God’s World News (Schoolhouse Review)

God's World News is a monthly publication for students K-12 that helps to keep them informed about current events and the world around them. It is written from a Biblical worldview, so that Christian parents won’t be having to explain or revise the text order to defend their beliefs. God’s World News is offered in six different age-appropriate editions.

We were given a subscription to Top Story (Middle School). This colorful and engaging 32-page magazine included both full feature articles and news “bits” of a few paragraphs in length. Stories ranged from US and world current events to human interest stories to political cartoons and focus articles on famous people.

There is a strong geographical emphasis to Top Story. Each subscription comes with a world map poster so that students can locate and label each place on the map that they read about. Some of the articles have small maps on the page that highlight the region being discussed.

Many features help the students think more critically or reinforce other curriculum areas. The political cartoons are accompanied by explanations that help students understand the humor and the points that the illustrator was trying to make. Graphs and charts are included when appropriate. There is a vocabulary quiz at the end of each issue that includes vocabulary from the magazine.

I like the way that Christian history and beliefs are woven throughout the magazine. For example, the October issue focus is “On the Move Through the Ages.” Articles teach about Australia’s boat people, refugees fleeing from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. There is a feature on Sergey Brin, who is a Jewish immigrant to the US from the former Soviet Union. There is also an article on the Jewish Diaspora (scattering) and a timeline of God’s people moving to new locations throughout the Bible, from Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden to the Babylonian Captivity to the Great Commission.

When topics such as robots and other technology are discussed, the ethical implications are discussed as well. Additionally, many articles have a “Bible to Life” insert that uses Bible verses to help the reader relate the topic to God’s plan for his own life. Each issue also includes quizzes to  assess comprehension.

We subscribed to God’s World many years ago when it was a weekly publication. Certainly that was a better format for keeping up with more current news features, but we did tend to get behind in our reading when we had them arriving every week. God’s World Publications has  tried to compensate for the issue of timeliness by including an online feature to the magazine.  The online site includes answers for the quizzes as well as hundreds of articles, including one new timely article each day.

Online Feature

As soon as we have received each issue, Emily has disappeared with it, only popping up occasionally to say, “Mom, did you know that…” It has been a big hit here.

Individual subscriptions to the God's World News student magazines cost $28 for 10 issues. Discounts are given for multiple subscriptions (even of varying levels).