Leave the Searching to the Experts: LitWits Review {A Homeschool Review Crew Review}

We are BIG readers around here. But there are some classic books that I wish we could dive a little deeper into... I read a ton as a child, but don't always have time to re-read what the kids are reading, so it's hard to remember much from the books I recommend to the kids! Enter LitWit Kits from LitWits! They do all the work for you, from suggestions & tutorials for related activities, to background information and vetted sites for further learning, to academic handouts.





We were able to choose four LitWit Kits, so I let each of the four older kids choose one. They were so excited, and had a really hard time picking. The list to choose from is so great. After much waffling back and forth, they chose the LitWits Kit for Island of the Blue Dolphins (Cecilia), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Mary Claire), From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (John Paul), and The Tempest (Elizabeth).

After purchasing, the kits all showed up on my account, where they'll remain for easy access. No huge downloads, no emails to get lost, everything is easy to access directly from the website! And there are SO many resources. I think the kids were most excited about the ideas for craft projects and food, though! I'll admit, I'm not very creative when it comes to our schooling, so the prospect of having someone else tell me what to do so that I didn't have to take to Pinterest or search engines myself was pretty attractive. But preparing for our book club on Island of the Blue Dolphins ended up finding me researching the true story thanks to all the links that LitWits put together!

We decided to start with Island of the Blue Dolphins and invite a friend over to eat seaweed (dried), squid (sadly sold out at the grocery store), and prickly pear candy (since the frost killed all the local prickly pear). Since Cecilia was in charge of planning, she was also in charge of picking one craft to do. She chose to create "cormorant feather" skirts, which was suggested as a sort of fashion design & runway show activity. We couldn't find black crepe paper at the store, so we'll be using construction paper and the kids can work together to create one spectacular outfit! An untimely stomach bug postponed our bigger plans but we'll have our full book club soon.
 
   I love the idea behind these kits, and the fact that all the research is already done for me. And I especially love what a terrific list of books Becky and Jenny have compiled for their kits! They were incredibly quick to respond when I was having a few technical issues with the purchasing process, and their customer service is top notch. I think these would make a terrific resource for classroom teachers, and also for homeschool classrooms, co-ops, and book clubs. Our "to-read" list has gotten a lot longer, that's for sure!  

  There is a variety of ways you can use each kit, and while they're intended for ages 8-12, it's pretty easy to pick and choose whatever activities will work for the age range you have in mind. Since these are classic titles, most (if not all) are available as audio books, so young or struggling readers would easily be able to use that option if they're unable to read a book on their own but still want to join in. I told the story of "The Real Karana" to all the kids, including Peter and Edith (5 and almost-3), and they were just as interested as the kids who had actually read the book!   You can find LitWits on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.   Click the link below to read more reviews!