If you have been reading our blog for a while you know how much I enjoy Heirloom Audio. Their audio dramas are amazing, I can't say enough good things about them! Our family was recently chosen to review their newest production, For the Temple by G.A. Henty, which is about the fall of Jerusalem. You know I jumped at the opportunity! I used to be the type of person that had to have the physical in hand to enjoy it, but I have found myself starting to appreciate audio books almost just as much now. I can't believe I just said that! It is the truth though. Yikes! Anyway, enough with that go grab a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and come on an adventure with us as we tell you all about For the Temple.
What is Heirloom Audio?
Heirloom Audio Production is a company whose goal is to bring history back to life from a non-secular point of view. They do this with adventure-filled audio dramas, in hope to submerge the listener. They use fictional characters with "all-too-real" events, telling it from a point of view the listener will understand. They never fail to include God in their stories, which is something I really value since He is the creator of history itself.
What did we receive?
The Basic Plot
The total listening time is about 2 1/2 hours. The story took place after Jesus died. The main character is John, the son of a farmer who specializes in winemaking. While John was out on the Sea of Galilee with his soon-to-be wife, Mary, a storm started and they have almost washed away, if it had not been for Josephus, the Jewish governor, saving them. He soon convinced John to help them fight the Romans. With the constant fighting, he terrorized the Romans and became known as the Great John of Gamala. He met a Roman named Titus and they became good friends. He made Titus promise to refrain from attacking the Holy Temple and in return, he'll make sure the Romans weren't attacked. Although he made that promise one night Titus' men grew antsy and attacked the Holy Temple, despite trying he was unable to stop them. John witnessed the whole thing, including seeing Titus try to stop his men, so he wasn't angry with him. While John was at war, in Jerusalem, he heard tales of Jesus and inquired to know more, with receiving this knowledge of Him he became a Christian. Was the Temple destroyed? You will have to listen to find out!
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| The cover art is amazing! |
The Study Guide
The study guide was designed to help parents further discuss the storyline. Each set of questions covers a track. This is great because it gives you a stopping point to start your discussion. They each have 3 parts, Listening Well, Thinking Further, and Defining Words. |
| This is a sample from the study guide. |
Listening Well - a list of questions about what was heard in the track. All the answers are in the track.
Thinking Further - a list of questions that will require your child to think and draw a conclusion.
Defining Words - this is a list of words pulled from the track that kids may not know. Finding the definition of these will not only help build your child's vocabulary, but it will help them better understand the story.
How we used it
We normally listen to these audio dramas together as a family, however, around the time we received this, we had a few rounds of sickness sweep through our home. Our girls ended up with a case of food poisoning so, they listened to it while being confined to their room.
The rest of the family listened one night during dinner and chore time. That is one of the great things about homeschooling you can tweak things to work in your favor.
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| As the diffuser sent EO in the air the story played for the girls. |
The rest of the family listened one night during dinner and chore time. That is one of the great things about homeschooling you can tweak things to work in your favor.
My original plan (this may work great for you) was to go over the study guide questions, for each track, before listening to the track, so that the kids would know what to listen for and be aware of the words they may not know the definition to. I planned to have them define the words from the "defining words" section prior to us listening to that track.
Instead, we worked through the study guide after listening to the complete story. They were able to decide if they wanted to write out the defining words, only my oldest chose to that.
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| What my daughter used to define the words from the list. |
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| She wrote definitions from the Bible dictionary and Webster dictionary for some words so that she could compare them. |
Our Final thoughts
My oldest daughter said, "To be completely honest with you guys I was not excited at all to listen to this book in the past we've listened to some of the other audio dramas and it was quite a challenge for me to keep up with the actual story because of all the excitement in the background. This story had just the right amount of excitement! It was not too much to where I was lost and it wasn't too little to where I was bored. I really enjoyed the storyline! It was amazing seeing John leave as a child with no realization of what was going on with the world outside his father's farm and then coming back a man with the realization that he wanted a wife, children, and to carry on his father's legacy. Overall it was a really good story that I really loved."
My youngest daughter said, "it was a good story, in fact, it is the best one by Heirloom audio. The story kept me excited the whole time. I thought it was brave of her to go out to sea even though the weather was bad. I would not have gone. I would recommend this to other families!"
My oldest son, "I liked the action most definitely! I also liked how the boy John grew up and became a good leader. Most of all I love how he became a Christian!"
Our entire family enjoyed this story!
As always I appreciate the time you spend with and I hope your time was well spent! For the Temple is available in digital format or physical disc. Be sure to stop back by and let me know what you think after you listen to the story.
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