Homeschooling Resources: Language Arts

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Reading comes naturally to some individuals. Some parents struggle with getting their kids to go to sleep because their children are too busy reading books late into the night. Other children might struggle with learning but eventually grow to enjoy it. And don't forget those children who don't seem to like reading no matter what the subject material.

Our three children represent the spectrum of readers. Our younger son loves to read and was reading the letters and words printed on our clothing at early age while our (even younger) daughter took a while to learn to read but now quite happily sits down with a book. Our oldest was a fan of books when he was much younger but really does not enjoy to read as much as my husband and I do.

So how can you help your children become better readers? How do you help them master different language arts skills? There are so many options from online sites that provide fun games like Reading Eggs to offline unit studies that focus on one specific author like William Shakespeare. And don't forget to provide your children with good literature like the Boxcar Children series, Britfield & The Lost Crown, The Chronicles of Narnia, and J.R.R. Tolkien's works.

Reading Curriculum and Language Arts Courses 

One of the resources we were able to review was StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures from Memoria Press. Memoria Press follows a classical approach to education. The children's books used with StoryTime Treasures are children's classics. While reading the stories, children will use workbooks that provide vocabulary exercises and an introduction to grammar and punctuation and will also practice critically thinking about stories. We were able to read a number of fun and interesting children's storybooks while teaching key concepts in the language arts.

Another fantastic source that we have used with our teen son is the wide selection of language arts courses at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. He has taken American Literature in Historical Context and Christian Values in J.R.R. Tolkien. In the first course, he read a variety of work written by Americans and studied it in relation to events in American history. For example, he read:

• Poems by Anne Bradstreet 
• Writings from George Whitefield 
• The Scarlet Letter
• Little Women
• And more! 

While studying J.R.R. Tolkien, he read through The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings series, and The Silmarillion. In addition to answering questions that required him to reflect upon the stories, he also wrote several papers for the course. 

Unit Studies and More

If you prefer to use unit studies in your homeschool, there are also many great options. You can find several unit studies at SchoolhouseTeachers.com that allow you to read entire works, read selections that include poetry, or focus upon reading comprehension and writing skills.

Another great resource for language arts unit studies is Progeny Press. They offer unit studies on a numerous selection of books that could suit the needs of kindergarten through twelfth grade. In the past, we have reviewed several of the study guides including:

• Perelandra by C.S. Lewis 
• The Long Way to a New Land by Joan Sandin 
• A New Coat of Anna by Harriet Ziefert 

All of the study guides from Progeny Press incorporate vocabulary activities, critical thinking, and additional activities where children can be creative. For example, one could bake a cake, create a bookmark, or draw a scene from the book. One other aspect of these language arts studies guides that I like is that they ask children to reflect upon various Bible quotes and relate them to the book they are reading. 

Reading Good Books 

As someone who loves to read, I can't finish this post without mentioning some of the books that our children have enjoyed reading while homeschooling. If you have been reading A Mom's Quest to Teach for any length of time, you have probably seen at least a few book reviews that I have shared so you might know what types of books I enjoy. But what about our children?

Even our teen, who is not a huge reader, really enjoyed Britfield & The Lost Crown. In fact, just a few weeks ago he picked up the book so he could see when the next one in the series is supposed to be released. This is a tremendous compliment from him.

Both our younger children enjoy the Who Was Series of books which we were first introduced to on a trip to the library. They also have a huge collection of Minecraft themed books and Joke books that they seem to read on a daily basis. This is in addition to the large collection of children's picture books that we often read together. Personally, I love books by Leo Lionni and Jan Brett.

What are your favorite books for children or teens?

Creating Successful Readers: A Review of Reading Kingdom

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.

I am excited to review Reading Kingdom with our son for a second time. We first reviewed Reading Kingdom, an online reading program that customizes to your child, in 2018. (You can read that review here: Reviewing Reading Kingdom.) Even though our second grader is quite a skilled reader, he still struggles with spelling which I think is due to the fact that he picked up reading naturally. I also think he skips over words if he is unsure of the meaning on occasion. My hope is that, by using Reading Kingdom with him, he will bring all the skills that go into being a fluent and proficient reader together – that he will bring together comprehension and recalling his favorite stories.

What is Reading Kingdom?

This online reading program uses an innovative reading system so that your child can learn to read and write successfully. It is designed for ages 4-10 (with the option for parents to change the artwork to be more appropriate for older children). There are six key reading and writing skills that are taught together so that children will become successful readers. The "Six Skill Integrated Method," developed by Dr. Marion Blank, focuses upon the following:

• Sequencing 
• Writing 
• Sounds 
• Meaning 
• Grammar
• Comprehension 

Throughout the activities (which are fun and educational), children will use the words they are learning in context. Sentences are provided in which words are used and then illustrations follow which reinforce the words being taught. 

There are five reading levels that are further divided into books. These books are then divided to teach each of the words that will be used in the book (the final lesson for that section). As your child works through the lessons, they will have the opportunity to skip lessons for words. This is the adaptive nature of Reading Kingdom. It changes to fit your child's skills and abilities. In order to ensure that your child understands each word before they reach the story to read, they will use the "Intensive Word Teaching Method" which uses four formats to teach a single word's:

1. Spelling
2. Pronunciation
3. Meaning 
4. Usage in context

I really love this graphic that Reading Kingdom provides. It shows four of the ways children learn words.

How Did We Use Reading Kingdom?

As our son had previously used Reading Kingdom, I had him pick up with where we left off. Even though it has been about two years, I knew that the program would adapt to where our son was in regards to reading and writing. As he progresses through the level, he is skipping more and more words as the program continues to adapt. For example, in the current section he has skipped two words and probably would have skipped 'hop' if he remembered how to spell 'hopping.'

I required our son to complete a lesson on Reading Kingdom at least once a day so that he maintains using it for over five days a week. (It is recommended that a child uses Reading Kingdom at least four days a week – with using it five days being better.)

Your children will be listed here on the Dashboard. You can see when it was last used and for how many days per week.

After clicking through the dashboard, your child will be on the start page where they make a few decisions. If you have gotten subscriptions to other programs, they can use those instead of Reading Kingdom or they can use the Extra Games which are useful for reinforcing typing and memory skills.

When our son clicks to start, he is asked by the program to spell that lesson's word or to recognize it in a sentence. From there the program adapts to his skills and he progresses through as many as 21 screens depending upon his skills.

Here are some of the activities that our son completed during his lessons.

Each lesson offers similar activities ranging from having to pick out the word in sentences to spelling the word when only a few letters are provided in the word. Finally, to close the lesson, he has to type an entire sentence using the word.

For this activity, our son had to type in the words, spaces, and punctuation as the computer read the sentence.

Reading Kingdom has been his primary language arts lesson provider during the course of the review time. While we have continued with his spelling lessons, I have incorporated the words from Reading Kingdom into his spelling program so he can reinforce his knowledge of the words elsewhere. And since the lessons do not take a long time to complete, it has been very easy to even have him complete a lesson during the weekend.

What Do We Think?

I really like Reading Kingdom. I think it offers a variety of activities and educational games to reinforce the learning of each word. I think that, because each lesson follows a similar pattern, it will be of great benefit for some children as they like to know what is going to happen next.

Reflecting upon our previous review, I find that the biggest problem we had was the program not loading properly. I do not recall us having any similar problems (with the audio starting before the screen appeared or needed to reload or refresh the page) during our review period this time. Everything with Reading Kingdom is going very smoothly.

Our son does complain about having to complete his Reading Kingdom lessons. I really do think this is because the program is stretching his abilities. He still struggles with finding all the letters on the keyboard (even with using the games on Reading Kingdom available to help with typing). I think he allows this to influence his view of Reading Kingdom. Personally, I think the program is really helping him.

His favorite part is the Passport Feature which changes as he gets points. He is very eagerly awaiting the next level to see what the sun does next in the Passport.

When you click the Passport, the sun clock inside spins and has your child's name listed. 

What Else Do They Offer?

If you are looking for something to help your child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, there is ASD Reading available. This online program focuses on reading, writing, and comprehending. No prerequisite skills are required - meaning all children (even those who are non-verbal) are able to use the program which will adapt to the child's skills and needs. There are several members of the Homeschool Review Crew who reviewed ASD Reading so please be sure to check out their reviews.

And don't forget to check out the other reviews of Reading Kingdom from the Homeschool Review Crew!

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Learning to Read: Review of the PRIDE Reading Program

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.

