Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: History

This topic has 20 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 12 months ago by Tristan.

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April 24, 2016 at 1:50 am
Regan
Participant
I am trying to decide what I am going to do for history next year? I would love to hear from those of you that use Beautiful Feet! Pros? Cons? How does it compare to SCM history? My oldest will be in 3rd grade with 2, 1st graders and some little ones behind them:). It also looks like they recommend The History of Science for that age group! I have been going through history chronologically and that was the plan, but it doesn’t seem to be the case with Beautiful Feet! Hmmm…. Just hashing things out! Decisions, decisions!
April 24, 2016 at 8:37 am
Tristan
Participant
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.
April 24, 2016 at 3:45 pm
Wings2fly
Participant
We used BF Early American for those ages and loved it! My son still loves to study history. That was my favorite history study we did and that was 3 or 4 years ago. Go slow with it and have fun. They end up with a nice keepsake book afterwords too.
April 24, 2016 at 10:04 pm
reeves5327
Participant
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.

April 24, 2016 at 10:55 pm
Regan
Participant
Yes, I like the looks of Beautiful Feet as well! We just finished Ancient Egypt this year and were going to go in chronological order through Greece and then Rome! Trying to decide if I should combine those two or just do one a year. So far we have just done SCM and we loved it, but felt like we would love more living books and maybe some creative and fun activities to weave in there, like you mentioned, Tristan! We could always add that to SCM but with 6 kiddos 8 and under, I like that it is already a part of the options! They don’t really have anything for that time period that is meant for my ages though (8 and under). Yes, I will be doing all the reading next year for my 3rd grader but he is a great reader and the next year (4th grade) he should be independent :). Hmmmm…am I missing an option? I don’t mind combining curriculums but I really want to go in order! We have just learned about Ancient Egypt this year and I would love for them to know what comes next. I am really looking for age appropriate living books and some fun stuff mixed in and suggested…all laid out!

April 24, 2016 at 11:59 pm
Wings2fly
Participant
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.
April 25, 2016 at 8:22 am
Morgan Conner
Participant
I have been listening to A Delectable Education podcast about history. According to their research CM would have you begin with a study of your own country’s history. Ancient history wasn’t added in until much later.
I heard Rea Berg (of Beautiful Feet) interviewed on another podcast & agreed with all she said about studying American History first. I think all that info is on the Beautiful Feet website.
I recently purchased their American history & love the book choices. There isn’t a ‘spine’ really (unless the guide acts as a spine) but I liked the idea of just reading good living books. We do morning time so the history books are just added to the rotation.
April 25, 2016 at 8:54 am
Wings2fly
Participant
Thanks for sharing about CM studying your own country first!
April 25, 2016 at 11:17 am
Aimee
Participant
I’m also interested in comparing SCM and BF. Specifically, what is the differences in the time they take? I expect that SCM would keep the lessons short, what about BF? I’m thinking of their intermediate and junior high levels. I would assume the early elementary would be fairly short readings.
I really like how you get books for all ages scheduled in the SCM guide. How hard is it to use BF with a large family? (I suppose Tristan will have an answer for that next year.)Anyone know how it compares price wise? Can you get any BF books at the library?
April 25, 2016 at 6:31 pm
Tristan
Participant
🙂 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.

April 25, 2016 at 11:31 pm
Regan
Participant
What great feedback! I am continuing to ponder what I will do, but I am thinking I may use SCM this next year! That is what I was planning originally! We did Ancient Egypt this year as I mentioned earlier and we loved it! To me it was just right, not too much! I think the main thing is I wish there were a few ideas sprinkled through of activities, extra living books suggested throughout to give a little more variety! I think other than that, I could not have asked for more! My son is not burnt out, he is thriving and our homeschool is peaceful and challenging! I guess I can just add the variety of I need to! For this season with 6 kids under 8(when I started the school year) and my youngest just turning 1 and moving, I just didn’t have the time :). We all go through seasons like that in life! I do really like the look of Beautiful Feet and I like some of the discussion questions that I could see and I like the timeline you can cut and paste! I like History of Science where it covers all the inventors, starting with Archimedes in Ancient Greece! I could always get the History of Science and cover the inventors as we weave our way through SCM! The intermediate readers might work or they may be a little over his head! I’m just not sure so since the Ancients aren’t really geared toward the younger ages, I shall wait! I totally hear you guys in learning American History first! I can see how that would be beneficial and interesting to my son! He has enjoyed Ancient Egypt so far and to me everything that I know about Modern History makes more sense knowing the ancient history! I may add a few more living books that are on specific topics we will be covering and come up with a few activities! Maybe some videos on the area we are covering in geography! So much to do, so little time! Now, to decide if I will combine Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome or just do them in separate years as written! And to think, this time last year, I was planning to do Tapestry of Grace, really knew very little about a Charlotte Mason type of education! I found SCM while searching online, watched the videos and it peaked my curiosity! It just clicked and made sense to me! The next week I was sitting in Sonyas class at a homeschool convention and went home to order almost all of my curriculum from SCM :). I still have a lot to learn! If you have more feedback, I’m all ears! Thanks for the recommendation, Tristan! Planning Your CM Education book might help a lot as I plan! And I think we will all look forward to hearing about how history goes in your house this year using Beautiful Feet!
April 26, 2016 at 10:07 am
KeriJ
Participant
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.
April 26, 2016 at 10:40 am
Tristan
Participant
In my head the plan is to discuss all questions in the high school guide but to mostly do narrations with the rest of the kids.

April 26, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Regan
Participant
I think if I were like you Tristan with some older kiddos, Beautiful Feet would have worked better! I am looking forward to hearing about your experience! KeriJ, have you used Beautiful Feet with younger elementary kiddos! Do you use them with another curriculum or alone! I think I will get the History of Science and take it along on our journey through history! I’ll just pull from it as we get to the time period the inventors were from! :).

April 26, 2016 at 2:21 pm
Laurie
Participant
So I glanced at the sample of high school history and panicked! While reading books is easy how do you come up with your own discussion topics without one of these guides like BF? I would prefer not to have to buy any, but am worried that I would not have the great thoughts or considerations that some of these topics encompass. Narration is great but is it really enough? From the sounds of those homeschooling HS they talk alot with their kids and ask those leading question. Ok, nervous nellies encroaching today…