Homeschool Reviews: Heroes of History Series by YWAM Publishing

We're studying Early American history these days, and we've been reading as many biographies as we can, so we jumped at the chance to check out a Christopher Columbus biography from the Heroes of History series by YWAM Publishing.

Columbus is a complicated figure in American history, so I was grateful that the publisher acknowledged this at the outset with the following introduction.

I want my children to appreciate the admirable qualities displayed in the life of Columbus (his drive to learn and pursue his passion for navigation, his bravery and his perseverance for sure!) while also observing recognizing in him the greed and pride that led him to exploit the native peoples he encountered and promote their enslavement. Our biography readings always give us lots of opportunity to discuss how in every person's life we will find good things we want to emulate as well as mistakes we want to avoid.

For my kids, ages 6 and 8, Christopher Columbus: Across the Ocean Sea was a wonderful family read-aloud. If you have older children, this would be a great independent read for a middle schooler or early high school aged student.

The book itself provides plenty of detailed information about Columbus and his four voyages, but the publisher also offers a Study Guide if you would like to flesh out your reading into a full unit study. By using YWAM's biographies and study guides together, you could easily build a complete middle school history curriculum.

The Study Guide to accompany Christopher Columbus offers 75 pages of content. You'll be able to springboard from your history studies into geography, vocabulary, writing, rhetoric, art and reading comprehension.

Here are a few of my favorite components from the Study Guide:

• Ideas for setting up a display corner with Columbus related items
• Six questions for each chapter of the book highlighting significant vocabulary terms, checking for reading comprehension, and offering topics for debate and discussion
• Creative writing topics like imagining you are a cabin boy on Christopher Columbus's ship and writing journal entries describing your voyage
• Hands-on projects like making models of Columbus's three ships or learning to tie some of the knots used in sailing
• Suggestions for a capstone event to bring your study of Columbus to a meaningful conclusion using relevant music, clothing, food, and stories
• Printable maps, timelines and notebooking pages

We loved using the printable resources to chart Columbus's four different voyages on a map and pinpoint the different geographical locations mentioned. I also introduced my kiddos to the concept of a timeline, and we plotted the basic events of Columbus's life together. It was so convenient having the perfect map and timeline sheets right there at my fingertips!

I will definitely be checking out other biographies by YWAM to supplement our future history studies. Christopher Columbus is just one of the many titles in the Heroes series. There are biographies for George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Edison, C. S. Lewis and many, many more.

You can read about how homeschool families have used some of these other titles with students of all ages by visiting the Homeschool Review Crew!