non-reading son

[busymama]

will this help for a non-liking-to-read son? he's 14 and is probably at a 4-5th grade level.

he does not like to read. i can't get him to read. how do i know what grade level to put him on?

can i change levels once enrolled?

[hearthstone_academy]

If you think he is at a fourth or fifth grade level, you might enroll him at the fifth grade. Students have easy access to lessons one level below their enrollment level and one level above their enrollment level. That way, he can try out levels 4, 5, and 6 before deciding for sure.

You can change his registered level at any time by using the Change Educational Level link at the top of this page.

No curriculum can guarantee your son's enjoyment , but the reading selections are short and generally entertaining. Since they are interactive, they tend to hold a reluctant reader's interest.

The best way to find out is to take advantage of the risk free trial.

Best wishes to you and your son!

[seashell]

14 day trial, isn't it?

[busymama]

i do like the free trial. i'm also going to try him on the SOS i've already bought and see how he does.

is there a discount for more than 2 kids? i'm thinking perhaps i could just use this program next year and then i've got everyone covered

[hearthstone_academy]

It's $19.95/month for the first child and $14.95 for each additional child. The discount has certainly been nice for me, with five using T4L.

We tried SOS, and I thought it was "ok". My kids kept losing or scratching the CDs though. When my son finished one subject early, I had to buy another CD in order for him to move on. With Time4Learning, you don't pay more to advance a grade level. Even without all of that, T4L is about half the price of SOS for four subjects.

[busymama]

you can load the disk right to the hard drive. i am going to check out t4l too and see what my son responds to after he does sos for a few weeks.

all the kids would be 65 a month

how does the organization compare for admin?

[hearthstone_academy]

Not having to use the disc is a good improvement.

how does the organization compare for admin?

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

[busymama]

about the organization, i mean like for SOS in the parent admin area you can set the calendar, see the lesson plans, set school days or not, grade the papers, leave notes to the students, ... how does T4L compare to SOS in the teacher admin areas?

does the t4l website read to the student if they need it? that is one reason i changed to SOS.. not only for hte automatic lesson planning but for it reading outloud to the student for my weak and non-reader readers.

and yes, i agree. not having to use the disc is a nice thing!

[hearthstone_academy]

Ex-SOS users are sometimes confused at first, simply because Time4Learning is so easy to use. With Time4Learning, to schedule a non-school day, you just don't do school that day. I did find setting up the calendar and so forth in SOS rather grueling. Time4Learning incorporates a built-in flashing arrow that points your student to the next lesson activity. Activities are designated by icons that are marked as "Complete" when the activity is finished.

Thorough lesson plans are available through the parent login. Planning is a simple matter of deciding how many lesson activities to do each day. They are a number of ways to make that decision, based on the needs of your student.

Time4Learning grades your student's papers. Grade reports, available by clicking on the student's "Backpack" icon, can be sorted in a variety of ways. Parents need to grade student essays, but there is an assessment tool to assist with this.

Most of the language arts and math lessons will be read aloud to your student. There is a downloadable program that can read the rest of the lessons aloud.

Reading the Hints can give you a "feel" for how the program works.

[busymama]

cool. looked at every link on the HINTS page.... i think this will work for my son.

if not, at least it's easier to get rid of then to resell curriculum i've bought and he hates! we start school back next month so will try the trial then and make sure he likes it. thanks for the clarification.