As a first-time mom to a now 19-month-old girl and a future homeschooler (cross fingers!), I find myself always on the lookout for great programs (sometimes I go overboard and look for curricula!) that would help my daughter’s education become a more enjoyable and fun experience for all of us. Although I have been talking a lot about letting the child be, the partner and I also think that having some structured lessons once in a while could be beneficial in giving our educational journey some sense of direction.
When I heard about K5 Learning, I couldn’t wait to try it out.
What the program offers
Experts believe that English and Math are among the most fundamental subjects that a person should learn if he/she wants to succeed in life, however that might look like. I couldn’t agree more. But, I also believe that forced feeding in these subjects will only do more harm than good to a child’s interest to learn.
I am a very proud mom to say that my daughter learned her numbers (1 to 10) at 18 months. It was only a few weeks ago that she learned not to skip her 3s and 7s. Although the K5 Learning Math program is mostly focused on children from kindergarten to fifth grade, I decided to try it out with my toddler. As expected, the very basic level had been a little too advanced for her although she was able to enjoy identifying a few of the numbers.
The English sections (including Reading and Spelling) were way too advanced for her, unfortunately, but we were able to try out the alphabet recognition portion. She did actually have fun with it and was quite focused with the task. It was slightly entertaining to watch.
Of course, I also had my 10-year-old niece try out the program and while she complained in the beginning that the courses and lessons were a little too hard for her, she gave it a try still and found it fun and encouraging. In fact, she got all of her answers correctly. My niece does not exactly have a lot of confidence when it comes to her learning capacities and I found it something very helpful for her learning. Because of a complicated family situation, she mostly studies lessons after school on her own.
Technical Issues
When I tried to see K5 Learning for myself, I decided that it was best used on a touchscreen device probably because I had planned to use it only with my toddler. Obviously at 18 months, she was in no way capable of operating the mouse to click the right buttons so touching/tapping them on a tablet was the best option.
Unfortunately, that part wasn’t very friendly to do non-technical person. I mostly know my way around computers as I am an IT professional but I found this very frustrating that I almost gave up. K5 Learning requires a certain Adobe Flash Player version that is unfortunately not supported in Android devices. Thankfully, my brother had an iPad but I had to find a way around it such as installing a particular browser that supports Flash and then accessing the site from there. It was a hassle, yes, but we made it. Hopefully other parents won’t run into too much problems.
The program is designed for desktops and laptops so if you would rather steer clear from the technical complications, you can try this on slightly older kids (maybe preschoolers) or use a laptop with touchscreen.
Intuition and Parental Control
When you open an account with K5 Learning, you are actually provided two ways to access it: as a parent and as a student. Parents have the ability to choose which lessons and tests that they deem fit for their learners although the program can automatically choose this after a short assessment of the student. Parents can also monitor their students’ performance through their control panel.
Students get to access their English and Math lessons and tests directly so there is no need for them to configure anything (of course)!
Free Trial
Want to try this wonderful English and Math program for yourself? Go to K5 Learning now and take advantage of their 14-day trial – you can have as many of your kids enrolled. The great thing about this trial period is that it doesn’t ask for your credit card information so you can relax knowing that there will be no obligation to pay after the trial ends. While you’re at it, you can have your child’s math and reading skills assessed for free!
K5 Learning users can gain unlimited to all four programs: Math, Math Facts, Reading and Spelling for only $25 per month or $199 per year for the first child and $15 per month or $129 per year for the additional children.
Disclosure: I was not paid to review K5 Learning. We did, however, receive free usage of the program in exchange for an honest opinion about it through Tomoson.com. If you want to try it out for yourself, click on the link above to start your 14-day free trial. Also, this post contains affiliate links which means that we receive commission from your purchase at no additional cost to you. Thank you very much for your support!
