Reply to Dyscalc math help / remediation over the summer

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a parent.  I paid for IXL for one year as a learning aid.  My two sons had already used the math portion through their school district (so they knew the tool).  My sons wouldn't spend time on it at home without me nagging them, so I switched them to far more expensive in-person Mathnasium tutoring.  I've written posts about this in the past.

I can corroborate that the student diagnostic for my older son matched the Mathnasium pre-test.  Both identified the same areas of weakness.  And both use drills to reinforce concepts.  Mathnasium offers a classroom type model where one tutor helps multiple kids who are working on worksheets chosen to build their skills in a tailored order.  IXL just offers explanations and if those are not sufficient, you must tutor your child.

When my kids' school district had IXL, I didn't get involved with the kids completing the units.  I hadn't seen the parent diagnostic features.  And the kids were assigned IXL mainly in the summer as a supposed learning loss avoidance measure that failed.  So, I didn't leverage it correctly.

Bottom line, if I had really looked at IXL carefully AND had compliant children, it would have been worth it for tutoring and practice.  A year cost less than a week of Mathnasium.

Here's what I recommend.  Subscribe for six months to IXL math only.  Incentivize your kid to do a lot of modules.  Check to make sure your kid is doing 8th grade common core...if your kid is needing to drop down to 4th/5th grade on some skills...that's not weird at all.  My 7th grader had forgotten how to do long division by hand.  Whatever the kid scores badly at, move him down grade settings manually to practice related skills at a lower grade level.  You could even start out at 6th grade and see how that goes.

Also...Very Important...make sure your kid only has to get a score of 80 or 90 on a module then they can stop.  One of the most annoying things about IXL is that it's very difficult to get high scores/100s.  Kids don't want to spend 30 minutes more to complete a module perfectly vs. a 90.  The less frustrating they find completing modules, the faster you will be able to see patterns and be able to guide them to the areas where they have weak spots.

If for any reason you feel that you won't be able to interpret the math terminology used to describe the learning units (e.g., prime number, factor, commutative property), then maybe you'll have difficulty.  But I think anyone who's been to college and at least taken Algebra should be able to refresh their knowledge.

Also make sure that your kid can still speed run math facts (multiplication tables, etc.), order of operations - PEMDAS, and can work with fractions.  These are trouble spots.  Truthfully kids don't get enough practice with these, unless they are naturally good at math in elementary school.

P.S.  I had an added use for IXL.  My younger one who wouldn't do the math ended up using it to catch up in 7th grade Spanish.  That was a low-cost add-on module.  I tacked it on to his brother's subscription because his brother didn't need Spanish 1.[/quote]

We are also fans of Mathnasium. Helped fill the gaps left by poor math instruction (which is often the issue, not an actual disability) and the instructors really got to know my kid and give very thoughtful feedback and insight about how he learns. [/quote]

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