TOS Review - Aplogia: Who am I? ~and what am I doing here?...

First off, I will come clean and admit that I am biased when it comes to Apologia Science and Press texts. I LOVE their books; I have yet to find any that I do not think are exceptional. So when the opportunity for a review came along, I was praying that I would be able to 'review' it. :) The Lord has really blessed us with some wonderful, fun, new school books to try out! And this has been such a blessing because I very seldom buy new curriculum without seeing it in person. That usually happens at a homeschool convention, but being on the road has made it difficult to attend one these last few years; we always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we won't even be able to attend the convention that will be in our hometown this year because it is in March. I am so NOT going home in March - it's still the fridged tundra there, and fridged tundras and RVs do not mix well.

All that being said, I was super excited to get the second text (and cooresponding goodies) in Apologia's Biblical Worldview series; Who Am I? and what am I doing here? ( the other 2 titles are: Vol.1: Who is God?, and Vol.3: Who is My Neighbor?). I suppose that now would be a good time to mention that I have never purchased/done a worldview text before! I should also note that had I known how wonderful this was going to be, I would have ordered it a long time ago (well, a year and a half ago when it first came out! LOL!)

Everyone has a worldview... the 'personal perspective' from which we analyze and process every bit of information that we receive, based on our beliefs. It is the good or evil values that we hold that determine how we process the world around us and make up the framework of our worldview.

As a believer in Christ, my 'worldview' should be one that filters every action, every decision, every reaction, through the Word of God; a biblical worldview. And I want my children to understand what a worldview is and how it affects our decisions and the lives we lead.

Having kids of all ages, I was hoping that this would be a good fit for several of my kiddos. Apologia's Biblical Worldview curriculum, What We Believe, is geared towards ages 6-14. I personally think that it can be used for the whole family - especially as a 'unit study' of sorts, which is what the kids and I are doing. The text is written directly to the student and is very personal and engaging, not at all preachy or dry.

This set of lessons includes 8 subjects:
1. What are We Doing Here?
2. What will You Make Today?
3. What's on Your Mind?
4. Can You Trust your Feelings?
5. Will you Choose Wisely?
6. How Will You Run the Race?
7. What Kind of Fruit are You Growing?
8. Who do You Think You Are?
- each of these lessons are broken into 15-17 components.

There are 4 different products that make up each What We Believe unit. The Who Am I? materials that we received were:
*Who Am I? text book - is a high quality hardcover text of 262 color pages. Retails for $39.
*Audio MP3 - this is an audio copy of the text. We personally won't use this much, and is not something that I would purchase, but it would be great for delayed readers or visually impared students (or auditory learners ;) Retail $19.
*Notebooking Journal - specific to each text, the notebooking journal is a (big - 248 pg) spiral bound collection of notebooking activities and also includes things like word puzzles and mini books. It also includes lesson plans. I love the notebooking journal. Retail $24 (worth it - unless you would like $200 worth! LOL!!!)
*Coloring book - love the 64 pg. coloring book! So much of the information that we are covering in the Who Am I? curriculum is appropriate for Emma and Savanna, but the work is too advanced; Emma writes, but not enough to notebook what is required in the text, and Savanna is not much of a writer yet, but she will color, so this is a great option for them - they get to do some 'schoolwork' for what we are learning through the text, but this is much more their speed than intensive notebooking. Retail $8
(when I purchase the other 2 volumes, I will get the text and the coloring book, and probably one notebook to reference).

The lesson plans detail a 48 lesson schedule, but this curriculum is meant to be used over several months, not a lesson a day; it is designed to be completed in anywhere from 4 to 9 months. We are doing it 2 to 3 times a week since the kids spread out the work between 2 days. And we are really enjoying using this curriculum - it is a fantastic catalist for incredible conversations about how we process information about the world around us. I love how it can be used as either a parent/teacher led class where you do everything together/as a group, or it can be an individual subject where the student works on it individually.
Apologia's Biblical Worldview curriculum, Who Am I?, is one of those rare homeschool gems that gets me all excited about school once again :)
Disclaimer: I received the Who Am I? text, audio, notebook, and coloring book free in exchange for my honest review of the product. No other compensation was received.
If you would like to check out what other Blog Crew Members had to say about Who Am I? also, you can check out their reviews here.