When I first heard about IXL Learning, I knew that I had to look a little deeper into it. I had never heard of it before, but it looked very interesting. There is so much within the program, that it takes a little time to figure out how my family could use it. I talked to my 4th grader about it to see if he wanted to use it for part of his schooling. He likes computer programs for school and so, of course, he was all for it. We decided to try out the IXL full annual membership and we are so glad that we did!
This is an all-in-one kind of program. I'm not usually too keen on these types of programs because I like to do a lot of the curriculum myself, especially at this grade level. Our situation has changed recently, with my being pregnant with our third child. I have been looking for ways to make homeschooling our boys easier on me. I think this might just help us out!
Like I said before, there is so much to this program! After you sign in, and set up you and your child(ten)'s profiles, you are given the option of grades Pre-K through 12th grade. Yep, you heard that right, 12th grade. We only had our 4th grader use it because this is his style of learning. I didn't want it for our 9th grader because he does not like computer based learning. He likes the "old fashioned" books and paper. That's the beauty of knowing your kids and understanding how they learn best.
Once I click into the grade level you want, you then have the options of Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Spanish. We dabbled in all of the subjects, because our 4th grader likes variety. We started with some Math. We didn't do a lot of Math because he has an actual Math curriculum and he's doing well with that, so I didn't want him to be confused. Math is a tricky subject like that. Each day, he practiced two of the other subjects. I chose to split up Language Arts and Science because they both had a lot of reading for him. He's a good reader, but too much gets him frustrated. So we would do Language Arts and Social Studies or Spanish one day, and then Science and the other one the next. We just switched like that throughout the week. I like that he can choose what he want to learn, or I can choose for him. I just would go through and highlight the "star" by each item that I want him to go through. Then, when he signs in, he just clicks on the subject and then finds which lesson he should work on.
Here is what our he had to say about IXL Learning:
I really liked the program. It can teach you a lot. It just really needs to teach you the stuff and then go to the quiz, especially in math. My favorite part of IXL was learning about fossils. I never really knew that much about fossils and now I do. I liked the Social Studies because it teaches you how to spell the states and learning about the states as well.
I wanted to point out something that he said about teaching the student. IXL Learning has a different set up than other curriculums. Usually, you teach, then the student practices, and then there is a quiz. This starts with the quiz. If the student gets it wrong, then the program teaches why they got it wrong and what the correct answer is. This was very difficult at first. Then we figured it out and it wasn't so bad. The hard part is when the student doesn't know anything about the subject they are taking the "quiz" about. My son started to feel bad about himself and wanted to give up because he kept getting the answers wrong. I had to remind him that this is all learning and not to worry about the score. This would be an area that would be helpful to discuss with your child before they started the program so that they are aware of how it works.
I mentioned the "score". The student is given a score for each correct answer they give. If they get an answer wrong, points are taken away. They keep answering questions until they get to 100 or whatever you feel is a "passing score".
There are many awards in IXL Learning. We really liked these. Getting an award kept him wanting to answer more questions. Wonderful! They can earn various awards in each of the subjects. I would also receive emails showing the awards that they received. I really liked that.
We really like IXL Learning's Full Annual Membership and we will continue to use it. This will be great as I get later in my pregnancy and for when the baby comes. He will still be learning in multiple subjects, but with little preparation work for me. That's a win-win! Thank you IXL Learning!
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