Apologia Educational Ministries Review

I have been busily searching for a great Bible curriculum to use with Hailey next year.  I never found anything I was super happy with this year, so I have kind of just pieced things together as went along.  Next year I’ll have a newborn, so I want to make sure I find something that is nicely laid out for me without much prep work involved.  I was given the chance to review What on Earth Can I Do? from Apologia Educational Ministries and I was really excited to check it out.  I knew that Apologia has a great science curriculum, but I didn’t realize they had a Bible curriculum as well.

We used What on Earth Can I Do? ($39.00), the What on Earth Can I Do? Junior Notebooking Journal ($24.00) and the What on Earth Can I Do? Coloring Book ($8.00).  We also received the What on Earth Can I Do Notebooking Journal ($24.00).

What On Earth Can I Do? is the 4th book in the christian worldview series- What We Believe by Apologia.  The book is a hardcover textbook that has 8 lessons and 294 pages that helps children understand that God gave each of us special gifts to be used for His glory.  It is designed to be used with children in grades 1-6.  The lessons can be spread out as long as you see fit for your family.  There is a suggested schedule at the beginning of the book which would make each lesson last for 3 weeks.  You could stretch them out longer or do them quicker, whatever works best for you.

The 8 lessons cover:

1. Your story or God’s story?
2. Who put you in charge?
3. Will you be found faithful?
4. Where is your treasure?
5. Where does your time go?
6. Whose life is it anyway?
7. Why isn’t it easy being green?
8. What will happen when the master returns?

Then, within those lessons there are several components that you will see covered each time.  For example, each lesson has a section called The Big Idea which introduces the main topic in that lesson.  There will also be a Short Story which tells a story about other children and gives a little glimpse into their lives.  There is also a section called Hide It in Your Heart– where there are memory verses for your child to memorize.  You will also find a section called Parables of Jesus which is a parable from the Bible that has been adapted to help students have a better understanding of the story.  There are several other important components to each lesson, but that is just a brief description of a some of them.

We also used the Junior Notebooking Journal, for the younger elementary aged children, to go along with our studies. It is a spiral bound book that is 184 pages.  In the front of the journal there is a lesson plan guide to help you plan when to read what and which notebooking pages to do.  Again, it is a suggested schedule and you should use the pace that works best for your family.  The Notebooking Journal, meant for the older elementary aged children is also spiral bound and is 236 pages.  It is geared for kids who are ready to do more writing than what is included in the Junior Notebooking Journal.

The Coloring Book has pages to color that will go along with what you are reading to your child.

So, how did we use What on Earth Can I Do?

I planned to have our lessons be a little shorter than the recommended schedule in the book.  Hailey usually gets a little restless if I read too long, so I didn’t want her to get tired of listening to me read.  Plus, with a busy toddler, sometimes it’s hard to have uninterrupted reading time.  But, when I was reading the short stories or the parables for Jesus, Hailey begged me to read a little bit more.  And, Hunter actually sat and listened too.

While I read to Hailey from the textbook, she colored in the coloring book.

After we read the section for the day in the textbook there were notebooking pages to be completed.

 This particular page is called “I Spy.”  Hailey had to write or draw about where she had seen God’s works recently.  She decided to draw a rainy day where the sun came out and then a rainbow formed.

We also learned about what a tapestry is and how God uses the different events in our lives to develop us into who we are today.  Hailey had to design a tapestry that showed important scenes from her life.  She included things like when she was born, when Hunter was born, her first day of school, doing gymnastics and more.

She made this mini book about the fabric of her life.

There are also pages to help reinforce vocabulary being learned, such as word searches and cross word puzzles.

What On Earth Can I Do involves very little prep on the part of the parent- just get your textbook and notebooking journal out and you’ll be ready to go.  I found it to be easy to use and Hailey enjoyed listening to the readings.

Here is what is boils down to for me:

Pros:
Hailey really enjoyed the stories, and I did too.  They really kept our attention and we did not want to stop reading.
The notebooking journal reinforced what we were reading and had fun and educational activities.
It is easily adaptable for a variety of ages.
You can make the lessons as long or as short as you need them to be for the attention span of your children.

Cons:
Ummmmm… I can’t think of any 🙂  It is so easy to adapt it to fit your needs that I don’t think there are any cons.

Want to see some more of Apologia?  Check them out here:

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