A Biblical Curriculum We're Loving This Year - Apologia's Who is My Neighbor?

Before I tell you why we're loving Apologia's Who is My Neighbor (And Why Does He Need Me)?, I think it's important for you to know that this is NOT a sponsored post. We were not asked to review or write it. I have included affiliate links, though, because they do help us cover some site expenses. Thanks.

Last year at the Teach Them Diligently convention in Dallas, I took some time to browse the vendor hall, specifically looking for a study that I could do with my 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. We were coming off of two solid years in Community Bible Study, where both of them had learned to study Scripture in an expository manner. I wanted something just as meaty, but choosing something that would fit the bill for their ages and me (I want to learn, too!) was a tall order.

I had seen Apologia's What We Believe Series before but I had never seen this particular volume. Given the fact that they are prime ages for copious sibling disagreements (read: they argue a lot), I picked it up and pretty quickly knew it could be a great fit for us.

While not a line-by-line study of Scripture, this worldview text teaches about Jesus' ministry, what we're called to do as believers, and how loving our neighbor plays out in the real world.

What I love:

• Apologia isn't afraid to go deep with kids. The Biblical discussion is broad and well-rounded. Just when I'm thinking about something I'll add to what the author is teaching, it appears in the text. 
  
• It's about as grab-and-go as you can get. You can take the time to see where the text is going, but you don't have to. You can literally grab the book and start.
  
• It comes with level-appropriate workbooks that accompany the text. This is really big for me; I just don't have time to pull extras together. No need! The kids' books include crossword puzzles, copywork, lapbook-style mini books, Scripture memory, coloring pages, and more.
  
• If you choose to follow the daily plan (a daily plan! Yay!), you'll get through the study in a school year. If you choose to skip portions, as I occasionally do, you haven't missed the major facets of what is being taught. In typical Apologia fashion, there's so much there that you can pick and choose. 
  
• The fictional story that carries the whole text is beautifully written. Following a Chinese family immigrating to San Francisco, neighborly love and kindness are poignantly woven throughout, and my kids beg me to keep reading every single time. They are genuinely concerned for the fictional family!  

Appropriate copywork for the 7-year-old 2nd Grader

He loves it, too!

---

Why Character Curriculum Won't Produce What We Hope It Will

This post may be about to make us unpopular. We've spent the last 17 years around Christian homeschoolers, and Christian homeschoolers hold tightly to the tools we think will craft excellent Christians out of our children. We don't like people messing with our ideology, and we're often not kind about it, either. 

I'll just say it outright: character curriculum won't produce what we hope it will.

Oh believe me, I've written this post and then let it sit and then decided to publish it and then let it slide back into the drafts. We're not purposely aiming to offend here on HomeschoolingIRL, unless it's the glorious offense of the gospel that gets in our business and shakes us awake and pours us full of mercy.

So here's the thing: character is made, not taught.

Don't believe us? Let's let the Bible do the heavy lifting:

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

— Romans 5:3-5

Here's a key:  ". . . because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Our character is God's work, because He loves us. He loves our children, too, and He who began a good work in them will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6) He who began the good work . . .

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

— Galatians 5:22-23

This one eluded me for years. I was raised in a Christian home by parents who passionately love and follow Jesus. When I say "years", I mean, specifically, all 44 years of my life. I've heard about and studied the fruit of the Spirit so many times, but because it reads like a list, I think my mind created a checklist instead.

That plays out practically from day to day when I would find myself commanding things like, "Love your sister!", "You need to be joyful!", and "When are you going to exhibit some self-control?"

One day I was sitting in our school room staring at a poster on the wall which illustrated each of the fruits of the Spirit. Like the force of snow pack violently released from a cracking tree branch, it suddenly dawned on me: these character attributes are fruit of the Spirit, not something we can muster up in our own strength, no matter how hard we try. Cue the "duh". 

While it's never bad to talk about character traits or try to gain an understanding of them, the truth is, we don't get them without them being given.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

— Colossians 3:12-15

"Here it is!", you say. Proof that we must do the work. After all, Paul says, "Put on then . . ." Yes, put it on! Take what Jesus has given and pour it all over yourself. Just remember that you didn't manufacture it and you can't create it in your kids, either, no matter how many books you read about the Miller and Moody families.

I mean, you can read those books. Yes, you should read them. Just don't expect them to affect any life-changing work because that is the job of the Holy Spirit, alone. Discuss the stories, talk about the issues the kids struggle with, show your kids great examples of lives driven by a love for God and all He's done for us. But remember that God will grow good fruit in the lives of our kids whether we taught them about character or forgot to get to that lesson at all.

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

— 1 John 4:8

What difference does it make that we know God and love others? The difference is this: God's love for us is relentless and driven and tenacious and perfect. He is love. When we grasp that truth and understand that there's nothing we can do to lose His love, it changes everything. We no longer need to feel less than someone else, so we can love them more. We no longer need to lie to cover our sin or present ourselves as something we're not because we're trying to gain someone's approval. When we know we're ensconced in the perfect, unending love of Jesus, we don't need to seek approval elsewhere! 

And suddenly we find ourselves loving, patient, kind, faithful, joyful . . . all as a response to the glorious love of God! We love Him because He first loved us. 

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

— Romans 13:14

Oh yes! Put Him on and remember Whose you are and what He's done for you! Whisper that in the ear of your naughty two-year-old and text it in the middle of a hard day to your struggling 15-year-old. We all need to be reminded, every day, of what He's done for us and that He will never give up. He will work and work and work to build beautiful character in each one of us. 

What do we get to do, then? Rest. Let Him do His thing.

