IXL (translated I excel)

As I was looking for math websites to help elementary students, I found this site - IXL. The site is a product of the Quia corporation. If you are not familiar with Quia, it is an educational site where users can create learning activities and share them with other educators and students. The IXL site focuses on math review. IXL calls itself, "The Web's #1 Math Practice Site".

The IXL site is easy to navigate and should appeal to children because the site is colorful and uses illustrations of smiling kids. The site is very inviting and child friendly.

Math skills are listed by grade level (PreK-6) and then organized into categories. There are over 100 skills listed for each grade level except PreK which has less than 100. Some of the category names you will find include: Numbers and Counting, Fractions, Time, Measurement, Money, Adding and Subtracting, to name a few. Skills are aligned to state standards.

Teachers or parents can purchase a subscription and keep track of student progress. There is an option for monthly or yearly pricing and for multiple children if you are purchasing a subscription for home. If you want to preview the site, you can practice and answer 20 questions for free each day. When your 20 questions are used up you still view samples from each grade level by hovering over the links.

If your child is struggling with math or hates the paper and pencil reviews, check out IXL. They might just decide that math isn't too bad after all.

Help With Fractions

Over the summer I spend time with my boys reviewing some basic skills they learned in their previous school year. This summer, my former sixth grader is working with fractions. Math does not come easily for him so I was looking for help online to explain some of the processes he needed to go through. I found the website Help With Fractions which did help us! At the site you will help with the following topics:

• Math Homework Help
• Adding Fractions
• Subtracting Fractions
• Multiplying Fractions
• Dividing Fractions
• Least Common Multiple
• Least Common Denominator
• Greatest Common Factor
• Equivalent Fractions
• Simplifying Fractions
• Reducing Fractions
• Understanding Fractions
• Prime Numbers
• Fraction Calculator

We worked through the Least Common Denominator section that got us on track. There is a Prime Numbers chart that may be helpful to students. Check it out - it might be just what you were looking for.