Review: Heroes of History- Thomas Edison

We have really learned to enjoy biographies over the years, and so we were thrilled to be able to review Heroes of History - Thomas Edison with its Digital Unit Study from YWAM Publishing. This fantastic series includes several prominent historical figures including Abraham Lincoln, Ben Carson, John Smith, Christopher Columbus, Harriet Tubman, Lewis and Clark, and more.  We've actually enjoyed reading other titles from this publisher's Christian Heroes series, including George Muller, who was a particular favorite.    Heroes of History focuses on 27 (currently) men and women who have shaped our history as presidents, inventors, writers, explorers, scientists, etc.  Ages 10 and up should be able to comfortably read these books independently- but younger children will enjoy you reading aloud. We opted to use this book as a read aloud and then I had my sons complete some of the Digital Study Guide while my daughter (age 8) just enjoyed the story.  The Thomas Edison book we received is 200 pages long, and my children really enjoyed the background on Edison, whose teachers believed he was "addled" but went on to hold over 1300 patents in his lifetime. I think Edison's story is a great one of perseverance for any child, but if you have a child who is struggling in school or with general anxiety about their intelligence, they might especially enjoy hearing about how Edison's mother never gave up on him and how he overcame his early struggles with education.  Each book in the Heroes of History has a digital study guide, which makes reading comprehension really easy to do.  The activities in the digital study guide include Key Quotes (we didn't memorize these, but we did enjoy them), Chapter Questions (vocab, facts, etc) which we did aloud after each chapter, Display Corner (ideas for making a collection of stuff, we didn't do this), Student Explorations (essay questions, art projects, etc), Community Links (places you can visit or people to talk to related to your hero), Related Themes to Explore (current events, other reading in various subjects your student can do based on their enjoyment of the book you're working on), a Culminating Event (idea for the end of your study) and a Social Studies section.  The Social Studies portion was my favorite.  It included 5 different portions, Terms/Vocab, Places, Geography of New Jersey, Timeline, and research questions.  I think just doing this section would give your child/student a great depth of knowledge based on the book, and I really enjoyed how it included a lot of ideas from various subjects that we study.  You can use the questions in any section orally, as we did with the comprehension questions, or you can print out anything you'd like.  There is an answer key, which is always helpful if you've got children doing the study on their own.   We really enjoyed this particular book about Thomas Edison and found him to be a great source of inspiration.  We also really enjoyed having the Digital Study Guide to go along with the book.  I think it would be really helpful if you had a large report due about an historical figure, as well, since the related themes section gives you a wealth of other resources to explore and there are some fun project ideas in the Student Explorations.  We've enjoyed each book that we read from this series so far, including Thomas Edison, and recommend them highly for you and your kids.