Learning History Through A Story

This is certainly not our first review of a book from YWAM Publishing, but Colby said Heroes of History: Douglas MacArthur- What Greater Honor was by far one of his favorite Heroes of History books!  That's a pretty big statement coming from a boy who owns over 20 of the Heroes of History and Heroes of Faith series.

YWAM has been publishing books for a while now and adds a few new titles each year to the collection.  Because my family consists of a bunch of history loving, book-reading people, we seem to gravitate towards these naturally.  Written as historical fiction, the Heroes of Faith and Heroes of History books tell the story of a famous person who has shaped history and our faith.  Intended to be read by ages 10 and up, these books are rich with factual historic details, but have added a engaging story line to capture younger audiences' attention.  From birth to death, the story of these amazing people, from George Washington to Billy Graham and the Wright Brothers, introduces kids to important people with fun facts and exciting adventures.

Also available to help further your studies are Downloadable Study Guides.  These guides include vocabulary, in depth questions for each chapter, and a biography of the featured person.  You will also find creative writing prompts, arts and craft ideas, essay questions, and even audio visual project ideas.  There is a social studies section that has field trip ideas, vocabulary and maps.  A resource section gives many more book titles for you to use if you want to further your study of the subject.  These study guides are perfect for unit studies for homeschooling families or just to help your child with reading comprehension.  The books in the series are also great read-aloud books for your family and can be enjoyed by older readers as well.

When we are in the thick of our school year, I use these books and the corresponding study guides as Colby's reading and vocabulary (Colby is our 6th grader).  Because we are winding down our school year, I allowed him to read this one at his own pace, about 30 minutes a day.  He has already decided that he wants to read the Louis Zamperini book next!  For the record, my 17 year old is currently reading the Jacob DeShazer title.  I told 'ya this is good stuff!

Even if you choose not to use the study guide to its fullest, I highly recommend you print out the fact sheet.  This is a great way to encourage your child to read for details.

We also love using the maps to label!  Not only are they great geography reviews, but they help bring the books to life. 

 The timeline provided does the same thing, and put all together, they can make a neat little keepsake.

Colby does want to tell you about his favorite parts of the book-

"Douglas MacArthur was a 5 Star General who was famous for fighting in World War I and World War II as well as the Korean War.  Kind of like our family, his family moved every few years when he was a child.  One of the neat things he did was help Japan a lot.  He helped women there gain the right to vote and they all liked him a lot.  The thing I like about MacArthur was that when he was outnumbered in battles, he never gave up.  I think that is one reason he is a hero.  I like reading stories about people in History because I am a history buff and this one is my favorite so far because it is about war and I like war facts!"

Boys!  Go figure!

YWAM Publishing has definitely won a place in our hearts with their Heroes of Faith and Heroes of History series.  They are a treasured group of books on our bookshelves and great, wholesome family reading.  Now, to choose our next one!

So many other books were reviewed- click on the banner below and see if you can find one that would interest you!

YWAM for the Win- A Homeschool Review Crew Review

You know that you have found a winning series when your stack looks like this.

 Well, actually this is about half of our stack of YWAM books, the others have been already packed away for our upcoming move.  But since our whole family enjoys the Heroes of History and Christian Heroes: Then & Now series from YWAM Publishing, we jumped at the chance to review two new ones- Milton Hershey and Harriet Tubman.  

You do not have to be a homeschooler to enjoy these awesome books, but a bonus for those of us who are, is that you can also purchase the additional unit study/curriculum guides available for each.

YWAM Publishing prides itself on making solid Christian resources available to families.  Their Heroes of History and Christian Heroes books tell "exciting true stories of men and women who changed the world."  Notice the word TRUE?  That is what we love about these particular books.  We learn about the lives of amazing people in history through a story, but one that is true and not highly embellished. While written in story form, the authors work hard to stick to the facts.

Because all four of my kiddos are history buffs they are quite picky discerning about the biographies they read.  Though written at a upper middle school level and are recommended for ages 10 and up, all of our kids, ages 24 - 10 years old,  have enjoyed reading the YWAM books. There are even times we have read them as a family... this is not one of those times.  Like the last time these showed up in our mailbox, Colby, age 10, quickly grabbed the Milton Hershey book and read it in a few days and Salem, our 16 year old started the Harriet Tubman book soon after as he has been studying slave trade in his history.

