Who is My Neighbor?

Who is My Neighbor? is the third book in the Biblical worldview series, What We Believe. Apologia has teamed up with Summit Ministries to create this wonderful  four book series. An accompanying notebooking journal and coloring book are also available. It has been designed with homeschools and families in mind. The hardcover text is high quality and designed to withstand lots of use in your family.

The third book in the award-winning What We Believe series helps children understand what it means to be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-14). This study will encourage kids to develop a Christlike servant attitude based on these biblical truths: God created me to be a blessing to the world; God chooses to work through me; I can make a difference at home, in my community, and at church; the church is God's family; the church is one body with many gifts; and I am an important member of Jesus' body.

Who is My Neighbor? is written for 6-14 year olds. Emma (9) has been going through this study with me and she likes it a lot and frequently requests that we read it.  Younger students will need to be read to and assisted while older children should be able to manage it on their own if you choose.

Each book in the series is designed to stand alone, but would best be read in order.  I have not seen any of the other books and we are doing fine without having read books 1 and 2. (though I would like to!) Occasionally references are made to what was taught in previous books, but it hasn't been a problem at all.

There is no teacher prep involved in this at all.  You can just pick up the book and go (or have your student follow the schedule if they are older.)  There are free online teacher helps available (password information is included in the book).

The teacher helps include:




• Overviews of the lesson’s main idea as well as every topic covered in the lesson

• Key themes and lesson objectives

• Vocabulary words and memory verses

• Suggested activities for use with the lesson

• Child-directed discussion questions for each topic covered in the lesson—you simply read them aloud to help you guide the

conversation

• Recommended reading list for deeper study of the themes, people, and places discussed in the text

Pages in the book vary, but as you can see, the text is complemented with color pictures.

another sample page from the book

Scriptures in the book are quoted from a variety of versions.  We use the KJV.  It's very easy to just read from your own Bible if you have a preference.

The spiral bound notebooking journal has a variety of different pages that go along with the lessons.  There are mini-books, crossword puzzles, word searches, questions, writing prompts and more.  The notebooking journal is not necessary but would be an excellent addition if you have the book.  We chose to answer the questions orally but if you wanted a workbook to go along with the book you won't want to miss this.

The coloring book would also be a great addition.  Emma loves it.  I think the coloring book would be great for the younger children (those that enjoy coloring) and the notebooking journal for the older ones.  Emma is at an age where both are appropriate for her.

The book has 8 lessons which should take about 3 weeks to complete on average. A schedule is provided for you in the introduction. (A more detailed schedule is found in the notebooking journal.)  We are not using the schedule at all.  We're just going at our own pace.

Lessons include:


Does Anyone Really Need Me?
How Can I Make a Difference?
Who is My Neighbor?
Why Did God Make Families?
What Can I Do For My Country?
Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
Who is God's Family?
Why Does the Church Need Me?

Each lesson contains several key components:

The Big Idea (introduction to the main topic)
What You Will Do (lesson objectives)
Think About It (questions)
Words you Need to Know (vocabulary)
Hide It In Your Heart (2 memory verses for each lesson)
Integrated Learning (interesting articles related to the main text)
What Should I Do? (highlights godly character traits)
Prayer 
Encounters with Jesus (a Bible story based on the scripture-historical fiction style)
Take a Closer Look (questions)
House of Truth (read more here but note this is not something you need to purchase, students can draw their own or use Legos)


On the website, you can view the table of contents, a sample lesson and read the FAQ's pertaining to the entire series.


We have really enjoyed using this (especially Emma and that is a blessing) and plan to continue. I hope to use the entire series.

Purchase Who is My Neighbor? for $39.00, the notebooking journal for $24.00 and the coloring book for $8.00. The other books in the series are available here at the same prices.  The first two editions also have an audio CD available for $24.00. The fourth and final book is scheduled to be released in 2012.

Apologia is a wonderful Christian company that offers Biblical worldview books, science texts, parenting resources and an online academy.  If you are not already familiar with Apologia I would encourage you to visit their website.  You can find them on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Read what others are saying about Who is My Neighbor? on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.






disclaimer: I received Who is My Neighbor? hardcover book, notebooking journal, and coloring book in exchange for an honest review.

Wrapping Up with Illuminations-A Review

As this school year winds down and I start thinking about curriculum for next year, I thought I would share my thoughts on the main curriculum we used this year. In August of last year, we started using both levels of Illuminations (Year One) by Bright Ideas Press.  Illuminations is a curriculum guide that uses The Mystery of History as a spine. (Read what I said about it after about 5 weeks here.)

Illuminations-High School

The high school level of Illuminations has Bible,  literature guides for 19 books, lessons for The Mystery of History, lessons for English from the Roots Up and Write Shop I.  It also has grammar lessons, geography, humanities, a Life 101 course, and assignments from supplements such as Diana Waring audios, Drive Thru History DVDs and even movies on Netflix.

