When I was in school, our family had some of the earlier Learning Wrap-Ups.  We enjoyed them because they were a fun (or at least less boring!) way to drill match facts.  And Mom liked them because they’re self-correcting.  We’ve just had the opportunity to try the newer Wrap-Ups, and we really like them.

There are Wrap-Ups for a number of topics, but we especially like them for math.  The best thing about the new ones as compared to the old ones is that all of the ones in a set are connected.  It used to be that the “x1,” for instance, was an individual piece, as was the “x2,” and so on.  Now, all of the multiplication ones are attached to one another at the top.  This makes them a little bulky to hold and it’s a tad tricky to get used to, but it keeps us from losing individual ones!  It also means we only need one string per set, so they don’t get all tangled up (a common problem with the older ones).

They’re also color-coded.  The addition set is green.  Other sets are different colors.  Overall, this is good, but I do find them slightly less easy to read than the originals (which were all bone-colored with bright lettering/numbers).

But some of you aren’t familiar with Learning Wrap-Ups at all, old or new, so let me tell you how they work.  Each Wrap-Up is a hard, flat plastic piece with notches in the sides.  Problems are listed down the left, and answers down the right.  The student works the problems by wrapping a string around the piece.  First he brings it up from the back, catching it in the first notch.  He brings it across the front, putting it through the notch on the right that is marked with the answer to that first problem.  He brings it back up in the second notch on the left and continues the process.

When he’s finished, he locks the string in place through the notch at the bottom, then flips it over to check his answers.  The back of the Wrap-Up has raised ridges on it that form lines where the strings should cross if he’s answered everything correctly.  So if he got them all right, the ridges and strings should all match.

If there are ridges showing, he’s missed one.  You can see an example of that here, where my daughter accidentally skipped a whole problem.  (It doesn’t show up well in the photo, but if you look closely where the arrow is pointing, you can see part of the ridge. You can also see where the ridges show below the string in places.)

These are portable, easy to store, and great for drill!

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Disclosure: Learning Wrap-Ups provided me with the product above at a steep discount to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.