Walking With The Waodani: My Review

We have been checking out the preview version of a brand new unit study from Home School Adventure Co.

I am proud to have reviewd products from this company before: Philippians in 28 Weeks and Mere Christianity Critical Analysis Journal, both of which were also authored by Stacy Farrell.

It was difficult for me to choose which of the Home School Adventure Co. products I wanted my family to review, but in the end, after switching back and forth a number of times, I went with Walking With The Waodani, written by Stacy Farrell. I chose it in part because we very much enjoy the unit study format as one that we can generally all do together, even though my kids are at different levels of ability. It was also a topic I was interested in, having read materials before written by Elisabeth Elliot. She was married to Jim Elliot, one of the missionaries killed by the tribe written about in this study. You can read more about Elisabeth Elliot here.

Walking with the Waodani is a geographical unit study that features homeschool graduate Russell Winter’s 7-week-long adventure in Ecuador. We received this in digital format for the purpose of this review.

One thing I love about the unit study format is that you cover a lot more than one subject within any unit study. In Walking With The Waodani, you will learn about history and geography. You will have creative writing and world view studies. And your children (especially if you have boys, like I do) will enjoy hitting topics like anacondas, grubs, and piranha (all things *I* could go my entire life without hearing anything about, lol!)

This study came about after the author’s teen sons asked to go to an airsoft tournament hosted by a young man named  Russell Winter, a meeting which led to the creation of the unit study Walking With The Waodani. You may read all about that meeting, and where it led, here.

This study is meant to cover one lesson per week, but really, if you want to be more in depth like we do, you can stretch that out just as you can with any unit study. Another positive of using this format! 🙂

Here are the things which are covered in each lesson of Walking With The Waodani:

• And introduction which will include the famous nickname of the territory you are learning about.
• Geographic data (maps, statistics, facts)
• Stories about people and places having to do with the featured territory.
• Food and markets: in some lessons there are actual recipes, in some, descriptions of things eaten by people there. Things that *I* would (as I told my missionary cousin after seeing bugs, etc in pictures of a marketplace) just have to go on to Heaven before I would eat it, lol!
• The various ecosystems, with their very diverse plants and animals.
• Worldview, exploring religious, philosophical and ideological perspectives which impact Ecuador, along with occasional stories which help us understand the underlying beliefs of the people.

Each lesson also includes what Stacy Farrell calls the Travel Journal components:

• Notebook pages for use in answering questions having to do with the lesson or an outside source related to the lesson.
• Map Work: marking geographical or statistical data, and in lesson two the page has questions relating to the ministry talked about.
• Rate the recipe: assume the role of a food critic and critique any recipe in the lesson.
• Draw and write about an amazing animal in Ecuador.
• Creative Writing. Don’t worry about technique, grammar, etc, just set a timer and GO!

We are really enjoying Walking With The Waodani, and i think you will, as well! As I said, we are working with a preview version. The entire unit study has not yet been released, but if you go to this page and sign up, you will be notified when the full version is released. I personally can barely wait for it!

To read 99 other fair and honest reviews of this and three other products from Home School Adventure Co., please click on the banner below.

As always, I would just love it if you would join me in all of “My Journeys Through Life.” Just go to the subscription box at the top of the blog and enter your email information. After that, you will always know when there is something new happening. I hope to see you here very soon! -)