For the Temple (A Homeschool Review Crew Post)

It’s my first Homeschool Review Crew of the year! And it’s coming from one of our very, very favorite vendors. It is always a pleasure to review an audio drama from Heirloom Audio. The newest production from Heirloom Audio is For The Temple.  It didn’t disappoint.

I can’t say give enough love to Heirloom Audio. They are a company that produces audio dramas based on the books written by G.A. Henty. Every one of them has been as exciting and well-produced as the other. If you haven’t heard of G.A. Henty, I recommend any of his stories for the homeschool family. He wrote with such conviction. Heirloom Audio brings out the best of his books.

For this review, we received a 2 CD set. The whole listening experience takes about 2 ½ hours….or at least how long the CD’s run. We get plenty of great listening in the car on the way to and from all of our activities. The quality of the production is first rate. The music! The actors! The message! 

So I need to tell you just a bit about the story itself.  We open with the narrator, voiced by the fabulous Brian Blessed, visiting with a young man in Vienna. After conversing about the beautiful architecture, the narrator begins the story of the destructing of the temple of Jerusalem.

And so begins the adventure. The time is AD 67 and we are introduced to a young man named John. His life plan is to take over his father’s vineyard one day and marry a family friend. But after a storm on the Sea of Galilee, he meets a man named Josephus. Josephus is a resistance fighter and encourages John to join the Jewish army.  You might know that Josephus was an actual Jewish historian AND resistance fighter. I love how these stories insert real-life figures.

While defending the city of Jotapata from the Romans, John meets his sidekick Jonas. By the way, Jotapata has a really cool pronunciation. Though I don’t remember naming any children Jotapata…no matter how it rolls off the tongue.

Anyhoo. Jotapata is soon lost to the Romans and John and his friend, Jonas escape the city. John forms a band of men and begins to hassle the Romans. As the story continues, John becomes determined to fight to save the temple of Jerusalem from Roman destruction.  It is all for not, but John meets followers of The Way during his adventures and comes to believe in Yeshua as the promised Messiah.

This story is filled with so many great themes. Integrity, loyalty, and courage…all important things I want to impart into my son. And as far as entertainment value…there is loads of that.  The battle scenes might be a bit scary for the younger crowd, but we appreciate all the battling. 

In addition to our CDs, we received a pdf download of the excellent Study Guide. It is 51 pages long and is filled with all kinds of goodies.

The Study Guide is divided into three different sections. The comprehension questions are located in the Listening Well section. You can find discussion and follow-up questions in Thinking Further and there is vocabulary in Defining Words. Of course, each section is found for every chapter.

In addition, you will find three Bible studies that accompany the story.  This study below talks about Proper Worship. It looks very timely. 

There is also quite a bit of historical information available (which I plan on incorporating into our lessons). 

Some is peppered throughout the guide.

Still, more is included in its own section.

You can see that the quality of the whole guide is just excellent. We have used Heirloom Audio guides for years and they are always thought provoking and extremely well-done. You can tell that great attention is paid to every detail. These Heirloom Audio folks are such talented folks. 

I can't say enough about Heirloom Audio. They have added such a richness to our homeschool experience. You can read more about our adventures with Heirloom Audio below. These are all my reviews for this great company!

Under Drake's Flag

In Freedom's Cause

The Dragon and the Raven

With Lee in Virginia

The Cat of Bubastes 

Beric the Briton

In the Reign of Terror

Captain Bayley's Heir

Wulf the Saxon

St. Bartholomew's Eve

You need For the Temple in your homeschool library! 

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