26
Feb

In Freedom’s Cause Review

It’s that time of year, for us anyway, when it’s nice to take a little break from our regular curriculum and change things up a bit. We have been using an online history program this year and Hailey was starting to get a little bit tired of it. So, when I was given the chance to review In Freedom’s Cause Single Package from Heirloom Audio Productions I thought it would be a nice break from our regular curriculum.

Sometimes history can get a little bit dry and boring, but the goal of Heirloom Audio Productions is to bring real history to life. As they researched and prepared to make this production, they actually traveled to Scotland and walked where the main characters of this story had once walked. So you know they are serious about making the story exciting!

We received In Freedom’s Cause on CD- there were two CDs, with over 2 hours of entertainment to cover the entire story. The story is about William Wallace and Robert Bruce and how they fought to try to gain Scotland’s freedom. Scotland was suffering due to cruelty of their English leader. Even though it seemed impossible, William Wallace took a stand and struggled to gain freedom and inspired many others. Even though he would not live to see Scotland gain freedom he was the inspiration for Robert the Bruce, who later defeated the English.

This audio CD is more than just a reading of the story- it is like you are listening to a movie. There are all sorts of sound effects and great music. There are some pretty big name stars among the cast including Joanne Froggatt (from Downtown Abbey), Billy Boyd (from Lord of the Rings), Skandar Keynes (from Chronicles of Narnia), James Cosmo (from Braveheart), plus more.

We also received the In Freedom’s Cause Study Guide (Digital Download) to go along with the CD. There is a set of questions to go along with each track on the CD. In each set of questions there are three parts- a Listening Well section, Thinking Further questions, and a Defining Words section. The Listening Well section is basically questions that you will find the answers to by listening to the story. The Thinking Further section is just what it sounds like- it makes you think about what you heard by asking deeper questions. Lastly the Defining Words section goes over new words that your child heard in the story.

In addition we received In Freedom’s Cause Soundtrack (MP3 download) which has all of the original music, and the Printable copy of the Prayer of William Wallace. (digital download)

So, how did we use this? We took a break from our regular history curriculum and listened to part of the CD each day for history. After we listened to part of the CD we would stop and go over the questions in the study guide. Hailey enjoyed listening to the story and there were even parts that made her laugh. She decided it would be fun to talk like the characters and she developed an accent after listening each day :-). She did enjoy the story but also said that sometimes she was a little confused about who was talking. We used the study guide for the beginning tracks but found that most of it was too difficult for Hailey (age 8, in 3rd grade). Although it is recommended for ages 6 and up, I think the study guide would be more for a middle school aged child. I think it would have been nice to have included an answer key with the study guide because there were a couple of questions where I was unsure of the answer.

Overall, it was a good story. I would recommend listening to it all at once, rather than a little at a time as we did. When we listen to it again we will do it in the car on a trip. I think it would be easier to follow along listening to it all at one time. I would recommend it for older children- probably middle school and up. It would be a fun addition to your history curriculum and Heirloom Audio Productions definitely knows how to bring history to life.