literature

Progeny Press: Charlotte’s Web E-Guide {Crew Review}

September 28, 2017 by Dana

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.

How We Used This Guide:

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.

Where You Can Find This Study Guide:

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.

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Study Guides for Literature {Progeny Press Reviews}

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Progeny Press: Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide {Crew Review}

June 4, 2014 by Dana

For this Schoolhouse Review, we were given a PDF copy of Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide by Rebecca Gilleland, published by Progeny Press. This guide is designed to go along with the novel Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was given to us for free in exchange for our opinion of the product which is shared in this post.

Little House in the Big Woods is a story written by Laura Ingalls Wilder to portray what life was like living as a child in the Frontier days. This wonderful book has been read by many over the years and is a core part of many homeschoolers reading lists. The entire series is a great asset to any homeschooling library.

Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide by Rebecca Gilleland is a wonderful addition to the book. It helps to get students thinking about the information they are learning and to compare today to yesterday. This brings Little House in the Big Woods to life.

Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide was designed for use with students in Grades 4-6, those in Upper Elementary school. It is reproducible for students meaning Homeschooling families can print the guide over and over for each student within their homeschool classrooms. This makes it able to be used again and again for students who may be learning at different levels.

Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide is a Literature Guide. It is designed to be broken down over a period of 6-10 weeks depending on the speed of the readers using the guide. Preferably students should first read the novel, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder and then work through the study guide, rereading at their own pace. Completion of at least one page of the study per day is expected to be done daily while using the study.

As with most materials we use, we did this one together. The guide was simple enough to understand. Progeny Press writes explicit informative guides for students and teachers to easily follow along. The guides begin with an introduction to the materials and a section explaining their expected use and lesson guide. This makes it easy to begin the study right away.

We read Little House in the Big Wood aloud together. We briefly reviewed the information about Laura Ingalls Wilder which we had previously learned about through another Schoolhouse Review we completed last year. This made it easy for us to move forward quickly in our study.

We also reviewed past lessons on Paul Bunyan who happens to be one of our favorite American Tales and a person of interest in our homeschooling since we have a long family history of Lumberjacks aka Loggers in our family. Paul Bunyan is a household name around here!

This also lead to us reviewing our last field trip to Josh’s work where we saw the equipment at work and discussed the many differences in past logging and logging today. Living in a town that is centered around the International Paper Mill and has survived over many decades due to the logging industry, these lessons were easily added into our study. In fact, much of our lessons with this guide were easily expanded upon because of our lifestyle at home. Many of the words covered within this guide were ones we already know from other lessons we have completed or simply from life itself.

I’d say most of this guide was a review for us but much of it allowed us to take a longer look at the things that surround us. Though we may not live where Laura lived, much of our home is like Laura’s was back then and many of the things that affected Laura’s life can be found right here daily in ours. It was odd to see how much we have in common while seeing how much different our lives are from technology today as well.

This study guide is interactive, allowing completion right on the guide. This made it easy to use the guide to talk together and answer the questions together as well. I did print out the vocabulary sheets as review for our study. We also looked up a lot of things online, learning some differences between today and yesterday within our study that were easier seen through videos and past photos.

The Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide is 56 pages in length from cover to cover. It contains questions for each chapter of the novel, crosswords, word finds and other activities to make learning fun, vocabulary to fit the lessons, and many suggestions for games and other fun things to bring learning to life. Each chapter of the guide is different from the previous one so that children do not bore with rote learning while completing the guide.

Little House in the Big Woods Study Guide is available to purchase from Progeny Press for $16.99 as an e-guide. It is designed for grades 4-6. The novel, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, must be purchased separately and is necessary to complete this guide.

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To read more reviews of other Progeny Press products, please click on the link below!

IEW: Teaching The Classics {Crew Review}

July 8, 2013 by Dana

Teaching The Classics DVD Seminar and Workbook from the Institute for Excellence in Writing is a full curriculum designed to help the user learn how to learn best from classic reading materials. Providing a literature style that brings literature understanding to everyone, Teaching The Classics makes understanding literature elements easy. This curriculum is sure to help everyone from teacher to student.

Teaching the Classics uses the Socratic approach to learning. Through provision of short classical materials this DVD seminar breaks down literature elements of plot, theme, character, conflict and more. This program begins with an explanation about Literature, taking the student all the way through each of the elements.

Lesson 1 prepares the student to analyze literature providing samples of some of the greatest authors known. It begins explaining the structure of the Five Elements of Fiction. It also discusses literary styles in writing. The Socratic Method is also taught and thoroughly discusses right away through this lesson.

Following lessons teach and break down Plot and Conflict, Setting, Character, Theme, and more. Each of these topics are backed up with short story models, charts explaining the information learned, and questions to provide a thorough understanding of the materials taught. The DVD seminars work with the materials to help the educator/student better understand the lessons throughout the book.

