Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
We’re studying World War II this semester. We’re coming at this time period from a variety of perspectives, and while I always enjoy these deep lessons with my kids, there are aspects of this particular one for which I wanted a good guide. That’s what I found with Douglas MacArthur from the Heroes of History line with YWAM Publishing.
With teens, most of our lessons have at least an element of independence. If it involves books, then my kids read them independently.
If it involves My Little Man, then he always reads them – quickly. He was so interested in MacArthur’s story that he nearly read it in a single sitting – stopping only because we made him go to bed.
He wants me to be sure to tell you that he got up early the next morning to finish the book because he liked it so much – and when he endured an allergy-related nosebleed, he was frustrated because of the delay in reading that it caused.
MacArthur’s story provided a great wealth of information about the Pacific theater of the war. We haven’t studied that much yet, and this was a great way to do so.
The book came with a digital study guide that has way more than we could ever do – and I love that plethora of options. The first part includes quotes relevant to MacArthur. They’re not all from him but do relate to him in some way. These would make great fodder for discussion or for essays, either simple explanatory ones or those that compare and contrast the quote to various actions or parts of his life.
The next part of the guide involves setting up a display with items relating to MacArthur. I think this would be similar to a public school bulletin board with information for students. This could be a fun way for students to search for items that would connect to his life – or you might assemble it for them and allow them to discover those connections and to discuss or write about them.
A big chunk of the guide includes questions about each chapter. These questions are specifically formatted to target vocabulary, comprehension, and analysis. This is a great way to scaffold learning for different ages and abilities. These questions could be used for discussion, homework, or assessment purposes, and you could cherrypick which ones to use with each student – again, a great way to differentiate.
The study guide also includes printables. In this case, they include notebooking pages and a variety of maps, all of which are very useful with this book.
The last part of the study guide is definitely my favorite part, though. It includes summative-type projects that also rope in other disciplines. This allows students to show what they know in a way that uses their own specific gifts and talents. Many of these feature some kind of research and then a kind of presentation, but they work with a variety of information connected to MacArthur one way or another.
My Little Man chose to make a Filipino meal for our family. He researched different types of food popular in Filipino culture and then cooked two dishes to share with us – a beef stew and fried rice. He cooked for several hours, using new-to-him vegetables and cooking methods and did a great job. He was proud of his new skills and the meal that he served, and we all learned about a new culture.
My Little Man was excited to have this hands-on option for a project. While we often create these together, it’s rare to find fun ones like this in published curriculum. These are open-ended enough to make them useful to many people but relevant enough to be easy to use in a variety of ways.
We haven’t read a Heroes of History book yet that isn’t excellent and worth reading, and Douglas MacArthur is no different. The study guides for these books always include these same components, so you can expect the same great versatility and solid, creative work from their other resources in this line.
I think that the Heroes of History books from YWAM Publishing are well worth checking out, but don’t take my word for it. Click here to read other reviews from members of the Homeschool Review Crew.
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