My heritage is Cherokee Indian, so naturally when I saw Mrs. Kargbo's unit study on Native Americans, I wanted to study it. The study covers the North/Southwest tribes in the United States. It is a six-week study intended for grades 1-4.

The objective of the study is to gain an understanding of the Native Americans in the United States. An important concept to me was the need to understand God's heart for native people and the importance of leading them to salvation through Christ. This unit study looks at Native American culture and the food, clothing, daily life, housing, communication, and traditional and religious beliefs. In the front is a list of quite a few resources that are to be used as part of the study--many biographies (such as, Sacajawea, Sequoyah, Squanto, and Tecumseh) and as many as 30 books for required reading. I do like all the resources that are listed in the Appendix, and the word searches are fun. I like to use comparative charts as well to get a better understanding of the whole concept.

I do wonder whether six weeks is too long a time frame for completing the study. I think someone would have to be extremely patient and creative to keep students interested for that long. I showed the materials to some young girls who are neighbors and asked them how they liked the study and whether it would keep their attention for that long. One said, "No way. It looks like all the reading would make it boring." The other said, "I love the stuff in the back, and it looks very interesting. And I like the games in the back, but I wouldn't want to do it for more than one or two weeks. And they have too many books to try to keep up with for the reading."

I would like the study as a guide but not to follow step-by-step with my family because it's just too involved for our lifestyle. I'd much rather hit some trails or museums and learn by being there. I would probably buy this study to have as a reference.

Product review by Nancy King, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November 2008