Old MacDonald had a farm…. wait!
This isn’t that farm, but much like how the lyrics to the popular nursery rhyme are used as an educational tool, Learning Farm is a great learning tool that offers a variety of skill practice in the areas of language, math, science and reading for scholars from kindergarten through eighth grade.
It is a great resource to use to carry out the function of spiraling.
Let me tell you all about it!
Environment and User Experience:
For the Adult:
Learning Farm’s website is informative, interactive and allows for easy access to their most important components. Right at the top of the site, you can find tabs for their product tour, how to sign up, their pricing and a contact page.
The website downloads at incredible speeds and the content layout for kids is very simple and easy to navigate.
It also adapts to all types of devices ( desktop, mobile and tablets)
My favorite part is the reports tab for the obvious – Data informs instruction, duh!
Student:
As I previously mentioned, the website is easily accessible. The subject tabs across the top of the page at login in makes toggling between them simple.
There is a helper component that offers leveled content for students not quite ready for their specific grade level content. This is necessary!
The helper topics help build the skills needed for the on grade level topics.
Fifth grade feedback:
“ The questions are challenging, so I had to think. It helped me remember how to do all the stuff we learned this year even though it’s summer” – B.R, Fifth grader, Texas
“ I liked the program, the games made it fun, but I wish they were more like video games.” J.S, Fifth Grader, Texas
Packaging:
Under the sign up and pricing tab are three different packages. There is a package for educators and school staff that is free up to 10,000 questions per school.
Then there is the Individual student package that allows parents to purchase at 5.99 per month or $49 for a year.
Finally, there is the tutoring services package. It is priced at $499 for one year and allows up to 100 licenses.
Variety and Purchasing:
Under the product tour tab is a United States map, clicking on your state ensures that you are signing up for skills aligned to your states current learning standards.
Now, for the good stuff!
Content:
Learning farm allowed me to try out their individual student package content for Grade 5. When you log in you have access to math, reading, writing and science.
Under each core subject tab there is a variety of practice. The practice is broken down by skill and gives the learning objective for each set of skills practice.
This is great to have during the school year and during holiday and seasonal breaks. The organization of the Learning Farm program makes it easy for parents to choose what their child works on and will allow them to match it to the same skills their child is learning at school.
From a teacher’s perspective, this is a great learning program to use especially for scholars that are behind and can benefit from extra practice outside of school, need continuous spiraling, or for parents that do not want their child to be a victim of the summer slide. Teachers can inform parents of the areas/ standards that the specific student needs practice in and Learning Farm provides specific skill practice for your specific state.
Customer Service
We all know that great customer service is priceless.
If I had to rate my customer service experience with Learning Farm, I would give it a 5/5. I was helped by Jay. His response time was speedy and focused right on what I reached out about.
He was polite and made me feel valued as an educator.
What problem do they solve over at Learning Farm?
Well, signing up with them removes the hassle of having to order workbooks and scour the internet looking for worksheets that you hope will cover the skills your child needs to be practicing. Again, it is for a variety of ages and grade levels and it is aligned to your states current learning standards and standardized test.
If you’ve read this far, you know all the great things about this program. The only thing that I did not mention was the gaming component that allows students to take a mental break in between questions and lets them choose a game.
I love this about the program and it is the only area that I would make a recommendation in.
The student that used the program noted in his feedback that the game aspect is cool, but it would be nice if they were more engaging and offered more variety ” like video games”.
Of course the game variety “quality” will differ from child to child.
The consistency and rigor of the academic content is is the primary focus.
If the most recent world events have not shown us anything else, it has shown us that education is not limited to a classroom and that practice can and should continue even if no teacher is present.
Happy Farming!