Hello
I would really appreciate your opinion on these sites. Are they worth the subscription fees, what are their pros and cons, etc. If there are others that are better, equilvent or free please let me know.
1. For word problems, preferably grade levels 1-6
http://www.mathstories.com/2. For something that is a bit more fun, preferably grade levels 1-6
http://www.ixl.com/Thanks so much
annaliisa
We've used IXL. My kids found it fun at first, but it is very repetitious and we quit altogether after a year or so. It doesn't let you advance quickly enough in my kids' opinion, so they end up doing many problems of the same kind before they earn a prize. The concept is good, though - if you master a topic, you get a "prize," so it does create some incentive.
Ditto twomoose on the repitition -- my dd lasted on IXL only a few days. It's like doing worksheets on the computer.
My DD hates IXL. I think it is partly repetition and the other part due to the 2D graphics. If anyone knows of another website for math that has great graphics please let me know.
My DS7 likes ixl he does it in-between doing john hopkins classes just to brush up so he doesn't forget. I told him today to jump around, that he does not have to do all the questions on a single topic and get an award. I told him to have fun picking different topics. Today he did 30 minutes. If he does 30 minutes here and there over the summer he should be ready for the next john hopkins course.
Despite the very mixed reviews, or flat out bad reviews, I decided to try IXL for a month. Day one, DD spent about 10 minutes, said it was too easy (I think that she meant too repetitious) and got up from the computer. Voluntarily getting up from the computer is not a common behaviour around here! I guess it's a bust... or, on second thought, maybe I can use it to keep her off the computer. "If you want to use the computer you must do 15 minutes of IXL first!" Thanks for all the input, good and bad.
I use IXL for a specific purpose and that is to identify curriculum gaps. For example, the year 4 curriculum has been sliced and diced into 187 different skills. I get my daughter to do 1 example of each to demonstrate what she does/doesn't know (not ALL 187 but just those things that I think might trip her up). Sometimes it identifies things that she's not quite sure of and then we can go off and explore that particular area. But yes, I agree that it's basically just electronic worksheets. I don't use it for any other purpose. My girls still like mathletics, but mainly for the live competitions...
jojo
My opinion on IXL, so far:
+ Reporting capabilities are detailed enough
+ The activities are tied to standards state-by-state (not sure about this for non-US users)
+ Adaptivity. In my opinion it is not just like doing a worksheet, because if you miss a problem in a particular type of sub-skill, the site will present another similar one later on until you get it.
+ Motivation. The difficulty of questions on some/most/all? of the tasks progresses-- the early ones are much easier, generally, which I think is based on motivational principles (you want the child to feel confident enough to keep going). The incentive structure (awards, prizes, certificates) seems to be well designed enough to appeal to many
- Still in early growth stage. They only have up to grade 6 coverage right now, and some of the tasks need tweaking. For instance, when my son was doing the "Flip, Turn or Slide" task in the first grade grouping, the ones where "slide" was the answer were the only ones to display a grid pattern, which he of course instantly noticed (not that that one was tough for him anyway).
- Some of the skills in each level seem to be extremely easy, out of proportion to the other ones. I have to make my son skip them because he would be bored doing them, and I want him to stay enthusiastic about the site for now.
I agree that it is good for checking a child's progress against a curriculum. My son had a lot of the first-grade skills (and some up to fourth) already down, but still hadn't learned how to read a clock, for instance. Sites like ixl.com are one way to organize learning everything that's considered by the system to be required at a grade level.
I'm on the fence about the repetition. Except for the "skill builder" types of things that are like basic flashcards, a great many of the tasks do have a mix of different types of skills requested, and it is shaken up. The minimum number of questions to complete a task is IIRC 28, which means my son can blow through the easier stuff in 2-3 minutes per task. Also, if he wants to go on to something else without finishing a task, I let him; if he went on from boredom, I don't ask that he finish, and otherwise just let it be until he wants to revisit it. I think it's valuable to think about the site in terms of whether or not it presents something that will help your child learn and keep their interest, not just whether your child is ticking off everything on a list.
I've used it to also begin to teach skills that would help him in school: no fear of failing, no fear of giving a wrong answer, complete self-confidence, etc. From that perspective, I think that the "Report Card" link, which the child can also check, is useful. The fact that the answers are visibly scored, and to 100, is useful, even though of course it's not just like taking a written test in school. There are consequences for a wrong answer, but they're not too severe (just dropping the score a fair amount).
I've sat with him and intentionally mixed up my telegraphed messages, so that he learns to trust his own feelings as to which answer is right; I've taught him that a wrong answer isn't bad, but just indicates he either needs to learn something or needs more attention to detail; etc. I love the times he gets an answer wrong-- it's a chance to make him more resilient. He shows a some tendencies to be too hard on himself, even in the absence of any pressure from us.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I'm going to spend some more time going through it myself. Originally the big draw for me was using for assessment. Lucounu, I really appreciate you taking the time to highlight it's strengths. I'm sure that my DD will take a second go at it too.
As far as know,IXL is not as good as Beestar. My child prefers to use Beestar. It has a forever free math program and you can choose to join the fee-based program to get more subjects exercises such as science and social studies. My son has been using free math exercises for a semester and he completes one exercise each week. His teacher said these math questions were designed perfectly.