Progeny Press Study E-Guide - Indian in the Cupboard - TOS Review

We love reading, most of our lessons are based around books so reviewing the Indian in the Cupboard E-Guide study guide from Progeny Press has been great fun.

Progeny Press is a Christian company who have created a wide variety of literature study guides across various reading ages, they are student workbook style guides designed to help you enjoy reading, improve comprehension, understand vocabulary and to analyse the literature they have read.
We received their E-Guide which is an interactive version of their guides so you have the option to either print or type directly into the guide on the computer (you can also mark and comment on their work directly onto the computer as well)

The Indian in the Cupboard E-Guide is so well-organized and so easy to use in
conjunction with the book by Lynne Reid Banks. 

The E-guide is set out as follows

Instructions
As you would expect this outlines how to use the guide and gives tips on how to get the most out of this study and to really help your student really enjoy the book.

Book Synopsis
This provides a short overview of the plot

Information about the Author
Gives some history on the author and includes information on other books they have written

Prereading Activities
This section sets out some great questions looking at history, lifestyle and culture based around the story and characters. It also sets questions to study the French Indian war.

Chapter groupings
Based on a couple of chapters they assign tasks which include

• Vocabulary - here you match words with meaning and work on definitions.

• Characterization - looking at a characters feelings and motivation.
• Story Questions - short answer questions based on the text.

• Point of View - looking at how the characters view the world and why.
• Thinking About the Story - comprehension questions.

• Dig Deeper Questions - matched with Bible verses, these questions look at character and how you would react in a situation.

• Writing Project - sets short writing exercises

• Summary - this looks at the story structure, includes a character study and compares the story relationships and contrasts them with your relationship to God. 

Additional Resources
list other books by the author and books of related interest


Answer Key
Suggested answers on a separate Pdf

The beauty of this study guide is it's flexibility - you can type or print and write, you can work at your own pace and set your own schedule. We typically read 3 chapters a week as a group read aloud (each taking turns to read) and I assigned the corresponding chapter/s in the E-Guide after we had done the reading, however there were weeks when we read more and weeks when we read less. The older girls worked on both the PC and printed pages whilst the younger two worked with me (both written and orally). There were a couple of 'dig deeper' and 'point of view' questions that we used as group discussion questions which prompted some great character/values conversations.

I also really like that it covered multiple ages - this E-Guide is designed for 5th-8th grade but even Rose (age 7) was able to join in although she didn't do so well on the vocab questions.

I loved that this got the girls thinking more about the story than they would usually and that it prompted such great value conversations. The girls really enjoyed it and I can see myself using Progeny Press lots in the future.

Progeny Press guides are available in various formats (bound book, CD or PDF). I received The Indian in the Cupboard E-guide which is available for $18.99, you will also need access to a copy of the book by Lynne Reid Banks.

You can see what my crewmates thought of this and some of their other guides over at the TOS Blog