I, like most other homeschool moms, am always looking for extra online math and language help for my children. Each and every one of us have our strengths and our weaknesses. And at one time or another we need a little extra help, or maybe a challenge. I had never heard of IXL.com before but during this review I have really enjoyed our membership. We received both an Online Math Membership and an Online Language Membership. Family memberships are a great option for homeschooling families. For a year long math OR language membership it is $79 for the first child and each additional child is only $20 more! Or if you want access to both subjects for a full year it is $129 and then $20 for each additional child. With each membership you gain access to math curriculum for grades pre-K through 12 and language curriculum for grades 2nd through 4th. Each child has access to all grades and skills no matter their age.
As a member of IXL I am loving all the detailed reports that I can access as well as all the helpful emails that I get when I child reaches a new goal. I can easily see their scores for each lesson and it even marks the areas that the child needs improvement in. As you can see in the screen shot from the website the reports are super detailed and yet easy to read and understand. It makes record keeping much easier!
It logs how long each child spends on each skill, how many problems they attempted, and how their score changed. As the parent, you have access to charts and reports for each child individually. just like each child has their own account where they can earn rewards and medals for all their hard work. Each child has their own reward chart where they are encouraged to practice, practice, practice! They can earn new items for spending more time practicing, mastering a new skill, and more!
This program is just a supplemental program as their is no real instruction given. Children need to have a basic understanding of the skill before they begin that section. But the problems are individually tailored so they only progress when the child shows mastery of the beginning level of each skill. As a more “eclectic” homeschooling family I love having the reference as to what skills my children should be mastering in each grade. I can introduce a skill and then have them complete problems on IXL and, by using the parent reports, I can tell when they have mastered it and are ready to move on.
As the child practices more problems they can see their score change either up or down. It also shows the child how long they have been working and how many problems they have attempted that session. I have come to really like this feature as I can tell the child how many problems that I wish for them to attempt that day and what their target score is. It is teaching my older girls the benefit of double checking your work and paying attention to details. If they miss a problem the next screen shows a break down of how the problem should have been worked and what the correct answer is. this helps them learn from their mistakes and to pay better attention next time.
The language arts side is very similar to the math side as far as the reports, the child’s view of problems attempted, time spent, and their score. One thing to remember when considering a membership to IXL is that the language arts side only covers grade 2nd through 4th at this time. But from the time we have spent on this side I must say it is thorough and engaging.
We have been using this program on a daily basis for Maggie (6th grade), Samantha (4th grade), and Josiah (2nd) in math and for Samantha in Language Arts. The children are still enjoying it and I have seen their skills increase and they have even spent their “free” time trying to master new skills and achieve better scores and more rewards. When children enjoy an online math and language help program that much it is a wonderful asset in my book! You can see what other moms thought of this program by clicking the link below!
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