No matter how you slice it you just can't go wrong with Memoria Press. I have so enjoyed doing reviews for them and using their awesome products. Our newest review of StoryTime Treasures Student Guide and Answer Key and More StoryTime Treasures Student Guide and Answer Key is no different. A wonderful, engaging curriculum that Little Bug has been enjoying. She just LOVES to read!! I received a full year curriculum that includes both sets listed. I did NOT receive the reading books that you would normally get when you purchase this classical curriculum. We just used the library to get our books. Thank heavens for interlibrary loans!
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| We covered Little Bear first and I forgot to take a picture! |
All manuals are softcover with a nice quality heavy duty glossy paper covers. I really like that the student guide is spiral bound which makes it easier for Little Bug to write in and complete her assignments. StoryTime Treasures consists of 14 weeks of lessons that cover 4 books. Each lesson is geared to be done in a week and there is a guide that has assignments for 5 days. You can, of course, adjust the schedule to fit your individual needs, but the 5-day schedule worked just fine for us. As I stated before, when you purchase this curriculum set online, it includes the reading books you need. In More StoryTime Treasures you read 7 books over a 15 week period (15 total lessons). The books included and lessons to complete are listed below:
- Little Bear - 4 lessons
- Frog and Toad are Friends - 5 lessons
- Caps for Sale - 2 lessons
- Make Way for Ducklings - 3 lessons
- Billy and Blaze- 2 lessons
- Blaze and the Forest Fire - 2 lessons
- Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie - 2 lessons
- Stone Soup - 2 lessons
- The Little House - 3 lessons
- Miss Rumphius - 2 lessons
- The Story About Ping - 2 lessons
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| She is really enjoying reading Little Bear |
I really like the classical education approach to this reading curriculum. It incorporates many aspects of language arts including vocabulary, phonics, spelling, composition, capitalization, punctuation, handwriting, sentence structure, comprehension, and probably a few more! Their idea of actual books "as opposed to controlled vocabulary readers" lends to the Charlotte Mason style teaching I like so much. Little Bug is being exposed to much more complicated words and sentencing that is stretching her reading ability and I can see her growing in leaps and bounds. I am continually fascinated by her current reading ability.
Our daily lessons consist of the suggested course per the teacher guide. There are pre-reading assignments to complete that include phonics. I still have not purchased the phonic card set (must do that as soon as funds are available!) so I just review the sounds listed without them for now. The general structure of the lesson plan is as follows:
- Pre-reading Activities
- Post-reading Activities
- Comprehension Questions
- Other Activities (new and old phonograms)
- Word Study/Say Each Word
- Read each sentence and define the bold word
- Comprehension Questions/Fill-in-the-blank
- Language Lesson (Let's Talk, Let's Learn, Something to Do)
- Just for Fun
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| Weekly Model Lesson Plan |
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| Sample Daily Lesson with Answer Key from Teacher's Guide |
The Model Lesson Plan is what we are following. It works for us. You can modify it as necessary to fit your needs. We generally complete a lesson in 20 minutes or less. I have also been doing more oral work when the assignment calls for complete sentence answers because she is just not ready for this yet. She will be soon and I look forward to her continued growth in this area. Samples of some of our daily lessons follow.
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| "How to Use" from the Student Guide |
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| Part of Day 1 Lesson from Little Bear |
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| Fill-In-The-Blanks assignment |
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| Let's Talk/Let's Learn (Day 4 lesson) |
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| Just for Fun (Day 5) |
There are sections from the Teacher Guide that ask you to write on the board (classroom or coop situation) and we just use a write-on/wipe-off board for those sections. Little Bug is like her older brother and really doesn't like the writing parts so much, but she is generally enjoying this program. She really likes the diversity (things change up from day to day and keeps her engaged) and especially the art/coloring parts! The one thing I really didn't like was the choice of font for the copy words. I really don't like the style of "a" and that she won't listen to me a write a traditional "a" despite my constant corrections.
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| I do NOT like the font for the letter "a" |
I can't end this without sharing one of the assignments that tickled me to no end. If you know my daughter, you know she LOVES Chinese food. One of the assignments asked about where she wanted to go. She said, "China" which I found interesting considering my heritage is part Chinese (my grandmother is full-blooded Chinese). When I asked her why she started to talk about the food and I realized after she drew her picture that she was talking about a Chinese buffet restaurant we go to every so often (not the actual country! LOL). I couldn't stop chuckling about it.
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| China, LOL!!! |
While we, of course, have not used More StoryTime Treasures (we are still on Frog and Toad are Friends) it has much the same structure with more advanced books and a little more complex assignments. While it is helpful if you completed their First Start series prior to this curriculum (you can check out my review on that here), it is not necessary. I do suggest you get the phonics cards which I plan to get as soon as I can. You can connect with Memoria Press on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, PINTEREST, YOUTUBE, and INSTAGRAM.
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