Apologia What We Believe Series :: Who Am I? (Book 2)

Apologia is well known among homeschoolers for their science curriculum elementary through high school. Our family was recently introduced to another branch of what they offer – the What We Believe series.

Four books focused on worldview training for ages 6-14, these were created to equip kids to understand truth and to tackle the various messages of our culture today.

Apologia’s series takes a look at core beliefs of the Christian faith, and explains each one to children with a variety of stories, lessons and questions.

Our family is working through book two this year:  Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here? and so far…we are enjoying it immensely!

The books are created to build upon one another.  While we haven’t completed book 1, Who is God?, I’ve found the second book easy to follow without any difficulty.  Here and there it will refer to previous material covered, but we haven’t been left feeling as if we don’t understand.

Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here? chapters cover:

• God made me in His image and crowned me with glory
• He has given me special gifts and a unique purpose in life
• I can creatively express God’s love
• I am meant to think about beautiful and praiseworthy things, especially God and His Word
• I must make decisions based on God’s truth;
• I can always know the wise thing to do;
• I must cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in my life;
• I am a beloved child of God whose true identity is found in Christ.

Each chapter is written at about a 5th grade reading level and is made to take about two weeks, but we’re taking our time through it. I have a newly-turned seven-year-old, 10-year-old and 14-year-old who are all studying together — I read from the book for morning devotional time and we discuss the questions or text.  The books could be used independently as well if a child is ready.

The text is easy to read and understand even for younger children.  While my seven-year-old might not stick around for all of the questions and discussion, he is enjoying the stories!  We all like the worldview portion which provides intro to various religions from a child’s perspective.  Great questions provided for the end of these sections!

The books are hardcover, printed on quality and thick paper and the numerous photographs within are bright and definitely enhance the text.  I’m incredibly pleased with the layout and visual aspects of the book.

Written in a non-denominational way, several translations of Scripture are used — NIV and NLT being ones I noticed.

While we don’t use these extras, Apologia also created a coloring book and notebooking journal to go along with the core text.  We do own the audio CD and have found  this quite helpful — it’s a non-dramatized reading of the text.

** Note that the audio is an enhanced MP3-CD format and will only play in devices (or cars) which can play an MP3.  So while it’s great in our computers, we couldn’t use it in our (older) van.

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Overall, I like the style, flow, and layout of these books.  My children are soaking up biblical truth in an appealing way, with words which connect with their child-like perspective and heart, but cause them to think and grow.

I highly recommend this series!

{post written by Daniele of Domestic Serenity}