IXL is a fee-based online curriculum that can be used by schools or homeschoolers alike. Currently it covers Math, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science and Spanish, with its strength being Math. 

From their website: “IXL accelerates your child’s progress” or “Enrich your homeschool experience with IXL”

How IXL Supports Homeschooling:

• Find content to match nearly any lesson
• Access personalized, adaptive learning
• See your child’s knowledge levels
• Use IXL in any setting

One key feature of IXL is its flexibility. You can do it on your computer or through apps on a tablet or phone. Progress is saved across IXL.com and the IXL apps, so your children can pick up right where they left off.

But is it a full curriculum? That seems to be the key question. It hails as such, but in talking to a number of parents and even students, it seems best to be a practice or reinforcement tool.

PROS OF IXL

• It does offer a wide range of subjects and grade levels. It covers Pre-K to 12th grade in the core subjects with the possible addition of Spanish.
• Based on how your children are doing it will adapt the difficulty of the questions it asks. 
• It will allow you to target specific skills. This is great if your child is struggling in one specific area and needs more help. 
• The games and interactive exercises are useful for children who don’t just want to do pencil and paper exercises. 
• It provides detailed reports as to where your children are with their learning. It is a good assessment tool. It really does help you identify strengths and weaknesses. 
• They do have speaker buttons for the Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st grade levels that will read the questions and answer choices to children who are not reading. 
• It is easily done on a variety of tech – computer, tablet or phone. This is helpful if you are traveling or don’t want to learn at home all the time. 

CONS OF IXL

• It really is more of a focus on skill practice rather than in-depth explanations.
• I found that it doesn’t really explain why your child got a question wrong, and this can be frustrating for children, especially when they are trying to keep their score up. 
• The format can get repetitive.
• It only covers core subjects. 
• The voice for reading out the questions and answer choices is a bit robotic and can sometimes be hard to understand. But it does what it needs to do. 
• A number of students I spoke to don’t like it. (But they all use it in schools, and find it frustrating to meet expectations, etc.)

COST

Individual Subjects of Math or Language Arts are $9.95 a month

Combo  – Math and Language Arts $15.95 month

Core Subjects – Math, LA, Science and Social Studies $19.95 month

This is for one child. Additional children are $4 each. You can then add Spanish for $5 a month.

Paying for the year will save you 33%.

They have a 30 day risk free guarantee. So while there is no “free trial” as such, you can get your money back within the first month if you are not happy with it. 

OTHER THOUGHTS AND MY OPINIONS

• I think that is a great resource for skill practice and reinforcement but I don’t think that it is sufficient for a complete curriculum. It doesn’t provide in-depth instruction or explanations. But again, the practice opportunities are really good for additional reinforcement. 
• There is limited hands-on learning with it being online. 
• I think that you can use it as an assessment tool to see children’s proficiency. 
• IXL is often used as a supplement to traditional teaching, rather than a standalone curriculum. You really have to consider your child’s learning style and needs when deciding if IXL is the right fit. Not all students learn best through practice alone. Some may require more hands-on or visual learning.
• You really do need to use it in conjunction with another curriculum to provide a well-rounded education.

You can check out IXL for yourself at their website.

Check out some other online curriculum reviews:
MiAcademy
Time 4 Learning