Studying Literature with Progeny Press - TOS Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

For the past month, Silas and Titus have been using literature study guides from Progeny Press. We've used several of their literature guides in the past and have always been very pleased with them! For the purpose of this review, we received these E-Guides: The Last Battle Study Guide by C. S. Lewis and Farmer Boy Study Guide by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

WHAT IS AN E-GUIDE?

Progeny Press's E-Guides are Interactive Study Guides that open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can either print off the study guides (which is what we do) or your child can type their answers directly into the program. All of their literature guides for 4th grade through 12th grade are now available as an Interactive Study Guide. You can also purchase the Progeny Press literature study guides as a physical, paper book or on a CD. The guides are reproducible and can be used with multiple children over and over again.

HOW THE LITERATURE GUIDES WORK:

The literature study guides are very user-friendly! Each guide takes around 8-12 weeks to complete (less time for the younger grades). Progeny Press recommends reading the book before completing the literature guide, but you can also just read the chapters each section covers before working on that section in the guide. 

The guides are broken down into sections based on several chapters. There are vocabulary exercises, character analysis, reading comprehension questions, writing exercises, and dig deeper questions. The "dig deeper" questions are usually based on scripture and really make your child think deeper! 

Each section also contains extra project and activity ideas, like arts and crafts, cooking, research, discussion, and games to play. These are optional, and I usually had my boys pick one of the suggestions to complete for each section.

The literature guides a synopsis, author information, pre-reading activities, and final projects and activities. They are full of great ideas and information!

HOW WE USED THIS:

The first thing I did was buy The Last Battle. Progeny Press also offers many of the books for sale on their website! We already owned Farmer Boy, so I just pulled it from the bookshelf. Next I printed off both of the guides in their entirety. The Last Battle Study Guide was 67 pages, and Farmer Boy Study Guide was 57 pages. The pages are all black and white, no color, so it's very print-friendly. I three-hole-punched the pages for each guide and placed them in a three-prong folder for each boy. 

Farmer Boy Study Guide is written for grades 4-6, and Titus is entering the 5th grade this year. I knew this book would be a challenge for him to read on his own because he struggles with long chapter books. Titus and I are reading Farmer Boy aloud together, alternating pages. This makes it much easier for him, and he's remembering so much from the book! We read the chapters for each section (usually around four chapters) in a week and then we take a week to work through the questions and activities. 

We usually completed a page a day in this guide, working together. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Titus answered the reading comprehension questions! He would read the question aloud, and then I had him give me his answer. We worked together to shorten the answer as he wrote it in his guide. Not all children in this age range will need this much hand-holding, but some will.

 

For the first section, he chose to do a really neat activity! In the book, Almanzo was eating popcorn, apples, and milk as a nighttime snack. The book mentions that if you get a cup full to the brim with milk and a cup full to the brim with popped popcorn, you can put each piece of popcorn in the cup of milk and the milk will not overflow. This activity was the first suggestion, and Titus quickly decided we had to try it! He was surprised to see that it actually worked. We put every piece of popcorn into the cup of milk and it never overflowed. We talked about why he thought this worked. 

The Last Battle Study Guide is written for grades 5-8, and Silas is entering 7th grade this year. This book is in the Chronicles of Narnia series, and he is really enjoying it! He reads the chapters for each section on his own and completes the corresponding pages. Each section is pretty long, and he works about a page or a page and a half a day. When he reads the questions to me and answers them, I can tell he really does understand what's going on in the story. The questions are really thoughtful and make him think about the "whys" and "hows" of the book.

He almost always chooses to draw when it's one of the suggested optional activities! He loves to draw. Drawing also makes him visualize the characters and scenes more. 

WHAT DID WE THINK?

I knew we would love these literature study guides from Progeny Press, and we do! We are going to continue with these guides until we finish them, and then move on to the other guides I've already purchased for them to use this year! We have reviewed these guides in the past:

The Minstrel in the Tower (grades 2-4)

A New Coat for Anna (K-3)

My Side of the Mountain (5-8)

There are so many things I appreciate about the literature study guides from Progeny Press - the book choices are excellent, the questions are well-written, and the activities are relevant to the book. You can take as little or as much time as you'd like to work through the guides. I plan to have my boys complete two more of these guides this year for a total of three guides. To see what other Crew members thought about Progeny Press literature study guides, click the banner below!

Literature Studies with Progeny Press

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We have done many different literature study guides over the years, but Progeny Press literature guides have always been our favorite! I was thrilled to receive two Study Guides for Literature from Progeny Press - "A New Coat for Anna" for grades K-3 and "My Side of the Mountain"  for grades 5-8.

