K5 Learning Math and Reading Enrichment TOS Review

K5 is a online math and reading program. It is designed as a supplemental program to be used alongside a childs' regular curriculum or during vacations.All of the work in K5 is totally online, there is nothing to download or take up space on your computer.

K5 features activities in the subjects of  reading, math, spelling and vocabulary. Reading instruction includes phonics, sight words and comprehension. Spelling and vocabulary are together, but its possible to choose one or the other. Math topics include numbers and operations, measurement, and geometry. Math facts are also drilled. In total, K5 features over 3,000 lessons in these subjects areas. With the exception of the spelling lessons, all the lessons and work are presented in full color and a visually appealing manner.

5th grade Math

Scoreboard for fact drill

The K5 program includes online math and reading placement tests. After the assessments are completed the instructional material is personalized to the specific skill levels of the child.When the child begins using K5 the lessons are automatically selected and follow in a preselected order. However, it is possible for the adult who controls the parent account to make changes to the lessons. Additionally, K5 offers sample lessons and a free trial.



K5 is full of solid educational content, games and entertainment are kept to a minimum. However, there are activity rewards with limited time given to the students upon reaching predetermined milestones in their academic work. These are play time in math drill and the other is a short movie after spelling 50 words correctly. This movie features an animated line drawing in a story.

As the name implies, K5 features instructional material for students in grades Kindergarten through 5th grade.

K5 Subscriptions are:

Monthly Subscription

First Child.......................$25

Additional Children..........$15

Annual Subscription

First Child.......................$199

Additional Children..........$129

My Thoughts

I liked the length of each activity, about 3-5 minutes, as this prevented my children from getting bored with them.

Additionally, I appreciate the bite sized practice offered by K5. The material presented is long enough to refresh the students mind about process and give practice, but not overwhelm them with too much practice and thus become sloppy in their work. This is particularity true with the math drills. The student drills several facts until they remember the answer. Drilling facts in this manner is a lot more fun than flashcards.

Right after receiving access to K5 for this review, my children took the placement tests. The tests were easy to take and comprehensive. The reports I received were easy to understand. They explained my childrens' level both in words and with a timeline like visual. I believe they are fairly accurate as the results I received were consistent with their performance on daily work.


Upon completing a predetermined amount of math drill, my children were awarded 5 minutes of play time in the arcade. They enjoyed this break from the learning activities and particularly enjoyed the spot the differences activities.

Filling in the blanks on the advanced math activities (my daughter used the 5th grade level) was challenging. It took her quite a while to figure out how it worked. For us it seemed the order of filling in the spaces for showing work and answers did not seem logical all the time.

Another challenge for my children was the clarity of the words in the spelling exercise.The voice was not always clear when it gave the word and thus spelling was more challenging. One element which helped with spelling was the presence of a definition for the target word. Even with the vocabulary clues some words were difficult to tell what they were.

I like the convenience and ease of math, reading, spelling, and vocabulary review and practice in one place.My children enjoyed using K5 to interactively practice some of the items they are learning from their books. I did notice some improvement in my daughters math abilities after using K5 math lessons.

Other TOS Crew members had the opportunity to review K5 as well. Check out the Crew Blog to see what they had to say.

Disclaimer: I received a free trial to this program to enable me to write this review. I have not been compensated in any other manner. All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Reading Eggs TOS Review

Reading Eggs

Reading Eggs is an online, interactive program designed to help children learn to read while having fun. The program consists of a collection of games to teach phonetic sounds and concepts as well as sight words. There are 120 learn to read games as well as 96 spelling lessons. These 120 lessons are sorted into 12 maps with 10 lessons each. Each lesson focuses on a couple concepts and has the learner practice them in games. Upon completing a game the user has the option to replay that game or continue on to the next. There is also the ability to go back to a previous map. Free activity sheets are also available which correspond to the lessons in each map.

In addition to the lessons students have the opportunity to visit the story factory, music cafe, skills bank, driving tests, puzzle park, general store, and arcade. An area entitled Storylands is coming soon according to the website. These can be accessed through the introductory page when the user first gets on as well as through the sidebar. The side bar has small icons as well as words to reference the varying activities.

While a child is playing on reading eggs, their egg character follows a track through a map and stands on the lesson where they are currently learning.

There is also an assessment test available to help place the student at the correct level of Reading Eggs. The user simply has to answer a series of questions and the program automatically places them at the appropriate level.

