Further Up and Further In
Author:  Diane Pendergraft
For more information or to order: www.cadroncreek.com

Turn the pages of the unit study, Further Up and Further In, and enter the enchanted world of Narnia. Here, you will find truth through the imaginative mind of C.S. Lewis.  Diane Pendergraft has written a wonderful resource built around The Chronicles of Narnia series. Each of the seven volumes in the series is studied at the rate of a book per month.  This unit study covers a well-rounded year of lessons for your child through the reading of living books. Of course, this permits a relationship to grow between the student and subjects of study.  Information is retained more easily through the careful study of literature and the integration of related subjects.

According to the introduction, the average time a child should spend is 2-3 hours per day. The plan is to spend four days a week on your assignments and use the fifth day to "catch up with unfinished products or attend a field trip." Of course you may tailor all the lessons to the individuality of each family. There is a small list of recommended resources that are helpful to have on hand. These useful resources will be great to have on hand and are worth the price - especially when considering convenience.

The subjects you will encounter in Further Up and Further In are Bible, Art & Music, English, Reading, History, Geography, Health & Science.  Diane has broken down the lessons covered in each subject by topic and lists where the lesson may be found in the book. The appendix comes complete with recipes, recommended readings, poems, a resource listing, and an answer key. Although this unit study covers many subjects, Diane does suggest you include a separate math, grammar, and spelling course.

The lessons focus on a section a week, which includes four chapters per section. Each section begins with a Planning Guide. You will find a list of all the items needed for you to gather. This will assist you in completing all of the lessons for that section. Next are the Worksheets. These may be copied for in home use with your family. I find these useful in evaluating the comprehension of a student. After the worksheets you'll find the heart of this unit, the Study Guide. Here is where you'll learn how to center your subjects of study around your chapter readings. The assignments are broken into steps to be completed for the day. There are icons used to show us what each assignment requires. For example, time to be spent in reading, writing, researching, etc. These handy little icons assist a great deal in the daily scheduling of lessons. The lessons are written to the student, so an older student would be able to complete most of the work independently.  Of course, if you're working with a younger student or including several students in the unit, you'll be doing more of the directing/teaching.  The assignments are sufficiently challenging and students have many opportunities to do research and writing.  In addition to the Narnia books, students are exposed to other classics such as Shakespeare.  There is a good balance between hands-on activities and written work throughout the entire course. All of the student's work is kept in a notebook that is set up at the beginning of the unit with dividers for the various topics to be covered.  At the end of the study they will have a binder full of work and memories so they can enjoy reviewing all the lessons learned from their trip through Narnia!

My children loved to hear the Narnia stories as their father read to them. If we could have had this unit study at the time we read the books (a few years ago), we would have simplified our learning days. There are an abundance of lessons to be learned throughout this unit study and Diane has done a wonderful job creating and sharing them.

Making the Grade:  A
Cost:  $50.00
Value for Your Homeschool Dollar:  10
Reviewed by Donna Porter, homeschool mom of 4