My kids love learning about inventors, so when we had the opportunity to review the book Heroes of History- Thomas Edison from YWAM Publishing, I knew my kids would be excited. We were also able to use the corresponding Digital Unit Study to go along with the book to really dive into it further.
We received a physical copy of the Thomas Edison book by Janey & Geoff Benge. It is soft cover and over 200 pages long. The book has 15 chapters and is written in a fun way so as to keep the attention of the students reading it. I felt it was done in a much more storytelling and lighthearted kind of way than most biographical books. My kids, both my 3rd and 5th grader, enjoyed listening to the true story of Thomas Edison. I read this one aloud so that we could have some nice downtime reading together, and it made an excellent readaloud.
We also received a digital download of the Digital Unit Study, which was a set of 2 PDFs and included over 80 pages of text supporting the book. This included the following sections: Key Quotes, Display Corner, Chapter Questions, Student Explorations, Community Links, Social Studies, Related Themes to Explore, Culminating Event, and then Appendix A, B, and C (full of books and resource ideas, maps, timelines, answers to questions, etc).
The Digital Unit Study was full of great ideas on how to stretch the book into a much more thorough unit study. I loved working on the Chapter Questions with my son and daughter, because it made them stop and really think about what they had just read so that I knew they were learning the information that had been presented to them.
Rather than printing everything out, my kids and I did a lot of the work orally. This is especially true of the Chapter Questions. I would read the chapter out loud to them, and then we would immediately go over the Chapter Questions. Sometimes they weren’t sure, and would thumb through the book again to try and find the answers. It created a fun discussion for all of us, and I am glad I chose to do this with 2 of my kids at once because they were able to bounce ideas off of each other to come to a conclusion on some of the more difficult questions.
One of the suggested activities under “Arts and Crafts” in the Digital Unit Study was to make an illustrated poster highlighting Edison’s inventions. My daughter, Grace, was excited about this assignment, because she loves to get crafty! Here is the painting that she came up with highlighting the light bulb.
She even included Thomas Edison himself in the painting. What a fun way to tie something she loves (art) into something she’s a little less thrilled about (history and science!), while also getting some solid language arts in there through the reading and comprehension questions.
These books really do create a unit study when using the electronic file with all of the curriculum information and suggestions. The Related Themes to Explore section of the Digital Unit Study gave me some awesome suggestions on ways to learn more about the time period and themes brought up by the book. For example, it suggested discussing current events of electric cars and the motion picture industry. My son and daughter thought that was so cool, because without the innovation of Thomas Edison, those things might not even have come about at all!
We also talked about the time period, and the diseases of the 1800s. We also talked about the building of the continental railroad, the Civil War, and even the influence of labor unions. It’s neat how we were able to tie it all together just from the mentions and inferences from the Thomas Edison book!
If you have students that are reluctant to study history, these books are a great option. They make it more interesting and exciting. It feels like you’re reading a fictional story, so it is neat to be able to say that this was actually real life!
There are many other great Heroes of History books and Christian Heroes books from YWAM Publishing. Click the banner below to see what other Crew members thought of their review items.