Four Violet Reviews: LitWits ~ REVIEW

We read a lot of books, I mean a ton of them every month. But, sometimes it would be nice to linger over a book a little longer then zipping to the next one. That's where LitWits Kits from LitWits comes in at. We recently were given 4 kits to go along with 4 books we had that were on our list to read next. I was a little more excited then Kaden because he says he doesn't like fussy stuff like crafts. :) But, the show must go on folks....here we go.

Personally I like hands on activities and Kaden generally does too. I think there are times in a book when you can pick up little life lessons and character gems by immersing yourself in the literature your reading. Right now LitWits has almost 50 different kits to choose from that reaches the whole reading spectrum. These kits save the parent hours of searching online for activities and materials to go along with your current book. I'm talking about these fine gems right here:

sensory prop ideas: see, hear, smell, and feel what the characters did
bookbites ideas: taste what the characters ate
creative project ideas & instructions/templates: make what a character made
kinetic activity ideas & instructions/prompts: do what a character did (or might/should have!)
academic handouts: learn the story’s narrative arc, vocabulary, setting, and more
creative writing handouts: write what a character wrote or felt
takeaway topics: know what the characters knew
learning links: learn more about what the characters’ world was like
audiovisual links: see and hear what the characters’ world looked and sounded like
CCSS alignment: check off lots of boxes!

Once you have your kits purchased they can stay on your account or you can download them and use at any time.

For the review we will focus on The Witch Of Blackbird Pond. Above you see the first page I see, so beautifully organized. First is a brief hello, welcome and then an overview of what you have received. For this specific kit the PDF is 23 pages, plus 14 pages of handouts and activity downloads. Next is prop ideas....this was interesting for us. I have Never done this before and since we are packing and downsizing to move I didn't have much to use. But, we did have some shells from a recent Texas beach trip so we had those out. The ideas they provide are awesome, here is a sneak peek.

There were three hands on fun activities for this book, one was having a Puritan Quadrathlon. The other two were more crafty projects that Kaden struggled with and asked me not to share. As for the race, we had to modify it more then a tad, but we normally do have to do this for Kaden. This would have been so much fun with a co op group or when Kaden's siblings were homeschooling with us. I did get Kaden excited about one of the activities in the Quadrathlon, corn husking. I bought corn 3 different times so he could improve his time.

Book Bites are delicious opportunities to get kids in the kitchen with book inspired dishes. Yes, we loved this...I can always get Kaden in the kitchen cooking.

The Take Away section we talked and learned more about Colonial life, the dilemmas in the book, all those hard choices that were made. Kaden was able to relate to the portion talking about being different. Using the Kit with Kaden brought more light on this book then when I read it with his siblings. I feel differently about the book, it became more then just a story for me.

And finally you have handouts, links and quotes. the handout were easy to use, we ended up doing the questions orally. Wow, they were great lessons. Kaden enjoyed identifying the dilemmas, vocab words and learning about the narrative arc.

One of the things I appreciated most besides the sheer amazing organization and quality of this product, is all the extra resources you can use while reading the book. Like, Author biographies, maps and so many other resources.

The other titles we have to work on are The Hobbit, A Wrinkle in Time and Treasure Island. I know he will enjoy making a sword, eating a Beorn's feast and even discovering his very own hobbit name while we read The Hobbit. A Wrinkle in Time will have us scaling the solar system, eating mystery food and diving deep into time travel. And classic read Treasure Island will have us map making, tying knots like pirates and so much more. Let's just say the rest of our school year is full of exciting things.

So, what did I think? I loved this product so much. I see the value and honestly couldn't recommend these kits enough. If you have readers at any level these are a must. It saves parents time and energy from looking and piecing these activities and projects together. Yes, we had to modify almost everything, but that is the beauty of homeschooling. The framework and then some is done for you. I loved that everything was in color, in order and easy to get to. We will be looking at other titles we haven't read yet so that we can add to our collection. These would make wonderful gifts to give to a family for Christmas. A copy of the book and a Kit would be super fun to receive. Even if you collected some of the prop ideas and included in the gift would be a nice extra. I'm making my list of families I could bless with this now.

Make sure you click below and see what other families thought about LitWits. And Connect with them on Social Media today.