TOS Review: Progeny Press

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Review Crew has been working on a review for Progeny Press for the last many weeks. As part of the review, I received two downloads to review, Little House in the Big Woods – The E-Guide for grades 3-5, and Uncle Jed’s Barbershop – E Guide for grades K-3. Both E-Guides are written by Rebecca Gilleland.

 

Eden is starting fifth grade in the fall and she did the Little House in the Big Woods E-Guide. We already owned the book, and she read through it and worked through the questions. The book Little House in the Big Woods does not come with the E-Guide. Since she doesn’t have a Kindle capable of filling in the blanks, we put the PDF  file on her e-reader and she wrote her answers on paper. I’m sure typing them in would have been fun, but this provided a bit more mobility. (Hello, on the go homeschooling!) I found Uncle Jed’s Barbershop without issue at our local library, and I did that E-Guide with Sterling and Ruby.

Eden had read Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder before, but she read it again before starting the PDF E-Guide. It’s a book she loves, so it didn’t take a whole lot of convincing to get her to read it again. As a lover of books, she loves it when she’s given a book of fun fiction to do as schoolwork. Working in a notebook, she looked up words in the dictionary, then wrote her own definitions as well. With many questions to ensure her correct understanding of the story, she worked a lot with the words used and the dictionary. The activities made it super fun, from making butter and cheese, with three activities for each two chapters. With Scripture throughout, Eden really liked having to look up the full verses quoted in the book and apply them to the situations Carrie, Laura, and Mary got themselves into. The E-Guide contains 56 pages and also has a 4 page answer key. Eden was able to complete it in six weeks.

Uncle Jed’s Barbershop was new to us. Written by Margaree King Mitchell, it was a great book about perseverance, caring for others, family ties, and the segregation in America regarding hospitals and businesses. We’d never read it, but really enjoyed the book and the messages it taught. We read it more than once, and while the E-Guide didn’t provide a very long study – ours lasted about two weeks before we’d covered the entire E-Guide with two very eager students. It sparked many discussions and I found it to be well done. We’d just stopped the book to discuss sharecroppers and the concept and frustrations that must accompany that vocation when the E-Guide asked that very question. It made us giggle. We’re learning to be good Progeny Press-minded readers!

All in all, these E-Guide’s were great additions to studying the books, asking lots of questions and leading to greater understanding in the things we read. To be able to read is a fabulous skill. To be able to comprehend what you’ve read – now the world is open wide.

The E-Guide for Little House in the Big Woods is $16.99. The E-Guide for Uncle Jed’s Barbershop is $11.99.

The Crew reviewed nine different titles. Head over to the Review Crew Blog to read others’ reviews on these e-guide titles and the others we had the opportunity to review. For teaching comprehension, checking out the times the book is set in and what the world was like then, I’ve found nothing better, and the prices are easy on the budget.

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