How do TruthQuest & Beautiful Feet History compare?

I have not used TQ but I can share what BF is like for Intermediate/Junior High level and for Senior High so far.

We’re using BF Medieval Senior High for just my 10th grader. It has a solid book list that has a spine (The Medieval World) and then literature. In any given week she has 100=150 pages of reading to do, which is 20-30 pages a day if she chooses to space it out evenly. In any given week she is never reading from more than 2 books, the spine plus a literature title.  The guide has map work, vocabulary as they begin a new book (this includes the page number of where they will first encounter this word in the book), research projects (often with accompanying website links), comprehension and discussion questions to answer in writing or orally, assignments for a year long portfolio, and sometimes a few more book suggestions to look for at your library if you want to learn more.

Book examples: Beowulf translation by Seamus Heaney, Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter.

We are using the Intermediate/Junior High BF Medieval guide for my 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, and Kindergartener. The setup is similar to the Senior high guide with a spine (The European World by Hanawalt) and literature. There is vocab, mapping, comprehension/discussion questions, assignments for a year long portfolio, websites to see artifacts or do research, more book suggestions for a library list if desired, and occasionally hands on projects. To make this work for my group of ages I am reading aloud all the books. Again, they never assign more than 2 books to read from in a week, the spine and a literature title. Weekly reading averages 100-150 pages.  We are doing discussion aloud at the end of each book, but during reading the kids are doing notebooking pages illustrating the story and then written or oral narration (that I write onto their notebooking page) depending on age.

Book examples to compare levels: Beowulf by Morpurgo (told as story, not in verse), Joan of Arc, Warrior Saint by Williams, Adam of the Road, Canterbury Tales by Cohen – illustrated picture book.

For both levels we are picking and choosing what assignments to do in a week. Generally my high schooler is doing most or all assignments. The younger group generally are doing only a select one or two beyond our reading/narration/notebooking.

What I like: The book selections are great and already narrowed down for us! We ignore the weekly library book suggestions. I wouldn’t do Intermediate if I only had 3rd grade and under kids, I would use SCM’s module 4 booklist for grades 1-3 without a spine. As a matter of fact I own those books already because my 10th grader went through them 6 years ago, so I am pulling those picture books and others I own out for a reading basket for the kids to enjoy.

I think the assignments and books are spot on for the ages intended. The Senior High guide has some pretty hefty books (450-600 pages, two pretty direct translation books too) so if I had a high schooler who wasn’t a great reader/didn’t like reading I would use the Junior High guide with no qualms.

What I don’t like about the guides: Sometimes the vocabulary and mapping assignments are excessive. We just get selective and I have the vocab for us to read definitions prepared already instead of looking them up if there are tons.

Renee, I too am pairing TQ and BF.  🙂

I went round and round about what to use and couldn’t let either of them go so I thought why not use both.  I am blessed with a MIL that is very generous and bought tons of books from TQ that I want to include.  We don’t have a good library so it is necessary for me to buy all my resources.  I’m still trying to figure out combining them at this point.  I love the added commentary of TQ and even if I couldn’t add in the suggested books I would still want have the TQ guides with BF.  Love the book selections of BF.  I use the lesson plans, but not all of it.  Hope this helps.

~April

Regan..

I just checked out the TQ guide sample for American History because I thought they still referenced book selections for all ages on each topic.  However, I think you are right.  They tend to lean towards K-5 in book choices.  There are some topics that have grade 9 to 12 book levels, but not all.  Not sure what you should do about that, other than if you like the commentary of TQ, then find your book selections through another venue.  Maybe someone else has a good recommendation that uses TQ ‘out of order’ from their typical schedule…?

Yes, BF doesn’t really have a commentary, if you like that. It is more suggestions/questions to get your child thinking about the tie btw the bible and the story.  There are a lot of activities included like notebooking, copywork, and coloring etc…  I will probably not use much of these. I really try to stick to CM methods and I do think the guide for BF is a little ‘putting ideas in the child’s head instead of letting the child attach to the story on his own’.  Does that make sense?  I am just picking from it what I like.

However, I think BF and TQ have great book selections.  I haven’t read any yet that we don’t like.  There is so much feedback about people really loving TQ’s book selection and BF. I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

Lastly, I am also trying out a spine recommended (they don’t require these but have on their book list and reference a few on their site for folks that want a ‘literal’ spine.) by TQ called Children’s History of the world.  I used for one book I was reading to my son.  I liked it.  This has a bit of commentary before you are reading, like TQ.  I can not decide if I will use TQ, or CHOW or both.:-)  Aren’t I a ton of help?:-)

I was one of those that didn’t care for history much in school.  I just don’t want my kids to feel the same way and I am excited to learn along with them.  So, I don’t feel hugely knowledgeable in this area.  I want to make sure I have a bit of a spine/commentary to give the big picture.  Then we can dive into the living books.

So far, we are having a great time learning!

🙂

Blessings,

Renee

We used BF and TQ together. I wrote a post about combining the two a while back…

http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/2015/07/combining-truthquest-history-and.html

We do tend more toward BF because it’s a bit more streamlined, but I still love TQ and the author Michelle Miller has a real servant’s heart. Both companies have Yahoo Groups with author online support.

BF gives you a list of books in chronological order for the time period you’re studying. Their guides offer discussion questions and writing prompts, as well as map work and vocabulary suggestions. TQ is basically a suggested book list with commentary, again chronological. I use TQ to build our home library and for my background knowledge.