Posted in Reviews

About the product:   Further Up and Further in is a literature- based unit study based on The Chronicles of Narnia series, which integrates a wide range of subject matter, including English literature, social studies, geography, Bible and character building, cooking, and art. It also supplements science and history.

As you work through Further Up and Further In you will read through the entire Narnia series chapter by chapter.  It is set up so that you will read one chapter a day, four days per week, although you may adjust that to fit your schedule.  After reading the chapter you will find topics of discussion or activities that you can choose from to enhance your reading of the book.  Additional resources are also recommended.  Further Up and Further In is designed for fourth through eight grade student, but as with most unit studies can be adapted for younger or older kids.

***If you'll allow me to digress for just a moment, I would like to also let you know that Cadron Creek sells two other similar studies.  Click on the links to learn more.

For slightley younger children, you may want to check out the Prairie Primer, bast on the Little House in the Prarie series. 

Girls in junior or senior high might enjoy Where the Brook and the Rivers Meet which is based on the Anne of Green Gables series.***

Now, back to the regulary scheduled review!!!   

 What are the pros of this product? I think if you like unit studies and enjoy the Narnia series, you will probably like this product.  It really all depends on your teaching style and your children's learning styles.  It makes for a very good literature study and the Bible is tied in quite nicely.  There are lots of scriptural references and, because C.S. Lewis wove morality into his books, there are lots of things to discuss as you read along.  The author does an excellent job of seeking out thoughful questions to explore and giving the scriptural references.  Just keep a Bible handy and you will find that there are lots of lessons to be learned in Narnia! 

Also, this book is designed to use with one or several children of various ages.  It is non-consumable, cost effective, and you can teach all of your children at once.   

Oh, and one more thing I really liked.  There are planning pages at the beginnig of each week. Everything you need is listed so you can make your plans and gather your materials ahead of time.  I wish I had someone doing this for me in all aspects of my life!

What's not to like?   If you are not into reading a book and then finding ways to use it as a "jumping off" point to study other things, you probably won't find this a good fit for you. Also, even if you do use this as your main curriculum, you will still need to supplement math and most likely history and science, especially for your older kids. 

You really just have to decide what works for your family.  If your kids work well together and you enjoy digging up facts as you read through a favorite book, this might work fine for you.  For those who wish their children to work more independantly or who like to teach things sequentially, this may not be a good fit.  Also, if you have kid who don't love reading, this may not work as they may suddenly think that reading a favorite fiction book has now become "school." 

The Crazy Mom take:  I'd heard about unit studies for years, but had never used one, so this was a first for me.  We love the Narnia books so I thought this would be fun to do with my grammar/middle school aged kids.  Because we're already using other products for science and history, I pretty much read the chapter and discussed the literary and Biblical aspects of it.  We did a few of the other activities, but mosty we just read and discussed the chapter. 

This actually worked quite well for us, but I have to admit feeling a bit of guilt for not doing more of the activities.  However, I don't always have huge chunks of time where all the younger kids are available to work together.  With chores and all of their other studies, we pretty much only had an hour or so to sit down and do our Narnia study.  By the time I had read the chapter and discussed what I wanted to discuss, our time was up.  I don't feel it would really work well as a base curriculum for us, but I do feel it makes for a nice devotional or Bible study with a little extra learnin' thrown in!

What's the bottom line?  $56.00

I am going to give out of 3 out 5 smileys!!! *

Check it out!   http://www.cadroncreek.com  

See what my fellow TOS Crew members have to say @ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HomeschoolCrew/630890/

*The Smiley System: 

I can't really recommend this product.

 I doubt this product would be helpful to many people.

 This is a good product, but isn't right for everyone.

 Most homeschool moms will find this useful.

 This is great, and I would recommend it to anyone!!!