YWAM book: Ronald Reagan (A REVIEW)

I  love reading great biographies, so I jumped at the opportunity to add Heroes of History - Ronald Reagan to our library of YWAM Publishing books. My kids have enjoyed listening to other biography titles from the Heroes of History series, so I had full confidence that we'd enjoy it again. We always learn so many fascinating facts and interesting stories about the individual person, and of course the Study Guide takes us into an even deeper look at the person through many project ideas. I will talk more in detail about the study guide later.

We received a physical copy of the book Heroes of History - Ronald Reagan. It is a sturdy paperback book about the size of a standard paperback so it's easy to take around. It's cover has some nice colorful pictures with some hints as to what the person's life was about. The book itself has 221 pages, and 20 chapters.

A brief synopsis of the book:

The book starts with a glimpse of probably one of the most intense moments in Ronald Reagan's life. When he is shot and almost assassinated. Then it jumps back to the beginning as a young child at 5-years-old. He is a curious boy even at the young age of 5. He is nicknamed "Dutch." As he grew he loved exploring all the interesting things of the time (He was born in 1911) newspapers, listening to the radio shows, fishing, watching movies at the theatre, and playing with his friends at the park. During his life there was a lot of political and economic change. He eventually went off to Eureka college, even though he could hardly afford paying for it. He had to work hard. During his time at college the stock exchange plummeted, and it was the beginning of the great depression. Thankfully, he was still able to finish college. He went on first to become a sports radio announcer, and then to Hollywood. As he got older he was headed more into politics. His love for speaking to the public started in college, and it grew in Hollywood as a television star. He ran for Governor, and eventually became President. He survived an assassination, and lived to be 93 years old when died quietly of pneumonia.

Our copy of Heroes of History-Ronald Reagan when it arrived.

One of my favorite parts of these books is the unit study curriculum guide. We received the download for this, and I printed it up. I also chose to have it bound at the local office store. Once printed up, it is about the same size as  the book. It fits nicely in a stack with the biography, and I can take both with me around easily as we do the projects.

Our study guide all printed up and ready to go. I chose to get it bound at the office store.

I'd have to say the part of the study guide that we use most is the chapter questions. There are a set of 6 questions for each chapter, and we discuss those immediately after we read. There are also ideas for a display corner, student explorations (writing projects, hands-on projects, etc.), community links, Social Studies, related themes to explore, and a culminating event. We also received some reproducibles that include two maps, a timeline, and a fact sheet that we could print for each student.

I read this to all three of my boys ages 11, 9, and 7. We would read a few chapters in a sitting, discuss the questions in the study guide, and then work on a lapbook (not included with this review, just something I found on my own). The study guide encouraged a display corner, so I chose a box to put our books and activities in. I would have loved to find more to display, but I never got around to printing up pictures, and finding items to display.

Our box for our Ronald Reagan unit study.

Mr. Alex (age 7) had fun finding Ronald Reagan among all 44 of our presidential cards.

Then he put all the presidents in order to see where Reagan stood. It was good for his understanding to have this visual. I have had these cards for many years, and pull them out on President's day, or when we are studying a certain President.

Something fun:

I include these pictures of extra things we got as part of the unit study because the study guide really emphasizes hands-on learning activities. Finding things about Ronald Reagan, and doing things that are age appropriate. So, while this was also something I acquired on my own for part of the unit study, I feel it's a fun way to really get the kids thinking about what we are learning. I love that the Study Guide is made that way, with lots of suggestions and freedom to find ways to learn. With that being said, I thought these candy dispensers would be a fun treat to add to our study, and fun always helps us to remember things!

We really enjoy these books from YWAM. We have reviewed other titles including Heroes of History-Thomas Edison, and Heroes of History-Abraham Lincoln. My boys always enjoy when we do one of their great unit studies.

If you'd like to see other crew reviews on this and other titles, click on the banner below.