Halliburton’s Book of Marvels | Video Companion

Halliburton’s Book of Marvels very quickly became our favorite book over our course of study in 2016/2017. Following Ambleside Online for year 4 and 5  (you can read more of our year plans here) I squished things around a little bit and had my year 4 son join us for the year 5 readings.

I’d had an inkling that Halliburton’s Book of Marvels might become our favorite, so selfishly chose to read it to both boys this year rather than have just my oldest read it himself.
It has been SO great reading Halliburton’s Book of Marvels together. Every chapter has elicited a reaction of awe from them, as well as a strong desire to travel and visit the sites. Yes, please! There isn’t much I love more than watching my boys reaction to new information. It is delightful.

While Richard Halliburton’s descriptions are vivid and beautiful the pictures themselves leave a lot to be desired with their lackluster black and white graininess. (Though Halliburton did take his own pictures on his adventures, which is kind of fun!)
Each chapter finds me searching for corresponding videos of each location – and I thought I would share the ongrowing list with you here! Organized by chapter you will find videos that we have watched and found helpful to help understand more what is being described in the Book of Marvels. This in no way takes the place of reading this beautiful book but is rather meant to be a companion to the Book of Marvels.

This post covers the Occident – the first half of Halliburton’s Book of Marvels. This takes you almost to the conclusion of year 5, term 3. I opted to end the school year with the conclusion of The Occident, despite the fact that it doesn’t faithfully adhere to the AO schedule. You can find the video companion for part two, The Orient, here.

The Book of Marvels has recently been reprinted by Living Book Press, and while I have not seen a copy of them myself I have heard great things about them! They are going to be your cheapest source, unless you happen to be one of the fortunate ones to find an elusive copy at a thrift store! I paid $35 for my damaged copy from Ebay, which is on the very low end.

In some cases the original marvel discussed in the book has been replaced with something new and I have tried to find videos that honor the old and the new.

I have turned off suggested videos with each of these, but please use your own discernment for letting your child watch these online.

Additionally, you can find maps to print to enhance your child’s study of these geographical locations here. (this is an archived page of the previous link – the website is no longer active, but this link should work! thank you to those who bring broken links to my attention! super helpful!)

Chapter one – Transbay Bridge

A sweet and sad tribute to the original Bay Bridge (as talked about in The Book of Marvels) and the new bridge being built in its place:

Chapter two – Golden Gate Bridge

The quality of this one is old and grainy, but the information of the netting is so good, as is the original footage that is used!

Chapter three – Yosemite Valley

A well done gopro HD video of a climb of halfdome, with gorgeous scenery!

Chapter four – Grand Canyon

On Powell’s expedition

Drone footage of the Colorado River

Chapter five – Boulder (Hoover) Dam

An amazing look at the Hoover Dam with an engineer host sharing his excitement over it.

Chapter six – Niagara Falls

There are so many amazing drone videos on the falls. I picked out this one because it has great aerial footage, showing off the horseshoe shape in such a unique way – and it’s short!

Chapter seven – New York City

This city was so hard to find a good video for – and then I found two amazing ones!  Note: there are many amazing drone videos, but a lot of the ones I previewed had raunchy music or were SUPER long! The first is drone footage at night, the second is a computer generated look at the city growing over 500 years.

Chapter eight – Washington DC

I chose this video because the info is solid and it covers the locations covered in the book … even if it is a marketing ploy put out by a realtor. It was the most pleasant, clean, and brief clip I could find and it will be a great visual for the kids to see the places Halliburton is discussing.

Chapter Nine – Fort Jefferson

Mama’s, if you’re not reading this book out loud, make sure you don’t miss this chapter in Halliburton’s book! Thus far, it is by far my favorite! It gave me chills to read the letter he shared at the end. SUCH a beautiful way for our children to be learning about history! This video covers much of what is in the chapter with the story of Dr. Mudd and gives some beautiful aerial shots of the fort.

Chapter 10 – Mexico, Popocatepetl Smoking Crater

I chose two clips for this week, the first is a very recent live camera of Popocatepetl smoking. The second is a really interesting video with incredible footage of another volcano. There are false accounts going around of it being Popocatepetl, but this video link is shared by National Geographic and they say this volcano in the second video is located in Vanuatu. It is SO interesting!

update: I have created a playlist on Youtube for these videos. I don’t know that each weeks videos will come from Youtube, so check back here if it is missing a week or two.

Chapter 11 – The Rain God’s City – Chichen Itza

An older video, but well narrated and matches a lot of what is covered in the text.

Chapter 12 – Haiti – Christophe’s Castle

This HD DJI drone video is SO beautiful! No narrative, just an incredible sweep of the views and the castle.

Chapter 13 –

This video on the history of the Panama Canal is lengthy (8 minutes) but does an excellent job of showing all those involved in the development of the canal, as well as the modifications made to it between 2007-2014.

Chapter 14 – Machu Picchu

A descriptive, visual look at the ancient ruins as described in chapter 14.

Chapter 15 – Iguaza Falls

There are many videos available of the Falls, but this one is kind of fun with the way the drone goes “down” the falls. A bit long for just drone footage, but you can cut it off once the kids have an idea of what it looks like.

Chapter 16 -River of January | Statue of Christ the Redeemer

This is CRAZY! It’s a bit nauseating to watch him climb the stairs, but the view from the top of the statue is totally worth seeing!

Chapter 17 – The Rock of Gibraltar

This video isn’t HD, but it is wonderfully informative and interesting with the modern addition of what happens with traffic when flights come in.

Chapter 18 – Carcassonne

A (somewhat length) drone footage of the castle.

Chapter 19 – Mount St Michael

This shows the tide coming in and out, people on a footbridge with the changing of the tide, and bits of the castle. A great (albeit no commentary) video on the islet.

Chapter 20 – Reims Cathedral

There aren’t many options of good videos of this cathedral, so until something new pops up, this one will have to do! I have started it at 30 seconds. And the camera is a bit shaky. But I liked it best of the limited videos available to give a overall perspective of the grandeur of this cathedral.

Chapter 21 – Matterhorn – Tiger of the Alps

There weren’t a lot of good options, but this is a slide show of gorgeous photographs someone compiled from their visit!

Chapter 22 – The Monastery of St Bernard

This was another of Halliburton’s wonders that was hard to find a good video on, but this slide show depicts some gorgeous views of the area.

Chapter 23 – St Peter’s

This video shows more of Rome than just the church, but is beautiful footage and worth watching!

Chapter 24 – Pompeii and Vesuvius

This 8 minute video is a great companion to this chapter!! It covers the timeline of the events of the day the volcano erupted
.

Chapter 25 – Pompeii

The ruins preserved from the ashes at Pompeii

Chapter 26 – Isle of Capri the Blue Grotto

A video of the blue grotto – kind of fun to see all the tourists there waiting for their turn to go through the cave!

Chapter 27 – Athena’s Temple

This was another of Halliburton’s wonders that I couldn’t find an amazing video of, but this man’s video of himself with the temple made me smile. haha

Chapter 28 – Simonopetra Monastery

I tried finding something on the unique history of the country with no women, but nothing popped up. So a video of simonopetra monastery with chanting monks will have to do for this chapter!

Chapter 29 – The Heart of Russia

An outside and inside look at St Basil’s cathedral.

Chapter 30 – The Mother of Churches – Santa Sophia

A cartoon-style, but very informative, TED-TALK video on the history of the church.