Author: Wendy

1999: A Reflection

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Today marks exactly 15 years since I graduated from high school. (I was a public school student.) For such a momentous occasion, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share it here.

First, here’s a picture of me way back then:

me in hs

How much about the news stories from back do you remember? What about the impeachment of then-President Clinton? Or the war in Kosovo? Those were what I wrote down as the most memorable of that year (national and international, respectively).

Here’s something that should be fun: prices. Back then, you could two loaves of bread for$1.39. These days, my husband will pay $5.19 without batting an eye. That’s for organic, chock-full-of-seeds bread, but still. I’m a little more reasonable; I pretty much max out at $2.50, or I make it at home. Milk was $2.79, which is pretty close to the $2.89-3.19 I pay now. The only difference is that back then, we were always told, “Be glad your car doesn’t run on milk,” because gas back then was in the $1.29-$1.39 range. Now of course, we’d be grateful if it dropped to$2.89! My, how times have changed. Eggs were 59 cents for a half-dozen. Now it’s around $1.19 for that size package. (Clearly I didn’t buy the eggs for our family back then or I would have recorded the price for a dozen instead of a half-dozen.) CDs and tapes – remember those? They ranged from $5.99-$15.99.

Okay, now a few personal things. In 1999, I was named Outstanding French Student. No wonder I love the language now, eh? The theme for my senior prom was “Light Up the Night,” and I attended with my now-husband. I got straight As and earned 28.5 credits; 24were required to graduate. My classes were Band (I played/play the flute), Government, British Lit, Yearbook (I was an assistant editor), and French 3. One of my best friends that year was a foreign exchange student from Germany. Unfortunately, I haven’t been in touch with her since then. (I wonder if the email address she left in my memory book is still accurate. And if so, would she even remember me?)

hs announcement collage

My high school graduation announcement

What year did you graduate? Tell me something memorable about that year in the comments!

Blessings,

Wendy

Product Review: We Choose Virtues

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We Choose Virtues Review

What is a parent’s job?

The answer will probably vary from person to person, family to family, but they all center around one theme: Training our children to become responsible citizens. How do we do that? By making sure they are equipped with the knowledge and character to make good choices. We Choose Virtues is here to help. For the purposes of review (and to help me train my sons into being better people!), I received a set of Parenting Cards with all the different virtues on them. The Parenting Cards retail for $38.49 and are geared toward kids in the 3-11 age range. The ideal goal of the program is to introduce one Virtue each week, spending about 10-15 minutes learning about it and doing age-appropriate activities (many ideas of which are included on the cards themselves, or in the Download Bundle which I’ll talk about in a minute).

The Parenting Cards are a lovely set of 12 full-color, double sided, 8.5 x 5.5 inch cards. Each one has a different virtue on it: Content, Self-Control, Obedient, Perseverant, Patient, Kind, Honest, Helpful, Gentle, Forgiving, Diligent, and Attentive. Each virtue is taught as an affirmative statement: I am Obedient. There’s no room for “I will try to be obedient” or “I wish I was obedient” in this program. The idea is to give kids the self-confidence to be virtuous, right from the beginning.

Each virtue taught in the program has its own character, and that character is essentially the virtue personified. For example, the card for “I am Content” introduces us to “Cake Jake.”

We Choose Virtues Review

Jake is a boy who loves to eat cake. His parents own a bakery, so he’s able to eat lots of it. But sometimes Jake wants more choices – he isn’t content with the current options. Kids are reminded through Jake’s story that it’s important to not want too much. We should be happy with what we have. Each card has a character and story like this.

Additionally, there are activities on the backs of the cards to help parents with ideas for putting the concept behind the virtue into practice. These include things like games and discussion points. The cards also have Bible verses on their fronts. You can choose from the NIrV (New International Reader’s Version), which includes both Old and New Testament verses, or the KJV (King James Version), which is only Old Testament. The KJV includes only OT verses because it was designed with Jewish customers in mind, but you definitely don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate the product. They’re also available in Spanish.

In addition to the Parenting Cards, I was blessed with the WCV Download Bundle. There’s all kinds of cool stuff in there, and it sells for $7.99. This includes all sorts of neat printables including a Teacher’s Handbook, Family Character Assessment, Coloring Pages, Awards, and Sing-Along Sheets. Because we don’t do much printing, we didn’t utilize these too much, but I still think they’re great resources. (Also, my kids aren’t huge fans of coloring, so that would’ve been a waste of money to have the coloring sheets printed. But if your kids enjoy coloring, these would be awesome! They’re absolutely adorable.) We did, however, do a handwritten version of the Character Assessment, and that was very eye-opening. But mostly we just used the Parenting Cards for our Virtue lessons.

There are two specific instances that were memorable during our time reviewing We Choose Virtues which I would like to share with you guys today. The first is when we were working on Obedience. I chose that one first because it’s the area my kids need the most help in. I’m not saying they’re bad kids, but the focal point on the obedience card is more than just “I do what I’m told.” It is “I obey exactly what you say right away.” The difference is subtle, but it’s there, and it’s important. Did you catch it? The part my kids had trouble with was “right away.” On the back of the Obedience card is a game to help kids practice their obedience. The basic gist is that you whisper an instruction to one child, and everyone else is supposed to guess what you told them while they’re doing it. It was a good for my boys to put this into action in such a simple, fun way. (And it had them do my living room tidying that day!)

The second one is a bit more “real life.” We were studying Perseverance (I do what needs to be done, even when it’s tough; I don’t give up) the same week we did our soap whittling project while we read Little House in the Big Woods, and Munchkin was getting incredibly frustrated. He was nearly to the point of tears when I took him aside and reminded him of our “Virtue of the Week.” He was able to go over the meaning of perseverance with me and recite the catchphrase. Once we’d done that, he took a deep breath and finished his carving. He even liked it in the end! To me, that’s a beautiful example of what We Choose Virtues is all about. The idea is not simply to teach your children (or students) what a virtue is, but to help them apply them to their everyday lives.

The long and the short of it is this: We Choose Virtues is a great product for helping parents raising upright, virtuous children. And that’s what we want in the next generation.

Blessings,

Wendy

We Choose Virtues has a blog, and they’re also on Facebook and Pinterest.

Interested in trying We Choose Virtues? From now through the end of August 2014, use code BTS20 and you can take an additional 20% off anything from their online store.

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Simplicity: The Importance of Being Tidy

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I had a bit of a meltdown earlier this week. You see, our kitchen is a source of chronic frustration for me. No matter how good we are at wiping up spills and washing dishes, the clutter always finds a way in there. And once a little bit of clutter has nestled itself onto the countertop, a little more inevitably ends up there too. And so it continues until pretty soon it’s impossible to even fix dinner.

Or maybe that’s just the way it is at my house.

But I’m committed to making it work this time. Part of desiring a simplicity driven, minimalist lifestyle is making more time to spend with the family and spending less time stressed out and frustrated because things are messy. I don’t want to be concerning myself with “How am I going to prepare dinner in that messy room when we get home?” while we’re out having a family fun day. I don’t want to get home and be frustrated and annoyed after an otherwise lovely day.

I want to honestly live the simple life I claim to desire. That’s going to mean paying attention to things and keeping them under control. That’s going to mean organizing the places that are readily visible as well as those that aren’t. (The non-visible places are still a work in progress.) And that’s going to mean training everyone else, especially the children, that the kitchen counter isn’t their personal dumping ground.

Keeping the counters clear is only part of the solution, though. Have you ever heard of feng shui (pronounced “fung schway”)? It’s an Asian concept that essentially says that you will feel the way your living space looks. If your area is cluttered and messy, you will have messy thoughts and ideas. If your space is perpetually untidy or in disrepair, you’ll likely be unhappy there.

So when Will and I were cleaning up the kitchen the other night, we did all we could to make the feng shui better, too. (As renters, there’s only so much we can do…) I reorganized my spice shelf because it had gotten very untidy. I made sure everything that belonged in a cupboard was in its home and that the cabinet doors shut fully. I even cleared off the front of the refrigerator, which had been covered – in a messy, disorganized way – with papers (coupons, kid stuff, etc). The only things that went back up were the things that we need/use on a daily basis, which during this season are the boys’ summer reading logs and the paper that records their Good Behavior Points.

All this took about an hour, maybe a little more, but we’ve kept it up for several days now, and I’m much happier with the room.

Now we just need to do the other rooms in the house!

Blessings,

Wendy

Reading: It’s Not Just for the School Year

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books

I’ve mentioned before how reading is important to us. In fact, I’d venture to guess it’s important to most families. But how do you keep your kids reading outside of the school year?

Well, sometimes you just have to make them do it.

We give our boys some extra incentive with a little bit of help from the public library. We’ve been regular participants in the annual Summer Reading Program for years – since way before Seahawk could read. Some years we use only the library’s prizes as motivation and some years we add extra stuff. We haven’t decided yet for this year. We’ll probably use just library prizes – there were quite a few good ones included in the sign up packet, which we’ll distribute as the boys reach milestones. These include a trip to the zoo, a dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory (one of our favorite restaurants), and a free ticket to a basketball game of the local NBA team. In addition to these signup bonuses, the library has more prizes that kids can earn for reading 20 minutes or more per day for a certain number of days (this year, the guaranteed prizes are at 20, 50, & 70 days). I think those, along with me telling them that reading daily isn’t optional, should be motivation enough.

Going through the library isn’t the only option for children’s summer reading programs, either. I know that the prize I mentioned above from The Old Spaghetti Factory isn’t just through our local library; they work with several libraries, so find out if yours is one. It’s not too hard for the kids to earn their prize, either. When they’ve finished 5 books, they get a free meal (with the purchase of an adult meal). Pottery Barn has a summer reading program too, but I’m not sure of the details.

So that covers incentive, which is especially important for children who don’t love reading. And honestly, it doesn’t hurt to help motivate kids who do like reading, too.

What about what to read? Well, like prizes, we’ve done different things over the years. When the boys were young, we read to them or picked up audio books from the library. As they grew, we did some of us reading, some of them reading. About 3 years ago, we made the full transition to them reading. We still read to them, but for summer reading to “count,” the reading has to be done by them. (This is our rule, not the library’s.) What do they read? Well, we’re stricter than the library on this, too. We require our children to read chapter books, at least one chapter a day. Fiction or nonfiction doesn’t necessarily matter to us. This year we’ll do a combination of assigned reading and their choice. The library gifted each child who signed up with a book, so those are the first kids’ choice books of the summer. Munchkin chose The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, and Seahawk chose Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen (although, he hasn’t read Hatchet, so he’s working on that, and Brian’s Winter will immediately follow). As soon as they finish those, they’ll have assigned books: The Cay for Seahawk and  The Sign of the Beaver for Munchkin. We’re also reading the Little House series as a family right now.

What does summer reading look like in your home?

Blessings,

Wendy

Lots of other bloggers are exploring the topic of Summer Reading for Elementary Students. Make sure to check them out! (You can do so simply by clicking the banner below, anytime on or after Wednesday, June 11, 2014.)

 

Favorite Curriculum Choices

Homeschool Curriculum Review: Learning Wrap ups

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learning palette 1

I have a positively superb product to share with you guys today. In the few weeks we’ve had it, it has become hands down one of our favorite school manipulatives. What is it? Well, it’s more than an “it.” I received for review from Learning Wrap ups all of this great stuff:

These products, which are ideal for children in all elementary grades – Kindergarten through 5th – became high use products in our homeschool, especially the math wrap ups. You see, the boys have been struggling with their facts for a long time. They still counted fingers for adding and subtracting and barely knew the multiplication tables at all (past the 3s, that is). Their inability to master these was weighing heavy on me; I knew that they should have known them by now (at least Seahawk should have, since he’s nearing the end of 4th grade), but worksheets and flashcards just weren’t working, no matter how often we did them. Will had Learning Wrap ups when he was a kid and thought they would be the right answer (pardon the pun) for the boys, but he couldn’t remember what they were called. When our package arrived, he was happy to have these in the house! (And that’s really saying something since we strive for minimalism.)

So, what is a Learning Wrap up, anyway? Put simply, it is a set of 10 “keys,” connected together with an attached string (not attached with the string, but the string is also attached). The child separates the one they’re working on – they don’t come apart, but you rotate one to work with and hold the others together out of the way – and wraps the string around the key. There’s a list of numbers down each side and the math family (+1, x5, etc) in the middle. The goal is to take the numbers on the left (in top-to-bottom order), add, subtract, multiply, or divide by the family they’re working on, and match them to the correct answer on the right. Each key is self-correcting; there is a raised pattern on the back, and if all the answers are correct, the string will cover those lines. The ultimate goal of the Learning Wrap ups is that the student will learn the facts and be able to complete each “key” in 30 seconds or less.

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They come in an incredibly wide variety of topics and problems. The math set that we received includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. The Vocabulary set we got includes synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and compound words. In addition to all of these, there are Wrap ups for ESL (English as a Second Language), Geography, Spanish, Music Theory, Science, Advanced Math, and Preschool subjects.

To supplement the Learning Wrap ups, we received the addition and multiplication mastery workbooks. These included such exercises as “rapid writing” and “math family fun pages.” They worked very nicely with Wrap ups. Seahawk used the Multiplication Mastery, and Munchkin used Addition Mastery during the review period. I fully intend to purchase one more copy of each (individually, the workbooks are only $4.99 each and are consumable, so you need to buy one per student) and have them switch for further mastery this summer.

wrapups

We haven’t done a whole lot with the Vocabulary Wrap ups yet (at least not formally – they’ve still gotten lots of use!), but as we continue to study various types of words, they will be great tools. They work exactly the same way as their math counterparts, but you’re matching words instead of numbers.

The Learning Palettes are really cool, too. The basic design is that of a painter’s palette, but instead of paints all around the edge, there are spaces for colored discs. You place a question card in the center of the palette, which has 12 problems to solve. Each problem is assigned a colored disc – there are six colors, and each one has a solid disc and one with a hole. There are a variety of answers along the outside of the card, and the task is simple: place the disc from the question into the spot with the correct answer. Like the Wrap ups, the Learning Palette is self-correcting; after the discs are placed, the card is turned over and the answers are revealed. The method is the same regardless of the grade level you’re using.

The highest grade level for the Reading Learning Palette is 3rd, so it was primarily used by Munchkin during our review period; we did get 4th grade math, though, which Seahawk used. The Learning Palette Kits each come with lots of curriculum cards (which are also available separately in both math and reading). The 4th Grade Math kit comes with 6 packs of curriculum cards, and the 3rd Grade Reading comes with 5 packs. Each pack has 12 cards, and each card has 12 questions. For those of you who aren’t so into math, that adds up to (well, multiplies to) 720 questions in the reading category and 864 in math. Talk about a lot of information!

Let’s talk pros and cons.

The pros are clear and strong. First of all, the programs are fun for kids. Way more fun than flash cards. And when kids are having fun, they learn more. My boys absolutely loved the Wrap ups, and guess what? They’ve very nearly got their multiplication tables memorized, and they only rarely have to use their fingers for adding anymore. That makes me one happy mama! It’s taken us a bit longer than the 10 Days advertised, but you know what? I don’t mind. At least we’re finally making progress, which is way more than I could say two months ago. They really enjoy the Learning Palettes, too. They don’t like them quite as well as the Wrap ups, but I think that’s just because they’re bigger and more cumbersome than the hand-held Wrap up.

The main con with this program is that things are never mixed up; the Wrap up is the same every time. I don’t think that hurts the kids’ ability to master the facts in the short term, though. I’m confident that my boys were learning the facts, not the string pattern. Seeing the facts in a different order than they were on the Wrap up did slow them down a little bit, but not too much. And this is where the combination of the Wrap up and the Mastery workbook are necessary. The workbook (almost) completely counteracts the con of the sameness of the Wrap up.

While the two products (Wrap ups and Palettes) are quite different, the pros and cons are the same for both. The Palettes are super fun – even Small Fry loved playing with them! (They kept him occupied quite nicely while we were working on other lessons.) The questions don’t change, but there are enough of them that it probably doesn’t matter. By the time your child has worked all the way through the cards, the “old” ones will feel fresh again.

Would I recommend this product? In a heartbeat. In fact, I’ve already done so several times. I also plan to buy some of the lower level Wrap ups for my nieces and nephews as they start hitting their “school age” birthdays this year and next – that’s how much I believe in this product. It worked wonders in my boys, and I’m telling anyone who will listen about them!

Blessings,

Wendy

While not a part of my review, there is an online version of the Learning Palette, too. Make sure to click the banner below for other crew reviews about that aspect of the product.

Connect with Learning Wrap ups on Facebook and Twitter.

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Wednesday Chat #7

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chatsonthefarmhouseporch

Hello, friends. I haven’t done a Wednesday chat in a few weeks, so I thought it would be fun today. If you have a blog and want to participate, head over to Everyday Ruralty to get the questions and link up.

What is your favorite berry?

I like all kinds! Well, except blueberries – which I like in baked goods. So let me break down my specific preferences. For just eating, I like strawberries best. I love the flavor of raspberries and blackberries, but the seeds drive me mad. In baked goods, blueberries or blackberries win. And for jams and jellies, it’s raspberries all the way.

If you had the choice of a picnic or sit-down dinner, which would you choose?

A sit-down dinner. There are some outdoor activities I enjoy – like tennis – but as a rule, I prefer the indoors.

How is your handwriting? Fancy, plain? Legible, doctor-like?

Right now it’s nonexistent. Stupid tendinitis *sigh* When I can write, though, I have . . . well, regular handwriting. Unless I’m being exceptionally lazy or rushed, it’s quite legible. If I have time to take my writing slow, it’s even better.

Do you prefer a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet?

Laptop. But I haven’t had one in a couple of years. These days, 90% of my “computing” is done on my phone or our Kindle Fire. The other 10% is done on hubby’s our desktop.

Tell me something interesting, please.

I’ve never in all my almost-33 years broken a bone. As a kid, I wondered what it would be like to have a cast. Now that I’ve this darn tendinitis, I no longer have any interest in trying one. Just the splint sucks big time, and I have the ability to take it off if I so desire. (Of course, I want to heal, so I’m not just taking it off willy-nilly. I removed it to shower earlier this week and ended up hurting for 12 hours solid. No more of that!)

So there’s a few more tidbits about me. Tell me: have you ever broken a bone?

Blessings,

Wendy

Book Review: A Life in Balance

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Learning Breakthrough Program Review

I enjoy reading, but I often find it difficult to find (ahem, make) time for it. When I was asked to review A Life in Balance, I happily accepted. The book is the autobiography of Frank Belgau, founder of the Learning Breakthrough Program, and chronicles his life as it led to the development of his program. I received this book as a PDF which I put on my Kindle to read, but it is only available for purchase as a print copy for $18.95 (currently on sale through Amazon for $16.94, but I don’t know how long it will be that price). The book is geared toward adults, but would also be good for older teens who were interested in studying mild learning disabilities.

The book opens in the 1960s, when Mr. Belgau is first beginning to make strides in his research and teaching of “unteachable students.” It quickly goes back in time, however, to the 1940s, when Mr. Belgau was a junior high school student. He tells us how he came to love science; it was all thanks to his teacher, Mr. Royer. I found it amusing how he entered the classroom for the first time and his heart sunk. You see, Mr. Royer was an old man. Young Mr. Belgau had been hoping to be taught by a “real” scientist – a young-ish guy in a lab coat. But in the 40s, all the young men were fighting in World War II. That left this old man to teach the children. Dismayed as he was upon seeing his science teacher for the first time, that all went away the minute Mr. Royer opened his mouth. You see, Mr. Royer had known Thomas Edison. The Thomas Edison. You can imagine how that one little tidbit would instantly make this old man more credible in the eyes of a pre-teen boy who hopes to be a scientist (after a career as a military pilot, of course!). At the end of that first class, Mr. Royer presented a scientific question to the class: “To what rule is the motion of  {this} pendulum calibrated?”

He never gave them the answer. Instead, he simply told them, ““It [science] isn’’t about having the right answer. It’’s about looking for the right answer.””

It’s clear from the way Mr. Belgau speaks about Mr. Royer – with near reverence – that the old scientist had a huge impact on the then 12-year-old.

The book moves on from there in a series of biographical type chapters. Mr. Belgau is telling his story of how the Learning Breakthrough Program was developed through his relationships with others. These people include students, parents, and fellow scientists and teachers. As early as the 1960s, he was having success teaching students that all the other teachers had written off. And the way he started was by going back to his days with Mr. Royer and his pendulum. What Mr. Belgau was slowly discovering was that “mental disabilities” (namely ADD, dyslexia, and other reading-based brain issues) are able to be overcome. He developed a series of exercises – starting with having students follow a pendulum suspended from the ceiling with their eyes – that somehow allowed their brains to bypass their disabilities. He continued to develop more and more exercises that further increased these students’ abilities. He found that after 15 minutes of his exercises, the students showed a marked improvement in their ability to read aloud and in their comprehension of what they had read. Reading about that was quite remarkable, especially as a mama with a (slightly) struggling student.

I want to close my review of A Life in Balance with just a few quotes from the book.

“I began to wonder how much of the lack of interest and resistance children have to reading comes from the simple fact that what they’re given to read when they are young is a waste of time.”

This is a great thought. I’m sure Dick and Jane served their purpose (or did they?), but why would we use such uninteresting books to teach our children? Give them easy readers from topics they’re interested in from the beginning, and we’re more likely to foster a love of reading.

“I learned to reserve praise for the moments when it was really due, not to dole it out liberally, over-affirming bad work to make the student feel good.”

This may not be “politically correct” in today’s world of everyone-is-equal-and-deserves-to-win, but I must say, I agree with Mr. Belgau. You need to walk the line between being mean and giving false praise. Constructive criticism is more beneficial than false praise any day of the week.

“Far too often, we set the bar just below just below the perceived ability of the children in our charge, and by so doing – whether as parents or teachers – we rob those children of an important motivation to push themselves toward success.”

I’m guilty of this. Big time. Fortunately, Will is not, so we balance each other out. Reading this, first in the book and now again as I review my notes to write this review, I’m committing to pushing my kids this summer. Not beyond what they can do, but not below, either. I need to give the motivation to succeed on their own.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Mr. Belgau and his work, make sure to head over to the Learning Breakthrough Program‘s website. There’s all kinds of good stuff there.

Blessings,

Wendy

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Simplicity: Tendinitis, Transmission, and Tennis

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Happy first week of June, everyone! For today’s simplicity post, I want to share with you the wonderful day we had yesterday. It was screen-free until the kids were in bed, and even then Will and I just watched YouTube videos for an hour or so. But first, some background – namely how we spent our Saturday.

Will was off selling books like he does most Saturdays. The kids and I were in ER.

See, my right wrist has been pretty achy for a couple of weeks. I figured it would get better on its own, but it’d been long enough that it was clear it wasn’t going to get better. So I went in. After the doctor felt around in there, she still wasn’t completely sure, so she ordered an X-Ray to be sure it wasn’t broken. Fortunately, it came back clean. That left us with a diagnosis of tendinitis, which is an inflammation of the tendons. They put me in a splint (like half a cast, held in place with Ace wrap) and said to take Ibuprofen to help with pain and swelling. (There’s no visible swelling, but obviously there’s internal swelling or I wouldn’t be having discomfort.) They expect it to be better in a week; if it’s not, I’ll see my regular doctor the next step. So there’s the first T.

Our car has been acting up a lot lately. We’re pretty sure the transmission is almost kaput. We opted not to put additional strain on it by driving the 18 miles to church yesterday. So that second T leads directly into the third.

Before we had kids, Will and I used to play tennis casually. That became much harder as our family grew, but the big boys are now old enough to play too. After playing one day with our old Goodwill adult rackets, it was clear that wouldn’t work long term, especially for Munchkin. So we splurged on kid rackets for them yesterday, along with a trio of kid tennis balls (they’re bigger and softer, which allows them to move just a little slower). We (well, everyone but me) played in the road in front of our house for a few hours yesterday afternoon, and then after dinner we walked to the high school (which is less than a mile from home) and played on the tennis courts. Small Fry’s job was to retrieve the balls after they’d stopped and throw them to whoever’s serve it was. He loved it!

So that was our weekend. Some crazy, some beautifully simple.

How was yours?

Blessings,

Wendy

 

Homeschool Curriculum Review: Progeny Press

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We love books in my house. (Well, most of us do; Seahawk might be the exception.) We especially love reading books together, and if we can make it a school lesson, all the better. When the option for a review of a Progeny Press study guide was offered, I was super excited. When I found out one of the options for my kids’ age range was Little House in the Big Woods, I was even more excited. Will had read this book to the boys a couple of years ago, but I had never read it. Ever. As a child or as an adult. Can you believe that? Me neither. So I expressed high interest in getting my hands on this guide.

What is Progeny Press? I’m glad you asked! The short answer is that they are a company that provides “study guides for literature, from a Christian perspective” (quoted from their website). They have study guides for over 100 books available on their website, ranging from classics like Little House in the Big Woods and Charlotte’s Web to current popular novels like The Hunger Games.The guides cover a wide age range, starting in lower elementary (grades K-3) and going all the way up through high school guides (grades 9-12). Because of the age of my kids, I obviously chose one in the “Upper Elementary” range – grades 3-5.

Their prices are quite reasonable – most of the guides are between $11.99 and $21.99. Little House in the Big Woods, the one I am reviewing today, costs $16.99. What you get for that price is a digital download, available immediately. You have two choices of what to do with your download. You can print it off and bind it, which is what I did, or you can have your student(s) type right into the PDF. That’s right – it’s fully interactive! (This option is available for many of the guides, but not all of them.) For older students or families who aren’t worried about their kids’ computer time, this would be a wonderful option to save the cost of printing. I went ahead and printed ours for two reasons: first, because we want our kids to limit their screen time, and second because I was having both boys work on it. Printing multiple copies is allowed within a single family, so this was the perfect solution for us. After printing, I used comb-binding to hold them together (this was done for free at my church) into “official” workbooks. For an extra dollar, you can have a pre-printed workbook instead of the digital download that you print yourself. For the same price as the interactive PDF, you can get a CD with the study guide on it mailed to you for printing on your own. The benefit to the PDF or CD is, of course, that you can use it with multiple students within the same home. A pre-printed workbook would require one per student.

Progeny Press study guides take between 4-10 weeks to complete, depending on the complexity of the book. It took us about six weeks to work through our study. They recommend that you have your student read the book in its entirety during the first week of the literature unit and then work through the study guide for the remainder of the weeks until it’s done. We didn’t do this. We chose to do the book as a read-aloud (remember when I said I hadn’t read it before?), and I knew that it would work better with my kids if we did the questions and activities as we read instead of bulking up on one and then the other. The study guide is split up into two-chapter chunks, except the very last section which covers the final three chapters of the memoir. So we would read one chapter a day (occasionally two, if the boys were “feeling” it and my voice wasn’t too tired) and then spend three or four days working through the questions, vocabulary words, and activities in the guide.

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A sampling of one of the questions pages.

I really liked the questions they asked because they pushed the kids to not only be able to regurgitate what they’d heard, but also to think through why certain things happened in the book the way they did. Additionally, there were Bible tie-in questions included in each section, hence the “from a Christian perspective” tagline that Progeny boasts. After the questions that deal strictly with the text, there’s a Bible verse or two (printed right in the study guide) and questions about how the kids think that section of Scripture applies to the chapters read. For example, in the chapter that shows us Laura being jealous of Mary’s golden curls, the study guide reminds us of 1 Peter 3:3-4 (Your beauty should not come from outward adornment…) and 1 Samuel 16:7 (The Lord does not look at things man looks at…). Then students are asked to ponder what beauty is.

So, you read a book and answer a bunch of questions. That’s it, right?

Nope!

Progeny Press study guides also offer several activity options to go along with each section. Our favorite thing to do with our study guide went along with the chapter that describes Pa whittling a shelf out of wood for Ma. The boys got to try their hand at whittling! Instead of wood and a sharp knife, they used soap and a butter knife. They absolutely loved this activity!

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Soap whittling

Their grandfather (Will’s dad) is big into whittling, and they’ve seen him do it loads of times, so they were pumped to try it themselves, especially Seahawk. In the end, Seahawk made a boat and Munchkin made a car.

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Seahawk and his soap-whittled boat

Other activities that corresponded with the book included going sledding (we never get enough snow for that, and besides, it’s spring!), making butter (ours never got firm enough to “wash”), watching a video about cheese making and honey collecting (thank goodness for YouTube!), and making Johnny cake (still on our to-do list).

The long and the short of it is this: this study guide was absolutely amazing. If the others are as good as this one – and I have no reason to doubt that they are – they are definitely worth getting, especially if you try to run a literature-rich homeschool like I do. My recommendation would be to get either the PDF download or the CD over the printed workbook, though, especially if you have kids in varying age ranges. This way, one purchase covers you for all your kids; you can keep the files and print new ones as younger kids “grow into” the books. Oh, and one other thing you need to be aware of: these guides do not come with the literature. You have to provide that yourself. But most of the titles are easily found in a well-stocked public library.

Now, what are you still doing here? Head on over to Progeny Press and find yourself a study guide to do with your kids!

Blessings,

Wendy

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Prices quoted in this post are current as of Monday, June 2, 2014

Picture of the Week: Tulip Kids

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tulips

 

We took our annual trip to the Tulip Festival with my in-laws a couple of weeks ago. It was super fun, as always! This year, Small Fry was big enough to walk around and do some stuff. He really liked the swings. The face cutouts are some of our favorite things to do for pictures while we’re there, too. Last year, Seahawk, Munchkin, and their grandpa posed in this particular cutout. This year, Small Fry was big enough to participate . . . while sitting on Seahawk’s knee, that is!

Blessings,

Wendy