We are thrilled to have Friends & Heroes as a blog sponsor and were honored to be able to review their Homeschool Curriculum!
PacMan watched Friends and Heroes years ago and LOVED it! If you aren’t familiar with Friends and Heroes, here is the description from their website…
Friends and Heroes is an animated children’s adventure based in ancient Egypt, Israel and Rome. The story follows two young friends, Macky and Portia, as they fight for justice against the Roman Empire. Each episode consists of two Bible Stories in which children can learn about characters from the Old and New Testament.
I honestly had no clue that they had a homeschool curriculum so you can imagine my excitement when they contacted me to become a blog sponsor and send me a review package! I already loved the show, so it was a perfect fit!
Friends and Heroes award-winning adventures and Bible stories on DVD accompanied by an exciting, cross-curricular Homeschool Unit Study – easy-to-use, hands-on, attractively designed, colorful and FUN! The material is highly adaptable and may be easily incorporated with your other homeschooling activities to provide two to four weeks of learning. Ideal for students 7 to 11 years of age.
Unit Study 1 includes:
- Friends and Heroes DVD Episode 1– Long Journey – which serves as stimulus material for cross-curricular studies
- All teacher and student’s materials – included on CD-ROM – printable and reusable
- Learner-centered, self-guided Unit Study manuals
- Teacher’s Guide – with learning goals, background details, answer keys, internet links
- Certificates of Achievement and binder covers
Unit Study 1 covers:
- History/Geography: The Romans; Roman Trade; Roman money; Roman import and exports
- Creative writing: Journal writing; Written expression and narration; Copy writing
- Bible study: Daniel and the lions’ den and Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish; The Early Church
- Science: Silver; Sand and cement; Greek and Roman discoveries
- Crafts: Sculpture; Paper weaving; Pottery
- Discipleship: Trusting others; Pride; Worries
We received the disks in the mail quickly and I popped them in and saw them nicely organized for me to print what I needed.
I used 1/2” binders {for now} and made a student book and a teacher book {top}.
We had fun diving into the first unit, and completed the lessons, but omitted creative writing and crafts. We really enjoyed the history of Rome lesson, the science experiment and the Bible lesson focusing on Daniel! For my kids, I will need to pick and choose which parts we use since our time is filled up with other subjects and learning. I chose what I thought were the meatiest lessons and we did those!
During the readings from the history/geography lesson, I gave the kids coloring pages that I printed from their website here. Ladybug especially liked seeing the characters from the DVD we had just watched! Krash chose to color our cover {which comes with the homeschool curriculum}.
On our second day we were only going to watch a portion of the DVD again {as the manual recommended} but they begged to watch it all again. So, we did. It is an excellent show, so I didn’t mind at all!
We did a science experiment with silver {the father in the movie is a silversmith} learning all about luster, tarnish, and malleability! This was a hit of course!
Even I enjoyed seeing the chemical reaction!
Additional online resources…
The Friends and Heroes Children’s website has tons of additional resources also. Here are just the activities for episode 1! There are games, quizzes and more! I will be investigating this more to find the best additions to our studies!
What did the kids think?
PacMan {age 11} He enjoyed it but is definitely on the higher “age” end for the series. He said he does want to keep watching and the learning is good for him, even if he doesn’t always enjoy listening to the history lessons! Science is always a hit and he loved the first experiment.
Krash {age 7} He LOVED the video, begged to watch the next one immediately after! It is absolutely perfect for his age and interest level. He tolerated the history lesson and honestly didn’t retain much, but that is fine with me since he is on the younger end for the “school” part of this. I think in the future the historical concepts presented in the movies will sink in naturally as we keep learning together. He too loved the silver experiment.
Ladybug {age 4} She also loved the movie! I wasn’t sure she would, but she really did! I have no clue what she is picking up on educationally, but I love having something she can easily be a part of and experience with us.
Mom ~ I absolutely love these movies, even I learn a lot about history from them! I sit and watch with the kids, just like I did when Pac watched them years ago. The history lesson was a lot of me reading, since there’s no way Krash could have read it to himself. The kids got fidgety which is why I had coloring available. The content was awesome. It was nice to have it all in one place and to have the answers to the worksheets right there. I enjoyed having several lessons to choose from {History/Geography, Craft, Writing, Science, Bible Study, Discipleship}.
Will we be using this next year?
I am still in prayer but I think so, definitely the DVDs. I am praying about the cost, and fitting the lessons in on top of what we already have. Last year we used What’s in the Bible and it was a great addition. I knew I wanted to change things up a bit this year {just for variety} and this might be the perfect fit. The DVD aspect is a huge bonus for me. I LOVE that I can add in extra learning easily {focusing on History, Geography, Science, and Bible Study for our family} with little prep time. I have about a month to decide!