Teach Sunday School - Printable Books of the Bible "Summary Sheets" Review

Daily Bible study is very important.  We recently had the opportunity to review Printable Books of the Bible - "Summary Sheets" from Teach Sunday School.  This has been a great visual to add to that daily Bible study.


Studying the Bible is necessary for our spiritual health.  But we all know that there are times, that as adults, we struggle.  How can we just expect our kids to understand what we sometimes struggle with?  Printable Books of the Bible - "Summary Sheets" from Teach Sunday School has been a great addition to our Bible study time. 

Printable Books of the Bible - "Summary Sheets" are very simple to use.  You simple print your copy, and keep them as a reference with your study notebook.  They have worked out great for me, since I am old-fashioned and still use paper and pen for my personal study.  Since actual written information encourages people to remember, I also use the same style with the kids for our Family Bible study time.

Each book of the Bible contains its own page. You could print this page and students could create their own little notebook with their studying notes for each book of the Bible.  Or they could do something similar to what we do and keep them in a 3-ring binder.  

You can see a sample below.  Obviously the book name is at the top of the page.   Information about who the writer was and also when it was written is then given.  This is helpful if your student is creating a timeline along with their studies.  

Important events that occurred in the book are listed under Claims to Fame.  

Important verses are also listed to help with specific memorization.   Now what someone else views as important, you may not see as important.  So this is definitely an area where using this sheet along with creating your own study notes is very important.  
The kids and I cover a book a day in the Bible.  So not as fast as others.  But it really helps them to comprehend things easier.  We used the Printable Books of the Bible "Summary Sheets" at the beginning of a new Bible book.  During our review period, we only technically used two sheets, but they were easy to use and refer back to also.  We put them in the 3 ring binder for each child to keep Bible study sheets in.  We keep the books separated by tabs, and we simple kept our Books of the Bible At-A-Glance at the beginning of each book.  I printed them all out, which is the only drawback....lots of printing.   We use a special fill-in sheet to keep notes on for each chapter of each book we are reading.  The Printable Books of the Bible "Summary Sheets" worked great alongside what program we are using and added information to it.  I guess I did not think about adding those to our study.  And these sheets have all the information ready for me!  
You can use Printable Books of the Bible "Summary Sheets" with Bible study groups, youth groups or even your own personal Bible study.  They are easy to download and print.  To be honest, even though I am an adult, I enjoyed adding these sheets to my Bible study binder.
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review Printable Books of the Bible "Summary Sheets" from Teach Sunday School.  Click on the link below to see how they used these in their homes.

Progeny Press - Mr. Poppers Penguins E-Guide Review

I love looking up projects that go along with books that we are reading.  But sometimes I just do not have the time.  We recently had the opportunity to review the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide from Progeny Press.

We actually read this story a few years ago as a family, and Caty didn't remember it well.  She also needed a distraction from some of her typical schoolwork.  So we were excited to get started.
The Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide ($17.99) was extremely easy PDF to download.  You will receive two files.  One file is a Student File and the other is the Teacher's Answer Key.  You can use the Student Guide in a few different ways.  You can print the pages for your student to answer, have your student fill the answers directly into the file and save it and you can also fill in the answers and then print a copy for your academic files.
Throughout the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide, which was created for grades 4 - 6, you will find not only questions about the story but also your student will be drawn to examine the various elements of creating a story.  They will look at elements like foreshadowing, hyperbole, character development, and also the use of idioms.   Using the setting of this story also encourages the study of history, math, science and geography.  Suggestions are made throughout the E-Guide to help parents really get the most out of this hilarious tale that was written so many years ago.
Throughout the E-Guide questions are also given for students to study deeper into their Bibles about various topics that were being faced by the Popper family.  Allowing students to see how the scriptures are applied in the family's life, but then can also be applied in their own lives.
Since the grade level is a little higher in the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide, it was a little advanced in some sections for her.  I definitely agree that the guide is written for early middle school or advanced elementary students.  But we did enjoy going through the questions with her.  After we were done listening to the story (for this story I used the audio book and we followed along with our own copy of the book), I would ask her the majority of the suggested questions and fill in the E-Guide PDF.  I then printed the pages for her portfolio.  
Even though some of the story elements were a bit advanced, I was easily able to adjust the Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide to use with Caty.  So it can be used with a wide age level if you are using it multiple students.  We definitely dug into the Geography, History and Science topics that were suggested.
We dug into a penguin's life.  We studied the geography of Antarctica.  We looked at explorers of this region.  We visited the library and checked out books on these subjects, and we also watched several documentaries about penguins and this region.
One of the experiments that Caty done was learning to walk like an Emperor penguin with her egg.  It was harder than she thought.

We also explored why penguins can stay dry in the arctic.

Caty and I had a lot of fun with this book.  I will be adding this again to Lydia's literature studies next year.  The Mr. Popper's Penguins E-Guide was an easy to use literature study that required very little work for me.  I only had to reserve a few books from the library.  We have used the Progeny Press E-Guides before and I am always impressed with the amount of information that they include and how thorough they are for the students.  My only problem.....trying to decide which E-Guide we want to do next.
The actual book is not provided when ordering any of the Progeny Press E-Guides, and they offer many different guides at all age levels.  So you will need to either buy the book or order it from the library.
Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out various E-Guides by Progeny Press.  Take some time to see how they used them in their homes, and how they felt about them by visiting their sites using the link below.