They Were Strong and Good

If you’ve stumbled here from Pinterest, or some other site … welcome! While each of these books/lessons can stand alone, they are also a part of a year-long series that we have taught at our homeschool co-op. Each lesson builds in part on the one before. Some stories also have similar themes with the books that go before/after them. If you are interested in more information, or to see the complete booklist, check out our main page, More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Lesson Plans, especially for homeschool and homeschool co-ops. Thanks for looking around, and welcome to the site!

They Were Strong And Good

by Robert Lawson

What I Need: 

  • They Were Strong And Good book
  • They Were Strong And Good handwriting sheet  (printable version here)
  • Family Tree Printable  (printable version here)
  • Family Tree Apples Printable
  • Family Tree Leaves Printable 
  •   (or Green Construction Paper Leaves)
  • Glue Sticks
  • World Map

Plan Ahead / Class Homework:

Get each student to bring in a list of their mom, dad, and grandparents (with their nicknames). OR (even better) pictures of their mom, dad, and grandparents. (If you want to do more and include siblings or greats, no problem – the craft allows for flexibility.


Get each student to find out a family story to share about a famous relative. 

Note: This is a book you have to read a few times to appreciate. I don’t love it – thought it’s growing on me. But I’ve read it through a few times now, and the more I read it, the more I appreciate it. There are probably things in it that will make today’s modern reader cringe – talk of slavery and yankees and fighting Satan. A divided North and South. Indians that steal food and a man who owns a “Negro Slave”. At first glace, there are some who that would pass by this book as outdated or inappropriate. And since the copy I have is a library discard book, probably that is exactly what many have done. However – this book is full of history. Whether the way we, as Americans, acted in history was right or wrong, this is an account, told “as I remember”, and it is exactly that – an account of the beginnings of America as told by who grew up here. As the famous quote goes, “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” …  so, while it may be slightly uncomfortable to read parts of this story, still – read it. Share the good and the bad. Share what we have learned from history. Share the importance of family, and things passed down from generation to generation. This is not just a story, this is a retelling of American History.    

If you are using this lesson for a co-op – you will definitely not be able to fit in all of the suggested questions… these are just ideas to get you started. There are soooo many concepts within this book that had our class coming up with plenty of their own questions.   

Review: 

If you’re following along with this year’s FIAR-inspired Co-op Curriculum, take a moment to review the last three books you’ve done on Appalachian Life, Daniel’s Duck, When I Was Young In the Mountains, and Amber on the Mountain. It doesn’t have to take a long time, just a few simple questions like, 

  • Who can tell me what we have been studying?
  • Who remembers the name of the mountain range we have been learning about?
  • Who can tell me a difference between Mountain life and City life

You could ask a few more questions, but since today’s story is a little long, with plenty of things to explain, you may want to keep the review shorter today. 

Introduce the Story, and new Topic:

Today we have a new story, and a new theme. Our next couple books have to do with Family. All of us have a family.  We have mommies and daddies. Our mommies and daddies have mommies and daddies. 

  • Does anyone know where their mom and dad met?
  • Does anyone know what their mom or dad did before they had children?
  • Does anyone know anything special about their grandma or grandpa?
Every family has a story. Every family has a special history and circumstances that happened in their family to shape who you are today. 


Today’s story is called “They Were Strong and Good”, by Robert Lawson.

  • What do you think about when you hear this title?
  • What does that little gold seal on the cover mean? 
  • Does it make you want to know more? 
  • Who is They? 
The story was written in 1940, which is probably before most of your grandparents were born. Mr. Lawson wrote about his family and his family history. 

Take a moment to mention that there are some things in this book that aren’t so nice. Like slavery. And war. We don’t really use the word Negro or Indian much anymore. What is “History”? Record of things that happened, sometimes good, sometimes bad.  


Read the Story:


As you read, pause often. There are a lot of difficult concepts. There are several big words. 

If you have a large map, show the places mentioned in the story as you go along (take a moment to refresh yourself on the locations of: New York, Caribbean Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Isthmas of Panama, Holland, New Jersey, Minnesota, England, and Alabama. They are all mentioned or alluded to.

If you want to further the Geography lesson, 
  • Take a moment to explain what an Island or and Isthmas is. 
  • Or take a moment to review directionals, when his father went North to NY or his mother East, from Minnesota, etc. 

If you want to further the History lesson, 
  • Take a moment to explain slavery
  • Take a moment to look at the picture of Patterson, NJ before and after and discuss how lands change over time
  • Discuss how the English / Dutch emmigrated to America and settled and spread out. (hence the Englishman and the Dutch girl in the story)


Point to Emphasize (as said in the author’s introduction and conclusion): they were not famous, but they were strong and good. They helped to make the United States the great nation it is. Let us be proud of our heritage. 

Questions to Conclude:

  • Now that you’ve heard the story, why do you think Mr. Lawson titled his book, ‘”They were Strong and Good”
  • Why do you think Mr. Lawson wrote this book? (Proud of his family, family heritage, wanted to share history of the United States)
  • What can we learn from this book? (History of United States, Mothers and Fathers, Grandparents – difficult life to settle or survive early years in the United States, these men and women were indeed strong and good.)
  • Was everything perfect in this book? (No, but we can learn from it)

What about your Family?

  • Does anyone have any family stories?
  • What do you call your father’s father? Your mother’s mother?

Family Tree Craft:



When you finish the story, show the class the picture of the family tree, located inside the cover of The Were Strong and Good (on most editions).  If you have access to a board, go ahead and write your own family tree on the board as an example. 




In a simple family tree, circles are girls and squares are boys. Use this for demonstratin on the board so that the children understand the need for distinction. 

For the craft project today, I included different colored apples. Choose one apple color to be the boys and one to be the girls. I also include a leaf template, but if you think its easier to use green construction paper (or other fall colors), go right ahead.  


Click here for printable version

Have the class place their name on the paper, and an apple (symbolizing themself) within the trunk of the tree. Place their mother and father direction above them (one red, one green apple), and a mother or father above each of them.


If you’re running short on time, have a helper pre-cut out leaves and apples – this was needed in our class.

The class should have each brought in either pictures of their parents and grandparents, or a name that they call them. Go ahead and write those names or glue those pictures onto the apples.  


Handwriting Sheet

This week’s verse was recommended to me by another one of our co-op teachers, and I thought it fit perfectly with the book. What a great time to bring out this picture of things being passed down, both physical lessons as well as spiritual lessons. 

Remind the class to always start their letters at the top. 
Click here for printable version





That’s it for this week! To see what we’ve done so far in our Homeschool Co-op’s Literature Series this year, click here. Each lesson  builds on the one before and seeks to cover basic geography within the book, historical contexts, a handwriting sheet and a language arts lesson, as it applies to the book. 

Or, you can check out the complete Learning the ABC’s through Literature Series, which is a similar series that we did with this same group of kiddos a year earlier. Both of these series of books have been inspired by the Five in a Row curriculum, with many of the books being the same. The ideas, implementation of it for a co-op, and printables are all my own, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for stopping by to check it out!