So did you know-

• Milton Hershey only had a 4th grade education.  (A fact my 5th grader tried to use against me!)

• Milton Hershey actually started his business with caramel.

• Milton had a contest to name his now famous town and the winning name was- Hersheykoko.  Eventually the postmaster rejected the name and Hershey settled for Hershey!

•  When WW2 began the military ordered 1 billion chocolate bars from the Hershey Corporation. 

• The Army  named a B-26 Bomber The City of Hershey.

or-

• Harriet Tubman threatened fellow slaves with a gun if they tried to turn back.

• She suffered a severe head injury while helping a slave escape. 

• Harriet Tubman herself was set on the underground railroad by a Quaker woman.

• Harriet Tubman lived to be 93 years old. 

• She made 19 trips south and freed over 300 people.

So let's chat about the unit studies for a second.

These downloadable guides for each book have separate sections for classroom, homeschool, and small groups that help the teacher or leader determine goals, the best course of study and other helpful hints.

The unit studies are then broken down into two parts.  The first has sections of quotes, chapter questions, ideas for student displays if you wish to do that type of project, and all types of extra project ideas.  Social Studies ideas and related themes are also discussed as well as a thorough additional resource list included.  An example of a project suggested for the Milton Hershey biography was to use modeling clay to depict your idea of an ideal town, similar to the one Mr. Hershey tried to establish with Hershey, PA.  If you were actually doing a unit study based on the book, I think a fun math project would be to graph the favorite Hershey candy bars of the people you know.  The ideas are limitless.

The second part of the unit study has a notebooking page of Hershey, maps of the area discussed, and a timeline- all of which are printable.  The same holds true for the study guides of the various books.

Because we use these books for free reading time, we tend to not dive too deeply into these unit studies, but I do often ask my youngest the suggested questions from random chapters to see if he is understanding what he is reading and for fun we fill out the notebooking pages to add to his book list.

Whether you're looking to enhance your current History lessons, complete a unit study, or just find a good biography to read to inspire you and your family, I highly recommend picking up one of YWAM's Christian Heroes or Heroes of Faith series.  

YWAM Book Homeschool Review Crew Review

I own quite a few books from YWAM Publishing.  I can't help it, they are great.  Until recently they have all been from the Christian Heroes: Then & Now collection, but recently my history loving family has discovered the Heroes of History collection.  Yes, we just got to read, review and add Ronald Reagan to our collection!

Heroes of History -Ronald Reagan: Destiny at His Side is a 224 page paperback about Ronald Reagan, our 40th president.  But it is a book about so much more.  Beginning with his early days growing up under an alcoholic father, authors Janet and Geoff Benge tell of a young man who was a problem solver, determined, caring, and hard working.  From his childhood, to his early days as an actor, to his years as President, this wonderful book paints the picture of what a true hero looks like.  Despite the fact that his family moved multiple times during his childhood and making new friends was difficult at first, Ronald, known as 'Dutch" by those who knew him, was well liked by most who met him and prone to success in most of what he did. 
The intended reading level is about ages 10 and up, but our whole family enjoys these books and they can easily be used for family read-alouds for families with younger children.

What we did and what we thought-
As always, my kids grabbed these books as soon as they arrived! (As Crew leadership, we actually received several!)  It is no surprise that Colby, age 9, chose Ronald Reagan.  For the past 6 months Colby has become slightly obsessed with presidents.  Although my original intent was to use this book as a family read along, that has yet to happen since he finished it on his own in about a week.

The reading is a little heavy for a nine year old, but because of the subject matter Colby plowed through it, determined to get to the "president part."  Luckily for me, the first chapter is a attention getter with a scene from the assassination attempt on President's Reagan's life.  The action packed chapter (which ends in a cliff hanger) was enough motivation to keep our 9 year old reading, although he did get a little lost in a few sections.  He said the school parts were boring.  9 year old boy- go figure!

That's where the Unit Study Guides got put to use! 

Doing research for the timeline!

Each YWAM book has a Downloadable Unit Study Guide.  The Ronald Reagan study guide is divided into two parts.  The first part is 82 pages long and is a wealth of information.  It includes writing exercises, hands on projects, historical information, and even geography ideas.  There are also 6 questions for each chapter, the first 3 targeting younger students while the the last 3 are more difficult.  For further study, a biography of related resources is included that covers books, magazines, movies, and more.  The second part has four downloadable sheets- a Ronald Reagan summary sheet, two maps, and a timeline.

