My youngest daughter is almost 10 years old. She has a love for learning, and can get bored with the same predictable curriculum each day. We naturally prefer living books, and delight directed learning. I was excited to find out about a new unit study titled Perched for Progress by Shine-A-Light Press.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free product in return for my honest review. I was financially compensated for my time. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are my own and not influenced by the developing company and/or its affiliates in any way.
This sweet curriculum creates some fun one-on-one time with your child. Since my daughter is the youngest, she is able to get some extra time with me during school. Her older siblings are homeschooling in the middle and high school grades, so it is nice to work with her while they are working independently.
I was thrilled to find something mid-year to try out with her. It really helped us to mix up the middle of the year slump and bring some freshness into our homeschool. We enjoyed the special time working together in her unit study workbook too.
What is Perched for Progress?
This is a fun unit study for grades 1-4. It is written from the perspective of a family of mockingbirds that are eager to learn everything that the “peep-el” world has to offer. Yes, they call people “peep-el”, and they have some really fun tweeting type of words for human nouns. If you love birds, you will get a kick out of how it is written.
This family of birds live in the yard of a human family. They grow up watching this family also grow, from just outside their window. Follow along as the birds begin learning from watching educational shows on Channel 24 from outside the window of this family’s home!
They learn about construction, agriculture, medicine, math, art, and space technology. They then discover there are many more ways to gain knowledge than just through the television.
This is a really creative unit study. My daughter really enjoyed that the birds were learning so much from watching the television through a window. The bird family is loving and sweet with one another and have good moral values. They also pick up on how humans don’t always have good values and can be foolish at times. It is quirky, fun and educational, with a lot of depth to it.
Let’s dig into how this curriculum is laid out:
This is a softcover book that is used as the spine for this unit study curriculum. You begin by reading the prologue, then reading one chapter at a time. Each chapter is short, none of them are longer than 10 pages. It is easy to read aloud together in one sitting. It is written in a conversational tone, and is very engaging and entertaining.
You can read the prologue and the first 3 chapters of the book to get an idea of the tone (click the book for a preview).
This book can be read as a stand-alone by itself . Your children will gain some interesting facts and fun information just from reading it. To make it more complete, I do suggest adding the Enrichment Activity Packet. This is what makes it a well rounded unit study curriculum.
This packet is chock full of activities that coordinate with each chapter. At the beginning of the book is a table that shows you the unit pages that are to be done with the chapter. It also lists the activities that are covered in that unit as well as the skills that will be addressed.
Each section has a vocabulary component and Biblical connection pages as well as activities that incorporate history, science, and language arts, and even some math. There are different types of activity pages to keep it fresh. It is not the same thing each day, which we both appreciate.
There are vocabulary pages, math exercises, story writing, sentence writing, Bible study, some light map work, coloring pages, drawing and more. My daughter enjoyed the science part as it covers weather, storms, space exploration and NASA, which she loves!
There are between 7 and 10 pages of activities that can be completed for one chapter. It does not tell you how to break it down per day, or per week, so it is left up to the parent to decide what would work best. I like the flexibility of this, especially if using as a supplement.
You could do this each afternoon for a few minutes a day, and complete as many pages as your child wants until they are done. Alternatively, you could do one unit a week, or spread it out over two weeks. Including the Prologue, and Epilogue there are a total of 12 chapters/units to complete. You could easily spread this out to do over one full semester of school if you would like.
There is a FREE Sample Packet; you can try out the activity pages with your children.
This is a great sampling of the enrichment activities from the first chapter and other chapters throughout the book. You can also see an example of what the schedule covers with the scope and sequence.
Great as a supplement:
This curriculum can be used as a supplement to any other curriculum that you are currently using in your homeschool. I like that many different subjects are covered in a fun way that isn’t dry or repetitive, but still has a lot of depth to it.
Using this seems like it would help to fill in some gaps of what may be missing from using individual curriculum studies.
Can also be used as a stand alone curriculum for a season:
I would also recommend this for if you need to take a break from the textbooks or workbooks for awhile. Since so many subjects are covered you don’t have to feel guilty for shelving the textbooks for awhile. This would be a wonderful study to use if you needed to take some time off from regular book work.
It would work beautifully if you were traveling, as you only need the book and the activity booklet to do school on the go. I would recommend using this if you were needing to teach from bed rest, or an illness in the home, or a new baby. Your kids will still be learning a ton of educational information, with less work on your part since everything is already laid out for you.
This is very affordable and can be purchased for in home use, or for a homeschool co-op with multiple copies of the softcover book available at a discount.
- Spiralbound Workbook $39.99
- Digital Download $24.99
***For my review I received the printed softcover reader plus the printed version of the activity packet in a 3 hole punched folder already put together for me. The current version is now spiral bound. The pages are double sided and you could see the other side through them slightly. I also noticed that the answer key to some of the activities is either on the back page or the page right next to the activity that needs to be completed. If you were worried about your children cheating, or looking up the answers this could be a problem. I am not sure how the spiral bound book is laid out.
Sarah is a wife, daughter of the King and Mama to 4 children (one who is a homeschool graduate)! She is a an eclectic, Charlotte Mason style homeschooler that has been homeschooling for over 16 years now. She is still trying to find the balance between work and keeping a home and says she can only do it by the Grace of God, and Coffee!
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