When you open Illuminations you see the menu below.  There is a Quick Start section where you will find a quick start guide, introductions, an interface guide to teach you how to use the program, the book and program checklist, notebook spines and a literature evaluation guide.

Next, you can browse by either subject or date.  If you choose "Browse by Subject" your menu looks like this:

 Here I selected English From the Roots Up.  It opens in a .pdf document which can be read on the screen or printed.  The lessons are divided up by week and day and you can easily find the lessons by clicking on the bookmarks on the left.   Besides the lessons you will find crossword puzzles and games, mad-libs, a final test and even an award certificate to print. This guide alone is 50 pages long.

The geography lessons are based on The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide. There are 2 lessons for each week.  This is a 27 page guide. Other guides include  59 pages for Write Shop I, a 23 page Bible reading guide (no lessons here just a list of readings and memory passages), 4 guides for books in the Life 101 course and a great supplement guide.  Even after a year of using this, I am amazed at how much is included (some of which I forgot about and never even used!).  

Easily choose the week you are on.  You can save any changes you make
without losing the original!

The most helpful part of Illuminations (in my opinion) is the schedule grid which you will find by clicking the "Browse by Date" button on the main screen.  The schedule grid is customizable. You can add things to it and change it to suit you. The only thing you cannot do is cut and paste text from one place in the grid to another. (This is one thing that I did find frustrating because if I wanted to move things around I had to re-type them.  This is not the case if you want to cut and paste from something outside of the grid.  For instance, I wrote up science lessons which I typed into a blank grid ahead of time and could cut and paste that into the grid each week.)

sample of a schedule grid

Watch this video by Tyler Hogan to see more about how this works.  I think it will be much more helpful than reading an explanation. He does show you how to work with the grid in this video.

So you're probably wondering what you need to buy, right? It really depends on how much of Illuminations you want to use.  You will definitely want to get The Mystery of History because it really is the core of the program (plus it's awesome).  I bought a few of the literature titles but I was able to find most of the literature through our inter-library loan system. (A few of the titles are included as e-books.) We have been using Easy Grammar Ultimate so I do not know anything about the grammar lessons included.  You also might want English From the Roots Up, The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide and an atlas, Write Shop I and supplements such as Drive Thru History and Diana Waring audios. Science and math are not included at the high school level.  Remember you can use what you already have or substitute if you have something you like better.

You can download a sample that includes the book list, 2 weeks worth of schedule grids, a sample family literature guide and sample of the graphic organizers which I will discuss below.

One question I was asked recently (as in today) was, " How long does it take each day?" I really can't answer that because I think it depends on how much of it you do, what other subjects you add in (such as PE, foreign language etc.) and how quickly your student works.

Illuminations-Grades 3-8

As with Illuminations high school, the spine of Illuminations for grades 3-8 is The Mystery of History.  Bible readings, spelling, grammar, copy work, geography, science and literature are all included as well.  With this program there are Family Study Guides and Read Alone Guides.  Most weeks you are reading a book aloud and the students also have a book to read to themselves with a guide to go along with each.  I chose to read the Read Alone books to the kids as well.  Otherwise, I wouldn't know what they were studying.  Looking back, I think they probably should have been reading more on their own but I can't say that I regret the time I spent reading the books to them. 

I have really enjoyed the literature selections this year.  They have all been really interesting and they are not books that "I" ever would have picked out myself.  I have been extremely happy with them.

One difference between the high school program and the 3rd-8th grade program is that science IS included. The lessons for Year One are from Christian Kids Explore Biology.  The lessons also have readings from the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia which is a beautiful book but be forewarned it has evolutionary content.  I wish there was a similar encyclopedia written from a Christian perspective. (Anyone know of one?)

As with the high school books, (some of which are the same) I was able to obtain most of the needed literature and read alone books from the library.  There are 19 literature guides plus an additional 3 guides meant for summer use and 26 read alone literature guides and 2 do-it-yourself read alone guides, one for fiction and one for non-fiction.  These guides alone make the price of Illuminations worth it. Many of these guides are available for individual purchase but at $10-$14 each that adds up quickly. (and they are not all available to purchase individually.)

One of the other benefits to using Illuminations are the included Graphic Organizers that are used throughout the lessons.  Here are a few samples:

There are 36 different graphic organizers. (They are the same in both levels.)

The Spelling lessons are based on Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout. I have the book,but we never used it.  I  just used the words in the included spelling lessons.  (For my son in the 6th grade, we just spelled the words until we came across words he couldn't spell and used that as a list.  My 3rd grade daughter was using Soaring with Spelling.)

Lessons in this level are scheduled mainly for Monday-Thursday.  This is ideal for making Friday a fun school day, field trip day, catch up day or co-op day.  (or switch your "free" day to whatever day works for you)

I almost forgot to mention that at this level there are lessons for Early Learners (K-2) included as well.  

So, I think I have talked myself into buying Year Two!  :)  No, seriously, I do think I am going to purchase Year Two.  Mid-year I kept thinking that I missed doing unit studies. Lately, we have had a lot of review items for the TOS crew so we set aside some of our Illuminations curriculum to work on those and when we came back to Illuminations I was so happy and started really thinking that I am going to continue with this next year.  

On the Illuminations website you can download samples of each year of Illuminations (by level). 

Each sample includes:

• A pdf version of their brochure
• A Course Offering and Literature List. This will tell you what you need to buy (depending on which parts of the program you want to use).
• Two sample Schedule Grids. 
• Literature Study Guides. Family Study Guides (FSGs) and Read-Alone Guides (RAGs) for 3rd-8th grades, and High School Study Guides for the older ones.
• Some of their favorite Graphic Organizers.

Purchase information can be found here.  You can purchase a full year bundle of both Illuminations 3-8 along with Illuminations High School for $240.  They can be purchased separately as well and there is even an option for purchasing just the first semester.  

My advice would be to buy this at least a few weeks before you start to use it so you can familiarize yourself with the grids and explore everything that Illuminations has to offer.  Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have.  I'd be happy to answer them if I can OR you can contact the folks at Bright Ideas Press.  They have always been very helpful when I've had a question.  

One other thing to note is that once you have registered your product you will gain access to a members area where you will find updates and additional things to download that are not in the program.  There isn't too much there but you won't want to miss it. 

You can find Illuminations on Yahoo Groups and Facebook. Bright Ideas Press is also on Facebook.

***No disclaimer needed on this one. I purchased this myself. :)  

Christian Kids Explore Chemistry

Chemistry.  Does this word strike fear in your heart?  :)  Chemistry is the only subject I ever failed in high school.  Perhaps if I had been introduced to chemistry with Christian Kids Explore Chemistry in my younger years it wouldn't have seemed so foreign to me. Christian Kids Explore Chemistry is a science curriculum for grades 4-8 in the Christian Kids Explore Series from Bright Ideas Press and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to review it.

There are four books in this series written for elementary and junior high students.  Christian Kids Explore Chemistry, now in its 2nd edition, comes with a brand new resource CD that includes daily lesson plans, materials lists, all the reproducibles you need and even a bonus literature study guide for the book, Piece of the Mountain, a story about the life of Blaise Pascal.  Reproducibles include coloring pages, unit reviews, follow-up questions for each lesson and activity charts.

Christian Kids Explore Chemistry is a 385 page, black and white, paperback textbook that provides 30 lessons in 5 units.  Read the Table of Contents or view Sample Pages.  You will find hands on activities such as making model atoms, breaking covalent bonds and making gas expand.  There are Chemistry terms, notations and rules, unit reviews, coloring pages and a supplemental book list.

a sample page showing clear, easy to read text with bold vocabulary words
within the text and definitions in the margin

We were introduced to this series this year and completed Christian Kids Explore Biology a few weeks ago.  I am really enjoying the series and plan to purchase the other 2 books that I don't have when we are done with Chemistry.

Each lesson is not too long making it easy to teach and not overwhelming to the student.  I read it aloud to my children but older students could certainly do this by themselves.  The vocabulary words are defined within the text AND in the margins of the lessons making it easy for students to find the words they need to define with each lesson. There is a glossary as well that students can use if they prefer. The detailed lesson plans give you 2 days of work for each week making it easy to double up for the week if you wish to cover 2 books in a year (which is my plan for next year.)  We will finish Chemistry and move on the Physics.

Lesson plans include memory work including a scripture verse (which can also be used as copy work), review, reading, discussion, vocabulary, hands on activities and supplemental reading.

Vocabulary words are placed on index cards for easy review or you can use a notebook.  We are using blank notebooking pages for vocabulary at this time.

In the supplemental reading section, you will find a list of books by unit that you can purchase or order from your library.  I have had no problem getting the books through our library system.  The lessons also have a weekly reading from the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.  I have enjoyed using this beautiful book for the Chemistry lessons but be warned it is full of evolutionary content which I did not like when using the Biology book.

By the end of the first unit my reluctant 12 year old son told me he likes this.  High praise from him indeed!

Ryan and Emma learning the difference between mixtures and compounds.

Getting it all down on paper

You can purchase Christian Kids Explore Chemistry for $39.95 at Bright Ideas Press.  This includes the Bright Ideas Press also carries Illuminations full curriculum, history and geography resources and more.  I LOVE Bright Ideas Press and highly recommend them!

Information on the other CKE books:
Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space (grades 3-6) $34.95
Christian Kids Explore Biology (grades 3-6) $34.95
Christian Kids Explore Physics (grades 4-8) $39.95 (new 2nd edition)

Read what others are saying about the Christian Kids Explore series on the TOS crew blog. All 4 books in this series are being reviewed.  Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

disclaimer: I received a free pdf copy of Christian Kids Explore Chemistry along with a digital copy of CKEC supplements in exchange for an honest review.