I personally used this curriculum to learn more about using the classics in our daily education. I try to use classics with my children because I feel they are rich in educational content and truly heartwarming books. I want my children to learn to enjoy classical books as much as I do. Teaching the Classics has helped me to provide a better education of the classics for my children in working as a reminder of the important elements I need to teach through the process of teaching them about the classics. This program would be excellent for an advance middle school or a high school student to work through on their own. It’s also excellent for a parent, like me, who needs that little extra reminder of these important elements in writing.

Teaching the Classics DVD Seminar and Workbook by Adam and Missy Andrews is available from the Institute for Excellence in Writing for $89. This program was written for parents of children of any age and for High School aged students. It can be purchased through the Institute for Excellence in Writing.

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Moving Beyond The Page {Crew Review}

July 1, 2013 by Dana

When I signed up to review Moving Beyond the Page, I thought it was just going to be the usual, boring old kind of curriculum where the student reads the book and completes the worksheets involved. I had no idea that Moving Beyond the Page was going to be so awesome, so amazing, so wonderful! From the moment, you open the box the package arrives in, the excitement begins and does not stop.

Our curriculum package arrived in the average cardboard box, once again leading me to believe it was nothing more than a box of books. But upon opening the box, my opinion quickly changed. Inside the box was everything needed to learn about the subjects we had chosen to learn, except for common items like pencils and paper.

The package I chose to review from Moving Beyond the Page was something we could easily relate to our hometown in Georgetown, SC and our family interests. I chose to do a Literature and Science/History combination, choosing American Tall Tales and Legends for our Literature portion and Colonization and Revolution for our Science/History portion.

American Tall Tales and Legends interested me because these were my personal favorites to learn about when I was a child, as well as Josh’s. It is often something we find ourselves discussing and I had been looking for a way to introduce more of these wonderful stories and legends to our children in our homeschooling lessons. As usual, God provided a way to make this happen through our Moving Beyond the Page review.

I’ve also been looking for ways to get my children involved more in our local history. There’s no better way then to take them straight back to the foundation of our town, by teaching them more about how our area was colonized and the Revolutionary War that led to our nations founding. Being able to take these ideas even further by showing them things that relate to our readings makes it even better.

Back to our curriculum package. Upon opening our box, I discovered our Colonization and Revolution lesson book. This spiral bound book contains everything needed to complete the Science/History portion of our program. The box also contained the books we needed to read to learn more about our lessons. The New Americans: Colonial Times 1620-1689, The American Revolution for Kids: A History with 21 Activities and You Wouldn’t Want To Be An American Colonist!: A Settlement You’d Rather Not Start were all included to use with our Colonization and Revolution study.

Our lesson book for American Tall Tales and Legends was available for use online through the Moving Beyond the Page website. This program allowed me to read through the guidebook straight from the website and print copies of the activity pages needed to complete our lessons. This was wonderful since it allowed me to print copies of lesson activities for each child, as needed. In the box for this part of our lessons, I received an American Tall Tales reader and Cut From The Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale. Both these books came together to provide the wonderful stories needed to teach my children about the legends and tales of the United States.

One additional item came in the box for use with our curriculum. A kit to create our own dream catcher was provided as an activity to be used with our Moving Beyond the Page American Tall Tales and Legends package. This was a fun addition to the program and something that the kids really enjoyed creating.

The online version of our American Tall Tales and Legends lesson book was a bit different than our printed version of our Colonization and Revolution lesson book. The printed version laid out how to use our Moving Beyond the Page lessons in the front of our book, then provided a list of required books and materials for the unit study by lesson. This made getting everything together very easy.

Following the materials list is a list of vocabulary taught throughout the unit, listing words and definitions for each new vocabulary word. A Unit Review sheet follows the vocabulary list, allowing for a look ahead at each lesson taught through the unit.

Lessons themselves are broken down, beginning with a Getting Started section that shares stuff you will need for the lesson, ideas to keep in mind during the lessons and things to know about the lessons. A list of questions for the lesson is provided next, followed by lesson activities to complete. Activities are simple but thorough and get the child thinking about things they have learned, allowing them to absorb the lessons, not just hear them.

Each lesson in a unit builds in preparing the student for a final project to be completed at the end of the unit study. The students are asked to complete five of the eight final project suggestions for the study but could do more or less depending upon your schedule. Some of the projects will require assistance and supervision from the parent to complete.

