Carole P. Roman {TOS Review}

My girls are both voracious readers and keeping them well-fed in good quality books is always a challenge.  I am always on the look out for great books that keep their interest but isn't junk food reading.  Of course, we were so excited with this chance to review a couple different Carole P. Roman books!  I bet you have heard of at least one of her most popular series!  The "If You Were Me and Lived in...." books are very, very popular!  I was so excited to get the chance to explore these book with my girls!  My only regret is that I didn't get to them sooner!

For review we received a hard copy of If You Were Me and Lived in...Colonial America and a bonus mystery book called, Oh Susanna: It's in the Bag.  

If You Were Me and Lived in...Colonial America takes your children back in time to Colonial America.  Learn what life was like for a young boy or girls growing up during the time of the Protestant Reformation, travel with your family to the Netherlands and then on again to the new world where you encounter a brutal storm aboard the Mayflower and finally arrive at your new home: Plymouth.  Survive the first winter with your family and finally survive with the help of the natives.  You witness the first thanksgiving too!  

Told from the perspective of a young child, If You Were Me and Lived in...Colonial America answers questions like:  What type of games did children play?  What did you wear?  What kind of work or chores did you do?  Where did you go to school?

The cute illustrations really add character and charm to this book...  I think the cover is my favorite part with the the illustrated characters superimposed over a realistic background.  I would recommend this book for older/more proficient readers as an independent reader (Maggie loved it and reads at about a 3rd grade level) but would also make an excellent read aloud for younger kids.  It has a lot of pictures to grab the attention of even younger children.

This is #9 in the series!  I want them all!

Our mystery book was called Oh Susannah: It's in the Bag.  In this cute little chapter book, third-grader,  Susannah is having a very bad day.  Instead of sharing her problems with her parents she literally stuffs them into her backpack.   Unfinished homework, a banana  and, worst of all, an invitation to a sleep-over at a house that Susannah is pretty sure is haunted.  She is too scared to go to the sleep-over, her banana starts stinking up her room, and pretty soon Susanna is totally stressed out!  As Susannah becomes increasingly overwhelmed with worries she turns to her just-as-stressed-out-parents for help.  Together they discover that sometimes we all need to take a deep breath, take a step back, and simplify. I think sometimes as parents, we underestimate the worry, stress and anxiety that even young children feel...  This book is just one in a series of Susannah books.  I would recommend this for younger readers, 1st - 4th grade. You can keep up with Carole by visiting her website or following her blog! Her books are available for purchase on Amazon. The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew was given an amazing opportunity to review a LOT of different types Carol P. Roman books.  You can browse their book selections and read their reviews by clicking the link below. Thank you so much for swinging by Swinging On Small Hinges!
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Progeny Press The Bears on Hemlock Mountain E-Guide {TOS Review}

We love to read and reading good quality literature makes up a large portion of our homeschool day.  One thing that we haven't been as good at though is taking the time to really analyze what we are reading to ensure comprehension.  Sure, we often have full oral narrations and many discussions about the story but I think it is easy to miss certain key elements when you are reading for pleasure and not necessarily for information.  This is something that I have been wanting to improve but just haven't taken the plunge to do it.  

What a blessing when this review opened for us!  I was excited when we were given the opportunity to review The Bears on Hemlock Mountain E-Guide as a PDF download from Progeny Press!   

What are Progeny Press E-Guides all about?

Progeny Press offers 100+ study guides for much well-known children's literature and young adult novels.   The mission of Progeny Press is "to teach our children to think clearly, to understand literature, and to rely on the scripture of truth and values, and enjoy themselves while they do it!"  This mission is reflected in the high quality books they choose! While you can purchase the E-Guides as a PDF download they do offer the option to purchase both printed guides and the guide on CD-ROM as well.  You will also need the novel that goes along with your unit as it is not included in the guide.  

