Time 4 Writing {TOS CREW}

For the last 4 weeks or so the Lil' Chef has been using a new program for writing.  She has been doing an online writing course with Time 4 Writing. 

Time 4 Writing offers several different writing courses for students in grades 2-12.  The Lil' Chef took the Middle School Writing Mechanics.  Here is how Time 4 Writing describes this course:

This eight-week course is the first of two courses focusing on "boosting the basics" at the middle school level.

Basic Mechanics A allows students to strengthen their foundation writing skills. The course teaches the fundamentals of writing such as: sentences vs. fragments, subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, and capitalization. 

The class is completely online and she was given 8 weeks of access to complete the course.  I never did tell her how long she had to complete the course {smile}, she is pretty motivated to get her work done, so I didn't think it would be an issue.  Time 4 Writing does list a 4 and 8 week suggested schedule that the student can follow but the she just worked at her own pace. 

The Middle School Mechanics Course covered the following topics:

1. The Sentence, The Fragment and The Run-on
2. Nouns, Nouns and More Nouns!
3. Subjects of a Sentence
4. Predicates of a Sentence
5. Subject - Verb Agreement in a Sentence
6. "Tricky" Subject - Verb Agreement
7. Capitalization
8. Sum it ALL UP!

The Lil' Chef enjoyed the assignments, although they were challenging.  She is the Perfect Paula type, and thrives on good grades.  She liked that when she had mistakes on an assignment she would be able to get feedback from her teacher and make the necessary corrections.  I also liked this feature of the program, the focus seems to be more about mastery than a grade.

As I mentioned, she has been doing this program for about 4 weeks and only has one more assignment left.  I think that the Time 4 Writing course has helped her to improve her writing skills. 

Here are the specific things that the Lil' Chef said she liked about Time 4 Writing:

I like getting graded. {told ya}
I like that everything is on the computer, including my writing assignments.
I am excited to get a certificate for completing the program. 
Time 4 Writing really helped me to better understand the difference between simple and complete predicates.
I liked having a teacher to explain this things I got wrong.
I liked that I could work at my own pace.

Mom's Thoughts:
I thought that over all Time 4 Writing was a good solid program.  For some reason I thought that Time 4 Writing was a teacher/ video class kind of thing, which it is not.  Not saying this is a bad thing, just not what I expected.  Basically, the student reads over the lesson and then completes the assignment online.  The teacher then grades and gives feedback on a job well done or corrections that need to be made. 

Even though the teacher is not teaching via video, they are just a message away if there are any questions from the student or parent.  The was a big plus for in my book!  The Lil' Chef really didn't have any questions regarding the work but on one of her assignments she received like a 90 - 95% on the paper but there were not remarks on what she missed.  I thought that was a little odd, usually the teacher, Mrs. Gilg, was very good at explaining Lil' Chef's mistakes.  I told my daughter to message her and ask what she missed to get the grade she got, because it appeared to be a perfect paper.  She was a little reluctant but I encouraged her to write the message.  The teacher wrote back and apologized that she had indeed clicked the wrong button, she immediately corrected the grade to 100%.  The Lil' Chef, of course, was THRILLED! 

I also liked the fact that she was getting feedback from a teacher that had more grammar and writing knowledge then me.  Did I mention that I received an email after each assignment that the Lil' Chef completed and got graded?  I really liked this feature, it helped to keep me in the loop. 

We were very happy with this program and would love to enroll in the another course soon!

The Time 4 Writing Courses are 8 weeks long and cost $99.00.  The courses range from Elementary to Adult Level.  Time 4 Writing even offers a guide to help you to select which course would be best for your student.

Please check out what other members of the TOS Crew have to say about Time 4 Writing. 

Disclaimer:  This product was given to us at no cost in exchange for an honest review.