Also included is a 24 page overview guide for homeschool parents on how to better use the book and unit study together.  Guides for small groups and classroom use are also on the downloadable PDF.
Because we are using this book as merely a fun read and a good source of information, we have used the study guide pretty loosely, but because Colby read the book alone it is the perfect help for me to know what he understood and what he did not.  By reading the questions for several chapters at a time, we were able to discuss things he enjoyed and clear up any things he did not understand.  He did LOVE doing the time line, as this boy has a head filled with dates and facts.  It amazes me.

If we were doing an actual unit study with the YWAM books, I would do things a bit differently.  For younger kids, I would read a chapter at a time together and then answer the corresponding questions orally.  Older students, upper middle school and up, I would have read independently and then answer questions in their own notebook.  To make it a compete unit study, I would personally require two to four additional projects to be done, as well as have my child read an additional book from the resource list and do a short book report.  Maybe a reward at the end for a job well done could be to watch a movie staring Ronald Reagan!

I know it sounds like a lot, but that is the beauty of these study guides.  You are the teacher and you can pick what works for you and what doesn't!  If you want to use these amazing books for your literature OR history unit, go for it!  There is plenty of information there to get you started.  If you just want to enjoy a summer read (or spring, fall, or winter) you can do that too!

Either way,  I know you are going to enjoy YWAM's  Heroes of History and Christian Heroes: Then & Now.

YWAM - C.S. Lewis Book Review

YWAM Publishing has long been a favorite in our house for finding good books when it comes to people in history.  We own quite a few!  But their equally as popular Christian Heroes series is new to us.  When the opportunity came up to review Christian Heroes- Then and Now, C.S. Lewis, Master Story Teller, by Janet and Geoff Benge, I knew it would be a good fit for us.  After all, three of my kids are C.S. Lewis crazy people.  In a nice way, of course!  We were also given the chance to use the C.S. Lewis Digital Unit Study Guide as part of this review.

C. S. Lewis. You know him, right?  Literature teacher.  Author of over 30 books.  Christian writer who believed that the story of Jesus Christ was the "truest of all stories."  

This 180 page paperback book tells his story.  Written for kids ages 10 and up and containing 17 chapters, it is a fairly easy read, but filled with fun facts and exciting stories.

How have we used this book?

For sheer pleasure reading, of course!  My 14 year old son eagerly agreed to be the first to read it. More like ran off with it before anyone else could claim it!  Because we added it to his daily Bible time, he was assigned to read one chapter a day.  Getting him to agree to that schedule was difficult, and I think in the end he cheated and finished it with several chapters in one sitting.  Every day following his reading he would join me in the school area to tell me about what he read.  Not because I asked him to, but because he couldn't wait to share what he had learned.

Things like-

• C.S. Lewis spent his early childhood in Ireland.
• He met his wife through letter writing, and eventually married her to keep her from being deported, though they eventually fell in love.
• Despite what you have heard, he had a precarious friendship with JRR Tolkien.  

It was fun to see him get so excited about what he read!  One of the things that we liked the most is that one of the stories he had heard about C.S. Lewis was also in this book, but with much more detail.  THAT I am not giving away so you will have to read it for yourself!  He has since passed the book on to his 18 year old sister and she is now reading it, with our 22 year old next in line.  

As far as the Digital Unit Study goes, because we were using this as an additional Bible assignment, we did the study loosely, much of it orally together.  Each chapter has 6 questions for review.  The first question is vocabulary related, then a fact question about the text read, 2 comprehension questions, and finally two open ended questions for opinions.  The first three questions are geared for younger students, while the next three require a little higher understanding. In hindsight, especially for an older child, I will have them do any other study guides on their own in a notebook, to be graded.

Also included in the study guides are applicable Bible verses, essay questions, creative writing assignments, hands on project ideas, and audio/visual projects, as well as art ideas. If you want to explore even deeper, there are community links, social studies notes, and even reproducibles!  They are so complete that they could easily be incorporated into unit studies. 

  

With 35 additional Christian Heroes books, many with study guide available, I am confident you will be able to find one that fits your school course work, or just tickles your fancy!  We have already made a list of the ones we want to read next, with Nate Saint in the lead.  Who would you choose?

Our Review Crew reviewed many other titles, including some from the Heroes of History series, so make sure you pop over and take a look!