K5 Learning offers an online math and reading program for kids from kindergarten through grade 5. Kids complete an online assessment of 8 key reading and math skills, and then work independently and at their own pace through over 3,000 lessons and activities. The lessons are animated, interactive and simple enough that even a 4 year old can use them by himself. The system automatically chooses lessons for students (based on their assessment and past lessons), tracks student progress and provides reports for parents. K5 Learning includes 4 modules: K5 Reading and K5 Math (curricula based lessons), K5 Math Facts (an adaptive program for developing instant recall in math facts) and K5 Spelling (an advanced spelling and vocabulary tutor).
K-5 has the following attributes:
- clear emphasis on curricula based education, not games / entertainment
- online assessment for placement of kids at appropriate skill levels
- ability for kids to work independently and proceed through lessons at their own pace
- minimize time requirements for parents (simple interfaces, automatic lesson selection, reporting)
K5 can be used for in conjunction with a homeschooling program; it is not intended as a full curriculum.
Website: K5 Learning
(4 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Grades Used: 2, 4
We used K5 Learning for their Spelling program. I loved how it kept track of the words my children mastered and those they struggled with. However, my second grader was asked to spell "gun" and "wine"... and while I'll drink a glass of wine quite happily, those are not necessary words for my 2nd grader to learn. The final straw was when my 4th grader was asked to spell "flask" with this sentence as it's example: "He kept a FLASK in the top drawer of his desk even though it violated company policy."
Sorry, but I won't be giving my business (and the education of my child) to a company that I can't trust to be competent and reasonable.
Cons: None
Grades Used: 5
K5 learning is a great website. I highly recommend it to every kid out there who is struggling with a certain subject. As a mom of 2, (teenage girl -16 young boy - 11) I have realized that it is so hard to get your kids to not only do their home work but to love it. K5 has done that for myself and for my family. Thank you K5!
Cons: Wish they would spend more time on some lessons that the student is having a hard time mastering
Grades Used: 3rd
My daughter and I both enjoy K5 learning. She has mild epilepsy and finding online programs that allow her to learn at her own speed are hard to find. She flew through the reading portion as she enjoyed the stories and even the tests afterward. Math, which is her hardest subject as that is the region of the brain her seizures are located in, she is filling in a lot of holes that public schooling did not focus on. She is making great progress and is actually not dreading math.
Cons: impatient animation
Grades Used: 2
I was searching for an online phonics program for my 7 year old child. I found http://www.k5learning.com through a search. We tried the program for the 14 day trial period. Below are my thoughts on the quality and ease of instruction.
I found the lessons to be very comprehensive. Each one had good instruction with nice animation and interesting actions for a child. Following the lesson, a graded activity was given that is reported on the Parent’s Dashboard.
The program offers an assessment in math and in reading. We took both. The assessment is about 30 minutes long and has games mixed in to keep the child from getting burned out. My child tested above grade level for both math and reading but I do not feel she is really above grade level based on what is taught for each grade. I used the assessment data with caution.
The program allowed for the parent to assign lessons or let the program pick and choose what the child does. Parents are able to preview a lesson prior to assigning it. However, I was unable to find out which lessons were scheduled if I let the program pick the lesson. This could be a problem if you use this as a supplement to another curriculum. I was able to see which lessons had been completed through the program. When assigning lessons, the parent has to go in each day and assign the lesson. It will not allow you to schedule them in advance. The lesson page also does not remove a lesson after it is completed so there is parent maintenance required on this.
We did experience several problems with using the program. Some of the lessons did not allow the child to correct an answer if she selected the wrong one in error. I would hear her call out, please don’t count that one because it is wrong but it won’t let me fix it. Another problem we encountered was that we started a lesson and then had to stop. The program thought we completed it when she really didn’t see anything but the opening screen. When she logged back in, it started on the next lesson without learning what to do from the previous lesson. I also couldn’t figure out how to have her redo a lesson like the one it skipped or one that I felt was needed again. The animated teachers sometimes became impatient if she wasn’t fast enough in answering and repeated the directions over and over again. We solved this by having her turn off the speakers each time she needed to think about the answer prior to selecting it. On two occasions, I attempted to log in around noon and found the site down for maintenance which I thought was odd. Because of the quirks, I found that I needed to sit next to her during the lessons so it was not a program I was comfortable with letting her do on her own. Overall, I really liked the lessons offered but the problems I encountered detracted from the program as a whole.