndike and the Laws of Learning).  Items are remembered best, if they are reviewed and visited often.  T4L's math outline does not allow for important concepts to be reviewed and practiced often, so they are not remembered as well long term, especially for children who need lots of repetition.  So, I came up with a solution.

My Solution - Math Custom Detailed Learning Plan (Starting in 2nd Grade)

T4L's program allows parents to create a "Detailed Learning Activity Plan" for students.  In this learning plan, parents can organize learning activities so that students know what to complete each month/week/or day.  My son likes a weekly plan. It was a little tricky but I was able to make a custom plan that allows for my son to slow down the arithmetic and mix in other math concepts like time or money.

As an aside 

Why do I keep using T4L if it doesn't provide the best educational plan for my child?
Simply - it's affordable, flexible, practical, has all the materials needed, and in my opinion, it is still one of the best all-around programs out there for homeschool.

Let me explain how I made the Detailed Learning/Activity Plan.

• Step 1 - I created a Year Plan based on 36 weeks including all the material I wanted my son to learn for the school year.  This gave me the amount of material my son needed to complete weekly, i.e. 5 math lessons/week.  By doing this I also was able to identify the exact lessons in Language Arts, Language Arts Express, Science, and Social Studies that my son needed to complete each week. 
• Step 2 - I created a 2nd Custom Learning/Activity Plan - Monthly Planner.  I made this the "Default Planner" under "Manage Planner."  This planner's start and end date were set for a 30-day or one month period.  I changed the start and end date each month.
• Step 3 - I looked at the yearly plan and figured out the number of lessons to be completed that month in Math (i.e 4 weeks of 5 lesson = 20 lessons).  Then I wrote down the ending lessons for Language Arts, Language Arts Express, Science, and Math for that month.

• Step 4 - I reopened the Monthly Planner and went into "Edit Planner".  I made sure the start and end dates were set for the current month and then I edited the subjects and activities for the month manually (yes it take a few minutes, but it's so worth the outcome).  To do this, under each subject I selected the dial "Choose My Material" and "Make Edits."  For Language Arts, Language Arts Extensions, Science, and Social Studies I selected the exact lessons for the month in chronological order. 

• Step 5 - For the Math Section, I did not select all the lessons in order.  I divided the arithmetic over the remaining months (if you do this at the start of the year divide by 36 weeks or 9 months).  I choose a few arithmetic lessons chronological from the list and then I picked a few lessons from the other chapters.  For example, if 20 math lessons were required for the month, I would choose 7 arithmetic lessons and 3 time lessons, 2 money lessons, and continue down the list choosing about 2 lessons per chapter.  Most of the chapters don't build upon each other (except the arithmetic chapters) so really the rest of the chapters can be done in any order.       

• Step 6 - I repeated step 5 at the beginning of every month and adjusted the Monthly Plan. It worked out great. My son completed a blend of math subjects each month and it gave me more time to learn and digest the arithmetic concepts.    

By the end of the year all the math subjects and chapters had been completed and my son and I were much happier with the results.

My son is now in 3rd grade and we are following this approach again to balance out his math curriculum throughout the year.  I grouped the Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division chapters into my arithmetic section.  These concepts I have divided up into 36 weeks and each month we do a portion (6) arithmetic lessons along with (15) lessons from graphing, measurement, time, and money. He is doing the same amount of math, but with more of a circular or spiral approach to learning with lots of review and practice.

Along came 3rd Grade Language Arts - A Similar Issue

It's now July 2020 and my son is starting Week 6 of 3rd Grade. We are using the Detailed Lesson/Activity Plan as explained above.  The problem is, I am noticing my son in not improving in his reading and the lessons in the Language Arts Chapters 1 and 2 are not including reading practice and reading improvement concepts.  I did a ton of research and I think I have a solution.

The Language Arts Solution - Reading (Starting in 3rd Grade)

T4L Language Arts has ILA lessons starting at Chapter 13 in the 3rd Grade material.  The T4L forum says, ILA stands for Integrated Learning Activity.  According to T4L, "Our Independent learning activities (ILA), think alouds, interactive guided instruction and read & respond lessons will build and develop working knowledge of language arts skills and give students plenty of practice" (https://www.time4learning.com/education/third_grade.shtml).  Hum, I think this is what he needs (in addition to Readingeggs.com, but let me stay on track).

Looking through these ILA lessons, I believe the ILA lessons are the lessons my son needs to continue to develop his reading skills.  And I don't want to wait until he finishes Chapters 1-12 to start these lessons.  So I adjusted our Language Arts detailed plan to be very much like the Math plan explained above.

Here are my steps:

• I basically figured out the number of activities in the Language Arts Chapters 1-12 (277 Total less 35 ILA activities = 242 activities), and I divided this by the number of weeks we have remaining in our school year (30 weeks now, since we are 6 weeks in). If you are at the beginning of the school year, you would want to divide by 36 weeks to get about 7 activities per week.  
• Then I looked at the 35 ILA activities and determined we need to do one (or two) per week. 
• I went into our detailed plan for the month and selected about 24 lessons from Chapters 1-12 and 4 ILA lessons starting at Chapter 13.
• Each month I will need to go in and select the next lessons from the beginning chapters and the ILA chapters.
• Hint: I have instructed my son to do one ILA lesson each week. He likes a weekly plan over a monthly plan, so all the ILA lessons will show up in the lessons for the last week of the month. This is because they are Chapter 13 lessons and the logic of the program will put activities from Chapters 1-12 first.    

I hope this helps at least one parent.  Heaven knows, I don't make a cent off my blog.

I plan to create a detailed Curriculum Guide for 2nd and 3rd grade, which will include better details  and instructions for making a T4L detailed lesson plan.  It will also include information about the other learning resources we use and give you a simple lesson plan outline for the school year.  When it becomes available you can find this and my other curriculum & lesson plan guides on my shop - KidWisdomShop.

If you would like help creating a detailed lesson plan for your child in Time4Learning, I would be happy to help you with this service. I try to keep my social media profile pretty private, but you can reach me through my Martial Arts School Website - Flying Tiger Martial Arts in GA or Facebook Page @FlyingTigerGA.  Messages at these two locations go directly to me.

Want More Learning Ideas and Materials

Do you want more lesson plans, activity ideas, and more resources? 

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