Apologia - What on Earth Can I do? Set #REVIEW

When we started homeschooling two years ago Apologia Educational Ministries was one of the first companies I fell in love with.  Their science is a staple at our house.  The We Believe Series has been on my wishlist so I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to review book 4 in the series!

What we received:

What on Earth Can I Do? (hardback book) - $39.00
What On Earth Can I Do Notebooking Journal  - $24.00
What on Earth Can I Do? Junior Notebooking Journal  - $24.00
What on Earth Can I Do? Coloring Book - $8.00

The series is recommended for grades 1st-6th.  I however think it could easily be used in any grade.

This book is the fourth  and final book in the We Believe Series.  The focus of this book is Biblical Worldview of Stewardship.  This is a bible curriculum/study.  You can start with any of the books in the series, do them in order or use them independently.

How we used this set:

I planned on mainly using this book with my eleven year old 6th grader.  I soon found out that it was also a great study for my 13 year old 8th grader as well.  We used this two ways.  Sometimes I read the portions out loud and we talked about it and other times I assigned the reading independently.  My 11 year old used the notebooking journal and coloring page. 

The textbook is hardback book has full color and is very sturdy.  It is broken up into the following lessons:

• Lesson 1:  Your Story or God's Story?
• Lesson 2:  Who Put You In Charge?
• Lesson 3:  Will You Be Found Faithful?
• Lesson 4:  Where Is Your Treasure?
• Lesson 5:  Where Does Your Time Go?
• Lesson 6:  Whose Life Is It Anyway?
• Lesson 7:  Why Isn't It Easy Being Green?
• Lesson 8:  What Will Happen When The Master Returns?

Each lesson is broken up in to key components:

• The Big Idea - an introduction to the main topic of the lesson.
• What You Will Do - goes over learning objectives for lesson.
• Short Story- A short story featuring kids that shows a worldview in action.
• Think About It- thought provoking questions.
• Words You Need to Know - vocabulary from the lesson.
• Hide It in Your Heart - Bible memory verses.
• Integrated Learning -  articles to help further ideas.
• What Should I Do? -  kids are given godly character traits to apply to their own lives based off the lesson.
• Prayer - a sample pray to go along with the lesson.
• Parables of Jesus - a parable adapted from the Bible.
• Going Deeper - discussion questions.
• House of Truth - four of the lessons end with this activity (and it builds on from other books.)

There is a sample lesson plan in the front of the book and in the front of the notebooking journal.  The suggested plan is 3 weeks per lesson done twice a week.  You can adapt this very easily though to fit your own schedule. 

There are two versions of the notebooking journal.  We used the older kids version which is simply called Notebooking Journal.  For younger students you would want to use the Junior Notebooking Journal as it is adapted for them.

The Notebooking journal is spiral bound.  In the front is a lesson plan schedule.  I love this!  I think it is so easy to just have your student cross off the boxes as they complete the tasks. This book is filled with color pages and is very visually appealing.  At the end of the book is a collection of mini-book activities which help cement what your child is learning.

The coloring book is simply coloring pages to go along with the lessons.  I think these would especially be wonderful for younger students.

My Thoughts:

This book is packed with information.  I stated earlier that I thought it would be better for older students and by that I also mean maybe starting it at 4th or higher.  Especially if you have a sensitive child like mine.  When we read about King's Cross Station I personally teared up and so did my 6th grader.  At 11 I felt that it was age appropriate but I wouldn't feel as comfortable with a 6 year old and the subject material.  It was a great opportunity to talk about how the world was back then but I could see some kid's having trouble with processing the information.  I also think that it could easily be used for 7th-12th grade as a independent Bible Worldview course.  The stories included are so engaging that I think it would still hold an older child's interest and the worldview topic is still challenging for that age as well. 

I'm going to give you some pros and cons for this book set:

Pros:

• Engaging stories
• notebooking journal makes it easy to use as a complete course
• thought provoking

Cons:

• I wish it had the King James Version of the Bible (I know not everyone wants that but that is my peeve with many curriculum)
• Readings can be long and have to be broken up
• I had trouble figuring out when to use what coloring page - a schedule would have helped

Overall I really am enjoying this book.  I have found that some parts are really designed well for reading aloud.  Other stories are a bit longer and work better for independent reading.  That worked out fine once I got into the groove picking which parts to do what with.  I really like the combination of the journal and the book.  Having the activities readily available makes it a easy curriculum to incorporate into our schedule.  One particular thing that made me excited was when our Pastor preached the other day from a parable portion of scripture and my oldest came home and remarked about how that was similar to what he read in What on Earth.  He was able to expand on both the preaching and what he read.  This shows me things are sinking in!  Success!! I joke but honestly that is what all this teaching is really all about.  Will they learn enough that it sinks in and they can relate it to their world around them.