charlottes web

Progeny Press creates absolutely wonderful Study Guides for Literature.  These guides are written from a Christian perspective allowing God’s light to shine even in Literature where he may not always be seen right away.  For this review, we were sent a PDF copy of their Charlotte’s Web E-Guide for grades 4-6.

Most people know the story of Charlotte’s Web as it’s a common childhood story taught in schools all over.  Charlotte is a spider.  She forms an unlikely friendship with a pig, Wilbur, who is to being kept in a barn and fattened up for Christmas dinner.  Charlotte’s Web is the story of Charlotte, Wilbur and the girl named Fern, who loves Wilbur and has begged for his life.  It is a beautiful, yet sad story written by E.B. White.

The Progeny Press Charlotte’s Web Study Guide is interactive.  This allows you to have your student answer right on the PDF file as they learn.  Or you can simply print this file and use it with multiple students in your homeschool if more than one child is reading this book at the same time.

The Study Guide begins by providing a Table of Contents followed by a note to the Instructor.  The Table of Contents of course made it easy to find each section as we covered the guide.  The Instructor’s note explains that your child will need a few things to work through this guide, such as the book Charlotte’s Web, a dictionary, a Bible and a few other things.  Nothing major though.

Next the guide provides a Synopsis of the book.  This is a brief description of the story and story line.  This was great for me, as it’s been quite a while since I’ve personally read this story.  It was a great reminder of the details within the book.

Next the guide covers first the book’s author and then the illustrator.  Information about each of these important contributors to the book is provided for your student to learn about in detail.  Interesting facts are explored here.

The next section discusses pre-reading activities to do for the book.  Perhaps a study on pigs or spiders would be good.  Or maybe taking a field trip to a local barn to really bring this story to life for your student.  We personally viewed the spiders outside up close to see how they work and took a trip over to the hog house our family has to see the piglets first hand.

The next section of the guide begins the good stuff: the actual questions about the book.  The first questions are multiple choice.  They are pretty simple and easy to answer.  After these are some more challenging questions that require written answers.  A descriptive writing activity is also included to build on writing and language skills.   This same format continues for all chapters of the book to help your student better understand the content of the book.

Now the great thing about this guide is that it not only links Charlotte’s Web to the book and breaks down what your child is learning through the story.  It also provides Biblical verse to teach your child how the Bible relates to the story.  It helps to teach good Character to your student as they read and learn through the story.  This is a wonderful way to cover Literature in a way that relates to God.

At the end of the guide, there are some suggested Art Projects that can be completed.  These are simple things to put together for your child.  There is also a letter writing activity which your child can send off to a friend or family member if you choose.

The last page of the guide provides suggested resources which can be used in addition to expand what this guide is teaching your child.  Related books and field guides are suggested here, as well as other books by E.B. White like Stuart Little.  It’s a great extra bit of info to make the lessons into more.

I used this study guide with Laycie.  We read through this book together and I chose to have her verbally answer the questions in the guide as we went through the book.  She loved it.  She’s really into farm animals right now though she’s a little scared of spiders.  Still this story quickly became a favorite for her.  When we finished the story and guide, we watched the movie which she loved as well.

Charlotte’s Web E-Guide is available from Progeny Press for $17.99.  This is an downloadable, interactive PDF file.  It is reproducible as well with permission.