Maybe Monday (K5 Learning)

  If you are looking for a way to keep your kids learning even when they aren't in school (weekends, holiday vacations, summer, etc.) or to supplement their current curriculum then you may want to check out K5 Learning.  K5 Learning offers the kids reading and math enrichment for grades K-5 (hence the name). 

  The progam is broken down into 4 major categories.  They are: 

K5 Reading:  Which covers phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, vocabulary and reading comprehension to help the kids develop a love of reading. 

K5 Math:  Which covers numbers and operations, geometry, measurement (including time and money), algebraic thinking and data analysis.

K5 Spelling:  Which includes adaptive instruction, automatic word generation, an optimized visual interface, and a 150,000+ word database.

K5 Math Facts:  Which helps kids develop instant recall of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.

  Click here to see some sample lesson pages and here to check out their video tour.

K5 currently offers a 14-day free trial that all parents really should check out.  There is no credit card info required. 

K5 recommends that after you set up your free trial account for your child that you allow your child to familiarize themself with the site and how it works.  Then they encourage you to have your child do their free reading and math assessments. 

Now here is what we thought:

Mommy in PA says:  I personally only did the 2 week free trial due to some family issues at the time but I was very impressed at how fun and interactive the programs were.  My 7 year old son, on the other hand, thought the ones they gave him to do at first were boring and he was upset because it was too easy. 

Well I figured that we'd go ahead and do the assessments so that he would get to do more challenging tasks.  Here is where we ran into a roadblock.  The assessments take quite a bit of time to get through and they are a mix of easier problems and harder ones so that they can determine what your child knows.  We were doing ok until my son ran into one he didn't know how to do (they tell you that you aren't suppose to help your kids with this because they need to know what they already know).  Well I told him he just needed to guess since he didn't know how to do it and he got very upset.  He is one of those over-achiever type kids so when he doesn't know how to do something it really makes him sad.  Anyway, that is as far as we made it in the program.


Mommy in Ga says:  My daughter really liked thef graphics that the program uses and also the fact that they have audio also, It almost seemed more like a video game than a learning tool!!

We ended up using it less than the 6 weeks due to the fact that it was summer when we were doing this (and our summer begins in the end of may and ends at thfe end of july)  but, from what she actually did she did enjoy the program except the assessment, she is a perfectionist as far as, she does not like to guess an answer and it was very hard to get through this because obviously they are trying to see where your child would stand on their own so, she got frustrated and did not want to pursue even though i told her it was designed so that she should get some wrong for thfe assessment purpose.

All in all we like the program and I think it will be a very handy tool but, I think that it work best if it is not used for a child who hates to be wrong!!!!



Disclaimer:  We received an extended trial of this program for free in exchange for our review but all opinions remain our own.