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It’s always great to do a lot of reading in your homeschool, whether it be read aloud books, independent readers, together readers, or picture books. What’s even better for reading comprehension is using a study guide for different types of books!
We had the pleasure of reviewing the study guide called In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Study Guide Grades 4-6 by Progeny Press. And what I noticed was that when it comes to driving home the total comprehension of the book In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, Progeny Press nailed it!
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Different Study Guides by Progeny Press
Progeny Press creates study guides that go along with amazing literature rich in storytelling, elements of writing, and with a Christian perspective. These study guides are downloadable printable guides so you can print as you go or print it all in one sitting, depending on your homeschool schedule.
What’s great about Progeny Press is that they have a variety of study guides for different age ranges and for many different classical stories such as:
A New Coat for Anna Study Guide
Grades K -3: This study guide is for the book A New Coat for Anna. The story is about how life was like after World War II, revolving around a little girl, Anna, and her mother. And even though the war is over, the economy is in shambles – no food, empty stores, and no money. Anna has outgrown her winter coat, but her mother creates a plan to ger her a new one. Through persistence, patience, and sacrifice, her mother is able to get Anna a new coat.
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Study Guide
Grades 4-6: This study guide is for the book In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. Shirley is from China but her father writes Shirley and her mother to join him in New York City, where he’s been working hard to get his family to move to the land of opportunity. And while Shirley finds it difficult to adjust to a new country, she discovers baseball and begins following superstar baseball player Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson proves opportunities can happen even to the grandson of a slave, which opens Shirley’s eyes to how she can really make create opportunities of her own in America.
My Side of the Mountain Study Guide
Middle School Grades 5-8: This study guide is for the book My Side of the Mountain. Sam Gribley begins a journey to the old Gribley farmhouse with little to his name; just $40, a ball of cord, a penknife, an ax, and flint and steel. But after he arrives on the farm, he begins carving out a life for himself as well as making a new friend – a falcon that he trains to hunt for food supply. Together, they create a perfect place on the side of the Catskill Mountain.
Animal Farm Study Guide
High School Grades 9-12: This study guide is for the book Animal Farm. The animals on the farm are tired of living in a place where they’re unappreciated, exhausted from so much work, and treated cruelly and unfairly. They sought out to create a perfect place to live where all the animals are treated with equal respect. In this satirical setting, this amusing fairy tale, created for high schoolers and adults, shows the colorful personalities of the animals and their hard work.
Little Women Study Guide
High School Grades 8-12: This study guide is for the book Little Women. Four sisters, who are completely different in personality and interests, carry burdens on their hearts as well as devotions for one another while taking care of the house and making a way for themselves during the era of the American Civil War.
How We Used Progeny Press Study Guide In Our Homeschool
I always encourage some type of study guide to go along with a book for deeper learning to hit all the learning styles, so I was excited to see various elements of activities within the study guide In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Study Guide.
The study guide does not come with the book In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, but you can purchase the classic literature book from the Progeny Press website for a very low cost.
Purchase the book here In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, the study guide has before reading activities with them, which makes studying the book a lot better – and easier when it comes to planning lessons from a homeschool mom perspective.
It was recommended to read the entire book first and the go back to go through the study guide. However, we would just group the chapters together and read them in spurts like that to coincide with the study guide. So, for example, we would use these before activities before we began reading the the upcoming chapters 1-4.
What stands out is the vocabulary terms within the guides. Students will be reading the text as well as learning the terms that they’re reading. I found this extremely helpful because you and I both know that there is always a term or ten that kids need to review over when reading classical stories.
I found a natural rhythm introducing the vocabulary terms in each grouped chapter. I took the terms of about 3 chapters and group those together, so we studied these terms for about 1-2 weeks at a time. Although the study guides do have activities, I noticed I needed to implement my own vocabulary activities for them to learn, but it was easy enough.
You will also find different scripture verse questions throughout the study guide. I like how they apply the scriptures to relate to different context throughout the guide.
The study guide also came with an Answer Key so you’re not left hanging to look up the answers to the questions yourself.
The guide also gives you optional activities and opportunities to dig deeper in the texts. For the Dig Deeper section, we would discuss as a group the ideas and points for these questions. But what’s pretty cool to me is that my kids tended to already give me their version of digging deeper because they often talked about their thoughts on what they read.
The study guide really did guide me, though, on how to move forward and what to focus on. I tend to get a little scatter brained and ADHD so it can be difficult for me to focus sometimes! So I really appreciated this study guide telling me exactly what and when to review over an area.
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Study Guide {A Study Guide Review}
Again, I encourage you to always have some sort of reading comprehension and/or study guide when reading books, whether those books are independent readers, read alouds, together readers, or even picture books. Study guides tend to do deep dives into the stories to help our little learners to comprehend different elements of a story better and more accurately.
They also help these little brains expand in their creative thinking skills! I’m a huge fan and advocate of study guides, and I really liked In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson Study Guide by Progeny Press. They included a ton of varying activities that will complement any learning style such as hands-on, visual, and auditory, or a mix of all three.
To read more reviews on all of the study guides by Progeny Press that I mentioned above, go to the Homeschool Review Crew blog or click on the banner below! You’ll definitely find some pretty fascinating perspectives on these various reviews from the different homeschool families who used them!
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