I used "A New Coat for Anna" with my 7 year old son, Titus. He read the book aloud to me in one sitting. We had never read this book before but it is such a great story! It takes place after World War II, and Anna needs a new coat before next winter. Her mother has no money but does have things she can trade or barter for. The story details each step in the process to acquire the needed supplies for the coat and ends with Anna receiving her new beautiful red coat! Titus really enjoyed reading this story and it was on a great reading level for him - he was comfortable reading most of the words and didn't need very much help. 

The E-Guide was also very age-appropriate for him. It begins with a synopsis of the story and background information on World War II and what happened after the war ended with food shortages and money hard to come by. There are also several activities to do before you read the story, such as finding the nations involved in WWII on the map, talking to grandparents who lived during the war, watching "The Sound of Music", and taking a field trip to a sheep farm. 

The "As-You-Read Activities" were also really great! The first thing he had to do was fill in a chart with the item Anna's mother needed for the coat, who did the work, what Anna and her mother did or traded for the work, and how long Anna had to wait. Titus enjoyed filling in this information and he remembered so much from reading the story!

There are nine vocabulary words Titus had to define. He then had to put them in sentences and use the code numbers to find the mystery words. He enjoys doing puzzles so this was fun for him!

The questions about the story were very well-written and pretty easy for a 7 year old to understand and answer. An example of a question is, "Anna and her mother walk from town out to the farm. Why do you think they had to walk?" Titus answered, "They didn't have a car." We talked about how they probably didn't have the money to own a car or buy gasoline for a car if they did have one. 

Some of the "Dig Deeper" questions referred to scriptures, which I also really liked. Here is an example - "Read Proverbs 14:29. "A patient man has great understand, but a quick tempered man displays folly." Paraphrase this verse (To paraphrase means to write the verse in your own words.)" Titus answered, "A patient man is wise but an impatient man is a fool." We talked a bit more about what that means and how hard it is to be patient sometimes.

There were some extra activities after the questions to do. Titus mad a bookmark with the word "patience" written on it, he did a word search with words from the story, and he made a "Silver Cake"! He loved using the mixer to mix the cake and icing.

Mercie read the book, "My Side of the Mountain" by Carol Clark. This is such a classic book! A young boy named Sam decides he doesn't want to live in the city anymore, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live alone. The story details how he survives and lives alone in the woods. It's a really interesting book with lots of factual information about nature.

This study also had some prereading activities like taking a camping trip in the woods, going on a fishing trip, researching local edible plants, and writing about the author. There are eight sections of the literature guide and each focuses on several chapters. 

Each section includes vocabulary work, questions about the story, digging deeper into the story and the Bible, and optional projects and activities. Let's look at the first section which covers the chapters, "I Hole Up in a Snowstorm", "I Get Started on This Venture", and "I Find Gribbley's Farm." The first thing is vocabulary matching with thirteen words from these chapters. 

Next are eight questions about the chapters. I really love the way they word these questions, too! Here is an example, "Describe Sam's first night alone (described in the second chapter). What mistakes did Same make?" This really forces your child to think critically about the chapters. Another one says, "How does Miss Turner help and encourage Sam?" Mercie wrote, "She found him all of the books and maps and files he needed on Gribbley's farm. She even drew him maps. She said they had books on plants and trees and animals in case he needed them."

The next part is "Thinking About the Story." There are some questions about point-of-view, verb tenses, and literary techniques such as anthropomorphism and irony. Here is an example, "After Sam remembers his father's story of why Great-Grandfather Gribbley went to sea, he writes, 'The land is no place for a Gribbley, and here I am three hundred feet from the beech with Gribbley carved on it.'" Why is this ironic?"

The "Digging Deeper" questions had Mercie reading scripture and thinking about having a deeper understanding of God by observing nature. 

Finally there is a list of option projects and activities your child can do. The projects for section one are creative writing prompts, discussion on safety and what to do if your are in an uncomfortable or unsafe postions, writing a friendly letters, measuring the square footage of your bedroom, talking about runaways, and more.

Each section of the study guide follows the same basic pattern. After the last section, there is an overview which covers the book as a whole and more projects and activities to do after you finish reading the book. Some of these projects include creating a power-point project on survival techniques, making a meme poster on the saying, "Say what you mean and mean what you say!", having a class party serving some of the foods described in the book, and more.

We really love literature studies from Progeny Press and here are the top five reasons!

1.) BOOK CHOICES: Their book choices are excellent! Every book has been a classic or living book that promotes morality and character. They are all wonderful books that are fun to read and right on reading level.

