Apologia Who Am I? Review

Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here?

Web Site: www.apologia.com

Cost: Text - $39, Journal - $24, Coloring Book - $8, Audio CD - $19

Ages: Elementary to Middle School

I was simply amazed by the generosity of Apologia when they sent us their Who Am I? curriculum for review.  Not only did they send the text, but also a coloring book, notebooking journal and the entire book recorded on MP3-CD for audio learners.

I’ve always been a big fan of Apologia.  Since we started homeschooling, Apologia has been our go-to curriculum for science.  Last year, I was blessed to review Volume 1 in their What We Believe series – Who is God?  You can see that review here.  Who Am I? is the second volume in the series.

We have not had the opportunity to finish the series; however, as usual, I am impressed with the organization and approach Apologia has taken to discussing with children their faith and the Christian worldview.  You can view the Table of Contents to see the organization and thorough breakdown for each chapter.  Each chapter contains scripture, story, discussion and relevant aspects of both Christian and non-Christian life today.    For example, we learn about the day-to-day life of a girl living in a Muslim country.  Another chapter discusses communism and North Korea.  By including history, present day example, biblical study and fictional story – children are exposed to a wide-range of learning methods to better define their own Christian walk.  To see a sample lesson - click here.

I LOVE the note-booking journals available for many of Apologia’s subjects.  My son completed two while working through science the last few years.  This journal is no different.  It’s a hands-on way for students to not only read the material, but interact with, contemplate, practice and illustrate their reactions to each lesson.  The Journal begins with lesson plans to help you coordinate reading the text with using the journal.  My younger son particularly enjoys the mini-book projects, crosswords and word searches.  These journals help the kids really own and enjoy the material they learn.  Additionally, when the book is complete and the journal has been finished, they have a nice memento of their time spent learning that they can refer back to.  I think it would be especially nice to keep these journals and then have them revisited once the kids are in high school to see how their perspective and their faith has grown and matured.  To see a sample page from the journal, click here.

My boys are too old for the coloring book and are not auditory learners, so we didn’t really use these tools.  However, I believe if you have a mixed age group of children using this book, having the coloring pages would be great for the younger children while the older ones work on their journals.  Additionally, the auditory CD is good not only for auditory learners, but for groups of children where the parent can have the younger ones listening while the older ones follow along in the book.

I can’t recommend Apologia enough.  Their materials are always high quality, in-depth and include the tools necessary for your student to not only learn, but exerpience the materials being taught.  I’ve seen first-hand how this leads to long-term learning.

To see other reviews by the TOS Crew – click here.

*** I received this curriculum as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest review.