Since Heroines of the Past Bible Study is only a 13 week study, I was expecting about 50 pages. I was quite shocked when the pdf arrived in my downloads file and I found no less then 200 pages! I love it when a product exceeds my expectations and this one did so right off the bat. Let’s talk about why.
Have you ever heard of Princess Edith? I had not. The very first story in Heroines of the Past was about Princess Edith. True story. Eventually she became known as Good Queen Maud, and was the Saxon wife of the second Norman King. I was expecting to read aloud stories of the standard heroines like Florence Nightingale and Mary Pitcher. I was not expecting to read stories of heroines I had never studied. In fact, most of these stories are new to me. Of course, they are all new to my daughter but I love the fact that I am learning right along with her. It breathes new life into our together time.
I don’t think I have ever seen a book like this, where true stories are tied to the virtues exhibited. Each story is followed by a virture study. Students are actually asked to think about which virtues the main character showed. Each story (or part of a story) ends with a set of questions that connect the Bible with the story and the virtues being discussed. Let me tell you what that looks like. I will use the story of Edith as an example. Edith showed the virtue of courage. The Virtue Study for Week 1 Day 2 starts with a memory verse: Proverbs 31:10. Then a few discussion questions are asked to get you thinking about the story and the virtues mentioned. This is followed by a set of verses about courage. Next, a comparison is drawn between the story of Edith (and her family’s escape) and the story of David (and his escape from Saul). The virtue study concludes with a call to action.
Throughout the book, different virtue studies have you add something to the Box of Visual Reminders. For Edith, the visual reminder was included on Week 1, Day 3 and was a glove. Other examples visual reminders were a copy of the Declaration of Independence, a stone, and a blue bead. Anna had a lot of fun with this Visual Reminders Box. It reminded us of a favorite book we read at Easter time actually. Something about going through the box each week and touching the things we collected helped keep the stories alive in our minds.
Heroines of the Past costs $27, and is an ebook formatted to PDF. The stories are meant to be read aloud with your daughter (ages 8 and up) and discussed. Some of the stories are sad and I don’t think this would work well for a child to read on their own. It’s meant to be something special that is shared.
My Bottom Line: We were not able to finish this 13 week study in our six week review period so we will be continuing on and finishing this Bible study. I’m looking forward to more books by Amy Puetz in our future. In fact, I was dying to review the Costumes with Character book others received, but the timing was not good for me to get out the sewing machine this summer so we will be getting that book soon!
Disclaimer: I received Heroines of the Past Bible Study at no cost to me in exchange for an honest review on my blog as part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. Here you have my honest review.
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