LearnBop Online Math Tutor Program a Schoolhouse Crew Review
Whenever I talk to other moms about homeschooling the conversation eventually turns to math and the search for tips to help struggling students master the concepts.
As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew we recently got a chance to try LearnBop for Families by LearnBop and test out this online Math Program.
LearnBop for Families is an online, self paced, Math subscription service that provides step by step Math instruction for 3rd to 12th grade students.
LearnBop can be purchased for $14.95 a month for a single student or $19.95 a month for up to 5 students.
We received a 12 month subscription to LearnBop for Families and the Single Student Plan
How LearnBop is Set Up
For me at least, LearnBop can be a little confusing to get around so I’ll just draw you a picture here….
Dashboard: This shows you where you are at in the curriculum. You can see how many videos your child has watched. How many Bops (more on that later) they have completed. How long they spent. Units and Concepts mastered. All in a nutshell.
Roadmap: This is a dashboard for the student. You can see all the units in a Roadmap (curriculum or grade), how much of the current unit is completed, the building blocks to get to mastery of this unit, and the concepts in the current unit.
Building Blocks : These are the videos and exercises for whatever concept your student is working on.
Bops: Answering problems to show you know how to do this concept.
Mastery : Woo hoo! You’ve got it.
Using LearnBop
By first choosing a grade or curriculum LearnBop sets up what are called Roadmaps. These are like pathways through the curriculum that are set up for you.
You can change your Roadmap and have access to all the grades and levels if you need to. That is good for customization.
Once you complete a warmup LearnBop gets the idea of where you may need help and you then move on to solving Bops which is where LearnBop shines.
Bops are little Math problems you solve and when you have achieved mastering 90% of them (in a concept) then you get to move on.
When you miss a Bop or a problem LearnBop takes you, step by step, through the basics of how to solve the problem and then you give it a go again.
How We Used LearnBop
My daughter started off using LearnBop for Families daily. She worked in LearnBop in the morning before starting her regular Math program.
Even though there are specific concepts she has more problems with than others she started off in the beginning of her Roadmap with Understanding Multiplication and Division and also 2-Dimensional Geometry since that was a chapter we were doing in her regular math curriculum.
Since these were concepts she had already covered she thought it was too time consuming to watch each video (even though I made her watch the warmup) so she watched just the first video and then moved on to the Bops.
The Sweet Peanut complained that a few times the program said she answered a problem wrong when she had actually felt she had gotten it right.
I admit to being frustrated at first and ready to just put the program down but then….
I logged into my own dashboard and worked on mastery too to check this out.
I can’t say for sure that my daughter didn’t run into issues but what I discovered myself is that LearnBop is very sensitive. Since the Sweet Peanut moved on and didn’t mention the issue to me until she was done for the day (and conveniently couldn’t remember which problem had given her issues) I don’t know exactly where it happened but this is what happened to me…
As the parent I too can take a Roadmap to learning math. I started with 5th Grade Understanding Multiplication and Division just like the Sweet Peanut. I skipped the videos because I’ve already learned this concept (ha!). LearnBop first wanted to see where I was on number placement and asked me to write a number in expanded form.
My number was 807,391
I wrote 800,000 + 0 + 7000 + 300 + 90 + 1
Because I didn’t put the , in the 7000 I was marked wrong and taken back to re-learn how to write in expanded form step by step. I missed the note at the top of the problem telling me to remember to put the , in. So my fault. I wonder if this is what happened with my daughter also.
LearnBop for Families is a new product so there could still be glitches but I’m willing to be on the Beta team though because
BTW I moved on and mastered 2 concepts 🙂 after learning my lesson on details.
How Did We Like LearnBop for Families
For the most part I really like LearnBop. The concept is really wonderful. Recognizing where your child may be struggling and pinpointing on learning those concepts.
We didn’t use LearnBop as a full curriculum but I expect with the videos it could be used that way (for sure).
Sometimes with math programs I find they teach stuff a little differently from program to program. My daughter actually likes that as she feels it gives her a rounded view of how to solve a math problem so we go with it. But it could be an issue if you use it as a supplemental program.
My daughter felt LearnBop was “okay” and has agreed to at least give it a try next school year.
For me I think having to back up and relearn a complete concept when you miss something simple sort of drags the lesson out and that can frustrate impatient people (like my daughter). I confess when I missed that comma making me back up like that was a little irritating. Just tell me I missed the comma! It would be nice if the program noticed exactly what you omitted and instead of taking you back to square one they just revisit exactly what you missed.
But where I think this works for my daughter is that detail is where she falls short in her work. It’s something I’ve been attempting to drive home this school year. And especially in math. Detail matters. Labeling answers. Writing her math problems in order and lined up so that mistakes aren’t made. She even had a dream about it if you can believe that. It’s been kind of a theme this year and I think LearnBop for Families can be part of that detail. So I’ve asked her to pick it back up in 2 months and if she does come to a problem that is marked wrong and she feels she got it right to stop and get me so I can take a look before she dismisses it.
What do you think? Interested to know more? I recommend reading the other reviews of LearnBop Family by the Schoolhouse Review Crew. Click the green banner below.
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