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K5 Learning Review

For the last 6 weeks, my daughter has been using K5 Learning as a regular supplement to her homeschooling day.  K5 Learning is an online program with math, reading and spelling for Kindergarten to Grade 5 students.

A K5 Learning review from a homeschooling mom. A review of all 3 of their online programs: K5 Math, K5 Reading & K5 Spelling.
K5 Learning has 3 separate programs: K5 Reading, K5 Math and K5 Spelling.  Every subscription gives access to all 3 programs.

K5 Reading

When a child logs on to use K5 Reading, they will work through a lesson in one of these 5 main skill areas:

I especially appreciated the reading comprehension sections.  It allows for some good practice in this area at a much faster pace than can be done offline.

Working on reading comprehension offline requires my presence sitting with my daughter as she reads the story, and my interaction as she answers the questions and painstakingly writes down each word of the answer.

But on K5 Learning, handwriting and parent participation is removed from the equation.  The story is read to the child (if they choose that option), and they can just focus on improving their reading comprehension and not all the rest.

Screenshot of Reading Comprehension section on K5 Reading.

Parents can check reports at any time to see what lessons their child has done and which areas their child might be having difficulty in.  Here is a screenshot of part of my daughter’s Reading Progress Report:

reading progress report for K5 Learning

K5 Math

K5 Math has lessons in these 5 main skill areas:

Assessment

When you first begin it is recommended to have your child do a free online assessment for both math and reading.  This will help determine what level your child is at so the program will be at their correct level and not too easy or too difficult.

If I remember correctly each assessment took my daughter about 20-30 minutes.  For both subjects it ranked her as being at an early Grade 2 level.  I felt this was an accurate assessment for her reading level but not her math level.

There is a tab in the parents dashboard called “Change Levels” where parents can fill out a small form to request a level change for their child.  There is a level guide you can look at to help you determine the appropriate level.  Here’s a screenshot for Grade 2 Math:

They say you can be at different levels for different skill areas.  So for example, I might think my daughter is at an early Grade 2 for Measurement but late Grade 2 for Numbers & Operation.

This still did not help me too much tho as there were individual skills in early Grade 2 Numbers & Operations that were much too easy for my daughter whereas the other skills would be good for her to work on.

My daughter on several occasions tried to work through the easy math hoping that soon she would be done that part and could get to some more challenging math.  The easy math was extremely boring for her and seemed endless.  So we stopped using the math program altogether, that is until I figured out a way around this.

There is a “Create Assignment” section in the parent dashboard.  Here parents can access the Lesson Library and assign all the lessons that they choose.  I assigned everything except those too easy skills. 🙂  Now that we got that figured out, my daughter enjoys doing K5 Math.

A screenshot of K5 Math.

K5 Spelling

K5 Spelling is an online program for kids to practice spelling.  It’s not a fun and games type way to practice spelling, but effective nonetheless.  Here’s a screenshot of a typical view:

K5 Spelling screenshot

Parents can add words if they choose to, that they want their children to work on.  The one thing I wished is that parents could go in and see which words they previously added, and edit the list if desired.

The parents dashboard does have some great reports that will show which words your child spelled correctly and incorrectly.

A computer with internet access is all that’s needed to use K5 Learning.  And it uses Flash.  At the beginning I could not get K5 Spelling to work for me.  I contacted customer service who responded very quickly with the solution.  I had allowed flash to run on K5 Learning so the math and reading programs worked fine.  But I hadn’t realized that K5 Spelling runs on a separate domain, so I needed to allow flash for that domain as well.

Worksheets for Offline Practice

Another feature is that after each lesson is finished, there are corresponding worksheets available for the student to be able to further practice the lesson they worked on offline, if you wish them to do so.  It’s an option.

All of the worksheets can also be accessed here completely free even if you don’t have a subscription.

My Final Thoughts on K5 Learning

One thing I appreciate is that K5 Math & K5 Reading are not just online quiz type programs, but there’s a lesson / tutorial for each skill being worked on.  So kids do not need to have previously learned a skill to be able to work through it.

This also means that there is no parent involvement needed.  Yay 🙂  As a single homeschooling mom, trying to juggle everything, these type of programs are most appreciated.  It’s time I can use to make supper or whatever else I need to get done and know my daughter is still busy learning.

And since it’s online, it doesn’t feel like work to my daughter.  Even if it’s at the end of a very productive school day, my daughter will happily go on the computer to do K5 Learning.

Is it fun? I asked my daughter and she says yes.  But, it’s not one of those mostly fun-and-games type programs that incorporates learning.  The focus is definitely on the learning.

All in all, I feel K5 Learning is great addition for any homeschooling child from Kindergarten to Grade 5.  And a great idea for the summer months, as it’s a no fuss way to incorporate some solid learning in a way the kids won’t mind.

Do you want to try it out yourself?  They have a free trial offer where you can try everything free for 14 days with zero obligation and no credit card asked for.

K5 Learning {Reviews}

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