Customer Reviews

A Childs Geography Explore the Holy Land

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Knowledge Quest has done a phenomenal job creating this new study on the Middle East. Our family has thoroughly enjoyed the arm-chair-style narrative of the countries of this region, countries often heard about but often misunderstood. As a family we want to develop a love for this part of the world, and this study has provided an excellent foundation! We would highly recommend this study and others by this company (A child's Geography is another family favorite)

I'm embarrassed to admit all I do not know about the Middle East, yet given the current political climate, shouldn't we all know more about this region? "A Child's Geography" is a great book for parents and kids to learn about how the region birthed God's plan for humanity, and how humanity is living out God's plan there even today.

I love how personal the book is.....the current pictures of the people, their homes - the Holy Lands become very real as you read this book. Lots of great teaching tools, too - "Field Notes" to guide a child's narration of the information; a "Travel Log" guides you through some important map work; "Bringing It Home" gives art, music, and food suggestions with lots of websites for enrichment (like playing "senet," an ancient Egyptian game, etc.)

Highly recommeded for education and fun!

This book is a gem! It is written conversationally, and is engaging without being patronizing. It is written from a distinctly Christian viewpoint, but treats the people of this non-Christian region with a great deal of respect. There are narration prompts at the end of each section and either a recipe, poem or craft at the end of each chapter. It also has a few suggestions for supplemental reading. We love this book! I hope that the authors will write other volumes (and quickly, we are almost done with this one!)

Ann Voskamps second volume of geography is, if possible, even better than the first. In this volume she takes us on a geographical, narrated, journey of the Holy Land. I know very little about this area of the world, but my whole family has enjoyed learning through this book. The discussion, pictures, links,and information are all current and the photos are crisp and bright and unique! We have enjoyed vicariously and hope one day to actually take our family to this amazing birthplace of humanity and when we do I am certain that the things they remember will be the things we read about in this book-its almost like a travelog, but with activities, writing exercises and interactive links to make the holy land really come alive in your living room. A great, gentle, interesting read and I highly recommend it. I have homeschooled 5 kids who range now from 24 down to 8 and I only wish I had this book when my older kids were younger! I wouldn't have had to look for anything else.
H.Shaw
Canada

I love that "A Child's Geography" is written so simply, yet gives a wonderful depth of relavent information that leads the teacher and student on a wonderful journey through the Holy Land. It gives hands on activities and lists other outside sources that draw the student closer to the subject, tying the student to the place being studied. Some of the activities include notebooking & mapping activities, recipes, Prayer Walk for each country, a focus on art, music, poetry and food, and just brings it to life with text that is written with the curious student in mind.

This is a really great book if you need a book to help you teach your children geography, especially at home. Very interesting and holds the child's attention, but also yours!! It is full of ideas and extra activities and brings geography to life. Suits my 5-10s best, but has added ideas for the older student.

I have been reading through this curriculum and I have found it interesting. But... I've had this reoccurring thought that this is not the right curriculum for my family. I do believe, though, that many families will enjoy it and be encouraged by it. I will explain in the course of this review why it's a great curriculum. At the end, I'll try and explain why it's just not the right fit for my family.

Previously, I reviewed Volume I and enjoyed it. The first book was essentially an earth science curriculum. This second book explores the Middle East from both a historical and current cultural perspective. It blends history and cultural studies. The book explores the countries of Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. For each lesson, there is a reading lesson, a section for field notes (students are asked to speak into a recorder about their observations as they imagine traveling through the land), lists of locations to record on maps, art/cooking/music activities, and suggested prayer lists. My favorite part of the lessons were the prayer sections. I thought the authors did a wonderful job of making suggestions for how we can pray with our children for the people who live in this region of the world.

An example from the Israel lesson is "Lord, may the people who live within her borders live at peace with their neighbors. May they learn to love each other as You patiently love us. We pray for godly wisdom for the world's governments as decisions are made regarding this region of the world and may Your will be accomplished," p. 71

I enjoyed the reading lessons as well as the activities. There are pictures, both color and black and white, scattered through the lessons. If you choose to use this curriculum, I would highly suggest collecting other resources via your library or by purchasing a good Bible Atlas to help your children better picture this land. Though the authors do a good job describing the areas and helping children to use their imaginations, I know my children would want a Bible Atlas. Included in the book is a CD-Rom with reproducible maps for use with the curriculum. I think you may find you want some larger maps, though. I have seen several such resources available for purchase online.

If you are interested in acquainting your children with this area of the world, this is a great curriculum. But, let me explain why I'm not sure it's the best fit for my family. The authors talk about many people groups who live in the area, including the Kurds in Turkey. I appreciated the efforts on the part of the authors to include all people groups and their suggestions of how to pray for the people who live in this region, because God has called us to pray for all people. But, there is one people group missing from this book. In the section on Israel, the Palestinians were not mentioned. There were no pictures from the Gaza Strip or the areas where the Palestinians live. There are Palestinian Christians. If I used this curriculum, I would add to the section on Israel and explaining a bit more to my children about the land and the people who live there.

The other reason I likely will not use this curriculum is that it does not fit in a traditional scope and sequence for what children learn in school. I tend to follow the general scope and sequence of subject matter as taught by the public schools for social studies and history. As a homeschooler, I do have the flexibility to veer away from that when I want to. I could use this curriculum in a condensed form one quarter of the school year. With all curriculums we use, we take what works for our families and modify when we need to. I could expand on some of the sections and still condense the study overall.

In the book, there are 16 lessons, which would cover about a half a year if you taught one lesson a week. It is very appropriate to use with multiple ages at one time. I'd recommend it for grades 1-6. You can see a preview of the book on the website for this book. It is a pretty affordable curriculum at $35 for the book and included CD. I looked up several Bible Atlases on Amazon and they ran between $20 and $30. Other pictorial resources could easily be found at your local library.

If you are looking for a study on the Holy Land, this is a great place to start. If there are areas you would like to focus more heavily on, the curriculum would be easy to adapt. It isn't the right curriculum for my family, but I can see how it might be a good fit for many others.

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher.