Little Bits of Life: IXL Learning Review

Has anyone ever tried IXL Learning? We are trying out a annual membership. This is an online supplemental curriculum. There is math and language arts for grade pre-k through 12. Then they offer 2nd through 8th grade science and 2nd through 8th grade social studies. Then they have an intro to Spanish. The amount of content covered in each subject area varies from 48 to 300+ different skills. An annual membership for the combo package is $159 for one child and you can add additional children for $40. They have a few other options in different price ranges that you can find on the website https://www.ixl.com/membership/family/pricing.

Set up is very easy. You log in create your profile and those of your children. Each of the girls has their own log in. Parent goodies: I get a weekly report in my email so I can see if they are logging in and how much they have done and how well they have been doing. They use some handy dandy charts and graphs to display this information. It also gives me suggested lessons for each child. When I logged in I found a tab at the top that for me says MO standards. Under this tab I can find a listing of the different standards that are covered in this program. Depending on what state you put in your profile this should change to fit your needs. I love that the standards are printable. I printed them off then I highlight each one that we have covered with a lesson through IXL. I will then add these to each of there portfolio boxes at the end of the year. The analytics tab will give you loads of info on how your kids are doing. You can view there usage how many questions they have answered, how much time they have spent on the program, number of skills covered. You can also get a preview of the questions they have been working on. There is a diagnostic tab that tells you what they need to work on. A trouble spots tab that simply tells you what they are having a hard time with. Then a scores, questions, and a progress tabs.

Both of the girls have been working in IXL. I ask them to start off with the diagnostic area. This will ask them some questions then give them recommended areas that they need to work on it basically gives them a jumping off point and helps you to see what they need to work on. The diagnostics on this program is a little different from what we have done with other programs. It is called continuous diagnostics. Which basically means it never really ends this was hard for the girls because they didn't know when to stop. To start off your child should do enough to get a good picture of what they need to work on. The girls did questions tell I had a little info on what they knew for each of the subjects offered this takes some where around 120-150 questions. I did not have them do all of these questions in one sitting. I had them work on it for about 15 min at a time. The program recommends your child continue to answer 10-15 questions in the diagnostic section every week to help you see what areas they need to work on.

I ask them both to work through the recommended lessons that the diagnostics test recommends one day a week. As they work through those lessons and answer more diagnostic questions it gives them different recommended lessons. This helps to fill any gaps that they may have. I can then compare what they have completed and done well on with the standards for our state and keep track of how they are doing over all. After they do those recommended lessons they are then allowed to work on any subject area that they want.

Snoopys favorite subject out of everything she tried is Science. She says the lessons give her good information that is easy to understand and follow. She said the questions fit the information and it doesn't ask her anything crazy that was not covered in the lesson information. She has also started working through the history section because she just finished up our primary history curriculum. She had trouble explaining to me how it worked so I logged into my parent account and did few of these sections my self just to see how it worked. It started me off with some questions if I answered wrong it gave me the correct answer and an explanation. Some times when I gave the correct answer it gave me a more in depth explanation which is great. The explanations often times came with a picture or photograph. I was please with the topics covered under history and we will definitely be doing more with it in the coming weeks.

Gabby likes the Spanish section best. She has zero experience with Spanish other than what she orders at the local Mexican restaurant. She says that as you work through it you can earn different virtual prizes likes stickers and stuff. She said she would like to see it offer something like a digital books. She tells me that the lessons offer audio so she can hear the letter and word sounds. It tells you if its right or wrong in Spanish. She is hoping she will pick up enough to be able to have short conversations with the lady that owns the local Mexican restaurant. The second subject area she worked with was math. Math is a trouble area for her and we are always willing to try something that might help her understanding in a certain area. So far she has not learned any new methods but she was happy to see that it gave her an explanation when she got the wrong answer to something. She would like to see more instruction before beginning the problems.

Over all I am pleased with the topic offered in IXL Learning. I think its a great supplemental program that could be helpful for filling in any gaps you may be worried about in your primary curriculum. Click the link and take a look at what the other crew teams are saying about IXL.