Much like the print lesson book for Colonization and Revolution, the online lesson book for American Tall Tales and Legends provides an intro to the lesson, complete with lists of materials needed for each lesson. This is followed with the activities for each lesson, which are to be completed by the student. Rounding out the end of the lesson is a conclusion that provides additional activities for student completion, like reviewing stories and vocabulary discussed in the section and the sections of the region being discussed at the time. Just like the print addition, the end of the unit wraps up with a final project for the student to complete.

A nice addition of the online lesson book is that there is an Idea Share section that allows users to go in and add their personal ideas for the unit. This allows others to share things that have worked for them in aiding to provide projects to make students break free from paper learning and expand to projects in relation to the lessons being learned. Each lesson has one of these sections to provide additional ideas for activities.

These units are amazingly thorough and so well prepared. It did not take a lot of work on my part to put them together and the company does provide everything possibly needed for studying the units, included the necessary books for completion. The only I did not receive for my units was the Timeline of American History but this was not something that I had to have for my unit though it would be a great addition if I were to purchase a full curriculum package from Moving Beyond the Page.

Moving Beyond the Page provides unit studies in full year curriculum packages or in various individual units to study, like was provided for our Schoolhouse Reviews. They provide studies to be used with children beginning with ages 4-5 up through ages 12-14. Individual units can be mixed and matched to meet interests and needs of the child. Individual units do include suggestions for unit matches in the description. The two units I chose for review were not a suggested match but they worked well together for our needs.

Moving Beyond the Page’s American Tall Tales and Legends Literature Unit is available in print form or as an online version. It is written to be used with students ages 9-11 and is Relationships: Unit 3 of the full curriculum package for this age group. Books needed to complete this unit are included in the unit package. The print version of this package costs $33.47 while the online version costs $29.41. Once again, this includes all books needed to complete the study.

Moving Beyond the Page’s Colonization and Revolution Science/History study is also available in print or an online version. It, too, is written to be used with students 9-11 and is Discovery and Survival: Unit 1 of the full curriculum package for this age group. The print version of this unit costs $51.88 and the online version costs $47.82. The price of this unit also includes all necessary books to complete the study.

This was a review that my children and I truly loved. We will be purchasing more Moving Beyond the Page curriculum very soon and look forward to learning more from this company.

Salem Ridge Press: Sowing Beside All Waters {Crew Review}

April 12, 2013 by Dana

Salem Ridge Press is a publishing company that strives to bring quality historical literature into reproduction for future generations to use. Daniel Mills and his family strive to be a blessing to others by providing literature that fits Biblical qualifications. They do this through their work at Salem Ridge Press.

Salem Ridge Press provides reproductions of various works from past authors on many topics. You can find historical fictions in World History, Church History and American History. Adventures like George Alfred Henty: The Story of an Active Life and Yussef the Guide. There are also several young readers available from Salem Ridge Press.

You can search the website alphabetically, by time period and location, author or age range. Books are available covering from 1500 B.C. to 1793 A.D. sharing life stories from several countries and authors around the world. Each book is sure to bring History to life.

For this review, we were offered one of several books to choose from. I chose Sowing Beside All Waters: A Tale of the World in the Church by Emma Leslie. Emma Leslie is also known as Emma Dixon and is a well known author of Victorian children’s literature. She lived in Lewisham, Kent from 1837- 1909. Emma provided a strong Christian influence on her writing that is still profoundly relevant today. Her works covered many prevalent periods in church history.

Sowing Beside All Waters is set in the Roman Empire during 313 through 363 A.D. It covers the periods of Constantine, Athanasius, Augustine, and the Council of Nicea. Many other historical figures were also covered throughout the book such as Diocletian, Arius, Julian, and Saint Anthony the Great. This book begins with a brief synopsis of each of these plus many more in the section titled Historical Notes. A list of important dates as well as a map of the area at the time is also provided in the first pages of the book before beginning the actual story.

As you read through the book, the reader will find vocabulary provided complete with definitions at the bottom of each page. This allows the reader to learn the meaning of differing terms while reading through each chapter. Biblical verse reference is also provided as they are mentioned throughout the book at the bottom of the referenced page. Several images can be found throughout to help bring this story to life for the reader.

Sowing Beside All Waters tell the story of Quadratus and his family as they struggle to adjust to the changes brought forth after Emperor Constantine proclaims Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. Each one chooses a differing path to follow but somehow they all prevail in remaining faithful to Christianity even through all the trials and challenges of the times.

I used this book personally as reading material for myself due to time constraints with my book not being shipped on time. I will use this as a read aloud for our future school year. The story is well written and easily understood, providing a great deal of knowledge throughout the book. I personally enjoy historical fictions and this one will top my list for future suggestions.

Sowing Beside All Waters was originally published in 1875. It was written for ages 12 through adult. It is available from Salem Ridge Press for $14.95 in softcover or $24.95 as a hardcover book.

For more reviews of Salem Ridge Press books, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog!