My family has been fortunate in receiving from Progeny Press a review copy of the digital download copy of the literature study guide for the book Stone Fox. The book was written by John Reynolds Gardiner, and illustrated by Marcia Sewal, and the study guide was written by Andrew Clausen and Rebecca Gilleland.
Progeny Press has a mission statement that I definitely appreciate. From the about us section on their website:
“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!”
Well, as anyone who has read this blog for a while already knows, I love it when learning can be enjoyable! š
Below, please watch this little video with the founders of Progeny Press, Michael and Rebecca Gilleland, as they tell you more about how and why they came up with this idea.
Although the books that the study guides are written for can be purchased from Progeny Press, we were able to find Stone Fox at our library.
Stone Fox is a very good book. It got to me, even though it is written for children. The book is based on a Rocky Mountain legend that was told to the author in 1974. The characters in the novel are fictitious, but the ending of the story is from the legend, and is said to have truly happened.
The study guide is about 60 pages long, and can be printed out to put in a notebook, or the student can do the pages on the computer, typing in his or her answers. We chose, however, to do the majority of it as discussion pages, because my twins are struggling with reading and writing.
We did use the book Stone Fox as a read aloud, and all four of the boys were drawn to the story. It is suggested in the study guide that you read through the entire book first, then go back and go through it again, two chapters at a time, while doing the portion of the study guide pertaining to those chapters. Given that we almost always have to be different, we sort of followed along with comprehension questions, definitions, etc, as we read the book, which we did in two days!
There are plenty of activities in the study guide as well, to aid in teaching vocabulary and comprehension. There are also puzzles, and a map to fill in. The study guide also gives a list of many other resources, including websites, to help you dig further and allow rabbit trails based on any area of interest from the book.
I really like when the study guide goes deeper in depth to show Biblical context. Along the way, it will talk about a particular section read, ask what it meant, and have the student read a text from his or her Bible, discussing what the text means, and how it goes along with what they just read. This is a great way of applying the Bible to real life.
All in all, we very much liked this study, and would definitely use Progeny Press again. It is easy to use even when the need to tweak it is there, such as the way we used it orally for the most part. The study guide definitely digs into a piece of literature and makes it into more than just a book to read, helping the children to learn much more than they even realize. This was a fun product to review!
Please click below to see what my fellow crew members thought of this and other Progeny Press Study Guides.
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