K5 Learning: My Honest Review

Hi All!

I've been gone most of this summer and after going over some of my blog posts I noticed my review of K5 Learning never got published. Forgive me for that. Now that the school year is fast approaching I wanted to share a unique tool for Elementary learning! Below is my personal opinion on the K5 Learning program and would love for you to check it out yourselves! 

My six year old daughter, who I did this for - my 4 year old was just too young for the program - thoroughly enjoyed it. She loves to learn and loves all things "school".  It made her feel special that she had her own log-in and special time on the computer (which she doesn't normally get). With two other toddlers in the household I couldn't monitor her every move, but trusted her excitement and feedback whenever she talked about K5. She was eager to log-on each day and wanted badly to pass each level with flying colors. If I was able to spend more one-on-one time with her while she was doing the trial I believe we both might have gotten more out of it. Unfortunately, I'm at the place I am in my life where I appreciate the more independent learning tools, such as K5, more than something I have to manage. She gave the program two thumbs up and I agreed!

To give you an idea, if I could compare K5 to another well known online children's learning tool it would be ABC Mouse.com. To be fair I've never owned or reviewed ABC Mouse, but I know they do good marketing as my kids are always asking about it! When I was approached by K5 I felt like they were doing a good thing on their own - reaching out to the mom, dad, blogger community to get their personal feedback. I certainly appreciated that because I was able to assess it on my own before pushing it on my children. It seemed like a good learning tool and what mommy or daddy would pass that up!

Pros:

• Website is easy to navigate
• Good overall learning resources in both Math & Reading
• My rising 1st grader asked to "play" it daily
• Provides free worksheets to students
• Provides progress reports for parents to see how each child is doing
• Free to review to see if it works for you and your family

Cons:

• Not visually appealing. Needs to be more colorful and vibrant - grabbing your attention
• A little slow paced for those kids who move more quickly through problems
• Limited in amount of resources they provide in the sense of growth for the child
• Wish they had a language tool for helping to learn Spanish, for example
• Lacks commercial marketing and excitement to draw kids in

Overall its a wonderful program and with previously working in the Education Department of a well known television company myself, I know there are so many underutilized programs out there that could help kids (and parents too!). Go to K5 Learning.com and do a trial run for each of your kids - there is no obligation. Or maybe, ask your child's school what they recommended. You never know if there are resources out there that might work for you!

My older daughter attends the public elementary school in our county. Something that just came to my attention was that parents are able to obtain access to their school's online resources that the children use throughout the school year (like a K5 type learning tool). Who knew?!...You learn something new everyday!

Enjoy and let me know what YOU think!