LearnBop ~ REVIEW

 
I have a Love Hate relationship with Math...just saying the word gives me PTSD flashbacks of my childhood.  I struggled, ignored and gave up early in High School.  Being in Foster Care gave me the perfect cover to just float by unnoticed.  That being said, even though I thought I had outsmarted the "system"....I know that not taking Math throughout my whole High School years didn't do me a lick of good.  Since then I have passed down my story of struggle to each of the kids to encourage them to find a solution when they struggle with Math.  Mahala has the hardest time and right now she is stuck in the same exact place I was.  I always say if somethings not working for you, change it!  So, with her we do many different Math supplements to get her through this difficult time.  Which is why I was Super stoked to get the chance to Review LearnBop for Families from LearnBop for the past several weeks.  I decided to have both Mahala and Kaden try it out, because I can Never give Kaden Enough Math to satisfy him.  I have no idea how he is mine....but I'll keep him! :)


I was already familiar with LearnBop, we used to go through a Homeschool program called K-12.  My 2 oldest Kiddos used it online along with their Math.  I liked it then and I like it now!  LearnBop for Families is designed for Homeschool Families (3rd-12th) to be able to catch up, learn for the 1st time, save money on having to get a tutor, prepare for higher level exams and just to give the Parent a little break if Math is not their Love Language!  :) 

Let me tell you how we used LearnBop for Families.....1st thing we did was set up our profiles.  This was very easy and the fun part for Kaden was picking his Avatar...he picked a Code breaker, oddly enough so did Mahala.  That was super easy to set up and then we needed to pick out their individual road map.  They have 3 to pick from, by Grade (3rd-8th), by Subject (grade 1st-8th) or you can pick High School.  I love how you get to customized each child's own math experience.  I signed Kaden into a grade level at first and after playing around he decided to do it by Subjects.  In his mind he thinks he can cover the most ground as fast as possible.  I kind of like that route because then you can have them work on specific areas within math as a whole and not just what would be typical in their current grade.  And Kaden is all over the map anyway, it's hard to put him just in 1 grade.  The Cool thing is that you can flip flop and change your road map whenever you want, it's totally in your hands...I Love that flexibility!

It's Easy to see what Your Kiddos have been up to!

Set Up is Super Fast and Simple!

Once You have a path and you get started your Kiddo will get a quick warm up to gauge where they are on the given topic/concept.  If they didn't pass enough problems on the warm up they will need to complete a few Building Blocks.  Afterwards they get to watch a short 1-5 minute videos presented like a power-point to demonstrate each concept.  Sometimes they will have multiple videos to watch before doing their "Bops", but mostly it's just the one. Bops as you might have guessed are the Problems.  Kaden loves to say he's doing his Bops!  Bops are multiple choice, fill in the blanks and matching...I like the variety it offers.  I appreciate the support it offers my Kiddos....as soon as they get a problem wrong they are given a chance to correct, they can also chose to see step by step how to answer it correctly and watch the videos as many times as needed.  To me this is Gold, I want to teach my Kiddos how to learn, how to figure problems out.  This isn't a race to see who can learn the most random facts and dates in 13 years.  I want to set them up for a Life of Learning and I feel that LearnBop does too!

Kaden Enjoyed Earning Different Badges!!!

Mahala and Kaden both spent maybe 30 minutes 5 days a week working through their road maps.  I will add that there were some struggles even with Kaden as far as the way the concepts were taught.  LearnBop does align with Common Core, I never really care about this.  But, more then a dozen times Kaden came to be complaining about the way they were teaching.  He was confused with why they added so many unnecessary steps to get the same answer he did.  Kaden likes fast, he does have a unique flare to his Math Calculating....I'm always impressed with how his mind works.  So, the struggle to not be bored and frustrated was real.  Because to get through to the next concept you had to complete all the videos and Bops.  Another struggle was Kaden kept finding glitches where the answer was correct, yet it was saying it was wrong.  This did happen a handful of times, but I have seen this with most all online programs like this.  The fact that they did teach Common Core, it was confusing for Mahala to work on the Algebra road map.  It was difficult because she hadn't learned previously the way it was being presented to her.  So, she had to go back and relearn some concepts and get a grip on some of the wording to be able to complete her Algebra Bops.

So, what did we think?  Well, overall I loved it, it was easy to set up, not to fussy and overly animated that just annoys Kaden.  So, he was thrilled with the simple look and feel of the program.  I found it difficult to get through because we are not familiar at all with common core.  We have no desire to relearn how we have already learned how to complete a Math Concept correctly.  But, we will continue using this tool during our Summer Long RV trip across the country.  It will just be used as a supplement and I'm not holding their earned grades as actual grades...just as a guide to what they know and need to learn.

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