Monday, March 12, 2012

Review: Progeny Press Study Guide - The Bronze Bow

Pin It Now! The Bronze Bow Study Guide

For the book by Elizabeth George Speare

Grade level: 6-8

*Setting: Palestine, 30 A.D.

If you've been looking for quality, in-depth study guides for your homeschoolers, you need to check out Progeny Press. According to the website their study guides provide "easy-to-use, reproducible lessons on literary terms, comprehension and analysis, critical thinking, related scriptural principles, vocabulary, and activities, plus a complete answer key."

For a complete description on how to use Progeny Press Study Guides, follow this link.

The study guides are available in three different formats to meet your specific homeschool needs. You can choose from the following: a printed and bound booklet, a CD in .pdf format, or the same .pdf file sent as an email attachment.

Cost for each item is as follows:
  • Booklet - $18.99
  • CD - $16.99
  • Booklet and CD - $23.99
  • Email attachment - $16.99

To order your study guide, you can visit the Progeny Press online store. First, you may want to read their online store rules and policies.

Progeny Press sent me The Bronze Bow Interactive Study Guide as a downloadable PDF file in an email attachment. Downloading was very easy, but I needed a little guidance from my techy husband to make a separate file so that my twelve year old son could write in his answers on the computer and be able to save his work.

My son really liked being able to complete his work on the computer - here's what he had to say, "It's faster, easier, not as messy, and you don't run out of room to write." I was pleased he liked it - from a child's standpoint, is there a better recommendation than that?

It was his mom (me) who had a more difficult time getting used to the interactive study guide. I am used to grading a stack of papers, not having to get on the computer to grade my children's work. The pages are printable, but I figured why waste paper if you don't have to. Plus, I told myself that it would be good for me to learn something new! Once again, I had to have my husband's help - he had to show me how to put the answer key and my son's file side by side so it was easier to grade. Once I was able to do that and once I figured out how to comment and correct any wrong answers, I became less frustrated.

As I write this review, my son is about half way through the study guide, and I find that it really isn't a big deal to grade it separately from all of my kids' other work. I just had to get used to doing something different!

So, what can you and your child expect from this study guide?

Before jumping into the study, your child is encouraged to read through the book, The Bronze Bow. We checked this book out at the library, but it is available for purchase at the Progeny Press online store for $6.95.

While my son was reading the book, I took the opportunity to read the following information located in the Table of Contents:
  • Note to the Instructor
  • Synopsis - this was very helpful since I have never read The Bronze Bow.
  • About the Author
  • Background Information - this gives a short history of the nation of Israel and what was going on at the time of the book's setting.
  • Ideas for Pre-reading Activities

After this the lessons begin. According to the information in the Note to the Instructor, Progeny Press study guides for middle and high school students take about 8-10 weeks to complete. Lesson sections cover more than one chapter at a time - usually between 2 or 3. So far, my son is finishing about one lesson per week. Lessons usually follow a format similar to the following:
  • Vocabulary
  • Comprehension Questions
  • Thinking About the Story
  • Dig Deeper

Some chapters cover other literary concepts like setting and characterization. There are also optional assignments listed throughout such as: creative writing, research reports, and writing speeches.

Overall, I think this guide is a great choice for studying literature. I will definitely be considering some of their other titles for next year!

*A note about the date listed for the setting of the book - in the book, Jesus is still alive and hasn't died on the cross yet, so according to many historians the setting would technically be before 30 A.D.


See what other reviewers said about Progeny Press Study Guides here.

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Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

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