Review ~ Moving Beyond The Page ~ Poetry and The Fifty States ~ Age 9-11

There are two things that get my kids excited about learning every time, stories and hands on projects. Moving Beyond the Page has combined these two so perfectly! Last year after we reviewed  Poppy and Life Cycles, the kids asked me to get them more. We ended up getting the entire set for the 7-9 age group.

This year we were so blessed to review a Language Arts Package: Poetry and a Social Studies Package: The Fifty States. These are just two of the units available in the age 9-11 full year package. With this age level the curriculum is written to the student, so for the most part the child is expected to work independently. We did that as much as possible, but with some things my help was still needed. That's OK with me though.

You can use Moving Beyond the Page as a full year curriculum if you choose, or purchase individual units as your kids have interest. It is very flexible to use, and you have different options for purchasing as well. Online versions and physical copies of the curriculum are available. The literature books can be purchased, or you can borrow from the library. With the full year package, all you need to add is math and you are all set for the year.



Our Poetry unit ($61.86) included.....

The online version of the Poetry lesson plans and downloadable student sheets.

Physical literature books included.....

Love That Dog 
My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States
R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet






The Fifty States ($49.62) unit includes.....

The Fifty States ~ spiral bound book

Smart About the 50 States : A Class Report
Original Sculpey Clay - Terra Cotta
The Scrambled States of America Card Game







These two units can be used independently, but were designed to be used together and the activities compliment each other very well. For instance, while we were learning about the different states and regions of the United States (social studies and science), we were also reading poetry from those places at the same time (literature) and we could see how the authors were inspired by what they saw, things they felt, and experiences they had while in that particular area of the country.

While learning about the Southwest the kids followed links online to learn about clay pottery and adobe homes. We used the Sculpey terra cotta clay included in the package to make our own clay pots, home and other creations. This hands on exploration really gets kids excited about learning and trying new things. They also went on Minecraft and built adobe homes there, complete with a desert scene and animals you would find there. THIS is the kind of learning I LOVE to see in our home!



In the Poetry unit we learned what poetry is, Parts of Speech and Rhymes in Poetry, Geography in Poetry, Haiku and Onomatopoeia, Figurative Language and Voice, Art and Poetry, Robert Frost, Writing About  What You Know, and Inspiration. There are lessons included for spelling, student activity pages to print, and reading and questions pages included.

Originally my 11 year old son was the one excited for this unit, and my 9 year old daughter claimed she had no interest at all in poems. By the end of the first week she was joining in and she surprised me one day by writing a poem herself! She said she felt inspired to write it after going outside and seeing beautiful things that not everyone in the world can see where they live. I was beaming with pride of course!

The final project for Poetry was to have a coffee house type of poetry reading, and make food and drinks and invite people over to hear either poems you like or ones you write yourself. This was what got my daughter really excited, she loves to cook and share with her friends. Our "reading" was very informal and didn't last very long before they had eaten all the food and were off to play outside, but the kids got a taste of culture they hadn't experienced before.

My kids all love maps, so the map work in The Fifty States unit was as fun as it was educational. "It didn't even feel like learning, it was just fun" is what they told me.Other lessons included learning state capitals, the Northeast, the Southwest, the Midwest, the Southwest, the West, Alaska and Hawaii, Relationships Among the States, People and the Environment, Analyzing State Data, and the final project is planning a region road trip.



 The first time we played The Scrambled States of America card game they didn't know many of the facts included on each state card, the Capitol and nickname or where every state was located on the map. After playing a few times though the competition really got rough as they wanted to learn more in order to win. This is a game I like playing with them too! At first I was easy on then and let them win but now they can beat me even when I try to win.





As you can tell we all LOVE Moving Beyond the Page around here! I have to say that I really do prefer having the physical version of the curriculum versus the online. There are many benefits to the online version, such as being able to print as many pages as you want. However the curriculum itself is not printable, so you have to use it online. Once you activate a unit is it only available to use for 3 months. You can re-activate it later for use with a younger sibling for half price. With the physical book you will need a curriculum book for each child as their copyright does not allow you to make copies. But I like having that book in hand to use in our portfolios at the end of the year. The kids like showing off their work too. We do not always work on school while at home where we have internet access. But cost wise you cant beat the online version!

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Review ~ Progeny Press Literature Guides

I have heard so many great things about Progeny Press so I was pretty excited about trying out one of their literature study guides with the kids. We were graciously given two downloadable study guides, Frog and Toad Together for my 5 and 7 year old, and The Door In The Wall for my 9 and 10 year olds.

