LitWits Kits – Make Your Books Come Alive!

I received free LitWits Kits for review purposes. All opinions are my own. At The Mommy Bunch, we take care to recommend items that we hope you’ll enjoy and may earn a small commission on any affiliate links.

When I first heard about LitWits Kits from LitWits I was immediately intrigued. I’m a book nerd, a history buff, a lover of fantasy and all things fiction, so when you can combine a love of reading and turn it into an immersive educational experience — ‘you had me at hello’!

What Are LitWits?

A LitWits kit is a fun and creative way to get kids engaged with books. There are learning activities for select books that make the books “come alive”. In a nutshell, when kids get their eyes, ears, teeth, hands, and ears on a story, and do things the characters did, it sticks with them for years (if not forever).

What I Love About LitWits Kits

Can I say everything? I mean really. Everything I love about the idea of using living books in my homeschool is all brought to life with activities and learning activities all planned out for you. It takes a ton of planning off my plate and leaves more time to actually enjoy the experience right along with my kids!

To give you an idea of what to expect and understand why these kits are really neat, check out this list of things that are included in your LitWits kits:

• sensory prop ideas:  see, hear, smell, and feel what the characters did
• book bites ideas:  taste what the characters ate
• creative project ideas & instructions/templates:  make what a character made
• kinetic activity ideas & instructions/prompts:  do what a character did (or might/should have!)
• academic handouts:  learn the story’s narrative arc, vocabulary, setting, and more
• creative writing handouts: write what a character wrote or felt
• takeaway topics:  know what the characters knew
• learning links:  learn more about what the characters’ world was like
• audiovisual links:  see and hear what the characters’ world looked and sounded like

NOTE: These are all digital downloads, nothing is mailed to you.

If there is one thing that I had to say could be improved upon with the kits is to add in a “book discussion” section. There is a takeaway topics section in the kit, where you are given some key ideas that may be good for discussion, but specific discussion questions that we can use as starters for talking points may help in getting things going, and getting kids speaking.

One other minor thing to note, in some of the kits the links to outside resources don’t work. Either the website has changed since the resource was originally included, or the link is bad. I would suggest the creators/owners spend time re-checking links periodically in order to add new sources and/or fix any broken links so the overall user experience remains at a high level.

What We Did

I chose four LitWits Kits for our family so far (and will be getting more after we get through all of these fantastic books/kits). As of right now, we picked kits for Heidi, Swallows and Amazons, Pinocchio, and Little Women.

My kids and I have started out with the LitWits kit designed for the book Heidi. There are so many fun activities included in the kit for this book, but one of my favorites was learning about Swiss tole paintings, and painting our own bowls.

The kids had a great time doing this activity and I was impressed with how their bowls turned out!

In addition to the Swiss tole paintings, we are making goat’s milk soap, learning about narrative arc, geography, doing a little creative writing, creating book covers while we learn about color perspective, and more!

We haven’t started the other kits yet, but I can’t wait! In Little Women, we’ll be writing letters to soldiers as Soldier’s Aids.

In Pinocchio, we’ll make pasta puppets!

In Swallows and Amazons, we’ll sample some fare from the book!

I’m so excited for all these activities and can’t wait to share these experiences with my kids.

Great For Book Clubs

Did I mention how much I’m enjoying these kits? Because I like everything to do with reading great classics and turning them into real-life educational experiences, I thought our homeschool co-op would love to experience this as well! I decided to go ahead and start a book club where we would work our way through a few books a year all while enjoying the activities outlined in the LitWit kits.
According to the LitWits FAQs section you can use the kits for a book club as long as you don’t call your club ‘LitWits’ or charge a fee.

Learn More About LitWits Kits

Make sure you head to the LitWits website here: LitWits Kits.
Take a peek at all the kits they have to offer, and you can even grab a free kit right here!

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