YWAM Publishing (TOS Review)

This review features the book  HEROES OF HISTORY Douglas MacArthur: What Greater Honor, published by YWAM Publishing.   We also received the accompanying Unit Study via internet download.

While this 204 page book is full of facts and dates, it's written in an engaging way that truly helps the reader get a feel for the person Douglas MacArthur, not just the "legend", although the two are hard to separate.   MacArthur's faith played a huge role in his life and military career, however this Christian biography isn't written in a "preachy" way, but rather it shows Christianity being walked out through his life and the way he conducted himself.

We read the book together during our read aloud time, and then used the discussion questions from the study guide to delve deeper into the book, and to check for understanding (and paying attention, ahem).   We were fascinated by the leadership, heroism and loyalty this man walked in.    One thing I really liked was how the book gave glimpses of background information that tied together different events and time periods.  This allowed us to see how closely things in history happened.  

My history lover was enraptured listening to the stories of Douglas' military skill and bravery in the face of danger.  She was also on the edge of her seat listening to the exciting battle coverages.  My non-history lover was equally drawn in as she learned how he conducted himself and how he treated both his friends and enemies.  Vastly different than her sister, this child was able to enjoy the battles because they didn't contain gruesome, bone chilling depictions of the battlefield.  Kudos to the authors on that fete!

The unit study itself has several components.  The 84 page main unit study offers something for every kind of learning style, and can be used with either a group or individual setting.    Suggestions are given on way to enrich history, geography, essay and creative writing, reading comprehension, public speaking, art and even drama.   Prompts are provided for the various activities, with a great deal of wiggle room left for each student to be able to craft their study to reflect their own personality and educational strengths.   Translation, if they absolutely hate writing, then by all means use the other information given and let the student act out a skit, create a display or design a poster.    The smaller six page unit study component offers maps and informational sheets that are great for notebooking.

Also included are separate,  Homeschool, Classroom and Group overviews that give the instructor/parent information on how to best use the book/unit study combination to get the most out of your history studies, but also how to incorporate it into your social study and language arts lessons as well.   Schedules for weekly study, timeline study schedules and listings of other YWAM titles give the parent/instructor everything they need to build a complete history program, or to study individual time periods.

Admittedly, we did not do everything listed in this unit study.  Truthfully we barely skimmed the surface.   Yet, the children and I, each have a much broader understanding of both World War II and the Korean War.   

Lastly, any book that has my child picking it back up to re-read only minutes after finishing it gets my Mom seal of approval!

 

You can read more TOS Crew reviews of this and other titles here.