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I read the children's book, The Josefina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr to my daughter and reviewed The Josefina Story Quilt – eGuide from Progeny Press with her to go along with the book. Here is what we thought of it.

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[ctt template=”4″ link=”Y19fc” via=”yes” ]If you love to do study guides from a book title with your homeschooling children, one company you can try Is Progeny Press, here is my review on them.[/ctt]

Progeny Press Review

About The Josefina Story Quilt Study Guide

This is a downloadable study guide that you buy online on their website and then you are given a PDF that you have access to for one year. This guide is 34 pages with the answer key. I didn't have color ink in my printer at the time of review so I just printed the pages starting with the Table of Contents for my 2nd grade daughter, Miranda to use.

The curriculum in this eGuide is written from a Christian perspective and covers the basic synopsis of the book, a little information about the author, some information about that time period and what was going on to help your child get a larger picture of what was happening and why. There are some activities to do in the study guide before you read the book. There is a map of the current layout of the United States, but I think that is a little confusing. If we are trying to make it like the time period, I think it would have been best to somehow show on that map what states were known at the time, rather than all of them with their current boundary lines.

I had a hard time telling where to read the book. They have the before you read activities, but then it goes right into vocabulary. The vocabulary questions do not make any sense unless you read the book. But then you go into the “Looking at the story” section and it says to just look at the first two chapters of the book to answer the questions. I did not see in the “Note To Instructor” how to use it. For my lesson plans, I used it for thirty minutes per day, four days per week (sometimes longer if an activity took more time, like baking). I just took it at Miranda's pace, but did not read the story to her until page 10 was done. Then I decided to read the entire story to her in one sitting. After that, I followed the guide. I used the activities, arts and crafts section one day per week on the last day to keep it fun and to try those out in case we didn't finish before the review was due (we have not completed it yet, but we are close!). Here is the Table of Contents.

To me, this was similar to unit studies I have done before in that the activities and questions stay on topic and helps to have full reading comprehension, yet different, in that some of the questions are character building. I did like it done this way, especially the question that gets my daughter doing some critical thinking about ways she can “obey cheerfully at home”.

One of the activities we did was baking bread using the recipe in the guide which uses some corn meal, which they may have used in that time. Miranda was proud that her bread was so yummy that our large family of nine ate it up and enjoyed it in no time.

Miranda drew some pictures of things she would like to have on a story quilt for one of the study pages. She drew a stuffed dog and puppies that she received for Christmas, a place she visited for her birthday, her and her two younger brothers in the kiddie swimming pool, and a snow man that she made.

One suggestion from the book to make this story quilt idea even more realistic was for the student to make their own story quilt block. Miranda chose a pretty piece of fabric. We found some embroidery floss and a needle and she stitched a design.

Her memory was of her big teen brother standing in the water on vacation at an indoor waterpark throwing a blue water ball. Her finished design is below.

If you were going to plan to use study guides for your literature during the school year, you should be able to do at least three, you could get four of them just to be sure you have enough. I absolutely love to find deals for my large family of nine and I just happened to notice on the Progeny Press website that they have a bargain bin, so you may want to check that out HERE. I myself would want to try Farmer Boy since I already have that book in my house. I can't tell what age the study guide is tailored for, but I have children of all ages so I should be able to use it for one of them.

Miranda's Opinion

It's fine with me. My favorite part of the story was when the chicken was riding in the wagon with her. I liked making the bread the best.

My Opinion

It would be so nice if these study guides came with the physical book to read. I did notice that their website does have an Amazon button where you can just click on it and buy it there. I bought mine on Etsy. I think it is okay, but could use a different map and better instructions for the parent on when to read the book the first time assuming the child has never heard the story before. I do like the Christian perspective and activities for the child to do.