TOS Review - Apologia - Who is God?

Title:  Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him?
Author:  John Hay and David Webb
ISBN:  978-1-935495-07-9
Publisher:  Apologia Press, a division of Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc.
Website:  www.apologia.com
Contact:  Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc.
                 1106 Meridian Plaza, Ste 220
                 Anderson, IN 46016
Phone:  (767)608-3280
Fax:  (765)608-3290
E-mail:  biblicalworldview@apologia.com
Retail price:  $39.00
Ages:  6-14


We recently had the opportunity to use Who Is God? (And Can I Really Know Him?) as part of the TOS crew.  Used as a Biblical worldview curriculum, Who is God? is a beautiful hardback book, divided into 10 lessons and is 252 pages long. Who is God? is the first in a series of Christian Worldview teachings published by Apologia. The second book in the series Who Am I? is also available from the Apologia website.  The remaining two books, Who is My Brother? and What on Earth Can I Do? will be published in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Each lesson in Who Is God? includes:

• The Big Idea - an introduction to the main topic of the lesson and a brief overview of previously covered material.
• What You Will Do - states the learning objectives for the lesson.
• Short Story - a short story featuring characters aged within the target age group for this book. The stories will deal with the object lesson for that section.
• Think About It - thought provoking questions which dig deeper into the short stories.
• Words You Need to Know - vocabulary words for each lesson.
• Hide It in Your Heart - Bible memorization.
• Integrated Learning - Articles that give your student a broader scope for the lessons. They will branch into areas of history, science, art, etc.
• What Should I Do? - Various godly character traits that the child should work on.
• Prayer - each lesson concludes with a prayer to thank God for who He is. Easily adaptable for use in individual families
• Worldview Study - Ongoing study throughout the book that introduces the child to the concept of worldview. The student is allowed to think about what they have learned in each lesson and how they can apply that knowledge to the world they live in.
• House of Truth - a hands on memory aid, to be constructed one piece at a time.

Why study a worldview curriculum, you might be asking yourself? Our world is inundated by messages. Everywhere we turn we are bombarded by a constant stream of someone's worldview. Teaching our children how to discern the worlds messages against God's message at an early age will help them as they grow to be better scholars, consumers and to play an active role rather than a passive role  in life.

 We used this book as our devotions for this review period, so all of my kids sat in and listened, ages 2-13. I had the older three do the notebooking activities (notebook pages can be found at the Apologia website through a special password obtained once you purchase the book), while the younger three just listened in. :)


Each lesson is flexible and easily adapted to each individual families needs. We roughly followed the lay-out provided in the Introduction of the text and split each lesson up into two weeks of three days each.

This is the suggested schedule, which we easily tweaked to fit our family's needs:


Day One

• Read "The Big Idea" and "What You Will Do"
• Read the Short Story and Discuss
• Discuss the questions in "Think About It"

Day Two

• Study "Words You Need to Know"
• Memorize "Hide it in Your Heart" verses
• Read sidebar articles and do activities
• Write or draw in notebook about what was studied

 Day Three

• Read and discuss first half of the main lesson
• Notebook the "Make a Note of It" activities
• Write or draw in notebook about what was studied

Day Four

• Read and discus second half of the main lesson
• Notebook the "Make a Note of It" activities
• Write or draw in notebook about what was studied

Day Five

• Read and discuss "What Should I Do?" for character development
• Read and use the prayer for spiritual development
• Write or draw in notebook about what was studied

Day Six

• Read and discuss the Worldview Study section
• Write or draw in notebook about what was studied
• Construct or draw the next phase of the House of Truth

By nature, we are not notebooking people, so I do have to say that that part of the curriculum got a little lax throughout the week. However, the kids still learned and retained a ton of information that they will keep with them for the rest of their lives.

I felt this program is laid out nicely and is very easy to follow and implement into your homeschool routine. I would recommend this program to anyone who is looking for an elementary - middle school Christian Worldview curriculum.

You can order this book (or if you'd like to check it out some more, download a copy of the Table of Contents as well as a Sample Lesson)  here.

To see what others on the TOS Crew thought of Who is God?, click here.

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it.  I received no other compensation for this review.  The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions.