TOS Review - IXL.com

Ever since we began homeschooling over 7 years ago the computer has always been a big part of our curriculum. This last month we were able to try out and review IXL. Both A and Z seem to do well with online curriculum and A~man in particular is able to keep his attention focused much better while working on the computer and seems less distracted. IXL offers both language arts and math.

IXL is a math educational site for Pre-K through algebra. They also have a language arts section that is for grades 2^nd through 4^th grade although they will be expanding that soon. Each subject is divided up into sections of skills that are needed to be learned for each grade level that go along with each states required standards.

North Carolina

Skills available for North Carolina third-grade math standards

Standards are in black and IXL math skills are in blue. Hold your mouse over the name of a skill to view a sample problem. Click on the name of a skill to practice that skill.

Standards document:

• 2010 Common Core State Standards
• 2003 North Carolina Standard Course of Study

My son is 14, but educationally is more at a level somewhere between 2^nd-3^rd grade in most areas. So I tried out both language arts and math with him over the last month. One of my favorite things about both the math and language arts was how thorough each subject was, and I like how it was broken down into simple lessons concentrating on just one concept.

A slight frustration early on that we both had is that if it was something that he had great difficulty with and he got one wrong, it increased the amount of problems he had to do.  For an area to be considered mastered a student must get a certain percent correct. So a couple of times he completely did not want to go on that day with his IXL work.

But then mama got smart. ;) If he was having difficulty I would just have him go a certain amount of minutes at it (15 usually) and then come back the next day and continue on until he had it mastered. This seemed to allow the concept to “sink in” and then the next day he was able to do it with little difficulty. As each skill is mastered, they collect ribbons, medals, and other virtual prizes.

There were a few language art skills that I chose to skip with him as the concept was too difficult for him to understand, but as a whole he was successful with most of the sections he completed!

Each week you receive a report via e-mail on the progress your child has made including the amount of time spent, problems correct, and the skills that they have mastered.

Here is a breakdown of the membership fees:

Monthly-

• Math-$9.95
• Language Arts-$9.95
• Both subjects-$15.95
• This is the price per child with each additional child being $2 a month

Yearly-

• Math-$79
• Language Arts-$79
• Both subjects-$129
• This is the price per child with each additional child being $20 a year. 

IXL.com also offers a 30-day, money-back guarantee.

Both A~man and I really liked the program once we figured out how to make it work for his individual needs. Click over to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Crew to see what others thought too!