“The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”

— Matthew 12:35

The one who sees His need met by God rests and allows Him to bring forth good, and the one who looks instead for his purpose, value, and worth in the world will reap the fruit of that empty path. 

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”

— 2 Peter 1:5-7

"Make every effort" of verse 5 cannot be divorced from what came right before it in this passage (verses 1-4): 

1  Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

There, again, so boldly and triumphantly: through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord . . . His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness . . . there!

Do we think character curriculum is bad? Of course not. But as with anything our feeble gospel-forgetting souls latch onto, it can become the thing to which we shift our hope and then wonder why, when our teen is characterized by lying or a lack of punctuality or gentleness, we have failed. No, my weary friend, you have not failed. God is doing His work in His time. Rest there and let Him do it. Buy the character books and read them, but as you do, remind your children that all character worked in us is His work, not ours. That's soul-strengthening freedom!

---

Curriculum and Resources We Love!

Hi Kendra and Fletch-

I would love to hear or read about curriculum you use or do not like and why. What has worked for your family?

I know we are all different and have different needs, but it's always neat to hear what has worked (or not worked) for others. If you have already made a show like this or have done a blog post about it sorry to have ask. I looked for this sort of info but did not find anything like that. I enjoy your radio show. Thanks for taking the time to make it.

-Amanda

---

We haven't talked much about our family curriculum choices here on HomeschoolingIRL because I (Kendra) have been writing for so many years over on Preschoolers and Peace about nitty gritty homeschooling topics that I just thought everyone was tired of hearing my opinion on the subject.

But I am happy to share what has worked here and what hasn't. I'll point you to some older posts I wrote and then share a few more thoughts.

In 2009 I did a series of posts highlighting each subject and what we like as well as what we have ditched. I updated them again in 2013, and you can see them here:

Literature

History

English and Grammar

Math

Science

Handwriting and Spelling

Foreign Language

There were more posts from 2009 that covered more subjects, and although we've added or tweaked some things, the info is still pretty relevant:

Geography

Art and Music

Logic

Electives

Preschool and Kindergarten

Field trips. Lots and lots of field trips. This one to Sacramento's Sutter's Fort.

But what about now? This year we have kids sort of here, there, and everywhere. Our two high schoolers are in a charter homeschool high school, which means they take a few classes on campus, a few online, and a few from me. I am using the school's English text for our sophomore but since she's already read some of the book choices and there are others I want her to read, I have changed the program to suit her needs (i.e., she'll study a different Shakespeare drama because she's already read the pick for this year).

Our 8th grade daughter is in Classical Conversations Challenge B, so she's using resources like Introductory Logic and Henle Latin. Our favorite logic and Latin resources are listed in the posts above, but because she's a part of CC, I let it go. However, for middle school writing, we really love Write With World, so I stuck to my guns and she's doing it instead of the IEW writing program that Classical Conversations uses. She's taking pre-algebra online with Currclick.com. Because of this experience, I've forever declared live online math classes for my remaining students once they hit pre-algebra. She also studies history with us at home using The Mystery of History Volume IV. She takes piano, is an avid runner, and sings in the children's choir that performs with our local symphony.

From Apologia's Who is My Neighbor? Student Workbook

Our 5th grader is using Rod and Staff Math 5, Cursive Without Tears, The Mystery of History Volume IV, Who is My Neighbor? (this one will get its own post soon!), Keyboarding Without Tears, and an online literature class from CurrClick. Science is a mixture of a lot of leftover projects I have in my stash and field trips this year. She takes piano, tennis, and also sings in the children's choir. 

Our 2nd grader is using Rod and Staff Math 2, Handwriting Without Tears, The Mystery of History Volume IV, Who is My Neighbor?, Our Father's World, Patterns of Nature (we rotate these two books each week), Keyboarding Without Tears, and the super fun Star Wars Brain Quest books. He'll switch back to the Pathway Readers series he's in the middle of when the Star Wars books are finished. He takes tennis and invents things with all the leftover boxes, string, Legos, wood, and tape we have. 

Our Mighty Joe with a brain injury is in a public school classroom for kindergarten this year. Are you surprised? We are, too! It's been a very good fit for him, as he's getting services he needs. He is a full year older than his classmates and has already had a kindergarten year at home, but he is very behind and likely to always be. His neurologist declared this past spring that he has no higher cognitive learning abilities. No one knows exactly what that means for Joe, but we continue to do a lot of supplementary activities at home, as well. We've been homeschooling for so long, we wouldn't know any other way!

Every year is different because every student is different. I bet it's the same at your house, too!

---

Coupon Codes from Our HomeschoolingIRL Sponsors - Come and Get 'Em!

Gosh, we love the companies that are shouting out for HomeschoolingIRL!  We have the support of some very special people, and we happily get to share their coupon codes with you here. Good stuff!

We use and love a lot of things from Bright Ideas Press, including The Mystery of History, Christian Kids Explore Science, and A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers. If you want help organizing The Mystery of History, I've got a couple of posts and vlogs for you on the Preschoolers and Peace site. Why re-invent the wheel?

$5 off any purchase of at least $25 with code fiveoff
$10 off any purchase of at least $50 with code tenoff
$15 off any purchase of at least $75 with code fifteenoff

Affiliate codes below. You can see our disclosure policy here.

In real life, we often feel as if we're on this homeschooling journey alone, and really, some of you are. Great conferences like Teach Them Diligently can be a big boost. I like the workshops and the keynotes and being able to talk to vendors about what they've got, but I think I like the connections with real homeschooling families even more. 

Fletch and I will be in Nashville and Dallas, and we'd love to see you there! The Early Bird tickets are gone, but you can get $8 off with code Save8Now