Time4Learning Review

Time4Learning.com gave us a free 30-day trial to their program, if we were willing to review it. We homeschool, and Time4Learning advertises that they can be used as a supplement or as a full-blown curriculum. I decided to use it with my 9-year-old, 3rd-grade son as a supplement to his regular curriculum.
Time4Learning offers full units/lessons in Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. It was simple to log on to the program, and easy to choose the main subject. What was more difficult was finding a good match within the main topic. As a parent, I could not find a way in the system to assign my son topics. Instead, I had to give verbal direction. That seemed to take away from his enjoyment. Admittedly, I didn't have a lot of time to invest in "playing" with the program, so perhaps I overlooked the way to modify it. But I found it frustrating that a computer-based program could not be easily adapted for our individual family needs. There didn't seem to be any parental control on the system - I found the parental area mainly focused on billing issues. (I only tried 2-3 times, under serious time constraints. So you'll want to do your own research on this.)
My son liked the program a lot, jumping from different subjects based on interest and enjoyment. Visually it's a fun program - very bright and cheerful. For those who learn by listening, it was very stimulating and had a fun, entertaining style. My son enjoyed using the program and I heard no complaints when I asked him to use it. But he also never volunteered to go on. If he had computer free-time, he was more interested in using it for games and his regular "fun" activities.
When looking through topics covered, I found it spot-on for 3rd grade. What was also interesting was that they offered 2nd and 4th grade levels as part of our program and it was easy to move between grades. We focused on the 3rd grade, but I think this was a very good feature to include.
My most serious concern regarding Time4Learning has perhaps more to do with my son than with the program. But I found that he rushed himself and didn't take time to really study or learn. He would push through activities in order to move on to the next exciting thing. I was dismayed to find him getting 50% on quizzes. He wasn't aware that they were grading him -- I like to think if he'd known he would have paid more attention. My point is, he viewed it more as a game than as school. And while I want learning to be enjoyable, I do not want him to feel like if he's not having fun or being entertained, then he can skip putting effort into it.
If Time4Learning is a supplement, or perhaps a summer enrichment program, then some of the issues I had with the program might not be of too much concern. Unless these issues were addressed, then I could not consider this as my child's main curriculum.
Despite the areas of concern, I feel there is enough value to Time4Learning that we are going to purchase an additional month of use. It has a lot of good to it, as well as a full and fun content. It seems worth spending extra time to figure out how to best adapt it to suit our needs.