Literature Study Guides {TOS Crew Review}

Our latest TOS Crew review for some literature study guides happens to be one of my favorites and a company I’m definitely going to be looking for at our local homeschool convention at the end of the month.  Memoria Press is the company and they are one we’ve reviewed for before.  This time we got to receive and review Third Grade Literature Guide Set.  

I chose third grade because we have two children in this grade and two in the above grade who I thought could still use these literature study guides as well.  I was right!  Because of this we were able to use three of the literature study guides at the same time with three different children.  I’m definitely going to be buying more of these as they are wonderful!  I often wonder if my children are really comprehending what they read when they read chapter books and having them do book reports just doesn’t seem to cut it with me.

The Third Grade Literature Guide Set contains:

• Farmer Boy student guide and teacher manual
• Charlotte’s Web student guide and teacher manual
• Paddington Bear student guide and teacher manual
• Mr. Popper’s Penguins student guide and teacher manual

The books do not come with the literature study guides but we actually had all of these in our personal library so this was again the perfect grade for us to start with.  My oldest daughter was not too happy about doing this grade as she had already read all four of these books and really didn’t want to reread one.  I convinced her to bear with me though and she chose to start with Charlotte’s Web as it was a favorite of hers.

If you’ve not heard of Memoria Press, they are a Classical Christian education company with specialties in literature and Latin.  They also have full year curriculums available to purchase.  Most people and schools will agree that they tend to be a bit advanced in their grades and comprehension.  We love them as my children are normally advanced in the reading area.  To prove that my 11 year old has read all of the books from the literature study guides well up into the 9th grade level and she’s only in 4th grade in most other subjects.  

I love reading and love to foster a love of reading in my children as well.  I encourage them to read independently.  For the use of these study guides, I had two children reading independently while I read aloud the book that the third was reading.  She was to read a chapter to herself first though.  She still has some issues with reading chapter books and I find her comprehension improves if it is read to her.  But in wanting to strengthen her reading skills I also wanted her to read it for herself.

My struggling reader was assigned to Paddington Bear as her literature study guide and book.  She had not read the book and to the best of my knowledge we have never seen any of the movies/shows either.  I’m a bit unique in that I would always rather my children read a book before they are allowed to watch a movie.  It’s more fun to discuss the differences this way and also helps to encourage their reading and comprehension if they don’t think they already know what will happen.

Within the literature study guides you will find vocabulary words for the kids to work on defining and if you’re like me to be added to their spelling lists(my kids love me if you can’t tell).  Also there is a pre-reading section with questions to help them know what they should be looking for as they read.  

Some fun facts, there are 8 chapters in the book and 8 sections in the guide.  Each section or chapter of the guide was then broken down into six sections:

1.   Reading Notes
2.   Vocabulary(which can become spelling too!)
3.  Comprehension Questions
4.   Quotations
5.   Discussion Questions
6.   Enrichment

You also receive the Teacher’s Manual which has quizzes and then an end of book test that you can administer.  This particular girl has a lot of fear surrounding tests so I normally only call them assignments or busywork and cover up the Test or Quiz word at the top.  This reduces her fear and anxiety and helps her perform better.  

If you’d like to see a sample of what is in the Paddington Bear literature study guide feel free to go to the Memoria Press website and they have a sample that you can view.  

The set as I received it without the books is available to purchase for $95.  If you don’t have the books and would like to purchase them with the guides that set retails for $125.  

Each book and study guide is expected to take 6-7 weeks for your child to complete.  You can work faster or slower as you need for your child which is another beauty of the program.  That makes the third grade literature set last around 28 weeks.  Depending on how many weeks you place in your school year this could last the whole year.  There is also another book and guide that can be purchased separately to add to this grade called The Moffats.  We did not receive this one.

We discussed how my struggling reader worked on Paddington Bear and did much better than I thought she would.  This is one of the main reasons I’m going to be checking for Memoria Press at my local homeschool convention.  I’d love to get more books and guides for her specifically.  It’s a great confidence booster for her to know she’s getting it and comprehending what the guide is wanting her to.

My oldest daughter did the Charlotte’s Web book and literature study guide.  For her, she’s advanced in reading and this was not very challenging.  She did do well on the comprehension.  I wanted her to go down to this level because we haven’t worked a lot on reading comprehension and I wanted to gauge where she was at.  She could easily do the fourth and fifth levels I believe. Another reason I want to get my hands on them at convention!!

My son who is 9 worked through Farmer Boy for his part of the review.  He’s not a huge fan of the Little House books as they’re a bit “girly” for him.  He did do well with this though.  He is also an active and avid reader who reads above his level.  His reading comprehension is not as good as his sister’s though so I think this was a good grade level for him to start out at.  He’d appreciate it if I’d get the fourth grade set next though as he really likes the Chronicles of Narnia series(has read all the books) and told me he wouldn’t mind reading that again.

Overall my kids approved of these literature study guides and are putting in their requests for which ones they want me to purchase next for them.  I love that they are excited about reading or rereading these books with the study guides and that means some huge thumbs up for Memoria Press from this family!!  I’m definitely recommending them to everyone in our homeschool coop.

Have you used any of the Memoria Press literature study guides?  What did you think?  I’m fairly certain I’ll be purchasing Grade 5 literature study guides for my 9 year old boy and grade 6 for my oldest daughter.  For my struggling reader, I’ll have her complete the rest of the third grade year and then move up to the fourth grade.  Wish I could get them all in a huge bundle!!

Make sure to head over to the Main TOS blog and see all the other reviews.  Several different grade levels were offered so I’m sure you’ll be able to find a review of the grade you’re interested in.  Feel free to connect with Memoria Press on facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google +.