Sunday, June 8, 2014

Learning Wrap Ups- TOS Crew Review


Learning Wrap Ups is no doubt a familiar company to many of you.  Their wrap ups have been around a while now, and I know are a favorite for many homeschoolers.  What may not be familiar to you is that this wonderful company has many other just as amazing products and they recently blessed us with several to review and share with you.
Learning Wrap-Ups Review

Here is ALL that we received to review-
Online subscription to Learning Palette.com- An online subscription that allows you to use the learning palette in a virtual way, rather than physical.

2nd Grade math Learning Palette 1 Base Center Kit ($71.99) The physical set that included 6 curriculum packs with 12 cards each.  They cover skills such as addition and subtraction of 2 and 3 digit numbers, money, fractions, measurement and more.

2nd Grade Reading 1 Base Center Kit ($61.99) Another physical set which comes with 5 curriculum packs with 12 cards each.  The packs cover capitalization, punctuation, reading comprehension, word usage, vocabulary and grammar.

10 Steps to Addition Mastery book Wrap Up Combo ($12.99) Includes the student book and the addition wrap up.  (we received the book without the wrap up, as we had the Math Intro set)

10 Days to Multiplication Mastery book Wrap up combo ($12.99) Includes the student book and the multiplication wrap up.(we received the book without the wrap up, as we had the Math Intro set)

Learning Wrap Up Vocabulary Learning Kit ($35.99) This kit includes four wrap ups for elementary ages and up that include synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and compound words as well as a booklet with game ideas.

Math Intro Kit without CDs ($44.99)- This kit contains 5 wrap ups- Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions, intended to be used with elementary ages (and up) that have begun to learn math facts.

K800 Math Intro w/o CDs

Of course, the first things out of the box were the Learning Palette kits for our rising 2nd grader. Who would not be thrilled with such a bright and colorful product that looks and feels like a game!  He immediately chose to try the 2nd Grade Reading 1 Base Center Kit.  Once I showed him how to place the cards in the base unit, and quickly explained how to place the colored disks, he was off with no help from me.  I just sat back and watched.  Once you match all of the colored disks with the answers you choose, you simply turn the card over to see if you got the answers correctly.  This self correcting aspect of the system is nice, as it put him in control of his learning and did not make me the bad guy if he made a mistake.  Let's face it, it is always easier to self correct than for mom to do so- especially for this independent kiddo I have!  It took no extra encouragement to get him to do a little practice everyday because he truly saw it as a game.


CJ is still working his way through the cards, but so far his favorite remain the riddles and jokes.  I do have to encourage him to try new cards, as he would go back to those over and over again.  Believe me, he took great joy in memorizing the jokes so he could ask them to his dad and siblings at dinner.  Several dinners, actually!  This is a fun, simple way to daily review a completed year in school, or in our case begin to work on new skills.

The Learning Palette packs can be purchased for Grades 1st-5th for Math and grades K-3 for reading.

The same fun you have with the physical Learning Palettes can also be found online! For the Learning Palette.com online subscription, you will have access to both math and reading at 6 levels. You can access a free demo  to see if how your child does with this program.  You can also try a 10 day free trail before signing up.  One of the reasons I like the online subscription is you can make the program portable without having to worry about losing little pieces.  Though the sets come in a nice handled plastic bag for easy storage, there are still little disks to keep up with.  For us this was no big deal in the house, but in the car- no thanks.  Instead we just accessed our online account on my iPad and off he went.  The great thing about using the program on the iPad was it allowed for fine motor practice as well.  I also love that you have access to the different levels in both math and reading!

There were times for us, both out of the house as well as in, that it was easier to access the online program over pulling out the whole palette kit.  CJ was able to log in easily and proceed with no help from me.  He loved seeing which levels he could do with  no help.
Pricing-The pricing for www.learningpalette.com is normally $60.00 for up to 5 users.  Learning Palette is graciously offering a 20% discount to our readers when using the coupon code HOMESCHOOL.

The Learning Wrap Up Vocabulary Learning Kit is a product that will seem more familiar to many of you. These four separate wrap ups challenge your child with vocabulary and seem to get a bit harder as you progress.  They are intended for elementary aged kids, but I will say that our 6 year old struggled with them some.  Once he figured out the concept of the compound words he thought it was funnier to make up silly words versus try to figure out the correct word.  Wrap ups use a string attached to the unit to match the answers together and then you turn the unit over to see if you got them correct.  If you did, all the string lines will match with your string.  If not, you know you did something wrong and can unwrap the string and start over.  In the end, these got used more by my 12 year old and his older sisters seeing who could do them the fastest.  Have I mentioned our family is slightly competitive? 


Wait, there is more!
Quite honestly, the 10 Steps to Addition Mastery book Wrap Up Combo turned out to be one of my favorite products!  I should have known that the hands on part of this program, the wrap ups, would be a huge hit with my almost 7 year old!  Between the fact that it was a hands on activity and that it felt like a game to him, he asked to do it daily.  The book is designed to cover one addition fact set at a time (plus 1s, plus 2s, plus 3s, and so forth to 10).  In addition to traditional workbook pages with facts on them, it also has you time yourself with the wraps ups numerous times, trying to better your time each round.  CJ loved that.  "Just one more time, just one more time" was all I heard.  He was determined to beat his time, so it is no wonder that he has become a pro at the fact groups. Keep in mind, this says 10 Steps, not 10 days!  I made that mistake at first.  While older children needing review may be able to do a fact set each day, my upcoming 2nd grader was not.  Between the three or four pages per set, wrap up practice time and built in reviews, we spent several days on each fact set.  I felt that not only did that pace not overwhelm him, but allowed for the facts to sink in.


In the beginning of the book there is a fact chart that you color in each time you master a new fact set that he loved.  There is juts something about seeing that chart fill up that egged him on!


My 6th grade son used the 10 Days to Multiplication Mastery book Wrap up combo and since it was a "summer review" for him, he did complete each "step" in one day.  Just like our younger, we saw his speed for multiplication facts go up as well as his confidence.  While he did not seem to be as excited about beating his time (go figure with a 12 year old boy) he was able to stick with the program and improve his accuracy.


Additional wrap ups that can be purchased include Spanish, vocabulary, Geography, music theory and more!

Wow, I am tired, how about you?  I am also extremely grateful to Learning Wrap Ups for the opportunity to review their amazing products.  We would highly recommend all of the resources we review to you! They are a great way to review already learned materials, learn new concepts and practice ones for better mastery, all the while doing so in a new and engaging way!

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1 comment:

  1. Thanks for your review! I am very interested in this product so seeing what those who reviewed it thought...

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