Time4Learning

Once upon a time, there was a homeschooling family lost in a forest.  They weren’t even quite sure how they had wandered into the forest, or how long they had been there, though it felt like quite a while.  The father was far too busy trying to provide for his family to figure out how to escape the forest.  The elder son found the forest “way cool” and saw no need to hurry to find an exit.  The younger son, however, was terrified of the forest, and thought that every snapping twig was an angry monster out to devour him.  So, it was up to the mother to search for a way out.  So she searched.  And searched.  And finally, one day, she saw a bright light ahead.  It gave her hope, and the younger son became less afraid the closer they got to the light.  As the family exited the forest for the first time in years, their eyes adjusted to the brightness and they were in awe as a beautiful billboard towered above them and lighted their path.  Never had they seen letters so brilliantly illuminated across a neon background…T-I-M-E-4-L-E-A-R-N-I-N-G.  Glorious!

This fanciful tale may seem far-fetched, but there are many truthful comparisons between this bewildered family and our own.  And, much like the family in the story, our homeschooling journey has also been long and fraught with times of perplexity and bewilderment.  It all started for us 9 years ago when our oldest son developed an autoimmune disorder that affected his brain.  We were just about to enroll him in kindergarten when suddenly our world turned upside down, and after months of recuperation, public school was no longer an option.  The idea of homeschooling our children had never even entertained our thoughts, so we headed into the forest completely unprepared.

The first few years of homeschooling were actually not too bad.  My son attained knowledge quickly (he was already reading at age 3½), and happily accepted whatever curriculum I chose for him.  The forest was actually not so bad, I decided.

It was not until my younger son was ready for school that we noticed the forest getting a lot darker and scarier.  He was in all ways opposite of his older brother, and despised every homeschool curricula I tried with him.  We soon discovered he had dyslexia, and was a right-brained, visual learner.  The forest was terribly frightening and discouraging for someone with his learning style, and as each year went by, he felt that it was closing in around him.  We spent what seemed a fortune trying to meet his needs, but nothing seemed to click with him until we saw the light – – or in keeping with the story, the bright, shiny billboard.

At that point, everything got a lot more “Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood,” and a lot less “Bambi running from the hunters.”  Our whole outlook on homeschooling changed when we found an online homeschool program that allowed our son to advance at his own pace in an interactive and visual way, and covered all the core subjects, while still leaving room for individuality.  Time4Learning takes care of all the nitty-gritty of homeschooling, and leaves us time and space to rekindle the joy of learning.

So now?  The forest is a distant memory.  Our homeschooling days are filled with wonderfully techie learning and fun.  What more can you ask for a Topsy-Techie homeschooling family? Thanks, Time4Learning!