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Beestar vs IXL, what is your opinion?

Guest Catherine1000

By Guest Catherine1000,
in Parents' Forum Afterschooling Board

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Guest Catherine1000

Guest Catherine1000

Posted
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I have been looking at both Beestar and IXL for my child.

Can anyone tell me about your experience with them? Thanks. 

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Mabelen

Mabelen

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My dd used both the free IXL and Beestar versions. She tolerated both. IXL is better at systematic drill. Beestar follows I believe a Texas school district scope and sequence so it would be systematic lesson reinforcement for those kids. They have a pay option which might be different. We tried Dreambox for a bit too. She liked it better for a while, then it started jumping in difficulty and it became too cumbersome to customize. For my dd, what works best is Math with mom giving immediate feedback. Right now we are using CLE 500 and she does it without complaint.

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kiwik

kiwik

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My opinion is that IXL is kind of lame and can crush mathematical interest but it does what it says it does, whereas Beestar seems to need people coming on here shilling for it every couple of months, which doesn't bode well.

And everywhere else apparently.

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ocelotmom

ocelotmom

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Beestar is basically a weekly enrichment worksheet. That's all. Paying for it provides a weekly worksheet in more subjects. It's not really something you can use as a daily supplement, and definitely not a full curriculum. When we tried it, there were so many extremely high functioning kids doing it that the competition aspect was pretty much pointless.

 

DS did enjoy the worksheets, though.

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  • 3 weeks later...
debi21

debi21

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Wow, I think this is the first time I've seen a negative comment about DreamBox. We did the trial and I liked a lot of it in theory, except there was still too much timed stuff, let me flash this thing at you for two seconds and have my five (then four?) year old try to figure it out in this tiny amount of time. I felt like that worked against developing conceptual comfort, which was supposed to be the reason to choose DreamBox. The other problem, as mentioned above, was my son just went to the fun stuff or whatever - he did NOT want to do the lessons. Admittedly the different presentation might have been out of his comfort zone.

 

That said, he also didn't love Xtra math. Dull and timed. IXL is dull but not timed, or not obviously time-is-running-out timed, so I am still considering it. Even though it was timed, for math facts, the one my son liked best was Reflex Math. While we had it he often whined about the timed aspect, but he still sometimes asks for that.  I know nothing about beestar, but I notice no one has sounded excited about it.

 

I am still looking for an online math supplement that is fun without timed pressure, so if anyone has any other recommendations...

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  • 3 weeks later...
pwicks

pwicks

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Hi.. My DD is in 1st grade  my DS is in kindergarten... both take well to math and I do Critical thinking company curriculum with them at home on top of Public school. (once I finish with my current books though I think I am going to switch to MM... total side note).

 

ok so I have both Math seeds (it is by Blake learning who also does Reading eggs) and Dreambox. I had Math seeds because they gave it to me dirt cheap for a year long subscription when I renewed reading eggs.

I got Dreambox because I thought mathseeds was too "slow paced" childish and boring.... I will be honest I didn't realize how much my kids picked up from mathseeds. They are doing analog time, fractions etc. Dreambox is not doing any of that. My daughter is generally more academic and does well with both Dream box and mathseeds. My son can't take all the manipulatives associated with Dreambox (10frames, abacus, etc.etc.) so he plays it for 15 minutes then ends up going to math seeds.

 

Dreambox seems to be great to get the kids working with numbers... my kids are both quicker on visualizing math facts and problems... Mathseeds has a broader curriculum (although not very aggressive... yet still faster than the public school common core curriculum!!!). I am going to do a trial of  IXL (myself I don't want to confuse the kids) and see if maybe it would be a good replacement for both programs when my current subscriptions expire.

 
 
 
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  • 2 years later...
Zmom12

Zmom12

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Last semester I found the Beestar free math program. My son really likes it. The best part, I get a progress report every week and can work with my kid on any skills that need more attention. I know for sure he understands the new math concept through the weekly reports to my email. He works really hard to get on the weekly honor roll. My son is really motivated and confident at school and I am more confident that I am helping them stay ahead of the curve. His teacher even pulled me aside to ask what I was doing differently. We will be starting Science and Social Studies for the Spring 2018 Semester in a few weeks. 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 5 years later...
Ashley Cocoe

Ashley Cocoe

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My son used to be a slow learner, he was not doing so well in his class before. My friend told me about the Beestar and I decided to try it for my son in the last three months. The Beestar math program is free and although it is free, it is pretty effective and we could see his improvement and he is doing well in his class currently. There is also an online math competition from Beestar which was held last October but my son missed it so we are planning to participate in March. Hope he can do the best in that competition.

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  • 1 month later...
Blossom Jane

Blossom Jane

Posted
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On 2/5/2023 at 7:40 PM, Ashley Cocoe said:

My son used to be a slow learner, he was not doing so well in his class before. My friend told me about the Beestar and I decided to try it for my son in the last three months. The Beestar math program is free and although it is free, it is pretty effective and we could see his improvement and he is doing well in his class currently. There is also an online math competition from Beestar which was held last October but my son missed it so we are planning to participate in March. Hope he can do the best in that competition.

Hi i'm confusing to choose the online math program for kid just between Kumon and Beestar and most people say that Kumon is a bit expensive so can you answer that for me that which one would be the better one? Your suggestion would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

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Rosie_0801

Rosie_0801

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48 minutes ago, Blossom Jane said:

Hi i'm confusing to choose the online math program for kid just between Kumon and Beestar and most people say that Kumon is a bit expensive so can you answer that for me that which one would be the better one? Your suggestion would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

You'd be better off starting a new thread than bumping such an old one.

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