Review of YWAM Publishing Heroes of History: Ronald Reagan

My family has always loved Ronald Reagan. As one of our favorite presidents, we have researched his history and tried to learn more about him. We were recently given the chance to review YWAM Publishing's book, Heroes of History - Ronald Reagan, and we read it with our kids at dinnertime. Like the other YWAM books, it was an engaging read that both the adults and children enjoyed very much!  The book also had an accompanying digital unit study that you can purchase. We were able to review this pack, and it contained lesson plans, reading guides, activities, discussion questions, and more to give your kids extra insight into President Reagan's life. It covered all course categories, including language arts and social sciences!

First, this book is written in very easy-to-understand language. While topics in history can be heavy (such as the poverty that was experienced during the Depression), the book really works maintain realism, while always leading to an inspiring main message. President Reagan had humble beginnings, and this really resonated with my kids, since we also live simple lives and often struggle to make ends meet. My children adored the retellings of "Dutch" Reagan's boyhood; pages of his life and how he loved to swim and act gave my kids a true, 3-D view of this famous President.



The book read well over a meal. We would do one chapter a night, 5 nights a week. It was so fascinating that no one complained when we would read the book instead of watching TV!

YWAM's study guides are perfect for groups of all sizes and for any teaching environment. Our guide gave us the option to optimize it for small groups (such as a Sunday school or Bible study group), classroom, or homeschool (like we use.) This helps teachers or parents to cover the materials that is most appropriate for their groups size and access to resources.

Fun bonuses that were available to us by having the unit study included word puzzles and coloring pages (which my kids LOVE). We also were able to access and download a timeline of all of the heroes in the series, as well as where our hero occurred in time. If you are a homeschooler that uses timelines to help connect the gaps in your history teachings, this is a fabulous tool, and I'm very happy that the folks at YWAM publishing thought to make this an integral part of the teaching resources for parents!

I would highly recommend this book, as well as any of the books from YWAM publishing, as a read for your kids. Even if you you just use it as a read-aloud, with no additional instruction, it's inspiring and worthwhile.

If you do get the unit study (which I suggest you do), there are so many more ways to share the experience with your kids. I really like that the team at YWAM makes it easy to make their series a core history curriculum that can stand alone OR you can choose to use it as a special study. My favorite feature is that the study guide for homeschooler's actually identifies the values that each book will focus on; our book on Ronald Reagan, identified Boldness and Steadfastness, something that we value very much in our family!

Find out more about the YWAM Publishing offerings at their website, or find them on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and their blog!

Comments