The Pelsers

A Journey Through Learning is running a great deal on Apologia Lapbooks. Spend $30 in lapbooks, get an Apologia Lapbook for just $5! Use the code apologia5.

Additional AJTL deals:

My Favorite Insect – $5.00 (DOES NOT INCLUDE A STUDY GUIDE)

Flowers Express Lapbook – $1.00

Bees Express Lapbooks – $1.00

Notebooking Pages Birthday Sale-A-Bration

I love making my own printables for notebooking, but Notebooking Pages is one of my favorite resources. I always check there before I spend the time to create something. Check out this great deal on becoming a Notebooking Pages LIFETIME Member during their NotebookingPages.com 7th Birthday Sale-a-Bration Event:

Save $25 on your membership

Receive access to 150+ current notebooking products

Receive ALL future notebooking products

Receive up to two years FREE access to their notebooking (& copywork) web-app, The Notebooking Publisher

Receive a $100 e-gift Bonus Bundle from various homeschool publishers

Earn a chance to win some great prizes – an iPad mini, $100 Amazon.com gift card, LIFETIME access to The Notebooking Publisher, and a LIFETIME membership to MomsToolBelt.com.

Check out the many Free Notebooking Pages too! It’s a great way to see what Notebooking Pages is all about before spending any money. Notebooking Pages is having a Facebook party on May 21 at 9pm Eastern. Get more info here on their Facebook event.

Do your kids like lapbooking and notebooking?

What We Believe Series

Jonathan and I have been working our way through Who is God?, which is the first volume in the What We Believe Series from Apologia. Apologia gave Who is God? and the additional resources to us to go through so we could share our experiences and thoughts with you. We finished it a few weeks ago. So what did we think?

who-is-god

Who is God? – Not a Bible Study

Who is God? is not a Bible study. It’s a worldview curriculum. It talks about right beliefs and ways of thinking that are based on the Bible. There’s plenty of Scripture throughout the book, but please don’t mistake this book for or use it to replace Bible study. Who is God? explains what a worldview is, why we need to have the right worldview, the nature of God, and salvation.

Who is God? – Additional Resources

In addition to the text book, the What We Believe series has a journal, coloring book, and audio CD for each volume. Jonathan prefers to have me read to him, so we didn’t use the audio CD much. If you have children who like to listen and read along, the audio CD would be a great resource.

The notebooking journal was too advanced for Jonathan in most cases. It’s on par with the regular notebooking journals that Apologia has for the elementary science series. We did some of the word searches, crossword puzzles, and copywork, but we spent more time in the coloring book. Jonathan is not usually a big fan of coloring, but he did enjoy listening to me read while he colored a picture that corresponded to the reading. The coloring book is a great option for younger children.

Who is God? – Scheduling

We started this book at the beginning of Jonathan’s Kindergarten year when he was just 4.5 years old. Apologia recommends the book for ages 6-14, but because Jonathan had already decided to be a Christ-follower and was academically advanced, I decided to go ahead and start the book. It can easily be completed in one school year by an elementary student and older kids could even complete it in one semester. We ended up taking two school years to get through the book. We went more slowly in the beginning and sped up as we moved forward.

Jonathan's Worldview Glasses

Who is God? – Our Thoughts

So what did I think? I loved it. The book was well-written and easy for a child to understand. For that matter, it’s great for an adult too. If you’re a new believer as an adult or lacked foundational training in Christian worldview and basic doctrine as a child, it would be a great book to go through.

What did Jonathan think? He loved it too. He got to a point where he’d beg for more. He looked forward to worldview days. He says the coloring book was his favorite part.

Post about or inspired by Who is God?

During our study of Who is God?, I wrote a lot about it. Check out these posts for more information about and posts inspired by Who is God?

Who is God? and the additional resources are available for purchase on the Apologia website. If you’re heading to a convention where Apologia will be this summer, you can get 25% off your purchase by joining their email newsletter list.

Follow along with us this next school year as we review the next volume in the What We Believe Series, Who am I?

Your Turn!

Have you used Who is God? or other books in the What We Believe Series? How have you kept your kids in the Word this week? Share in the comments or link up a blog post!

Material Disclosure: Apologia gave us the Who is God? text and additional resources in exchange for an honest review.

There’s a myth running around that homeschools and especially those of us who blog about homeschooling are perfect. Wrong! Allow me to dispel any rumors of perfection in our homeschool: Havehart Academy is an imperfect homeschool.

The school janitor doesn’t do such a great job. There are piles of dishes and laundry and toys more often than I’d care to admit.
Sometimes we don’t do everything in our curriculum. Yes, we sometimes skip math problems or science labs. We just can’t do it all.
There are times when we take an unexpected day off. We’re not always as consistent as I’d like to be. Life happens and we have to roll with it. This is especially true when toddlers and newborns are a part of your homeschool. Sometimes movie schooling or backyard schooling is the best way to deal with a bad day.
My children are not always motivated to learn. I am not always the most understanding teacher. Yes, I’ve threatened to send my boys to the public elementary school down the road more than once.
There’s an idyllic picture particularly in classical and Charlotte Mason philosophies of happy children sitting at the feet of their teacher mother listening to read-alouds. I don’t read aloud to my children as often as I’d really like to. When I do read, I have to stop to tell my active little boys to be quiet and listen. Legos help, but it’s still imperfect.

Homeschooling is wonderful and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but please don’t think it’s easy or always goes perfectly the way you plan it.

Signed,
An imperfect homeschool mom

Read about other imperfect homeschools with the iHN bloggers.

10 Highlights from Teach Them Diligently

Jumping on the hotel bed. This is a must when you walk into a fresh, clean hotel for the first night.
Jumping-on-the-bed

Meeting up with friends. It’s always a highlight of an event like this to meet up with some of my blogging friends. Check out all the blogger babies!

Photo Courtesy of Kathy from Kathy’s Cluttered Mind

Chatting with Sally Clarkson. Sally spoke at our blogger meet up, but I also had a couple additional opportunities to chat with her. She gave me a copy of The Mom Walk to review. Look for that review later this summer.

Photo Courtesy of Kathy from Kathy’s Cluttered Mind

A flash mob? Yes, there was a flash mob at Teach Them Diligently. It was put on by the students and Apologia. See it here.

Books, Books, Books. I picked up the whole set of Heroes of History from YWAM Publishing. They run an amazing deal on the full set at the conventions.
YWAM-Books

Rhea Perry‘s sessions. Rhea shares the story of how her entrepreneurial son was making enough money to bring Dad home from his job and then support the family when Dad died of cancer. Her second session about online careers was so full we couldn’t get in so I plan to get that one on mp3.

Mp3′s for just $3. That’s a deal! There were a number of sessions that we couldn’t get to so I have a list of sessions to buy when the mp3 are available in a couple of weeks.

Hal and Melanie Young‘s session on adolescence. We have a few years before we have to worry about having teens, but this session was so helpful for us. It helped us start thinking about how to structure our family and prepare for that transitional time in our sons’ lives.
Hal-and-Melanie-Young

Kapla Blocks. This was the place to be for the kids in the vendor hall. Building blocks spread out on the floor and the freedom to play. It was tough to pull my boys away from that booth!

Creating a Masterpiece Art DVDs. We’re going to be reviewing this DVD for you soon. We picked up all the art supplies right when we got home and Jonathan is dying to make “Nemo.”
Creating-a-Masterpiece