Progeny Press (A review)

I just love study guides, so the opportunity to review The Drinking Gourd E-guide from Progeny Press was perfect for us. It gave us the opportunity to read a book that we already had on our shelf, but hadn't explored yet. I was excited to get my 2nd grader reading this for part of his school work.

At the beginning of this school year I had picked up a pack of some I can read books planning to incorporate them into my 2nd graders reading throughout the year. I was excited to find out that one of the study guides we could review for Progeny Press would use one of the books that was in that pack. We hadn't gotten around to reading it yet because I just wasn't quite sure how to go about it. This e-guide was a perfect solution! The study guide came in an electronic format, and I downloaded it to print it off.  It includes:

• Notes to Instructor
• A synopsis
• Background Information
• About the Author
• Before-you-read Activities
• Vocabulary
• Looking at the story: Chapters 1 and 2 (questions(
• Looking at the story: Chapters 3, 4, and 5
• Looking at the story: Chapter 6
• A hidden Message
• After-you-read activities
• Suggestions for further reading
• Answer Key
• It is also written from a Christian perspective, so it has many scriptures to tie into the story.

When I took this book out and put it with the study guide I expected to read right along with Aric, but he was excited and read the whole thing. After that we just went through the study guide together. We did some before activities, read some other books, answered the questions, mapping, and vocabulary. Since he isn't big on writing we mainly discussed the answers to the questions. He did however do the map page, and I plan to have him do the puzzles. We didn't quite finish it, so I'll definitely be including this in some of Aric's summer work.

I guess I should say a little about what this book is about. In this story a little boy learns about the underground railroad that helps free people from slavery. He sees it in action as his own family is part of this underground railroad, and gets to meet a real family escaping slavery. They tell him about The Drinking Gourd, and all they have to fear for running away. This story is all about the journey of helping the slave family escape, and this boy named Tommy and his family helping them.

This was a beautiful story, but if it doesn't interest you there are many more choices to choose from over at Progeny Press. I was looking through some of the other choices, as they are split up into Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, Middle School, and High School. There are many other great titles like Charlotte's Web, Farmer Boy, The Hunger Games, The Josefina Story Quilt, and Miss Rumphius. I am looking forward to trying some others for our curriculum next year. Also, the many of the crew reviewed different titles, so you can see what their studies were like by clicking on the banner below.