YWAM Publishing Heroes of History: Milton Hershey Review

The Heroes of History - Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate book is one of the 1-29 books from the Heroes of History series that consists of biographical true accounts of the men and women over the years that helped change history. We chose Milton Hershey mostly because we love Hershey chocolates and a couple of years ago, we visited Hershey, Pennsylvania and became interested in how he was a part of history. It was hard to choose from the collection of 29 books as well as another series of 49 books from the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series as I'm a huge history fan and luckily, that has rubbed off on my children. I have to admit that there is much more than meets the eye on these books as I am a strong believer in knowledge is power but these aren't just novels rather they are comprehensive curriculum thanks to the downloadable study guides that accompanies each book from YWAM Publishing.

Milton Hershey: More Than Chocolate by Janet and Geoff Benge is a fantastic true story about perseverance, adversity and heartache that brought success not only to the Milton Hershey family but also to those around him with the great care he had for others.  It's a tale that teaches about history, human character, Christian living and much more. I love books like this for my children as it teaches that hard work, faith and commitment with an acceptance of occasional failure is the secret to success and success is not always monitory. The book was a huge win with my student and myself.

The other very key components when utilizing these books in a homeschool or other teaching environment are the downloadables Overview for Unit Curriculum Guide and the Unit Study Curriculum Guide. Once the files are unzipped, there are multiple options to choose from and it's very intuitive. I printed mine out and sat out the table to prepare everything I needed to start.

What I liked about the Overview for Unit Curriculum Guide:

• It's a very flexible program allowing the user to use the curriculum in place of a history curriculum or utilize portions to enhance the existing curriculum. I decided to utilize it as an enhancement since it focuses on a person at a time.
• It's also comprehensive in which I was able to integrate other subjects such as creative writing, geography, reading comprehension, social studies and more with each book to add more learning punch to each book.
• It's flexible across age groups and the homeschool parent/user can decide what is appropriate for their student(s). 
• It can be utilized in a homeschool environment individually or in groups.
• It's also flexible for different learning styles.

What I liked about the Unit Study Curriculum Guide:

• The Unit Study Curriculum Guide offered plentiful ways to supplement the books with fun activities for any age. I liked that examples provided included possible grade levels for an activity.  The activities vary and really make the student read, comprehend and think about what they have read. For example, one of the activities is to choose three of Milton Hershey's character traits that seem most obvious. Write an essay describing those traits and give several examples of how they were manifested in his life. 
• A section on chapter questions that include vocabulary and factual questions from the book as well as questions to gauge the student's comprehension and then two open-ended questions to encourage thought and interpretation is included. There is a section for the answers at the back of the Guide.
• There is a wealth of resources for enhancing the project in ways I hadn't thought of. It's so comprehensive with various ways that learning can be incorporated in different subjects making each activity engaging and fun.
• There is also a section for additional books, other heroes and films that correspond with the biography.

There is even a bonus section online that provides additional activities from word searches, crossword puzzles to maps and so much more.  It's really a great program and I would highly recommend this for students of any age.

Completing a bonus word search.

I plan on using more of these fantastic Christian themed books in our homeschool adventures. I'm torn with which one to start with:

• THEN & NOW Betty Greene: Wings to Serve; or 
• Abraham Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom.

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