This is a sample question from the assessment.



Reading Eggs offers a 14 day free trial so you can try it out and see if it works for your family.

As reading eggs is designed to help children learn to read, the recommended ages are 3 -7. Reading Express is a companion website designed for 7-12 years. Reading Express is designed to help children increase their reading and comprehension skills. Among the features are books to read, comprehension activities, individual and competitive games.

Comprehension gym in Reading Eggspress

An email is periodically sent to the parents registered email detailing their student(s) progress and achievements.

Subscription Information
Monthly Subscription    $9.95
6 Month Subscription  $49.95
12 Month Subscription $75.00
Discount for second child when purchased at same time

Purchase includes full access to Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress. Book Packs which go along with Reading Eggs are also available.



My Thoughts

My 7 year old son started off using Reading Eggs by taking the assessment/ placement test. I was surprised at the results as they were lower than his reading level and I don't believe he made mistakes on the test. As a result he was placed below his level for working through the program. He used it at this level, but the material was review for him.

He did enjoy the games and remarked on several occasions that it was a lot of fun to have games where he did different things. Some of the lessons have similar games, but using new material. I liked the variety of games on Reading Eggs. I believe the diversity helped to keep his interest and encouraged him to play as much as he did.

Reading Eggs  is very easy to navigate due to the use of icons in the sidebar to describe places where the child wants to go as well as the well sized arrows which move in the direction they are pointing. I believe this would help children to focus on where they should be doing next. Having said these things I do find the individual maps to be somewhat cluttered with scenery and extra pictures. Many of these pictures move in some way when the mouse rolls over them as well.

I also liked having activities my son could do while waiting for the next activity. These activities helped to keep him engaged and not lose interest.


The feature I liked the most in Reading Eggs is the Story Factory. After choosing a title users choose pictures and then write a story. My children struggle with writing and this activity helped them to write a simple story. The challenge in Story Factory was choosing pictures for all the pages in the story before writing it. Several times as he wrote his story my son realized the order in which he put the pictures didn't really work for what he was writing. We were not able to find a way to change the pictures without losing his writing.

Overall, Reading Eggs didn't teach my son phonics/ phonetic patterns which he did not already know, but I think it would have been extremely beneficial for him when he was learning to read. He has always enjoyed computer activities and games and I am fairly confident Reading Eggs would have taught and reinforced many concepts for him. Reading Eggs does a superb job helping children have fun while learning many fundamental skills and concepts essential to reading.

Both of my children enjoyed Reading Express tremendously. They liked having the opportunity to read books online. I liked the fact that they were then able to take a comprehension quiz about what they read and it wasn't drudgery for them.

Other members of the TOS Crew had the opportunity to also use Reading Eggs. Visit the Crew Blog to read about other families experiences with Reading Eggs.

Disclaimer: I was given a free limited time subscription to use for the purpose of writing this review.  I have not been compensated in any other manner and all thoughts expressed here are solely my own.

Sewing to Summer Challenge #1 Results

It's hard to believe that it's time to post the results of my sewing for the first period of The Summer Sewing challenge. My post describing the sewing challenge can be found here. But I do have to say I was almost successful in completing my project. The majority of the work is done, I just have to hem. My goal was to make a nightgown for my daughter. So here it is:

I wanted to get a good picture of the nightgown so you could get an idea of the style, but in order to do that I wasn't able to get a close, sharp picture of the fabric.



This is just a picture of the fabric:

It's a white background with butterflies of various sixes and shades of pink. Definitely a girly print for my girl. And it looks like the picture is up side down and my computer won't turn it right side up. Ahh, technology.


So since this is the first project of the sewing challenge I need to decide on something else to make for this next block of sewing time. I am thinking about starting Easter/ Spring dresses for daughter and myself.  I am pretty sure which pattern I will use for myself. It is one I had a dress made from a long time ago, so since that dress still fits and the pattern doesn't look too hard or that it was altered much, I don't think it will be too hard. I have a couple to choose from for daughters dress, but need to see what she thinks. Those are more complicated patterns so it will be a challenge.

However, these plans depend on what fabric I have in my stash. I need to do through the boxes and see whats there that would be suitable for dresses. I have some pieces in mind, but I don't know if there is enough yardage for dresses.

Thanks to Milk and Honey Mommy for hosting the Summer Sewing Challenge and coming up with the great idea.