The guides are available in print, CD, or downloadable format. I received the downloadable E Guides for this review. I was able to download both guides quickly and easily and get started right away. You can borrow the actual book from the library if you done already own it, they are all popular books that are easy to find. If you prefer to buy them however you can get the books from the Progeny Press Bookstore. 

Frog and Toad Together Study Guide was written for lower elementary age kids in grades K-2. This guide sells for $11.99.

You can either use this guide on your computer/device or print it for your own family's use only. I prefer to have a print version myself. There are 32 pages but you can print on both sides of the paper or in booklet mode to save paper.

This guide has age appropriate questions to discuss with the kids. There is an answer key at the end of the guide should you need it. There are also cute activities to try and a word search puzzle if your child likes those.

For the Frog and Toad guide I found that I really didn't need to print it, as we did the discussion questions orally because neither my 5 or 7 year olds are very proficient writers yet. I could have just printed the venn diagram, puzzle, and a couple of other pages. I actually really enjoyed having this guide in ebook form, I could use it from my kindle fire.

We started by reading the book from cover to cover, the girls didn't want me to stop and it is a short book. I re-read each chapter again before doing any activities or discussion questions.

The girls helped plant seeds in the garden and grew some sweet potato starts in jars. As Frog and Toad discovered, singing to the plants didn't help them grow.....



As soon as we read about Frog and Toad making cookies they had to make some too!




I love how this guide included scripture to go along with each chapter. We had many great discussions about friendship, how God cares for plants (and us!), about temptation, about what to do when we are afraid, and being humble and putting others first.

My girls had a lot of fun with this study and I plan on doing another one over the summer with them. As we work in the garden and find toads they are reminded of the story and I hear them talking about it often. The back of the guide also has other book suggestions and of course we had to get the rest of the Frog and Toad books from the library.



The Door In The Wall Study Guide was written for upper elementary age children in grades 4-6. This guide sells for $16.99.

The description of the book from the Progeny Press website sounded like such a good story with a moral lesson, so we chose it even though I knew I would probably end up reading it to them out loud because of so many unfamiliar words. They didn't mind one bit!

This guide goes a lot deeper than the younger guides do with language arts. There are vocabulary words, definitions, determining a fact from an opinion, similes and metaphors, and lots of questions to answer and discuss. I really needed the answer key for this study!

This guide is interactive, meaning your child can do all of the written work by typing it into the computer and saving or printing it after they finish. You also have the option to print it for your own family's use as well. I chose to print this one even though it had 39 pages because I had two children using it and I allowed them to work on it together.

I was challenged myself by the vocabulary words in this book, some I had never even heard of before. We had to use the dictionary a lot, and a couple of words had to be looked up online because they weren't even in our dictionary. It contains a lot of "old English" words.

I don't think reading this book without the guide would have gave us the full understanding of it. The bible verses and references gave us a much deeper appreciation for this old story. My 10 year old son could relate to the character of Robin. He had a strong desire to become a knight even though the plague had left him crippled. My son has a learning disability, but he has a strong desire to learn and overcome it and be like other kids who do not struggle as much. This story made him realize he is not alone in his struggle, everyone struggles somehow. He says it gave him a lot of hope, and made him want to persevere.

The one thing I would add to this guide would be hands on activities for children who learn best that way. The Frog and Toad Guide provided this wonderfully, but my older kids were a bit jealous and said their guide wasn't as fun. I realize a lot of kids this age might not enjoy such things, so the activities could be optional. Some things we thought of to add in were.....

With Mom's help, make some porridge and try it. What do you like or not like about it?

Try walking on crutches for a day. Was it easy? What challenging things did you discover that you hadn't thought of before?

Try carving something out of a bar of soap, or use wood like Robin did if your parents are ok with that. 

Visit a farmers market. How is it different today from what was described in the book?

Build a castle from blocks or legos you already have at home. Use your toys to act out some of the scenes from the book, dont forget to use animals!

Dress up as a knight using clothing you already have. Be creative and make a sword and shield from cardboard and decorate them. Use a milk jug or something similar to make a helmet.


There are so many wonderful guides on the Progeny Press website to choose from, it was hard to pick just two, but I feel like we chose very well.  I thought the guides were easy to use, interesting, and very thorough. I look forward to using many more of these guides during our homeschooling years.

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