Asia: Its People and History serves as an interesting supplement for the study of Asia for those who want to teach their children from a Christian missionary perspective. This 95-page book introduces six Asian countries—Laos, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Iran, and Vietnam—through stories and brief histories.
It’s great for children in the elementary grades because it relies heavily on fictional stories about children.
The study should take about 16 weeks to complete, although you might finish in less time. There are from two to four lessons for each country. The first lesson about each country begins with a story, and each story is followed by discussion questions. Stories teach something of the culture, but they always include Christian elements. Many of them focus on the difficulty of living as a Christian within anti-Christian cultures.
The next week focuses on the history and culture of the people with emphasis upon the major religions and the status of Christians in the country’s modern-day culture. History and culture lessons always include an activity. These might be puzzles, written activities, or hands-on activities; some reproducible activity pages are at the back of the book. Web addresses are occasionally included sites where you can find more information or more stories, and there are frequent references to the authors’ own website where the activity pages can be downloaded for free. Children are frequently urged to pray for people in these countries.
Lessons alternate between storytelling and history. Laos and Bangladesh each have four lessons, and they both double up another round of storytelling and another history/culture lesson. Since lessons vary in length, you might finish some lessons in one sitting while others might be spread out a bit more.
Because the history is not comprehensive, Asia: Its People and History should not be your primary resource for learning about Asia. You can read it on its own, but it should work very well as a supplement alongside a more comprehensive study of Asian history or geography.
