Help your Kids Get Ahead with IXL

Thank you to IXL for sponsoring this post. 

As a parent, there are so many things to worry about. Before I became a mom, I prepared myself for a lot of scenarios but I don’t think you can fully prepare for that constant worry.

One of my biggest worries has always been whether my kids are getting the academic foundation they need.

I work with my kids individually as often as I can, but it can be tricky to know what information I need to cover and whether there are any gaps in their education.

I’ve been feeling like a bit of a slacker with my 4 year old. Her older brothers were reading by the time they were in kindergarten and I’ve been so busy that we haven’t been working on preschool skills as much as we should have.

Fortunately, IXL came to the rescue.

IXL is a subscription site that helps kids practice their. Math, English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies skills. Actually, 1 in 10 students in the U.S. already use IXL so your kids may already be using it in the classroom setting.

As a mom of 6, it’s hard to keep track of what skills each child needs to be learning. I have some kids who are ahead academically and others who are struggling.

Just like so many other things in life, part of what stops me from working with my kids on academic skills is I don’t know where to start.

IXL makes it easy. 

When you log in, you select the grade level you want to work on. Skills are separated out by subject so you can select exactly what you want to practice with your child.

I loved that when you hover over each topic it will give you a sneak peek at a sample question.

That makes it so much easier to choose a topic to work on.

We started my 4 year old out using IXL.

She loves to learn and was so excited to do “school” with me. It was so fun seeing how excited she got each time she answered a question correctly.

She can’t wait to work on IXL each day and it’s great to see her learning so many new things. She can do the program by herself but I like to sit down with her so we can go through things together.

IXL goes well beyond preschool. Kids all the way through 12th grade can use IXL to practice essential skills or get ahead academically. 

Since we’d liked the program so much with my preschooler, we decided to give it a shot with my older boys too.

My kids love to learn but my older boys have struggled with a few concepts here and there. In a school setting, it can be hard to get enough practice on those things so I always try and help them out at home.

IXL includes thousands of skills that are aligned with Common Core and state standards and  is the perfect way to review grade-level concepts, especially as kids get older and the work gets harder.

If your kids are working independently, IXL will email you updates on what topics they have covered and what they need to work on, which is fabulous.

My 5th grader loved how straight forward everything was. He was able to work on some social studies concepts he was struggling with in a way that was low-pressure and moved at just the right speed for him.

Each of IXL’s 6,000 skills adapts to the individual student, offering scaffolded questions that adjust difficulty based on the learner’s understanding using IXL’s SmartScore algorithm, which takes into account the number of problems completed, the number of problems correct and incorrect, problem difficulty, and the consistency of correct answers in a row. When kids reach a SmartScore of 90 or better, you and your kids can be sure they really get it.

I love how easy IXL makes it to make sure your kids don’t have any gaps in their education. We are using it now as a supplement but I wish I’d discovered it during our homeschooling years because it would have been such a great resource.

You can learn more about IXL here or Download the App here.