K5 Learning Review

Math and reading are essential to everyday life.  But they don’t have to be boring.  For the past month Tristan has been using K5 Learning on-line math and reading program.  We received a 6-week subscription in exchange for our honest opinions.  There are affiliate links within this post.From the parent’s dashboard you can see the results of the placement tests, as well as how long your child has taken on various tasks and how many have been completed.  Parents can also set assignments for their children from here.

K5 Math has lots of variety in the questions; learning to tell time, word problems, counting flowers in a garden, more or less, and lots more.  The visuals are very helpful for kids to grasp the concepts.  They will work on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  There is also a math facts area where you can put your knowledge to the test with speed and knowledge.

K5 Reading includes phonics, sight words, vocabulary and reading comprehension.  There are also spelling and vocabulary tutors to use.  However, I found this area to be very difficult to do.

There are many printable worksheets available from the K5 Learning website.  I printed off a couple of noun worksheets for Tristan at different grade levels.  I wasn’t too sure how he’d do with them as we’ve really only discussed nouns in passing once or twice, but he did a great job of them and wants to do more.

I like the option that not everything has to be done on pc with games and cute characters, but that children can see their work in print as well. Printable worksheets are available for math, reading comprehension, grammar, cursive writing and flashcards.

K5 Learning has a humorous side!  Each day when your child signs in they will see a new riddle.  For example:  What does the ocean say when it sees the shore?  Nothing, it just waves….insert groan here….but they’re fun!

What do I like about K5 Learning?  One thing I love about K5 Learning is that is it multicultural.  There are characters of different nationalities and it’s nice to hear the Japanese names in an everyday product.  There isn’t enough diversity in products, in my opinion, so we were pleased to see it here.

The lessons start right where they left off, so your child doesn’t have to worry about finding their place.  They only need to choose whether they will work on the math or the reading and the rest is taken care of. The animation is simple so it doesn’t distract from the tasks at hand.

What do I think could be improved upon?  The assessment tool could be built in so you don’t have to email back and forth with the company and wait for it to be set up and for any levels to be changed.  This process is quite time-consuming and means you’re kept in limbo before being able to start using the program effectively.

I also think it could be beneficial if there was a way to skip over a particular assignment if needed.  For example, we live in the UK, so when a lesson came up that used quarts and pints none of us knew what to do so I blindly tried to do the questions for Tristan to get him past the lesson.  Of course, this will also have an effect on his scores.

Overall, I think this is a fun program for children to use to help supplement their math learning.  However, if you’re not living in the USA or are not aligned with the common core standards, this may not be the right fit for you.  Some of the math learning using part-part-whole was a difficult concept for Tristan to grasp, and I’m a believer that a child should have all the basics down first before trying to uses shortcuts.  That being said, if you are using common core, then I’m sure you’d find this very useful.

K5 Learning is $20.00 per month for your first child, additional children are $15.00.  A yearly subscription is $199.00 for your first child and $129.00 for addition children but you can try some sample lessons or sign up for a free 2 week trial before your purchase to see if this is the right program for your children.

If you’re looking for great learning products, be sure to check out our reviews page to see what we’ve been trying out, as well as our thoughts on them.