Jun
LearningPalette.com Review
We were given the chance to review LearningPalette.com which is made by Learning Wrap-ups. I was given full access to LearningPalette.com which can be used for math or reading. The cost of a yearly membership to LearningPalette.com is $25 for one user or $60 for 5 users. There are pricing options for more users, up to 1000, so this is a product that homeschoolers or schools can consider. This product is geared for kindergarten through 5th grade.
LearningPalette.com is an online product, so you will need reliable access to the internet in order to use it. They also have hands on products you can purchase at Learning Wrap-Ups.
It’s hard to describe how LearningPalette.com works in words, so I took some screen shots while we used the product to better show it works.
This is the first screen in the math portion of the program. There is a basic level up through level 5. Once you pick your level you can pick the topic you want your child to study or review.
After you choose a topic- in this example I picked level 3, Numeration Step 3 -you are then given 12 cards to pick from for your child to work on. You can see that some of the cards have a little green circle next to them- those are the cards that Hailey completed in this particular topic.
After you pick a card, this is what you will see. This particular example is in math, level 3 and covers multiplication and division. (It is a bit hard to see, but if you click on the picture you can see a much bigger version.) So, once you click on the card your child will need to solve the math problem. After she has an answer she will need to look for the answer around the edge of the circle. Then she has to find the colored circle on the left hand side that corresponds with the question, and click and drag that to the correct answer.
The reading portion is similar to the math portion. There are 4 different levels- basic through level 3. Within those levels are different topics, and then the topics have 12 cards with different questions.
This is an example of a vocabulary card in level 3. This is the same set up as the math- your child will read the question, find the answer around the circle, then find the colored circle on the left that corresponds to the question and put next to the correct answer.
So, how did we use LearningPalette.com?
Hailey used levels 2 and 3 in both math and reading. We used it as a review or practice for things we had already covered. I didn’t find there to be any actual teaching, just questions that would go over things that had already been covered.
This is a screen shot of one of Hailey’s completed cards- it tells how long it took her to complete it and tells how many she got correct.
Usually Hailey really enjoys using activities on the computer, but when I asked her how she felt about LearningPalette.com she said it made her feel frustrated. I also used it and it was very confusing for me. I could easily answer the questions that were being asked, but to actually match up the correct circle- figure out which color to use and whether or not is was supposed to have a hole in it, then find the correct answer on the outside of the circle, made me confused. Another problem we had was that sometimes Haiely would “lose” a disc. If the colored circles got too close the edge of the screen they disappeared and there was no way to get them back. The system also did not keep track of all of the cards she completed. There were some cards she finished that were never counted as done.
Here is what it boils down to for me:
Pros:
We had access to all grade levels.
Hailey was able to work at her own pace- if she didn’t finish a card, she could come back later to finish it.
The card was immediately corrected so that Hailey could see what she had right or wrong.
Cons:
There are just too many steps to complete to answer each question- even though I quickly knew the answers, it took me a while to figure out which disc to put where.
It frustrated Hailey and confused me.
The cards are timed, which bothered Hailey because she felt like she was rushing to get it done rather than just figuring out the problems.
Overall, this was not a great fit for us. I definitely encourage you to read the reviews that others have posted because this is simply my opinion.
