Progeny Press - A Schoolhouse Review Crew Review

There is an old saying that I use often. In fact, I just used it last week in a couple of Bible studies that I  conduct. It talks about the definition of insanity. Many say that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. We do that in a lot of areas of life don't we? We do the same things that didn't work the first time over and over and wonder why our circumstances aren't changing. We need to break out of the mold and try something new!

 

Can you believe that we even do that with our homeschooling? We often use the same old curriculum time and time again and expect our kids to react differently. We sometimes need to break out of the mold of using the same things and try something completely different. That has happened to me on many occasions. However (and you knew there had to be a however here someplace didn't you?), sometimes we find a curriculum that works so fantastically with our kids that we DO use it over and over again because it . . . well . . . works! The fantastic unit study "E-Guides" from Progeny Press are one of the things that has worked over and over again for us. Recently we got to review their Give Me Liberty E-Guide written for students in Grades 6-8.

 

First I'll tell you about the book and then I'll describe the fantastic E-Guide for the book.

 

Let me tell you, Give Me Liberty by L. M. Elliott is a "can't put it down" book! I actually could not put it down! It is about a boy, Nathanial, whose family came over from Ireland to the new world in the mid 1700's. The mother unfortunately died while still at sea, and the father, grief-stricken because of the loss of his wife, sold the boy as an indentured servant once the ship landed in Virginia. The boy was a servant on a large plantation for a couple of years before his world was turned upside down again. The owner gambled and got himself into financial trouble and had to sell all of his belongings, including his servants. Now what would happen to Nathanial? Well, you'll have to find out by reading the book. I will tell you that there are a lot of twists and turns in the book that you wouldn't expect and involves many famous historical figures from the Revolutionary War. I love Give Me Liberty and so do my boys! It is a great historical read.

 

 

Now for the great E-Guide Unit Study that goes along with it. The E-Guide is an "Interactive Study Guide" where, after it is downloaded, a person can just type in the answers right on the computer. Since I use these guides with both Joshua and Jacob, I usually will the book aloud to them, then alternately ask them questions and type in their answers. The guide suggests reading the whole book first and then doing the questions. However, because of my kids short term and long term memory problems, I read a section and then answer the questions for that section the next day. The E-Guides are divided up into bite sized sections that only cover a few chapters at a time so that method works well for us.

 

I love the different sections of the E-Guides. The first section is "Ideas for Pre-Reading Activities" for those who choose to read the whole book first before they do the questions. It has a lot of websites to look up before you read and while you are reading and some other things that you can do to help you understand the book as you are reading it.

 

Each section thereafter has some really neat features:

 

Vocabulary - Each section does it a little differently but all of them help the student with some of the more complicated and newer words used in the story.
Questions - This section asks basic comprehension questions to make sure the student understood what he was reading.
Thinking About the Story - Takes things a bit deeper than the regular questions. It talks a lot about similes and nuances.
Digging Deeper - I really like this section. It takes elements from the story and has the student see them in the light of scripture. If you are looking for a secular unit study for your child look elsewhere because Progeny Press is definitely a Christian company.

As you can see, we are huge fans of Progeny Press and the Give Me Liberty E-Guide. I would recommend this company to anyone. It is fantastic. To find out more about this great company just click on any one of the highlighted links above. Other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed other E-Guides from Progeny Press and you can find what they had to say by clicking on the banner below. Happy Homeschooling!