ECC - Kingdom Tales and Christian Bios

We have all truly enjoyed all the read alouds we have read during our studies this year and I wanted to share some of my thoughts about them here.

We have just finished the allegory, Kingdom Tales.  What a wonderful grouping of stories.  We all loved them greatly and I believe it may actually have been the first time my children were sad when a book concluded.  They even asked if I could read it again!

I really loved the thought provoking questions that My Father's World added to the end of each chapter.  My son especially was frequently able to see the parallels between the stories in this book and the Bible.

I know that some have had reservations about reading this book but I would highly recommend it.  It was a beautiful story.  For me, the only story I really wasn't crazy about was The Carnival Daughter but in the end it was still a beautiful story of overcoming fears and bad experiences in our lives with the help of 'The King'.  (Christ)

We also really enjoyed Hero Tales.  The bite sized biographies were perfect introductions to many heroes of the faith.  I need to go through and read the ones that were not scheduled in the Teacher's Manual as we finish out our school year.

We have read all the missionary stories, the six book set Christian Heroes: Then and Now, from the deluxe package portion of our curriculum from this year's studies.  They were all such powerful biographies.  I definitely think it was worth it to spend the extra for the deluxe package items.

My favorite was by far the story of Nate Saint.  It was a beautiful story of how God took such a tragic event and used it for His good.

Beau's favorite books were Amy Carmichael and Cameron Townsend.  He really has a love for India and did have before we ever started our India studies.  He now even plans, when he marries and has children, to name a daughter Amy after Amy Carmichael. 

Roo's favorites were Amy Carmichael and Gladys Aylward.  I think they were her favorites because they were women.  A first grader's logic.  ;)

Nate Saint is missing from the picture below because my mom currently has it.

I added six DVD's from the Torchlighters series.  We would watch these on the Friday evening as a family as part of our end of unit celebrations where they fit appropriately. We all, including Dad, highly enjoyed this series.

The order that I added them to our studies was as follows:

Jim Elloitt during South America after reading Nate Saint's bio
William Tyndale during Europe
Richard Wurmbrandt during Europe
Amy Charmichael during India after reading her bio
Eric Liddell during China
Gladys Aylward during China after reading her bio

Beau's favorite was the Wurmbrant story because of how he stood for his faith even while in prison and how that stand even caused one of the guards to accept Christ.

Roo's favorite was the Amy Charmichael story because of how she rescued girls and adopted them as her own.

My favorite was the Jim Elliott story for the same reasons I loved Nate Saint's story.  They were both two of the five men martered for their faith yet God later brought in Nate's sister and Jim's wife and child to live among the same people who murdered their loved ones.  The forgiveness and love these women showed to these people brought many to Christ.

I believe these books and DVD's have been life changing for our family and a big reason we chose to use My Father's World.  Our family's desire is to serve Christ and our decision to homeschool and to homeschool using My Father's World has been the best decisions, aside from each of us accepting Christ, we as a family have ever made.