Review: IXL Learning

My friend Anni uses IXL Learning in her classroom. She is a teacher at the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville. She had showed me the program previously, and I thought it was fantastic. So when the opportunity came up to review the program I jumped at the chance.


Folks, HONESTLY, hold onto your hat. This is probably one of the finest programs I have EVER seen when it comes to homeschooling, and I am a HUGE HUGE FAN. This review will be CHOCKED FULL because there is that much to talk about. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE! 

And we were NOT disappointed.

Holy Cow! I barely know where to begin because there is just so much amazing things to cover in this review. 

I reviewed this program for the nine children that we homeschool here on the farm ranging in grade from pre-K to seventh grade, and every single child found the program easy to use and positive. No one complained about having to do IXL, like, EVER. Here was the breakdown in "grades" that we are on here at our house:

• Genevieve (Pre-K)
• Hannah (Pre-K)
• Eoin "Owen" (K)
• Abigail (1st)
• Kari (4th)
• Sidge (4th)
• Isaac (4th or 5th)
• Ana (6th)
• Gabe (7th)

So how does it work keeping track of nine children on a program?

Well, it's a super easy.

Once we sign in to our main "family" account, a new screen pops up asking who is using the program for the day.

This screen allows each child to pick his/her name and go directly into their own "learning center." (In addition, I have my own log-in as a parent as a well.)

Check out how this looks below:

So let's say that I want to log in as Gabe (who is in seventh grade.) There he is -- a basketball on the screen. (We were allowed to pick an icon that matched each child.) Once Gabe clicks on his name, he is brought to another screen

Gabe then has his own secret word that he has to type in. (I made these super easy so that no one forgot their word.)

There are then a variety of sections that the student can go to. These are all grouped under:

1. Learning
2. Analytics

Check out this photo below:

Learning

Let's start by looking at the "Learning" section. It may be a little hard to see on the screen shot, but the student has the following choices:

• Recommendations: This is the section up on the screen above. It has the student select their grade level to explore math and language art topics that IXL recommends for them to begin practicing. They can then pick any skill they'd like to try.
• Diagnostic: This is a way to see how your student is doing in different areas and figure out where they should start. This section covers only Math and Language Arts. The student answers questions to help narrow down what level they are on so that you can really focus on that when they step into the program. Just for a sample, I am including a screen shot of one of my three fourth graders. I am keeping them anonymous just to protect them. As you can see, they are mostly in about the 4th grade level on most things (which is great news for me!) As they answer more and more questions, it narrows them down more and more:

• Math
• Language Arts
• Science
• Social Studies
• Spanish
• TN Standards: Love this section! Your student (and YOU!) can see what things they should be knowing/learning for their current grade level.
  
• Awards: This is a fun section where you can work to uncover hidden pictures based on skills you have practiced. The picture below is an example of what a pre-K student gets when he/she clicks on the "awards" section. You can see that as soon as they accomplish what is requested of them, they get the opportunity to uncover that square.

I really appreciate that the program really tries to make things "look" appropriate for that particular age. Fore example, check out the 8th grade "awards" page. You can tell that it is for a higher level student:

AnalyticsOkay now that I've finished talking about the "Learning" section, let's spend a bit of time on the Analytics section of this program. It is broken down into the following sections:

• Usage: The picture below breaks down how much Ana has been on the program. It also gives a breakdown of her practice by category and her practice by day:
  

• Diagnostic: This link actually doubles with the one in the "Learning" section so refer back above for more on this.
• Trouble Spots: This page features a breakdown of questions that your student has missed. For example, below I checked out Isaac's trouble spots. I can choose which child, what subject, what grade levels, and also a date range. Below, I picked any trouble spots for Isaac in Science and here is what came up:

• Scores: In the picture below, you can see the scores for one of my students. Things they haven't done at all don't have a score. Things they have done have a score, a date, and how much time they spent on them:
  

• Questions: Here you can select a skill to view how your student is doing in that category.
• Progress and Improvement: This category breaks down the skill, time spent, questions, and score improvement for each student.

Honestly folks, this program is simply uh-maz-ing. I cannot recommend it enough. Please take a moment to give IXL Learning a thorough look. You can pay monthly or yearly. The program runs about $20 per month for one child. However, if you buy it for the year it is about $13 a month. For four children, it is about $32 a month for the yearly membership and $23 for a yearly membership.These prices are INCREDIBLY reasonable and worth every single penny. TRUST ME!

As always, feel free to message me for more information about this program.