Learning to read is such an important skill to acquire. Sometimes our children need a little bit of help in mastering the skills necessary to read. That is where reading programs like PRIDE Reading Program can step in to help parents and schools. It is a structured literacy Orton-Gillingham curriculum that is suitable for children of all ages. PRIDE Reading Program "uses engaging, multi-sensory methods to teach reading, writing, spelling and comprehension." Before ordering our Program Kit to review, our daughter took the Placement Assessment to determine which of the eight programs to select. We ended up with the very first one: PRIDE Beginning Consonants Program Kit.

Shortly after ordering and signing up, I received a welcome email demonstrating where to find the PRIDE Reading Program Training Course that needs to be completed before instruction begins with a child. I have been able to work my way through the training course unit by unit, one or two at a time, depending upon how much time I have available. At the end of the units, there are questions to ensure that you understand the videos and text presented. And while I understand this is a general training course, I wish I didn’t have to watch all the videos that didn’t pertain to me as we are using the Beginning Consonants workbook. 

This is one of the training videos that didn't seem to apply to the Beginning Consonants level.
But the information presented could prove useful.

In some respects, I almost wish I had gone with the next level of the reading program (PRIDE Yellow Book Program Kit - Level 1) as our four-year-old daughter already knows her consonants and can read age-appropriate books but when taking the placement test she struggled with writing the letters and – even though she read them all – she got frustrated and started making mistakes. So, if I had this all over to do again, I would use the PRIDE Scope and Sequence to help me pick the appropriate level rather than the placement test.

What is the PRIDE Reading Program?

The PRIDE Reading Program uses a step-by-step method where students must master each concept before progressing onto the next one. Instructors, in this case homeschooling parents, follow the script and allow their children to move at their own pace. With the PRIDE Reading Program, learning to read should be fun and rewarding and learning should not be stressful or a struggle.

The program uses the Orton-Gillingham method which will work with all students but is designed with students who are dyslexic or have reading struggles specifically in mind. If you wish to read more about the Orton-Gillingham method, you can find more information on the PRIDE Reading Program site but in general it is a reading and spelling teaching method composed of the following components:

• Structured 
• Sequential 
• Cumulative 
• Explicit 
• Multi-sensory 
• Systematic phonics 

Because the program is scripted, you can easily follow this method in your homeschool. And if your children thrive on routines in their homeschooling journey and prefer to know exactly what will happen next, this will be a valuable resource in teaching your children to read. It also takes a multi-sensory approach incorporating auditory, tactile, and visual teaching methods to help your children.

What is Part of the PRIDE Beginning Consonants Program Kit? 

The very first part of the reading program contains three pieces: 

• PRIDE Beginning Consonants Workbook - 2nd Edition 
• PRIDE Beginning Consonants Online Teaching Guide - 2nd Edition 
• PRIDE Sound Cards 

The Beginning Consonants Program Kit focuses upon the following letters: b, c, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z, and d. Each letter has three pages in the workbook which include a page with a picture of animal or item that starts with the letter, a page for your child to practice writing the lowercase letter, and a sounds page that looks at pictures and works that contain beginning sounds, ending sounds, mixed sounds, practice sounds, and reinforcement sounds. Finally, there is a page for sound dictation. 

The workbook is black and white while the back of the Sound Cards are colorful (the letters themselves are printed in black). On occasion, our daughter wanted to color in the pictures. She has wanted to color in the jellyfish, child jumping, and koala.

The online teaching guide is organized by steps with the instructions for each step placed in separate boxes. It is very easy to read the directions and move through each step. Each letter in the Beginning Consonants has three units and as you complete each one you hit 'mark as completed' to move on to the next unit.

You can very easily see where you are within the program by looking at the course progress page where you can access all the lessons, too. I appreciate having a visual to see just how far our daughter has come using the PRIDE Reading Program and what will be coming up in our homeschool in future weeks for us.

We also received a poster of a sound chart which we hung up on the wall in our dining room. It is good to review the sounds while waiting for dinner to start or anytime our daughter walks through the room.

How Did We Use the PRIDE Reading Program in Our Homeschool? 

Before you can start using the program you need to complete a training course which uses a combination of text and short video presentation to demonstrate how to use the program. It was quite easy to access the training lessons and work through them. There were questions at the end to make sure you understood the concepts being taught that you had to answer correctly before you moved onto the next training lesson.

After I completed the training course, our daughter and I started with the first lesson in the Beginning Consonants Level. The very first sound and letter worked upon is b. We spent time reviewing what the lowercase letter b looks like, the sound that it makes, how to write the lowercase letter b, and reviewing the sound at the beginning, end, and middle of words. We then continued this pattern for the letters c, f, g, h, j, k, and l so far.

Each lesson using the Beginning Consonants materials takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending upon how much redirection is necessary with our daughter. She definitely enjoys the parts of the lessons where she is able to get up, move around, and be active.

During the the middle of the review period, I asked our daughter what she thought of it so far. She said she loves learning about the letters. She specifically flipped to the letter h pages and talked about "H being a great letter."

Her favorite activity so far has been writing out the letters using chocolate chips (which was one of the extension activities). I created index cards and slipped them into a plastic bag so she could fill in the letters with the chips.

She also loves the parts of the lessons where we take turn thinking of different words that start with the sound we are currently studying. She enjoys taking turns and trying to come up with different words. She gets very excited when I get a word correct.

Each lesson only takes us about 10 to 20 minutes depending upon how active our daughter is during the lesson. Due to the short nature of the lessons, they fit quite well into our homeschooling day. If there is an extra learning activity, the lessons can take a bit longer if our daughter is having fun with the activity.

Things to Be Aware Of

In the Beginning Consonants workbook, there are several illustrations and word choices that some may have trouble with including: ghost, witch, and reindeer (it is drawn in a way that I think resembles Rudolph). Personally, our family has no problem with reading about or using these words in our homeschool lessons but I know some families would rather stay clear of images associated with Halloween or the secularization of Christmas.

You can see the ghost image here on the page where our daughter is
pointing out the different images and words for the letter g.

What Do We Think? 

Unfortunately for our family, I do not think that the scripted structure of the lessons is a fit in our homeschool. While our daughter loves knowing what comes next and anticipating the next step in a lesson, she also tries to jump ahead while I am going through the script. She also has a tendency to try to do things her own way which makes it hard to stick to a script.

I asked our four-year-old preschooler to share what her favorite parts of the program were during the review period. She liked the letter b because she liked the pictures for the sounds page such as baby, bus, and baboon. She also enjoyed tracing and writing the letter c. She told me her favorite activity is the sounds page and looking for the letter to circle in each box. Our daughter really enjoyed repeating the actions that went along with each letter sound because she loves moving while she is doing her homeschooling. She wanted to do this step each day – even when it was not part of the script.

I like the idea of the program and I think it would work really well for some families whose children are struggling reading. I think our daughter has pleasantly surprised me with how quickly she has absorbed the information being presented and we could probably skip through some of the steps if I wasn't following a scripted program. As I said earlier, I think a later program in the PRIDE Reading Program would fit our daughter's learning even better.

Even though the PRIDE Reading Program was not a perfect fit for our homeschooling family, I would recommend it for families who are looking for a scripted program that will help their children become successful readers.

Do You Want To Learn More?

Don't forget to see learn more about the other levels of the PRIDE Reading Program by checking out the Homeschool Review Crew!

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Literature Study Guides with a Christian Perspective: A Review of The Long Way to a New Land Study Guide

Using study guides for literature happens to be one of my favorite ways to approach reading lessons for our homeschooled children. So when we had the opportunity to review another product from Progeny Press, I was very happy to pick The Long Way to a New Land Study Guide which is geared for grades 1-3. (Last year we used and reviewed the Perelandra Study Guide with our teen.) This year, our first grader and I are reading through the book The Long Way to a New Land and use the study guide from Progeny Press.

What is Progeny Press?

Their mission: "To teach our children to think clearly, to understand literature, and to rely on the scripture for truth and values, and enjoy themselves while they do it!"

There are so many great products offered by Progeny Press. They offer their study guides in a variety of ways including printed workbooks, CDs, and e-Guides that you can download right to your computer. You can also purchase books to go along with your study guide on their site.

What Did We Receive?

For this review, we downloaded the 49-page study guide written by Colleen Schreurs for the book written by Joan Sandin. We purchased the book separately but you could also pick it up at a library or purchase it through Progeny Press. The story, The Long Way to a New Land is set in both Sweden and in Ellis Island, New York in 1868. It is an I Can Read book level 3 (for children reading alone). The family is struggling in Sweden and decides to travel to America for a new opportunity.

As you and your children read the story, you can easily incorporate the study guide activities into your homeschooling day. The study guide contains a number of activities to complete with your child before, during, and after reading the book. For example, my husband and I helped our son complete a family tree prior to reading the story. We also worked on creating the different flags to represent where his ancestors originated in Europe. (Both he and his sister really enjoyed this activity!)

Those activities that relate directly to the chapters in the book contain the following parts:

• Vocabulary 

• Questions regarding the content of the chapter 

This was a fun exercise asking why the family packed different items into their trunk for America

• Literary Techniques and Grammar (such as cause & effect, prediction, synonyms, action verbs, etc.) 
• Comparing past and present 
• A section entitled Dig Deeper that consisted of Bible quotations and questions for reflection such as read Matthew 4:4 "It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" with a question asking children why the Bible was an important item for the family to take with them to the New Land

There were also a number of activities for when we were finished reading the book including writing letters to grandparents to learn more about ancestry of the family, the creation of a family booklet with photos, and a cooking center (the study guide contains a recipe for Quick Whole Wheat Bread).

There is also an answer key to help you correct the objective questions.

Note: All the units are written from a Christian perspective. The study guide contains references to Bible quotes using the NIV translation.

How Did We Use the Study Guide?

During the course of the review period, we set aside our other language arts work to focus solely upon reading The Long Way to a New Land and using the study guide. Our son read through the entire book as soon as it arrived. We then completed the before-you-read activities together. When we started working on the sections of the study guide that were specifically geared towards the chapters, I would read the chapter aloud to both our children before our son worked on the questions.

Referencing the book to answer the questions

I only required our son to complete one part for each chapter each day. If he were older, he could probably complete the entire work for each chapter during one day. So the way we worked through the study guide, it will take us about five to six weeks to complete. If you were working at a faster pace, it would probably take you about four to five weeks to complete.

What Did We Think?

I am very pleased with The Long Way to a New Land Study Guide. The variety of the activities means we had something new to work on each day. All the activities were closely connected to the book which I appreciated. This was a perfect fit for our homeschool day.

I also like how you could tie in social studies and history to this study guide. In fact, we were able to talk about the Statue of Liberty (which our son had studied a bit earlier in the year) and examine some stamps from Czechoslovakia as some members of my own family were from Slovakia.

I think the study guide would be perfect for a second grader. I found some of the work to be a bit more challenging for my first grader but as we are homeschooling, we have the flexibility to work through the questions together. Some of the ways we adapted the study guide was taking turns writing out the answers to the questions, reviewing the book as we answered each question, and I gave our son clues as to where to find the vocabulary words in the word search.

Our son's favorite activity from the study guide was creating the flags. He said, "It was so much fun."

He also enjoyed the vocabulary activity where he had to define the word in his own words and then look it up in the dictionary. Some of the words he had to define included homespun, copper, and seaport. From the vocabulary activities, he also really liked completing the crossword puzzle and the word search.

He also enjoyed being able to draw objects from the present that related to objects from the past and coloring in his pictures. For example, he drew a fancy tower (floor) lamp since we no longer use oil lamps like the family used in the story.

I would recommend the study guides from Progeny Press. They are excellent for focusing upon one story or book with your child and allow for tons of learning opportunities.

P.S. Progeny Press has a lot of fun activities and ideas pinned to a board just for The Long Way to a New Land Study Guide! We can expand our time studying about Ellis Island, Immigration, and the Statue of Liberty using their board.

Do You Want to Learn More About Progeny Press?

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Progeny Press offered four different study guides for review. Please visit the other reviews to see how they incorporated the study guides into their homeschooling day.

A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year: Language Arts Overview for 2019-2020

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We are homeschooling three different children with varied needs in regards to Languages Arts. Our youngest is learning how to read and entering preschool. Our middle child has been reading for a while and will be continuing to master the art of reading and now writing. And our teen will be examining the written words of J.R.R. Tolkien and Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Preschool

Learning Dynamics

Our four-year-old daughter has been wanting to learn how to read like her big brothers for a while now. Through the use of several programs, our daughter seems to finally have cracked the code and is reading. She loves the Learning Dynamics Reading Program because it came with over 50 books that she has been able to start reading after only a few lessons.

The student manual has one page associated with each lesson which she likes completing and she thoroughly enjoys listening to the different songs on the CD that came with the set. We have been enjoying working on it during our homeschooling hours. (Read more in my review.)

First Start Reading

Depending upon how eager our daughter is to start learning how to write, we may or may not be using First Start Reading from Memoria Press with her this homeschool year. Each book (Books A-E) focuses upon phonics, reading, and printing. She is quite eager to start reading but not as eager to learn how to write, which is perfectly fine as she is still young. So, we will take it slow depending upon her desire to read and write. (You can read more about the excellent First Start Reading Program in my review.)

First Grade

Simply Classical Writing

We started using Simply Classical Writing Book One Step-by-Step Sentences (Bible Story Edition) in May and took a break for a while. We will be picking up with Book One again and reading more about David, Daniel, and then stories of Jesus from the Gospel. Each lesson focuses upon practicing good sentence writing, working on punctuation, and the skills necessary to write a complete sentence. I also like that our daughter can join in with listening to the readings from the Bible as we start each lesson. (Please check out my review for more information.)

StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures

The two Student Study Guides will be used over the course of one year to read 12 classic children's books and dig deeper into literature. We started using the materials from Memoria Press during the summer to review. I love the way the lessons and resources are set up. We can go at a slower pace or move more swiftly through the lessons depending upon whether or not our six-year-old son understands the topic being taught. We look forward to reading the following books:

• Make Way for Ducklings 
• Billy and Blaze
• Blaze and the Forest Fire
• Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie
• Stone Soup
• The Little House
• Miss Rumphius
• The Story About Ping 

If you want to learn more about StoryTime Treasures, please read my review.

High School

We will be mixing a number of resources for our teen's junior year of high school, including courses from SchoolhouseTeachers.com, material from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources, and vocabulary via our Vocabulary Virtuoso Book 1. For at least one of the courses, we will be reading all of the required books together as a family, so we can discuss them.

Tolkien 

The first course that we decided upon was Christian Values in J.R.R. Tolkien by Dr. Steven Hake from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It is an advanced literature course that will study six of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and will also include the reading of at least one biography of Tolkien. Over the course of 18 weeks, our son will answer discussion questions, write journal entries to reflect upon the readings, and compose two short papers and one longer research paper.

The books or stories to be read include:

• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring 
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King
• The Simarillion 
• J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter
• Smith of Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham

We may or may not extend this course of study beyond the 18 weeks by incorporating other language arts activities during our week or in between the readings of the different books. We wish to have our son to continue building his vocabulary with Vocabulary Virtuoso Book 1 from The Critical Thinking Co., as well as read another play written by William Shakespeare (Hamlet).

Shakespeare 

I am quite excited about using Lightning Lit & Comp Shakespeare Tragedies & Sonnets again from Hewitt Homeschooling Resources to read Hamlet with our son. The course on the Tragedies of Shakespeare is written to be taught over one semester but we only completed the work on Julius Caesar & the sonnets in the first Unit last homeschooling year. I love that we can be flexible and use the course as it fits our needs so we can learn a different Shakespeare play each year.

There is a plot summary of Hamlet, comprehension questions, a literary lesson on duality, an examination of characters, and a look at the language within Hamlet. To conclude the lesson there are 11 writing exercises perfect for practicing paper writing skills (which the beginning of the book goes over for students).

Not Back to School Blog Hop 

This week I am joining up with the Homeschool Review Crew for the Annual "Not Back to School" Blog Hop...5 Days of Homeschool.... Please visit the other members to see what they are sharing this week.

There are lots of great posts in the "Not Back to School" Blog Hop!

Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom - Homeschooling With Autism
Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range - 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling
Abby @ Making Room 4 One More - Time Management for Homeschool Moms
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool - 5 Days of Homeschool Questions
Amy @ the WRITE Balance - Year-Round Schooling
Annette @ A Net in Time - Homeschooling.
Betty @ Lets Get Real - Homeschooling High School
Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess - Eclectic Homeschooling

Reviewing the e-Guide of Perelandra from Progeny Press

C.S. Lewis is one of our family's favorite authors, so we were very happy to be able to read Perelandra and use the e-Guide from Progeny Press to help our teen understand the material at a deeper level. Progeny Press offers "study guides for literature from a Christian perspective" with hundreds of e-Guides available from The Josefina Story Quilt e-Guide geared towards grades 1-3 to the Perelandra e-Guide for grades 9-12 which we reviewed.

The Mission of Progeny Press is "To teach our children to think clearly, to understand literature, and to rely on the scripture for truth and values, and enjoy themselves while they do it!"

You can watch this video from Progeny Press to learn more about the company.

Each study guide takes approximately 8-12 weeks to complete which means your child will complete about one page per day. Guides for younger children can take less time. As Perelandra proved to be a difficult text for our teen to read, we are working through the e-Guide more slowly to ensure that he understands the material that he is reading.

The Perelandra e-Guide contains the following elements:

• Synopsis of Perelandra, background information, and a Synopsis of Out of the Silent Planet (the first book in the trilogy) 
• Since our teen has not read Out of the Silent Planet yet (my husband has read it), it was great that he could review the events on Malacandra and Ransom's encounters with the Sorn and Hrossa.
• A biography of C.S. Lewis 
• I love having a brief biography of the author as it prevents the need to go to the Internet to look it up.
• Activities to complete prior to reading Perelandra 
• While we didn't complete the prereading activities, they are quite good. I really like the idea of researching the mythical origin of Mars and Venus as well as that of 1930-1950s science fiction. These are just two of the six activities suggested. 
• Vocabulary words and a variety of activities to introduce and teach the new words 
• Vocabulary activities range from sentences from the book with the new words to discussion of mood and tone to searching for antonyms. With a variety of ways to learn vocabulary, students are sure to find at least one way which suits their learning style. 

• Examination of literary techniques 
• There are questions pertaining to metaphors, similes, descriptions, and imagery to name a few. 

• Examination of moral lessons and character values 
• Through a variety of questions, we are able to discuss the difference between Weston and Ransom as we read quotes from the Bible and examine their decisions. I think this has been one of my favorite aspects of the e-Guide – we can have good conversations with our son with Perelandra as a starting point. 
• A variety of activities and writing assignments 
• There are typical essay assignments available, as well as art suggestions, and research papers to pick from for culminating activities. 
• Suggestions for further reading 
• Having a suggested list of books written by C.S. Lewis to look for and other books that relate to the series takes the guess work out what to read next. And the great thing is our son has already read some of the other books such as The Martin Chronicles and The Hobbit. 

What Our Family Likes 

My husband and I have been enjoying the fact that while we are discussing Perelandra with our son – and the answers to the vocabulary and other questions – we are also getting the opportunity to discuss real world events as well as the concepts of morality, right and wrong, and other topics in relation to the Christian view we are trying to instill in our son.

I also like that my husband is reading the book via an online application that allows him to search for key words as we discuss the various questions in the e-Guide. This way we can find the exact phrase or quote that a question brings up and find the reasons within the text for the answer suggested in the answer key. One specific instance would be that of the question pertaining to "emergent evolution" and the Force in Chapter 7. Our son had difficulty with that question, so in addition to giving him hints from the answer key we were able to re-read that portion of the text aloud to discuss whether or not Weston is presenting a paradox or a contradiction.

Going Forward 

There is also an interactive feature to the e-Guide that allows your children to type their answers directly into the e-Guide. We chose to print out the unit study so that we could all be able to look at it while discussing the questions.

As our younger two children, who are being homeschooled, move forward in their reading journey, I look forward to relying upon Progeny Press for their e-Guides. Within the next year, we could use Frog and Toad Together e-Guide for our 5-year-old son. If our teen makes the decision to homeschool in the future, we will be looking for others such as Hamlet e-Guide, Introduction to Poetry: Forms and Elements e-Guide, and The Screwtape Letters e-Guide.

In addition, if you are curious, Progeny Press does offer an e-Guide for Out of the Silent Planet, if you would rather read Book # 1 in the Space Trilogy first and complete that e-Guide with your child. There are also sample pages from the various e-Guides to help you decide if it is a fit for your family.

To learn more, please visit the following:

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The Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed the following e-Guides:

• The Josefina Story Quilt e-Guide
• The Green Book e-Guide
• The Scavengers e-Guide 

To see more reviews, please visit the Homeschool Review Crew!