IXL is a brilliant choice for an online homeschool maths curriculum because of its assessment and analytical functionality and ready-to-use study plans.
IXL has week-by-week lesson plans for grades pre-K to grade 8, UK year 9, as well as plans specifically for algebra, geometry and calculus.
The beauty of this curriculum is how easy it is to get started.
Using the diagnostic tools, the site assesses your child’s maths ability and suggests a grade level. Once graded, using the weekly plans, your homeschooler is ready to jump right in.
For home educators, IXL’s analytics make it easy to check your child’s progress, identify areas they need help with and also check they are actually studying when online; you can see how long they were online, what skills they studied, as well as how many questions they answered each session.
IXL’s analytics allows you to review the answers to each question as well as showing you your child’s progress in simple data form that makes it easy to quickly check how they’re getting on – checking in with homelearners independently studying is super important. Staying on top of learning-gaps makes it easier to plug them.
For home learners, IXL is a smart choice because they can choose how to learn: Each maths topic has the option to learn via an example (text-book style) or by watching a video.
Both the examples and video tutorials are clear, concise and easy to follow. Another bonus of IXL for home-educated students is that the explanations are accessible to refer back to with every question – it’s so simple. This ready-access to revision means the site acts almost as a tutor for home learners.
What makes IXL stand out for homeschoolers looking to combine an online/offline curriculum is the Textbook Skill Plans. Choose the textbook you’re studying and get extra support aligned with the order in which the textbook presents maths. It’s ingenious.
If you’re not homeschooling to the UK curriculum and your homeschooler will be sitting tests, again IXL creates study plans aligned with the tests shown below to use as extra practice or as a revision guide.
IXL sends regular progress reports which allows you to passively monitor a learner’s progress while making the students feel trusted with their own maths learning journey. It’s a win-win curriculum for home-ed maths.
IXL works out around £10 a month and it is more than worth the money. I love that it’s simple enough for the kids to guide themselves through the lessons, allows me to figure out where learning gaps are without any stressful tests or having to do maths with them in a teacher capacity and our homeschoolers love the awards!