Anyone who uses Beautiful Feet for History?

I’ll chime in but let me say this:  I’ve not used BF before, it’s purchased to begin with my crew this fall.  I’ve used SCM Module 4 and some of the booklists for the other modules.

I love the look of BF.  We’ll be using Medieval Times for Senior High (my 10th grader) and Medieval Times for Intermediate and Junior High (the rest of my kids).  What I’m doing is using a lot of the Intermediate level’s books as read alouds to my 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, and Kindergartener (with 3 little boys younger than that listening when they feel like it).  For the K, 2nd, and 3rd the listening is optional but they generally like to listen.  I also still have the picture books used by SCM for the younger kids for the same time period so I’ll read through those with the 6 boys that are 3rd grade and younger.

What I like about the guides: for my older three kids (5th, 6th, 10th) there are discussion possibilities, weekly assignments for reading, there are great book selections, mapping, online sites to explore, and activity suggestion we can use when a hands on child wants to and ignore the rest of the time.

Hi

I used History of Science with my then fifth or sixth grade daughter.  She did most of the reading independently.  Unless your 3rd grader is an excellent reader, you will be doing most of the reading.  That said, it is an excellent study.  Interesting books and activities.

There was an article (or advertisement?) in the Homeschool Enrichment magazine recently by Beautiful Feet that took up a whole page.  It was all about why you should teach American History first at the younger grades and wait on Ancient history.  It made some great points and I agreed with them all.  If you contact them, I am sure they will send you a copy of that article.

That said, I also understand the CM way to go chronologically.  But there really are not many good age-appropriate books on Greece and Rome for a first or second grader.  And so I compromised somewhat.  We spent about 6 – 8 weeks on each time period that is done here in one year each.  I did not use all of those books crammed into a small amount of time, but used a few good, age appropriate books to give a very basic overview.  Then when we got to early modern time period, we spent a longer amount of time using the Beautiful Feet books and then transitioned nicely to the full SCM module 6 for another year.  The second time through the Ancients, we spent a longer time on it and they were older and understood better.

Some of the books we used to briefly cover Ancient History for grades 1 – 3:

Bible – Creation Week, Noah, Moses, Joseph

Usborne Time Traveler – Egypt, Rome, Vikings, Middle Ages

Magic Treehouse Nonfiction Guide to Ancient Greece – I think we skipped much of the part about mythology.  They had fun pretending to do the Olympic games in the backyard.  I do not let them read the fiction books due to the magic element though.

Step into Reading Trojan Horse book – They made a helmet and shield out of cardboard, red paint/marker and aluminum foil.

For the Middle Ages, we also used a castle book – there are many to choose from.

So that was my compromise to go in order for history, but focused more time on American history.  I hope that helps you figure out what is best for your family.

Thanks for sharing about CM studying your own country first!

🙂  I hope to have an answer next year!

I actually typed out a chart for my own personal use for the intermediate/jr high Medieval to see how much reading there is each week.  (Yep, geeky but true).  So glancing at it, I see that generally a student reads around 150 pages a week, sometimes closer to 100, occasionally more than 150 in a week.  That works out to 30 pages a day for 150 pages in the week.  Not bad at all for that age I think!  The week’s readings are from only 1 or 2 books. I think it looks like it will work well.

How will it compare to SCM?  Well, the reading list for SCM does have separate books for each age group, with just 1 family read aloud going for everyone, mostly kids reading their own books, so BF is similar as each age group has it’s own books, there is NOT a family read aloud however.  Not that you can’t choose to read aloud one book to everyone.

Could the books be found at the library?  Yes and no.  Many of the books on the Medieval lists could be found through my library (decent library with good interlibrary loan) but they are specific on some editions for the high school age, so if your library has a different translation of Beowulf, for example, it won’t line up exactly with the guide.

Working it with a large family: My high schooler is independent.  I will read her books and we will discuss, but she can use the guide to do her work without me easily.

The rest of my kids will work from one guide (intermediate/jr high).  I will plan to read aloud.  I’ll have a book basket with picture books for the younger kids to enjoy too (from SCM’s lists actually as BF doesn’t have a medieval for early elementary).

I’ll let everyone know how it goes!

Also, remember if you can’t find exactly what you want that SCM has a wonderful Planning Your CM Education book (and dvd, though the book is my fave).  With that you can choose your own booklist and schedule it out for the whole family any way you wish.

Tristan, I would love to hear sometime what you plan to do for all the discussion questions. Do you think you’ll use some or all or just do narrations? I have quite a few BF guides and use them loosely, but get bogged down planning which assignments to do.