Learning math or language arts skills is not always an easy task for kids, and it can be a frustrating experience for parents as well. I was recently able to review IXL.com with my children, and I got to see how much easier IXL makes this process. Not only does IXL.com have an Online Math Membership, but they also have a new Online Language Arts Membership!
Once the student has learned the basics, it is fundamental for them to practice their skills. This truly goes for any subject, because without repetition and practice, those skills and hard-earned knowledge can be lost.
How do you choose which skills to practice with them, though? What types of questions should you be asking? How can you be sure that what you are doing aligns with state standards?
This is where IXL.com comes in. IXL is a learning program in which students are able to practice math or science skills, which are divided by the type of skill and get increasingly difficult. By the time a child has mastered everything for that grade level, they will have shown thorough and sufficient knowledge in that subject.
IXL.com helps kids from pre-k through high school to practice math skills. They also have a language arts program, currently for grades 2-4.
Our Experience
My oldest 2 kids used the program over the past several weeks. We chose to use the program by grade level for them, so my daughter used the 3rd grade level in math and my son used 1st grade.
They were each challenged by the questions, but I did allow them to choose which skills to work on and in which order. Naturally, this meant that they picked the easiest things first. I am pleased with this approach, because this helped them to gain confidence before moving on to the next skill of choice.
When we were done with our regular daily school work, I would simply tell my student(s) to master 1 or 2 skills. Not only is this process quick and easy, but the students are continuously rewarded for their progress. I also receive emails, daily it seems, with printable certificates for them. These celebrate skill mastery, time spent using the program, or answering a certain amount of problems.
IXL.com has a language arts program available now as well. It currently covers grades 2, 3, and 4. My daughter is in 3rd grade, so this was perfect for us. Since she has little experience with many of the language arts rules, I started her out on Grade 2. This was a good choice, because I wanted to make sure there were no gaps in her understanding.
She loves how easy she feels that it is. That confidence is really making her soar through at a great speed, and I know we’ll be moving on the 3rd grade level very soon.
Gentle Corrections
On each subject, students continue answering questions until they get to a total of 100 points to show mastery. Along the way, if they miss a problem, they lose points, which means they have to answer more questions to improve their score to get back up there and eventually get to 100.
When a problem is missed, they are shown the CORRECT answer. Not only that, but they are given a step by step guide on how to properly answer the question. If your student learns best by DOING, this will be a huge advantage for them and their experience with the program! By only teaching the skills when they are missed, students that prefer this style of learning will have a great time only having to slow down to learn skills that they are missing.
Rewarding
Not only do the kids get awards emailed to me to print out as physical certificates, but the game also gives the kids rewards! There is a little game board within the program, and the kids get to earn little fun pictures on it for completing tasks. The following is an example of my son’s reward board.
He is not into quizzes or repetitive learning, but he is DRIVEN by the medals and rewards on this board. It keeps him motivated to succeed and to keep learning new skills. He checks it often.
Tracking Their Progress
Parents are able to stay on top of their kids’ progress by more than just the emails, though. The parent area provides comprehensive reports about students’ trouble spots and skills mastered. You can see how long a student has been working, on which subjects, and how well they have done. If your state requires this type of record keeping, it can take a lot of the work off of you, since these printable reports are so detailed and can be aligned to state standards.
Our Thoughts
We thoroughly enjoy using IXL.com. My son was actually happy to continue “playing” on IXL and felt very acccomplished every time he mastered a new skill. His current math curriculum is slightly too easy for him, so IXL was a good way to supplement it and challenge him as well.
My daughter preferred IXL to her regular math practice. In fact, each morning she would ask if she could play on IXL before doing her regular work. It’s funny to me that she viewed it as a “treat”. IXL, to her, is the Dessert of school programs. 🙂
She also did enjoy the language arts portion of the site. Her current language arts curriculum is not as thorough, so I feel much better knowing that she’s learning all of the little things to make her a better writer and reader.
A Winning Program
I highly recommend this to other homeschool parents. I also highly recommend it to ANY parent that wants their child to have an extra edge in academics. This is a fun, simple, inexpensive way to ensure that your child is learning and retaining math and language arts skills for continued academic success!
Pricing
Family memberships start at just $9.95 per month or $79 for a full year for one subject. Each additional child costs $2 per month or $20 per year. Adding an additional subject is just $6 per month, or $50 for the whole year.
I hope you’ll check out IXL.com! In just a few minutes a day, your kids can brush up on and improve their math and language arts skills!
Annie says
Thank you for sharing
Annie says
Thank you for posting information about IXL. But based on our experience, I would say Beestar is a better choice for home learning. Beestar offers more subject program options than IXL, such as math, science, language arts, social studies…as long as you need.
Different to IXL’s punishment system, Beestar provides a way to help students build confidence. Its reward system includes weekly ribbon, honor roll and etc. There are many competitive students from nationwide. The math program of Beestar is free but sends valuable exercises every week to help students catch math skills they learn at school as quickly as possible. The perfectly designed questions are based on Common Core State Standards. The first thing is to learn to enjoy math. Many questions are from real life with pictures. Students don’t need to spend too much time doing boring questions.