Orthodox Christian Homeschool - Progeny Press or Memoria Press Literature Guides?

In my homeschool, I have always thought it important to have some kind of reading curriculum beyond just reading novels and discussing them. (I know that is not everyone's preference though!). With my oldest, I used Christian Light Education (CLE Reading) and he read many, many, many novels on the side that I couldn't even keep up with because he had hyperlexia. In fact, the hyperlexia was why we used CLE Reading. He was spending hours and hours reading at age five and six that I felt I was losing my connection with him. CLE Reading was my way of connecting with him, making sure he was actually gaining comprehension skills, and teaching Christian virtues. I remember trying a study guide with him for Mr. Popper's Penguins when he was way too young, and I don't think I tried literature guide with him again, other than CLE Reading.

Teaching a child that does not have hyperlexia has been quite another experience! While he learned to read very quickly with little help from me, he read age appropriate books or even books that were too easy for him. (For about a year, he only read and re-read The Happy Hollisters books. ) Unlike with my older son, it was up to me to introduce him to quality literature!

As he also gets overwhelmed by too much handwriting as contained in CLE Reading, we started out his 3rd/4th grade year with some literature guides. The first one we did was by Progeny Press and the second was by Memoria Press. While both of these guides and books were great, and had many great questions, we are both a bit burned out from study guides overall and now my son is ready to go back to CLE Reading. Since there are only 5 Lights per grade after 4th grade, we will end the year with Memoria Press's Farmer Boy Literature Guide. So without further ado, here is quick review of each brand of literature guide:

Progeny Press

While Progeny Press tries to keep to a certain style of guide, not all of their guides are made by the same person. Some are better than others. What I really love about the guides, however, are the ties to Christianity. There are three levels of questions per each section, "Questions," "Thinking about the Story," and "Dig Deeper." The "Dig Deeper" almost always has questions that require looking up Bible verses and bring in Biblical teaching to relate with the story. The only issue here is that sometimes the questions require looking up multiple Bible verses per question which could get overwhelming for younger elementary children that are advanced readers. While this did not happen with the study guide for A Cricket in Time Square, which usually only require looking up one Bible verse, it did occur with the study guide for The Whipping Boy, which we decided not to finish, though we did finish the book. (I had my son write out, per lesson, most of the vocabulary section, four of the questions, and we did the rest out loud.)

What I also like about the Progeny Press guides is that the questions focus on multiple chapters, so you don't feel like you are getting behind in the guide if you read ahead. The questions focus more on the major action and themes in the story, and less on "nitpicky" comprehension questions. I think the main reason we didn't finish The Whipping Boy guide is because after reading A Cricket in Times Square and Charlotte's Web, the language/writing style in the The Whipping Boy couldn't really compare and we just wanted to move on from it (despite the book having an amazing premise.)

(Note: In the guide we used, I think there was only one question that was confusing to us since it was geared more towards Protestant teaching than Orthodox Christian teaching, but I just explained to my son what the author's might have been intending with the question and why, and we skipped over it.)

Memoria Press

The Memoria Press literature guide we used for Charlotte's Web was outstanding on most fronts, though a bit overwhelming. While we did most of the vocabulary and comprehension questions, we left off the enrichment/extra sections. While the Memoria Press guide tied in virtue, it did not as directly tie in a Biblical world view or direct Biblical teaching. In comparison, while the Progeny Press guides are a bit less professional, the guide by Progeny Press helped us to see the novel we studied in a whole new light. It helped us to really see how these little animals were examples of vice and virtue, reinforced Biblical teaching, and transformed the reading of the novel into a Bible study of sorts! As you can see, there are pros and cons of each brand of literature guide.

Further Plans

I am going to continue using a mix of Progeny Press, Memoria Press Guides and Christian Light Education reading because they are all great in different ways and all add a lot to our homeschool!