K5 Learning Review

In May, I was offered the opportunity of trying out K5 Learning for a 6-week trial period.  Now that our trial has concluded, I get to tell you my opinion.

K5 Learning is an online program designed to help kids with math, spelling, and reading.  While it can be used after school or during the summer for kids who need extra practice, homeschoolers can benefit from this fun program as well.

I tried K5 Learning with my daughters, who are 6 and 9 (just finishing Kindergarten and 4th grade).  To begin the process, we asked for and received placement tests.  My older daughter took the one for math, and my youngest did the tests for both reading and math.  While my oldest tested out at her grade level, she was a bit low on geometry; therefore, that’s where they started her math lessons. 

Her opinion on the geometry lessons?  She loved them so much that she begged to do extra lessons.  In addition to the brilliant graphics, animation, and sound effects, the lessons are actually fun.  To my daughter, each lesson was like playing a game.  I observed that the instruction was very thorough and easy to understand.  The site is very kid-friendly, by the way.  Both my daughters were easily able to navigate it independently.

My youngest tested out within the early 1st grade level for both reading and math.  She also begged constantly to do lessons on this program.  They began her on the levels she tested for, but she quickly picked up the lessons and seemed to understand what she was doing.  I heard her laughing a lot, so I’m pretty sure she had fun while learning.

Both girls also used the math facts section.  They enjoyed making a character that shows up each time they do the math practice.  They were able to choose hair, eyes, nose, mouth, clothing, and accessories.  That was probably their favorite part!  The math facts include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  You can choose what facts your child needs practice in, and a chart at the end shows his or her progress.  After completing a set of math facts and seeing their progress chart, children are allowed to choose a game from the game arcade.

Although the lessons were a lot like playing games for my children, I will emphasize that they DID learn.  The program is an award-winning curricula.

We didn’t use the spelling program, but I played around with it a little.  The spelling includes spelling by hearing the word and also spelling by learning vocabulary.  With the vocabulary, you are given a clue and a sentence with a blank.  In many cases, two clues are given if the word has more than one definition.  While both were great, I do have one issue with the spelling by hearing section.  The voices for each word are different, which is fine, but a few of the voices are very difficult to understand.

You can open up accounts for more than one student, each with his or her own user name and password.  The parent has a separate user name and password to access the parent section.  One key benefit of this program is that it tracks your child’s progress and provides reports for parents to view.  Parents can also make their own assignments by choosing from any lesson, although the program itself can give your child assignments based on the assessment.

If you’d like to read more about K5 Learning, go to this link for an overview of the program: K5Learning.  Here’s a link to a video tour of the program:  K5 Intro Video.  Better yet, you can sign up for a free 14-day trial!  The website also has links to free sample lessons and thousands of free worksheets.  Even if you can’t pay to use the program, the free worksheets are worth a visit to the K5 Learning site.

The only downside of this program for me is the price.  You pay a subscription of $25/month or $199/year with discounts for extra children.  While the program may be worth the cost, not everyone will be able to afford it.  I certainly can’t.  If money is not an issue for you, and your child needs a math and reading program for homeschool or just extra practice in those subjects, then I highly recommend K5Learning.

Disclaimer:  I was allowed to try out this program for 6 weeks, free of charge, in return for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.