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After so many years of homeschooling, I've had plenty of opportunities to try curriculum and explore all kinds of resources, so during this Blogging Through the Alphabet tour, I'm highlighting some of the many homeschooling resources that have been stand-outs. Sometimes it will be a walk down memory lane as I share something we enjoyed many years ago, and sometimes it will be something we're using currently. Sometimes I'll focus on a specific curriculum, and sometimes on a subject area. And I imagine I'll have to be a bit creative with a couple letters of the alphabet! This week I'm remembering biographies from YWAM Publishing.
YWAM Publishing is the publishing arm of Youth With A Mission, with a focus on books that feature evangelism, prayer, discipleship, and ministry. Purchases from YWAM Publishing support their evangelism, training, and ministries all over the world. We've read and reviewed books from two of their series. The Christian Heroes: Then & Now series focuses on missionaries, Christian authors, and evangelists like Adoniram Judson, Brother Andrew, and Corrie ten Boom. The Heroes of History series highlights the stories of explorers, inventors, American presidents, and more (examples are Daniel Boone, John Adams, and Ronald Reagan.) A Unit Study Curriculum Guide series provides additional study materials for many of those titles. I had purchased several of the books to use in history studies many years ago (Christopher Columbus and Jim Elliott were a couple of the titles in that personal collection), and we also were able to review three titles. Most recently was the biography of Milton Hershey, and before that we reviewed books about Orville Wright and C.S. Lewis. Here are some brief summaries from those reviews!
Since we live not too far from Hershey, Pennsylvania, we've been there and enjoyed the Hershey Chocolate World tour, and Kennady was interested to know more about the man who gave his name to not just a chocolate company, but to an entire community. So that's why she chose Milton Hershey - More Than Chocolate when this review opportunity came up. Also, we like to involve chocolate in our studies whenever possible! Kennady enjoyed reading this book about Hershey's life, learning how he persevered through many setbacks and apparent failures to reach his goals and become successful. During the time she was reading this book for the review, she updated me almost daily on what she was learning about Hershey's life and how he became interested in making chocolates and candy. We also used parts of the Unit Study Guide.
Kennady says that she's inspired by the fact that Milton Hershey never gave up. He learned from his mistakes and misfortunes and was determined to succeed and prove that he could do great things. And it wasn't just financial and personal success that he achieved, but he was committed to doing the right things and to doing good for others as well.
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An earlier choice for a review was Orville Wright: The Flyer. Although the book tells the story of both Wright Brothers, it focuses on Orville. We learned about the brothers' childhood, their first business endeavors, and how they became determined to solve the problems of flight and come up with a reliable and safe Flyer. The book highlights Orville's positive character traits such as hard work, perseverance, creativity, and respect, while also telling about the setbacks the brothers faced, and about their mistakes and failings. They also demonstrated commitment to their goals, and persistence in achieving success although they had limited education and limited funds.
The study guide includes many prompts for writing assignments, some for creative writing and some ideas for essays or research. There are many ideas for hands-on projects, such as constructing a model airplane, making timelines or powerpoint presentations, designing postcards, and designing a NASA-style "mission patch" commemorating the first flight. There are a few reproducible activity sheets for map work, timelines, and a biography page.
Read our full review here: Orville Wright: The Flyer - Heroes of History
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Our first review was C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller. Kennady had long been a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia and did know something about the author, but was excited to find out more.
She greatly enjoyed learning about his fascination with hearing and telling stories, and how he used the stories to talk about truth, faith, and life. Although we knew that Lewis had come to Christian faith as a young man, and that he was friends with J.R.R. Tolkien, we did not know that he had once professed to be an atheist, or that he and Tolkien were members of a small literary group called the 'Inklings'. Kennady and I both were very interested in how Lewis developed the ideas that became his best-known book, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. (The Narnia Chronicles are beloved books and movies in our home, by the way!) The image of a faun with an umbrella had originally come to Lewis when he was a teenager; he incorporated that image into a story of a group of evacuee children, and figured out how to work a large wardrobe (one his grandfather had built and carved) and a lion he named Aslan (he'd had recurring dreams about the lion) into the story. All this and so much more is included in the biography, and Kennady found it a fascinating read.
Read our full review here: C.S. Lewis: Master Storyteller - Christian Heroes, Then and Now
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With each of the books, we also received the study guides, and we did some picking and choosing as far as the activities we used. For families who enjoy unit studies, these guides would be a great fit with all the great ideas for hands-on activities, further studies, field trips, and more. We thought that many of the activities might be better suited to a classroom or to a family study, but were easily able to adapt the ones that interested us so that just one student could enjoy and learn from them.
I don't think there's a better biography series for young readers to be inspired and encouraged than these two sets from YWAM Publishing. I love to see these great stories of heroic men and women passed on to a new generation.
Blogging Through the Alphabet again? Yes, I took the challenge, along with several other Crew members, including our three co-hosts for this round - Amanda at Hopkins Homeschool, DaLynn at Biblical Womanhood, and Kirsten at DoodleMom's Homeschooling Life. I think I am finished though, because at this point I have nothing in mind for the letter Z. It's been another wonderful trip through the alphabet, hasn't it? Please say a heartfelt thank you to these bloggers for hosting, and stay tuned because I've heard that Blogging Through the Alphabet will return soon with new hosts!
This post is linked at Blogging Through the Alphabet for Week 25, Letter Y.
This post is linked at Blogging Through the Alphabet for Week 25, Letter Y.
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