IXL Learning Review – A Fun Way To Learn

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We’re always looking for personalized learning opportunities to add to our homeschool plan. This IXL Learning Review will explain how we use IXL in our home.

We recently had the opportunity to explore the website http://www.ixl.com.

IXL Learning provided us with a full annual membership to IXL to their site.  Even though we are Canadian, I asked to be able to use the American version of the site.

The Canadian version does not currently have a science section.  Because that is, by far, the favourite subject of two of my children, I wanted to make sure they had access to science.  If we were following a strict curriculum, this might have been an issue.  The American and Canadian curriculums do vary slightly but, since we teach by interests and not by a curriculum, this was not an issue for us.

What is IXL?

IXL is an amazing online platform designed to help test your child’s knowledge in a fun and engaging way.

The platform is based on questions but the way it is designed makes it feel more like a game than a test.  Some questions are based on multiple choice answers, some are labelling charts and graphs, and others are true and fall.  There might even be different styles that we have yet to encounter.  By changing up the format of the questions and answers, they keep the attention of the student.

The way at which the students progress also changes.  For some topics, they have to reach a certain number of points to advance.  In this format, they also lose points for incorrect answers which deters the student from guessing randomly.  In other topics, they need to answer x amount of questions correctly to proceed.

IXL Learning has done a great job of arranging all the different subjects and categories.  Within each subject, there are categories which can be focused on.  As a parent, you can pre-plan what you want your child to focus on by adding stars beside the different categories.  The student accounts will see these as recommendations.

I let my children pick and choose which topics they focus on.  We use IXL as an independent learning time, where they can explore the site freely.  Some days they will do a lot of math questions, other days it is science.  We are firm believers in learning will happen and it will happen at an amazing rate when the child is excited about what they are doing.  I am always there to help them if they need it but, in our experience, IXL has been great for child lead learning.

IXL has provided a new way for our children to be excited about learning.  Because of this, it is quickly becoming a daily activity in our home.

5th Grade Experience

“I like the science section.  It is fun.  I like how I can move the labels around to put them in the correct spot.  I learned about new layers of the Earth’s crust.  That was really neat!  I am even trying grade 6 questions because there are some on astronomy.” -Lucas (age 10)

IXL has introduced my 10 year old to new concepts that we have not talked about yet.

He is loving being able to explore new topics.  Often times, he will attempt a series of questions on a topic and then proceed to google and research to get a better understanding of the topic.  Because he is passionate about science, he has even gone on to explore 6th grade science topics.

This is a great feature of IXL.  Even though I have children at certain grade levels, it does not limit them to those grades.  They can go up and down in grade level depending on their needs and interests.

3rd Grade Experience

“I think it is fun.  There is a Spanish section even though no one in our home speaks Spanish but I tried it!  I also really liked the Science section and have done almost all the activities for my grade.”

As you can see, by the image below, my 8-year-old has been loving science.  The green graph beside the topic indicated the level of completion for that topic.  I only put two stars (recommendations) in science and he went on to complete almost the whole grade level in only a couple of days.

The student can continue to go back and complete the same topics over again if they enjoy the information that is being given.  The questions are not always the same when they repeat a topic.

Kindergarten Experience

“I like the challenge zone!  There are cool prizes I can get.  I have a car, a motorcycle, a cow and a robot!”

My kindergarten student is not one for learning.  He is at that stage where he thinks learning is not fun and he does not want to be a part of it.  He is yet to realize that he is learning at all times.  Even with that reluctance, he is still enjoying IXL.

He is 5 years old and really loves video games and is enticed by prizes and new things.  One great aspect of IXL is that when they get close to the end of the questions, they enter the challenge zone.  When he sees the challenge zone banner pop up, he gets excited.  It indicates to him that he is doing well and that it is almost finished.

All the grade levels we have explored have the opportunity to win prizes.  These prizes are images of different toys or “stickers” on charts that they fill in.  At the kindergarten level, those prizes come a lot more frequently.  He is enjoying filling his shelves with the images of trinkets that he has won.  There are also certificates that you can print out.

IXL Learning Review

After exploring IXL.com for a few weeks, we are really enjoying the platform.

As a parent, I love being able to see them learning with enthusiasm and passion.  IXL has introduced them to new topics and encouraged them by awarding them for the knowledge they already had.

I really like that IXL sends me an email with their progress.  Being able to sign in and see how they are doing on different subjects is also really nice.  I can review the questions they have answered and know where we might need to focus some attention in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this IXL Learning review.

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