Letters To Egypt :(

I agree with you.  Last year, I attempted to read this to my 3rd grader.  I chose to shelve it for high school.  While I found it interesting, it was tedious to read aloud.  I think a high schooler would gain much from it.  Don’t feel bad.  The other books for geography in Module 1 are good.  Even the ones listed for 1st – 3rd could be enjoyed by your children.  We found them through our library system.  

We skipped Letters to Egypt last year.  I read two chapters, but it wasn’t working for us.

Ok, I read chapter one back in August to my newly homeschooled second grader. She didn’t grasp much of anything. I read some more independently and decided to shelf it until we come backtrack to his module. I have Visits to Africa and read the other suggested books, which I believe “The Butter Man” is the only one so far. Anyhow, we are getting ready to finish term one next week and I’m wondering if the extra books randomly added in with the map drill is enough? I’m thinking about checking the library for additional books about the African culture. Or, I want to have her speak to a few missionaries we know working in Africa. Will this with the map drill be sufficient for second grade?

We’ve also really loved Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan (especially as an audio book where the accent is gorgeous and authentic). It gives a beautiful and sometimes heartwrenching picture of Africa, from people groups to landscape to sounds and to matters of heart from a young person’s perspective. My children, 10, 8, 7, and 5, have thoroughly loved it … even my husband wept a bit in parts when listening in the car. There is a distinct Christian undercurrent to the story as well, with scripture woven in as an anchor for the characters.

Just like Erin.Kate said, we didn’t try to line it up.  I just read a chapter aloud each week, did map drills, and we played 10 days in Africa (a board game purchased at Amazon).  You can order it directly from the website I linked to.  They aren’t open on Sundays as an observation to the Sabbath day, but shipping is very reasonable. The catalog I have shows $4.95 for up to $45 in products.

That was how we ended up with the game – I saw it in the Rainbow Resource catalog and thought it would be perfect for the kids so it was one of the games I got for Christmas that year.  It really is a lot of fun and we’ve gotten the rest of the games over time.  They are all great, tho the Americas one is our least favorite and we rarely play that one.