ENTER A WORLD OF ADVENTURE – a world where the past comes alive by experiencing the customs and meeting the characters that lived long ago. Step back in time to a world of pyramids and pharaohs, a Passover Celebration eaten on the brink of a desert journey, Olympic Games, erupting volcanoes, knights and castles, reformers who dared to defend their beliefs, and explorers who dared to dream dreams.    

Let me take your hand and walk you through a history-based unit study. Leave your textbooks behind and learn through hands on activities and experiments, real books, by meeting real characters and situations. Embark on a 180 day journey as I take you to A World of Adventure.

Does A World of Adventure include daily lesson plans?

A World of Adventure, gives a year of lesson plans in a daily format. It is based on world history and covers all subjects but math, which you must supply with a program of your choice. This book tells you exactly what to do each day, which books you must check out of the library and which books are suggested. It includes hands-on activities, recipes, discussion questions and writing and project ideas. Ideas and activities for extended learning adventures are included. Lists of required materials are given at the beginning of each unit. It gives guidance where guidance is needed. It was written for those who lack the confidence or the time to put together a unit study of their own. I've done the work for you so that you can spend more time making memories with your children. 

This book is written for children in grades 4-8. However, you may easily supplement or simplify the material in various areas to accommodate younger and older children. There are six units in this book, one corresponding to each historical period of study. They are: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance and Reformation, and The Age of Exploration. These units, which include lesson plans for thirty days each, will take you through an entire year of study. Each subject is listed as a separate entity, however, please remember that learning is all interrelated – just like it is in real life! Wherever possible, subjects are overlapped to make learning more meaningful. There are times when lessons are combined if both concepts are fully covered in one assignment or activity. 

What subjects are included in this book?

The broad subject areas that are covered in this book are:

• Bible/Character Training
• Language Arts
• Science
• Social Studies
• Fine Arts

Those are broad subjects, and although most of them are covered every day, not every component of these topics is covered daily. Language Arts is covered daily, but not all of the following components: grammar, poetry, oral communication, literature, writing, study skills, spelling, and vocabulary are covered each day. Along the same line, Social Studies is covered daily, but maybe only one of the following components per day: cultures and communities, geography, map and globe skills, history, government, and career education. The same goes for Science and Fine Arts, which also have many components.

What about workbook questions and tests?

Children learn best when they experience things, so A World of Adventure is filled with lots of hands on experiments and projects. It does not include the typical workbook questions nor does it include tests. When children are listening, reading, writing, experimenting, cooking, role-playing, researching, and playing on a theme, they will learn it! You don't have to test your children to find out if they know things. You will know they understand by their comments in family discussions, by their written performance, by their attitude toward their projects and by their involvement, and enthusiasm toward learning. These are the ways that we assess whether or not learning is taking place. A child can memorize answers for a test without any real learning having taken place. To say a child got an A on a test means nothing if they have not internalized what they have learned – and A World of Adventure will help them to do just that. 

Instead of the usual "read a chapter in the text and answer the workbook questions" assignments, A World of Adventure will assign a great deal of free reading on designated topics - especially in Social Studies and Science. Throughout this book, you will also find that numerous topical facts and concepts are presented in each subject area. Part of the reason for this is that not every book you will read will give complete information on a given topic. For example, in researching for this book, I read three books on ancient Greece before I came across anything about the Parthenon – a topic I believe should be covered in a study of Ancient Greece. While I do not claim to have included ALL existing information on each topic myself, I have tried to pull together the basic facts in many areas in order to bridge that gap that might exist in information presented in the many different books you will read. 

Another example comes from the unit on Ancient Greece. The science topic in this unit is human anatomy. Your child may choose to read and learn about diseases - how they affect the human body, and careers in the medical field. This is great, but there are a few things that your child should know about the human body in a very general sense. This is why I have included a review of the body systems and the functions of each. 

If you are a parent who feels your child absolutely must be tested on each unit, and cannot break the "chains" of the textbook format, simply use these facts to make up a simple test. Or better yet, have your children compile information from the unit to make up their own test – they might even learn more this way then they would from a teacher made test because the research required for creating the test will have to be done by them! You may provide guidance as to which concepts must be included on their test if you are more comfortable with this approach.

If there are no textbooks, how will my children learn?

A World of Adventure uses library books and the Bible for its primary texts. Real books allow children to learn from many different sources. The job of a textbook is to give a thorough summary of a topic. By reading numerous real books, children are exposed to many different facets of a topic and they learn to put all the knowledge they have gained together. With parental guidance they can then make informed decisions about what they believe to be true about a topic. Real books tell a completely different side of a summary. 

A story is told by Charlotte Huck about a boy who was INDIGNANT when he found that his history textbook had summarized the dissension among the colonists of Jamestown in ONE SENTENCE. He compared that one sentence to the entire emotion-packed story of the founding of Jamestown, entitled This Dear Bought Land, by Jean Lee Latham and could not believe the difference! The story had touched the boy's heart and had introduced him to characters in history that had feelings and experienced many hardships. It made history come alive in such a way that the boy felt he had traveled back in time to Jamestown and watched the scene unfold before his very eyes. Textbooks do not provide the same type of learning experience.

How will I know which library books to use?

At the beginning of each section of A World of Adventure is a list of books, those which are required for this unit study, those which are suggested, and optional books for further enjoyment and study. You may choose to purchase these books for your family library, check them out of the library, or use a combination of both methods. If you select the library option, you will need to plan your trips to the library around this list and be ahead of the game, so that you will have the necessary book when it is needed. Most of the books and resources listed for use in this unit study are available through your public library. 

Is A World of Adventure a spiral bound or comb-bound book?

A World of Adventure is not bound at all. It comes three-hole punched and shrink-wrapped in a loose-leaf format so each family can decide how to use it best. We do not include a binder so that families may place the pages in any size binder they like. This flexibility enables parents to choose the best method for their own family. Some prefer using one large binder for all of the units in the book, and others favor the convenience of dividing the book into six single-unit sections and using six smaller binders for each of these units. Since each family only uses one unit at a time - smaller, single unit binders are more commonly used.

Binder not included

How do I know if A World of Adventure is for me?

A World of Adventure is for you if you are tired of textbooks and worksheets, and you feel that your children have lost their love of learning. If you are looking for a Biblically and academically sound program that gives daily guidance, but offers an exciting and natural approach to learning, A World of Adventure is for you. If you are looking for a learning approach that will bring your family closer together, and you have either one child or children of many different ages, A World of Adventure is for you. A World of Adventure is for you if you believe unit study is a wonderful way to learn, but you lack the confidence or the time to put together a year of unit study plans on your own. A World of Adventure is NOT for you if you like textbooks, worksheets, and tests, and do not enjoy reading with your children, and doing hands-on activities with them. 

Click the next button for information on how this book came to be written and a detailed description on each of the six units in A World of Adventure.

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