We received the E-Guide for The Bears on Hemlock Mountain and since it is a popular reader I already had it on my shelf.  Even better is that I already had it lined up to read this year!  The reader and guide are recommended for lower elementary so I it was a perfect fit for my 2nd grade, emerging reader.

Downloading the E-Guide was a snap.  You just clicked on the big green download button and follow the prompts.  Upon saving the guide to my desktop I opted to print it in its entirety and stapled along the edges for ease of use.

Using the guide was also simple!  There are instructions in the front of the guide that tell you, the parent, how to make the most out of the guide.  Also included in the front matter are a short bio of the author, a synopsis of the book, and a quick history on folk tales.  

The remainder of the guide is divided into sections by 1 to 2 chapters.  Utilizing mostly "fill-in-the-blank" the child is encouraged to think more deeply about the reading by analyzing unfamiliar vocabulary, answering both knowledge level questions and thought provoking questions, and making Biblical parallels through scripture references.

Here is where this product really shines!  Progeny Press e-guides are more than just a literary analysis workbooks.  They are stuffed full of other fun and interesting ideas to help you find more ways to interact with the story.

Check out a few of the awesome activities they recommend:

Research animal tracks (even including several book suggestions)

Field trip to learn look for animals and their tracks

Create a display or bulletin board

A sugar cookie recipe

Performing a play

and more!

What We Thought of The Bears On Hemlock Mountain e-guide:

Sometimes I have worried that trying to work though a literature guide would bog my young reader down and create frustration.  I was afraid that we would no longer be reading for pleasure and the joy of reading would be gone.  I have found that this isn't the case with these literature guides.  The questions are interesting and the variety keeps the child moving along from task to task without getting frustrated.  

Since my 2nd grader hasn't developed good writing stamina we gave up on having her write the fill-in-the-blanks after the first couple of lessons and switched over to either oral discussion or Mom filling in the answers for her.  It did not detract from the guide at all, in fact, I felt that it led to even more discussion!  

We enjoyed the guide very much and I plan to use The Courage of Sarah Noble next for my young reader and The Witch of Blackbird Pond for my older reader!  They are a fantastic and simple way to get your child analyzing their reading...

Keep up with all the happenings at Progeny Press by following them on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!!!

Many of my fellow crew mates also reviewed guides from Progeny Press at different levels.  You can read their thoughts by clicking the link below. Thank you so much for swinging by!

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Alley Spring & Big Spring {Bucket List}

We took the opportunity on Monday to go to Alley Spring.  This gave us an chance to cross one more thing off of our bucket list, plus one more!  We also took the time to visit Big Spring as well.  Both parks are part of the Ozark National Scenic Riversways which gave us a stamp in our National Parks Passport books AND the special Missouri National Parks Passport Challenge book!

Alley Spring is really neat.  A traditional mill is open for you to walk though and the spring is huge and beautiful. We enjoyed a short hike around the spring.  It was SO hot... 

 

There were many tiny caves to explore at both parks. 

A butterfly landed right on Maggie's nose!

We also enjoyed visiting Big Spring.  The water was so blue and it just gushes straight out of the ground.  It has a "boiling" appearance due to the amount of rocks it is pushing up through.  

These visits also allowed us to get a stamp in our 

Show-Me National Parks Passport for Missouri!

Visit the Missouri National Parks Passport page 

to take the Passport Challenge!

We love our National Parks and getting stamps is something we have been working on for years!  You can read about all of our previous National Park Passport Adventures here!

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She's Off!!!

Maggie learned how to ride her bike without training wheels this week.  It was really quite momentous!  She hit a few trees and skinned a shin or two and has some impressive bruises, but she was determined and she figured it out!  

She's been going and going and going ever since!

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The Magic House - St. Louis {Bucket List}

Maggie had a doctors appointment in St. Louis earlier this week and we took the opportunity to visit The Magic House while we were in town.  It was a fun children's museum with a lot of different things to do!  This was something that was listed on our "Bucket List" and it was great to be able to cross another item off!  Here are a few pictures from our adventure!