I had the fortunate opportunity to have a mom’s night out with a couple other mommies last week. We discussed a slew of topics but of course, they all revolved around our main focus, our children. We had gotten on the topic of schools. My daughter attends the public school and I know that some of the other moms have children that are younger and they haven’t decided if home schooling, sending their children to private school, or public school is the best fit for their families. What we did all agree on is the importance of our children living up to their potential, being challenged, and the need for parental involvement in their children’s education.
As a mom to 3 kiddos I know my limits and boundaries and I know that home schooling is not a good fit for me personally. I know that though I have good time management skills I do struggle with distractions. Yes, there you have it, truth is told! I can be distracted easily, whether it is another child requiring my attention, or even, the dryer buzzing. I also become mentally exhausted after teaching my toddler her colors, the alphabet, doing puzzles together, encouraging her to use her words, and then aiding my preschooler in spelling words correctly, as opposed to the random letters he writes then instantly requests that I state the word he wrote (Why at this age do they assume any combination of letters written together equals a word!! Why!?!), and what is appropriate and inappropriate…to say…wear…do…etc. I know my adorable little 1st grader yearning for knowledge would get lost in the mix and would more than likely receive what little bit of patience I had left, she would be receiving less than she deserves. And the household, forget about it!
However, just because my limits do not permit me to be the best possible school teacher for my child I am still very much involved. My husband and I want our children to excel and push their limits so to speak,when it comes to education. Knowledge is something that you have forever; it cannot be taken away from you. And it is one of the best gifts we can give our children (first being faith).
So, that being stated I wanted to share with you something I shared with my mommy friends last week. A couple of weeks back my daughter and I checked out K5 Learning online. First I perused the site and was extremely pleased to see that they offer the parents their own dashboard and access to their child’s lesson plans, reports, and progress. There are math fact reports that parents can look at specific equation that children completed correctly or incorrectly. From that initial review I have been hooked. As a parent I like K5 Learning because:
- The parent dashboard options
- The fact they offer spelling (audio of the word), math, and reading.
- I also liked the fact that there is a free online placement assessment in reading and math. The idea is to gauge skill levels in different areas (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, site words, comprehension, numbers/operations, geometry and measurement) and cue the lessons at an appropriate starting point in each.
- I also like the fact that I do not need to be present the entire time (in case the dryer buzzes). K5 features automatic lesson selection; in case you don’t want to be as actively involved in selecting lessons each day, but do want to know your child is progressing through the material in a logical way. To facilitate this, the system automatically chooses the next lesson each day and at the end of a lesson she has the options to click on the green traffic light to continue or the red to stop.
Please click here for a more thorough explanation of K5 Learning.
And our daughter adores K5! In addition to her regular schooling our daughter has fun using her screen time completing K5 lessons. Truth be told, here I go getting all honest again; she practically begs me every day to use my computer for K5 Learning.
So, whether you decide to home school, send your children to private or public school K5 Learning is a great partner for your child’s education.
Click here to get started on your FREE trial today!
Disclosure: K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I’ve been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.
Mom on the go in Holy Toledo 