This is meant to be a supplement, not a full curriculum, so it's perfect for the "school lite" we do over the summer. I like to tell people that over the summer, I'm just like any other parent. We keep up with our learning, but they get plenty of time outdoors to play and relax. This is also a great program to share with my friends who don't homeschool. I'm often getting asked for good programs, and I am always happy to share things we like that are just a supplement. This fits that requirement well.
I started off with Madison, who is wrapping up first grade, taking the reading and math assessments. Madison can be a bit of a perfectionist, and tends to shut down if she feels like she's "failing", so I was worried about this kind of assessment, which purposely spans the entire spectrum of elementary school. But I stayed with her, let her know she was ok, even when she didn't even understand the questions, and she did a great job. In fact, she came out higher than she expected, which has been a great boost to her confidence. It also showed me the holes she has. She's been consistently high in math, but this showed me that her geometry vocabulary had some gaps, and that gave me good information to work with. Because Reagan is a kindergarten student who isn't reading yet, I opted to skip the assessment and just start her at the beginning. Setting up either way was very user friendly.
According to the assessment, Madison's decoding, word recognition, vocabulary, and comprehension skills are high for her age, but for some reason, she really struggled with syllables in the assessment. To be fair, she's never done any syllabification exercises like this, so she had no idea what she was looking at and just guessed. So although she was placed in a third grade level, the program did backtrack a bit to fill those gaps, without bringing everything else down too. I liked that.
The parent and student cannot be logged in at the same time. I could log in, make assignments, and check reports, but I had to log out to let the girls log in. In addition, they aren't always perfect with computers, and there were times when they clicked off a lesson too early and their progress didn't save, which was frustrating. But these are little technical issues, and nothing that we wouldn't expect from any online program.
Generally, Madison liked the lessons, especially the reading and math, but some of the lessons did drag a bit. The spelling tended to frustrate her right from the start, and honestly, it didn't grab me either. Spelling is a tough one. I took the lists she was working on and input lists of my own for her to practice, but given the choice, she preferred the reading and math. Reagan had a little more trouble. She is a true kindergarten kid, and she preferred lessons that are shorter and more "game like".
I still think it is a good program for supplementing math and reading, and considering your monthly subscription covers up to four kids, it is a bargain, too. You can even try K5 Learning for 14 days for free. It's a great add on for any summer work that any parent, homeschool or not, could make great use out of!