The Word in Motion: 10 Reasons You’ll Love This Apologia Bible Curriculum

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You know how sometimes things just fall together better than you could have planned it yourself? That’s what happened this year in our homeschool, as we were led to Apologia Bible Curriculum.

Prior to this year, I hadn’t included a Bible curriculum in our lesson plans because we attended a local Bible Study Fellowship class to study God’s Word. This year, though, I had picked out a curriculum to follow with my kids…but unfortunately, I procrastinated in opening up the materials. On the first day of our homeschool year, I realized I hadn’t ordered everything I actually needed for the lessons (way to be prepared, mama!).

It happens, though, right?

Funny enough, a few days earlier I was given the opportunity to review the new Apologia Bible Curriculum, The Word in Motion. I realized I would have that in my hands before I could get anything else ready to go, so I figured I’d scrap my original plan and make it our primary Bible curriculum this year.

Turns out, this has been the best curriculum decision that I didn’t even have to make, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

** This is a sponsored post. I received this product or compensation for review purposes only and was compensated for my time. I was neither asked nor required to share a positive review; all opinions are my own. READ HERE for more information.

Apologia Bible Curriculum has been a game changer in our homeschool.  Read about why our entire family loves their new program, The Word in Motion.

What Should You Look For in a Homeschool Bible Curriculum?

If you’re searching for a new Bible curriculum like I was, there are a few important things to keep in mind.

First (and most importantly), make sure you find and read about a company’s values and their Statement of Faith; you’ll want to make sure that their beliefs line up with the truth of God’s Word and support what you want to teach your kids.

The rest will most likely depend on your personal preference. Do you prefer an online curriculum or a teacher manual and books? How much time will the lessons take? Can younger children and older children work together? Does it activate multiple learning styles?

For me, I wanted a curriculum that helped me feel confident with tools I needed to know the story of the Bible and teach it to my kids. I wanted something engaging, that had my kids in the Word of God each day. At this stage in the game, my kids know the basics; they were ready and eager to go deeper into our study, truly learn and understand what is in the Bible.

Apologia Bible Curriculum is for the Entire Family

Right away, I could tell that the new Apologia Bible Curriculum was going to hit all of those marks and more. As I started looking through the materials, I felt my excitement growing just reading the introduction. I honestly couldn’t wait to get started using it to teach my kids.

Apologia Bible Curriculum has been a game changer in our homeschool.  Read about why our entire family loves their new program, The Word in Motion.

And even though we have been using it during our homeschool day, I can see this being great to use as a family devotional as you seek God together.

What is The Word in Motion Curriculum?

The Word in Motion is a Bible curriculum that walks kids through each book of the Bible in two volumes (Old Testament and New Testament), teaching them about the books of the Old Testament and books of the New Testament, key people, places, and important events.

Author and Bible teacher Rachael Carman kicks off a new lesson each week with a short video and the goal of teaching kids the “big-picture understanding” of God’s Word. From there, you’ll engage in scripture reading, memory verses, discussion, notebooking, and more throughout the week.

This curriculum content is non-denominational and is recommended for grades K-8, but I think that even older siblings will benefit from the lessons if you are doing them as a family (I certainly enjoy them myself and have learned a lot along with my kids!).

And why is it called “The Word in Motion”? Because it gets you moving and learning hand motions to help you remember key events as they happen in the Bible! This has been one of our favorite parts of our lessons each day, as it’s perfect for kinesthetic learners (which I have a couple of!).

Apologia Bible Curriculum The Word in Motion
Cards from the Notebooking Journal to help reinforce the motions we are learning.

The Word in Motion Bible Curriculum: A Typical Lesson

I would usually recommend starting this curriculum with the Old Testament volume so you can learn the key themes and background that lead up to New Testament events. However, we have spent quite a bit of time in the Old Testament as a family, so we decided to start with The Word in Motion: New Testament this year.

There are 30 lessons in The Word in Motion: New Testament, and it’s laid out so you do one lesson per week, 4 days during the week. The lessons are just the right length (we typically finish one in 20-30 minutes), and there are a variety of components to keep every learner engaged.

For the first part of the year, the lessons cover the key points as you move through the entire New Testament, so you have an overall understanding of what is in the Bible.

The rest of the lessons take an in-depth look, book by book, of the New Testament, helping your kids understand the important people that wrote each book, who it was written to, why it was written, and how we see Jesus through that particular book.

Streaming Videos

When I can, I try to work our Bible lessons into our morning time routine, before the rest of the day takes over. On the first day of the week, we begin with a video.

