Yesterday I wrote about two of our loves. My love of history and my love of reading. I could go on and on about why I love these two things, but it that would take up a whole blog post and that isn’t the purpose of this review. At any rate, I have at least succeeded to instill these great loves in my biological children to some extent and am trying to instill them in the other fantastic children God has placed in our home. It’s beginning to work, but again that is for another post.
Sometimes our two loves of reading and history collide and sometimes they don’t. When we heard that we would be getting two books from Carole P. Roman – If You Were Me and Lived in. . . the American West and If You Were Me and Lived in. . . Elizabethan England we were super excited. However, when we found out that we would be sent two bonus books – If You Were Me and Lived in. . . Viking Europe and If You Were Me and Lived in. . . the Ancient Mali Empire we were absolutely thrilled! Some of the Carole P. Roman books were reviewed last year by the Homeschool Review Crew but we weren’t one of the ones that were able to review them. We heard they were fantastic so we had high expectations. We were not disappointed!
Each book tells you exactly what the name implies. What it was like to live in that time period!
My kids really loved If You Were Me and Lived in. . . the American West. We have been studying American History and this supplemental resource really fit in with our curriculum. It talked about what it was like to move from the the east to the west back in the 1840’s during “The Great Migration of 1843” We talked a lot about the arduous journey that the imaginary but true to life family took. They liked the fact that the author wrote the book from the perspective of a boy around their age so, not only did they learn what was expected from an adult during the journey but what was expected of a child as well. We were amazed at how many supplies the Conestoga wagon had to hold but how creative the travelers were in where they placed everything. The boys were super glad that they didn’t have to take that trip themselves and work as hard as the children did and eat the foods that they ate. We all agreed, though, that it did look very adventurous. The book goes on to explain what had to happen when the weary travelers finally made it to their destination and had to set up their new homestead. It was all fascinating to read and the awesome, detailed, pictures that the illustrator, Paula Tabor drew added to the learning experience.
I really enjoyed If You Were Me and Lived in. . . Elizabethan England. This book was is written from the perspective of a young girl, but, just as in the above book, the role of boys, women and adults were also explained in detail. I had no idea what everyday life was like during the time of Queen Elizabeth in the 1570’s. Life wasn’t just difficult for adults but for children as well. Although the book was written about the life of a family who owned a bakery and were of the middle class, it also described the poor class and the rich class of England in those days. Again, this book enlightens us as to what they ate and wore and how much things cost during that period as well as what the people did for fun and entertainment. It talks about the types of housing and the living conditions of the poor, middle class and the rich. It is fascinating! Again the pictures add a lot to the learning.
There is a lot packed into both of these small books.Both are around 40 pages long and include a small section at the end that describes famous people from that area and a glossary of words and terms used in the books.
The two bonus books that we received - If You Were Me and Lived in. . . Viking Europe and If You Were Me and Lived in. . . the Ancient Mali Empire – were equally fascinating. They come from a slightly different series of books by Carole P. Roman that goes into a little more detail about the time period and place that each book is talking about. Although they cover basically the same types of things and each has a section that describes famous people from that time period and area as well as a glossary, each book has well over 70 pages. The pictures are also drawn by another illustrator, Mateya Arkova, but they are equally as good.
We absolutely love these books! I’m sure you will to. To check them out just click on anyone of the highlighted links above. Many other members of the Homeschool Review Crew reviewed other books by Carole P. Roman and you can find what they had to say by clicking on the banner below.
No comments:
Post a Comment