2.) RELEVANT ACTIVITIES: The activities suggested for before and after reading the book are very relevant to the story or lessons learned from the story. They are also very doable and engaging for my children.

3.) WELL-WRITTEN QUESTIONS: Some literature studies have questions that are difficult to understand and even more difficult to answer. Nearly every question in the Progeny Press study guides have been very understandable! I also like how the vocabulary activities vary so your child isn't doing the same thing over and over. 

4.) CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: It's very important for my children to be taught a Christian world-view, especially in the days we are living in, and Progeny Press does a wonderful job of pulling out the spiritual and thought-provoking issues from the books and applying them to everyday life. 

5.) AFFORDABLE: The price is great! You can purchase these E-Guides starting at $11.99! As a homeschool mom of many, I appreciate the fact that it's affordable and I can re-use them with my children.

Read our review of "The Minstrel in the Tower" from 2016 by clicking HERE. Check out what the other reviewers thought about Progeny Press by clicking the banner below. The other E-Guides were:

In The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (grades 4-6)

Animal Farm (grades 9-12)

Little Women (grades 8-12)

Progeny Press Study Guide {TOS Review}

Mercie, my 8 year old daughter, loves to read. She does struggle with reading comprehension as she tends to "speed read" through books. I was pleased when we were chosen to review a literature Study Guide from Progeny Press.

I had never heard of Progeny Press before now, and boy have I been missing out! Progeny Press provides literature study guides with a Christian perspective. I received a digital download of "The Minstrel in The Tower" study guide. This e-guide is 47 pages, and it is the best literature study guide I have seen for this age group. The "Minstrel in The Tower" study guide is recommended for grades 2-4, and Mercie fell right in the middle of this age group since she is entering 3rd grade.

In this digital download there is:

• A Note to the Instructor {this tells you how to use the study guide}
• A Synopsis {a short summary of the book}
• Background Information {information about life in the time and setting of the book}
• About the Author {a small amount of information on the author of the book}
• Before You Read Activities {several fun activities to get your child excited about the book}
• Chapter by Chapter Study Guide {vocabulary and questions}
• Word Search {vocabulary word search}
• After You Read Activities {writing projects, oral reports, cooking, art and crafts activities to do after the book}
• Additional Resources {books and videos to go along with the book study}
• Answer Key

There are so many things I love about this study guide! I'll start with the chapter by chapter study guide.

• The vocabulary activities are fabulous. They are different each day, which really helped Mercie not to get bored with the vocabulary words. One day, she had to put the words in alphabetical order and then define them. Another day, she had to give her definition of the word, and then write the definition from the dictionary, comparing the two. Yet another day she had to write a synonym for each word. I love this approach, as it really made her think about the words and not just copy a definition for each. We used The Webster's New World Children's Dictionary, which had almost every single word in it.

• The questions are worded very well. This sounds funny but sometimes I find that questions geared toward this age group are not worded well - they are either too difficult or too silly. Here is an example of a question about chapter 2: "As they travel toward Bordeaux, the children meet two pilgrims. Write 2-4 sentences explaining what a pilgrim is." I love the thinking skills involved in answering the questions!

• There is a strong Biblical perspective. In the section on chapter 5, there is a "Dig Deeper" portion. There are 3 scriptures listed for the child to read and this question: "Summarize those verses. Where does our strength come from to do what is right?" I love that my children are learning to pull a Biblical perspective from literature.

I also love the book selection. "The Minstrel in The Tower" is a Stepping Stones Chapter Book with 64 pages and 8 chapters - the perfect amount of reading material for Mercie. The book was interesting and easy to read, with lots of mystery and action.

Mercie would read the chapter aloud to me, and we would complete the vocabulary portion of the study guide. The next day, we would answer the questions. She rarely had to look back in the book to find the answers.

Mercie really enjoyed this book and the study guide. She was proud that she could answer the questions mostly on her own, and she enjoyed the vocabulary activities. The book was right at her level, and she read it without any trouble. She gives Progeny Press two thumbs up!

I loved this study guide so much, I'm ordering several for Mikaela, Eli and Mercie to complete over the next school year. I plan for each of them to complete 3. They have study guides for Kindergarten through High School! There are so many titles to choose from. You can purchase an e-book or a printed book. I don't buy a lot of e-books, but this one was easy to print and didn't  use much ink - 47 pages is a manageable amount for me. The cost of the study guides is very affordable - $11.99-$18.99. Check out Progeny Press and their huge selection of study guides!

     

Memoria Press Review: 6th Grade Literature Guide Set {TOS Review}

My children and I love good literature, so we were happy to be chosen to review the Sixth Grade Literature Guide Set from Memoria Press.

What did we receive?

Memoria Press generously sent us the entire sixth grade set - 4 Teacher's Guides and 4 Student Study Guides. The four books that are used in this set are:

• King Arthur 
• Adam of The Road
• Robin Hood {used by Eli, my 5th grader}
• The Door in the Wall {used by Mikaela, my 7th grader}

These literature guides focus on spelling, comprehension, vocabulary, and composition skills. Each lesson in the Student Study Guide has six parts. I will briefly describe each part.

• Reading Notes: This section is completed prior to reading the chapter {or chapters} in your book. There are key places, events, and vocabulary words that may not be familiar to your child. 
• Vocabulary: There are 3-6 words per lesson. I had my children read the vocabulary words before reading their portion of the book, look for and highlight the words in their books, and we would discuss the meaning. 
• Comprehension Questions: There are 4-6 comprehension questions for each lesson. The answers may be written in complete sentences on the lines provided or answered orally. Eli answered his questions orally, but Mikaela wrote her answers down and then we discussed them.
• Quotations: A short quote from the reading selection is provided, and the student must answer who said it, whom they were speaking to, and what they meant by it. This was, by far, Eli's favorite part of the guide.
• Discussion Questions: There are 2-5 discussion questions that are to be answered orally. 
• Enrichment: This section is different every day. There may be mapping activities, drawing, research, literary terms, or poetry work. 

There are also Unit Review and Quizzes every few lessons, and a Final Comprehensive Test is included. The appendix also has maps, poetry, and extra information about the time period.

{Some of Mikaela's work}

What did we think?

We try to follow a Charlotte Mason homeschool approach, which does not include formal literary analysis. We have not used a study guide like this before, and there were things we liked and things we didn't like. I'll start with what we did like.

• My kids loved their books! The book selections are really top-notch, living literature. Eli has thoroughly enjoyed reading "Robin Hood", and Mikaela was pleasantly surprised at how well she enjoyed "The Door in the Wall". 
• The literature guides are very complete. I enjoyed my children learning the vocabulary words and about the time periods their books were set it.
• The Teacher's Guide was also well done. The lessons look exactly the same in both books, but the Teacher's Guide has the answers provided on the lines {with the exception of the Discussion Questions - those are found in the back of the book}.
• I enjoyed being able to discuss the questions orally. Eli doesn't like to write, and some of the answers were lengthy. He was relieved when I started to allow him to answer the questions orally if he answered in complete sentences. 
• The literature guides are beautiful - the covers are glossy and bright, and the paper is nice and thick.

Now, what we didn't like.

• I think there were too many questions per lesson. 
• Some of the questions were difficult to answer {or even find in the book}.
• The guides took Mikaela a long time to complete every day. Eli didn't take as long because he answered orally.
• I feel like the guides took some of the fun out of reading. There was too much dissecting.
• We don't give tests or quizzes in our homeschool, so I skipped those. Plus, the quizzes and tests were way too long! 

{The Discussion Questions and Answers in the back of the Teacher's Guide}

Are these guides all the same, or do they differ?

These literature guides are all set up in the same manner, but the content does differ some. For example, "The Door in the Wall" is by far the shortest book and literature guide. There are no quizzes in this guide; rather, there is a mid-term exam and a final exam. "Adam of the Road", on the other hand, includes 5 quizzes and a final exam. Also, some of the Appendixes in the guides have more information than others. "Robin Hood" includes a 7-page glossary, 2 pages of maps, several poems, and information about Mendicant Friars. "King Arthur" also has a large appendix and longer quizzes and tests. Each literature guide includes the 6 parts I discussed above, an appendix, and quizzes or tests. The discussion questions and answers can be found in the back of the Teacher's Guide of each set.

Do we plan to continue using these literature guides?

I think so, but modified. Mikaela and Eli both want to read "King Arthur" next, so I may let them both read the assigned chapter a day, and then we will discuss the literature guide orally. It would be fun to do the same book, and I know they would enjoy being able to talk about it together. Mikaela enjoyed the literature guide more than Eli did, so she may do them next year for her 8th grade year.

Memoria Press is a wonderful company providing classical homeschool curriculum to many families. I have looked at their website extensively, although we don't use a classical approach to homeschooling. They offer these Literature Guide Sets in every grade, and they even have complete curriculum kits for each grade level. The preschool and junior kindergarten curriculum sets look really amazing, with lots of rich literature.

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