During the video, Rachael teaches a short lesson (4-5 minutes) to define key words and themes, go over the weekly memory verse, and also demonstrates the new motions you’ll be practicing that week. Each week you’ll add on 1-2 motions, and you’ll learn a total of 40 when you’re through the curriculum! Like I said, this is one of our favorite parts, and it’s really helping my kids remember key people and big picture Bible themes.

Here’s a sample lesson from The Word in Motion: New Testament:

Textbook & Discussion

Next, we’ll read a narrative from the text that takes the video lesson a bit deeper and helps us understand what the motions we are doing truly mean.

The textbook for this curriculum is so colorful and eye-catching – the vibrant illustrations are really well-done, and my kids love looking at them as I read to them. The text itself is very “readable”, easy to understand (even for younger students), and interesting.

One of the days we’ll tackle the suggested Scripture reading, and another day we will discuss the review and reflection questions. Throughout the week, we are working on not only memorizing those motions but also a memory verse that goes with the key theme of that week’s lesson.

Notebooking Journal

The Notebooking Journal is another favorite part that really helps captivate all different kinds of learners.

Throughout the lessons each week, the Notebooking Journal provides a space for kids to not only take notes as they listen to the narratives, but also encourages copywork (writing down the weekly Bible verses), coloring pages, a place to record their answers to your discussion questions, drawing pages with prompts, and pages to write their own prayers. You’ll want to make sure you purchase one of these for each of your kids!

Apologia Bible Curriculum for Homeschool

Why We Love The Word in Motion: New Testament

I grew up going to church, but believe it or not, I didn’t realize that the Bible was truly one big, interconnected story of God’s rescue plan for His people until I was an adult. When I learned this, I was in awe. And I desired for my kids to understand from a young age how all the parts of the Bible fits together flawlessly, not just as separate “Bible stories” and anecdotes that give us instruction on how to live. That’s in there, but there is so much more I don’t want them to miss!

The Word in Motion is a curriculum that helps me do this. Here are the biggest reasons I am loving it for our homeschool and give it a positive review:

The Word in Motion Equips Homeschool Families

As I’ve been teaching from this curriculum, I feel that I have a powerful tool to come alongside me in reaching my children with God’s Word. The lessons equip me to not only understand Scripture and the books of the Bible myself, but to help my kids gain a deeper understanding as well.

I love that it is helping the whole family build a solid foundation Biblical literacy, so we will be better able to boldly share our knowledge of what’s in the Bible with others.

The Word in Motion Appeals to All Learners

No matter what style of learner your child is, there is something for them in this curriculum. Kinesthetic learners will love the motions each week to help them remember the key themes and events in the Bible. Visual learners, auditory learners, and verbal learners will appreciate other aspects present in the video lessons and notebooking journal activities.

I also love the variety of ages that this appeals to, and that it truly can be used with the entire family. Although it’s recommended for elementary and middle school kids, I don’t see how a high school student couldn’t benefit from studying this with the family. Even our toddler loves joining in on learning the words and motions with us each week (it’s the cutest thing to see!).

Apologetics

Apologia Bible curriculum gives a great defense for the gospel and the overall truth of God’s Word. Teaching my kids to be able to give a reason for what they believe is important to me, and a necessary part of our Bible curriculum.

I love that this is woven into The Word in Motion. For example, the other day we had a lesson on the claim that some people make that “Jesus never claimed to be God.” This curriculum helped me dive into God’s Word and teach my kids why this is not true, and they can now articulate three reasons as to why.

Zero Prep Time

For busy homeschool moms, this is a beautiful benefit of this Apologia Bible curriculum. There is literally zero prep time. Each week, I literally just log into the website Book Extras section and print off my checklist for the following week, which lays out exactly what we need to do each day. Open and go, and we’re off!

Engaging and Relevant

The narratives in the textbook are far from boring, and I love how we do something different each day. The curriculum also has us going back and forth between Scripture and the textbook, which is important.

The discussion questions are engaging and go deeper than just surface level. They really help us to understand the importance of what the Bible says and are a great way to ensure we are learning key concepts.

Finally, I have found each lesson so far to be very relatable; I could easily tie in something we were learning to our “real life” experiences to bring it to life even more.

The Word in Motion truly encourages us to have an active, “in motion” faith, and I’m really thankful for the habits and truths it is helping me teach my kids.

Learn More About Apologia Bible Curriculum

The Word in Motion homeschool Bible curriculum has been a perfect fit for us this year, and if it sounds like a good fit for your family, I hope you will give it a try!

Check out the Apologia website below to view samples of the weekly lessons and purchase The Word in Motion: New Testament (or Old Testament!) for yourself.

Comment below and let me know: have you used Apologia Bible Curriculum in your homeschool? What do you love about it?

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