What is it? Online Math Practice by IXL
Who is it for? Student from JK to Grade 11
How much does it cost? $9.95/month or $79/year (additional students are $20/year).
Where is it? ca.IXL.com
Tell me more:
For this review, I was given access to the Canadian website for all three boys to test out the math review program and also to the US site to check out the new Language Arts program that is currently not available on the Canadian site (but is in the works for sometime in the future!)
The Math Website
Oh Look! CANADIAN math content online!! Yahoo!
Designed for students in the Grade JK to Grade 11 crowd, this site is really perfect for just about anyone who wants to have a way to practice their math skills. To get started you simply register, add in the names and information about each child, let them pick a cute little icon for themselves and get going.
You can pick what province you are in, so that all the work your child does follows along with that province’s government curriculum. The various exercises are divided up into sections based on the learning outcome and very easy to move along with.
The whole website is open for your kid to access – meaning they have the full range of math questions available from JK to Grade 11. This means that you don’t have to limit your child to a specific range and let them explore what other grades will be learning. I found this extremely funny – since my 6 year old was doing Grade 6 math questions (place values, but still!)
As they complete each set of questions, the kids earn badges and prize cards that they flip over on their game board for that grade. There are several “blank” squares that open up with a bonus prize as they keep at it.
The goal of each section is for them to attain 100 on their “SmartScore” – which goes up at different variables throughout the session. For example, at first, each correct question is worth 10 points, but as they go along, each question loses value. After 90, the kid is sent to the “challenge zone”, which is really 1 point per question until they get to 100. Unfortunately, if they get a question wrong, they also lose points. The idea behind this is to ensure a child’s mastery of the skill before moving them on to another task. Good in theory, but potentially frustrating. Middle, in particular, finds it discouraging and can easily get to a point of being very flustered and unable to proceed successfully.
When they get a question right, they get a word of encouragement. When they get it wrong, there is an explanation on what they did wrong so they can learn from it.
Thankfully, though, if a session is abandoned in the middle, the program remembers how many points and questions they’d already completed and they can move forward from there. This has helped with tasks that started getting discouraging.
I know some people on the crew were using IXL as a way to come alongside their current math curriculum – finding the appropriate sections to co-ordinate and further develop the skill they are working on already. However, I literally just logged the boys in and let them do whatever they wanted, for as long as they wanted. It’s now part of our daily school time – kind of like math gaming time. I found it interesting too to see how different my boys were.
Little just hopped around the site, picking math questions and sections at random and loving every minute of it. Middle, however, started with the first question of JK and completed the whole level before moving to the next grade. 🙂 Big tried the program and decided that he didn’t want to do it.
I honestly don’t see how the “prize” system would appeal to anyone over the age of maybe 9 or 10. Definitely not the Grade 11 crowd, but maybe just the challenge of completing the tasks would be enough to encourage them to continue.
One feature I like is that I can keep tabs on what they’ve been doing, by checking the “reports” section on the website and also because I get regular emails telling me how my child has been doing. As a bonus, you can actually print out a certificate with each achievement which is a nice little boost to your child’s confidence!
Want to know what my fellow crew mates thought of it be sure to click the picture below.
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we love IXL! i just signed up for it this year, and it’s the perfect compliment to our existing curriculum. i love getting those happy emails!
I use this program for all of my math classes. I teach grades 9-12 and I have a wide range of math abilities in each class. I have read some comments on different sites that claim they do not like this program as it only allows for practice and not teaching. Also some have said they do not like the scoring as you loose more than you gain. My response to this is, I can tell it is not a site for high academic level students, it works great for my lower levels or struggling students, the scoring helps prevent students from randomly typing in answers and due to mainly focusing on practice makes the teacher teach the subjects to them first and not relying on the program to do it. I think that technology is great, however it cannot replace a teacher. IXL combines both of these, the teacher teaches, and the program is there to practice. Best that I have seen so far.
Thanks for your feedback, Mr. Hartley. It’s great to hear how it’s working for teachers. I agree – it’s a terrific practice program!
Hi
Do you ixl math for french speaking countries such as france
Thanks for stopping by.
It looks like all of the countries they’ve developped for are English speaking countries. http://ca.ixl.com/international
Hopefully they will move to a wider language range in the future!
We’ve used IXL for a year before but I don’t see my child is making any progress. Instead, he seems to be losing interest on math. Then we changed to use Beestar, another similar after school learning website. To my surprise, my child loves to use Beestar much better. He said the questions are more fun. Now I am thinking to let him join its GT math program. I heard the math questions on Beestar are more challenging but my child seems to like challenges. btw, the price is even lower than IXL.
IXL is useful, but I dont want my kid to spend too much time on computer screen as it is not good for eyes. Threfore I prefer printable practice workshets, this is where I found another alternative to IXL, i.e. http://www.edugain.com which additionally provides printable worksheets.
I am curious how you get to the Canadian version. And is the data stored in Canada or is it just an American company offering Canadian content? I need a Math and Language online program that stores their data here in Canada. Do you know of any? I am a teacher at a school. Thank you.
Hey Sarah,
I’m not actually sure where they keep their data. It looks like they have a Canadian headquarters in Toronto listed on their website alongside with their US one. I do know that lots of teachers here in Canada use IXL for their students. It might be best to connect with the company to get your answers: https://ca.ixl.com/company/contact
Try Beestar !! Their math program covers all different levels that suit the needs of all students. It is good to let your kid to join the program as early as possible to build up a good foundational skill the handle rigorous curriculum in school. It can help your kid to maintain a decent grade in school.
Great information about IXL Math. This program can help kids to learn faster and deeper in math. I used to give my kid some online free math worksheets as practice for them in order to enhance their math skill to handle school tasks. Beestar is the best website I found for free, their worksheets cover all levels of math, which help students to start from basic to build a strong foundation.
The time score system is great to keep tracking students’ performance in order to know their weakness area. As a parent, I tried many online math websites to help my son to improve his math skill, so far, I found IXL and Beestar that they are the most useful and effective for my son. Beestar’s problems are more interesting than IXL. My son likes to do more exercises on Beestar, which helps him to build a great math foundation.
IXL is a good website to use, however, sometimes it can be a bit intimidating for the kids with the score system. We’ve shopped around for a bit and tried various tools and we definitely feel that IXL has its strengths and weaknesses in different areas. A bit of Beestar also helped the kids with their interest level in math which is a big plus.
Our kids have really enjoyed Beestar when compared to IXL. We had hoped that IXL would work out as we heard great reviews about them but it didn’t work out for us. Beestar gave the kids more confidence and the online math competitions were really good.