When we used Beautiful Feet Books as our history spine, it came closest to what I feel teaching history should embrace.
Learning about history is not about dead people, but about bringing the past to life through events and the lives of people. Beautiful Feet Books uses that method and more particularly through their choice of living books.
Today, if I had to choose just one program, Beautiful Feet Books would be my top choice at any grade level. I used Beautiful Feet Books for a few years of high school with Mr. Senior 2013 and it refueled our love for history after having chosen a not so good program the prior year.
Mr. Awesome still uses their books for his required high school reading. We have used the Early American and World History and the Medieval History Sr. High levels.
The things I am fond about the most about Beautiful Feet Books are that:
- Living Books are used.
The series of books that made us lap up our history time I have mentioned before are by Genevieve Foster.
Focusing on a famous character of the time period, in each of her books she weaves other events going on and other important characters living at the same same time of the famous character. One of the most beautiful features of the books is that line drawings of characters and events are in each section. Mr. Senior 2013 was so inspired by them that he started keeping a notebook and drew some of his events from history.
History Guides As Springboards
Events are folded in naturally and told like a story. No one at any age ever tires of an action packed story. Too, Genevieve Foster wrote the books in the forties and fifties, pre-politically correct times. Those kinds of books I hunt high and low to stock in our home.
- Their philosophy in teaching history, which is that you don’t have to use a chronological method for kids to make important connections was another draw for me. I was able to relax and realize that though the chronological method to teaching history benefited me at times, it was not the only way to teach history.
- Their no fluff style of their manuals I also enjoy at this season of homeschooling. A few ideas on how to engage your child through notebooking, extra reading or a few extra assignments are assigned in the guide and that’s it.
- I like the fact they help you with planning middle school and high school by assigning credits. This was much help when planning high school credits.
- I also liked seeing the overview of all the programs or scope and sequence.
However, some of the same things I am fond about the most may be the very things that might not work for you depending on what you are wanting to achieve this year.
Look at some of these things to consider.
- The manuals are nothing more than a question/answer format. I prefer this style now in my homeschooling because I prefer always to add in my own content and to use the guide just as a guide. If you are looking for extensive help on fleshing out background information or hand holding, it is not found here. For us that year, it served us well because I expected Mr. Senior 2013 to do his own research if he didn’t understand some background information. Too, Mr. Senior 2013 or Mr. Awesome really didn’t follow the guide for reading assignments. They just read each day within out time schedule and at their pace and use the guide as self-checking.
- It uses a more Charlotte Mason approach which is a more gentle approach to high school. At the high school level, some parents want more reading assignments. This gentle approach suited us because I wanted my sons to have reading assignments in our Bible material and language arts.
- Some of the books that are used move fast and events change quickly. I feel a good reader would be able to keep up with the quick stepping pace of the books. However, a slower reader may get lost in how fast the books can change topics. It may require some research for background events. However, if your child keeps on reading past parts that don’t make a complete picture at the moment, all of the main points soon are tied together. My sons used the guide to help them see the main points or events from the reading.
Middle school and high school though wasn’t my first introduction to Beautiful Feet Books.
When I first started homeschooling, I did one elementary level, the Early American History, with Mr. Senior 2013 when he was in Kindergarten. Or I should say, I used the D’Aulaire books for our read aloud time. I absolutely savored our time together reading those books, but soon left Beautiful Feet Books because I was afraid of repeating a mistake.
At that time, I was attempting to move away from boxed curriculum after having failed miserably the first time in putting my curriculum together. So I was real cautious about laid out curriculum and didn’t have enough experience to know that it had the gentle nature that I was fond of.
Little did I know then that I would be returning to Beautiful Feet years later, seasoned and with a lot more clarity about the way I wanted my sons to learn history. Too, I realized that Beautiful Feet Books had just the right amount of guidance that we wanted.
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Fast forward to the high school years, Mr. Senior 2013 soaked up his high school years because he went down trails of history that he blazed as I once again used Beautiful Feet Books. One day he would focus on art and another day he wrote about mythical gods. None of this was assigned in Beautiful Feet Books, but it just served as a springboard to studying what he was interested in at the time.
I think your reader of history would love the books even if you didn’t follow the guide and reading assignments like we did. Making it our course, we thoroughly enjoy this style of learning history and using Beautiful Feet Books as guides when we need them.
Hugs and love ya,
Want to read more?
Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.
How to Use a History Spine to Build Your Study of History
When we used Notgrass World History as our History Spine
8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically
Should Homeschool History Be Covered in Chronological Order?
When We Used Story of the World as our History Spine
How do you handle grades with Beautiful Feet? It will be our first time using this with an 8th grader. I would like to do Middle Ages. There is a new guide for US and World history. The website says it is for 11 and 12 grade and is a one year course. However, I found an older edition saying it was for grades 9 and 10 and takes two years to complete. Any insights on this? We have used Truthquest up until now and have been happy with that. However, I just did not know how to do any grading with the high school years, so I changed curriculum for the older ones to a textbook for history. I would like to go back to living books, but needed more accountability with lessons and grades, etc.
I’m really excited about trying this next year with my kids! I have a question about teaching multiple ages. This fall I’ll have- DD 14, DS 11 and DS 8. I’m trying to decide what to get and if I should get my highschooler her level and the boys another to share. If so, which level should I get for the younger ones? If it’s feasible I think it’s easier to keep up with everyone when they’re doing the same era. Right now were using Story of the World and it’s way too young for my 14 year old which is part of why I’m considering the switch. What do you suggest?
Hi Aimee,
Yes, the high school level to count as credit, you do want high school. Here is the thing to remember about this curriculum that it is a LOT of reading. Some kids flourish with this and others you need to cut back some of the reading or go over with them;
Just remember too it’s not laid out as easily as SOTW in the higher level with multiple activities. So getting a lower level to help you is a great idea PLUS you can use it with your younger boys.
You did not say which time period you are going to cover so it’s hard to say which level. Too, a lot depends on your children”s background in history.
I know you said you did SOTW but how many years have you had?
We’ve been on level 1 for two years. Not because we love it but because we just can’t stick to it. Some chapters we spent a couple of weeks on but others we didn’t enjoy much. We didn’t do the hands on at all because the kids arent interested in crafty things. The only part they (sort of) liked was the notebooking and they loved it when I could find a documentary to bring it to life. That’s why I thought this curriculum might be a fit. The SOTW text is just not cutting it and I can never find the suggested reading books at the library to add interest. I’m open to starting on any level really. Thank you so much for your help!
I forgot to say my kids went to public school for a while. So they did cover some there. I think they start with Texas history then U.S… I don’t remember what came after that… maybe more world? My oldest finished 6th, my middle one, 2nd, and my youngest, kindergarten. Next year they’ll be in 9th, 5th and 3rd.
Hi Aimee,
That is a much more clear picture. You really are in a good position to go slower with your oldest which is JUST NOW entering high school.
You don’t really want to take two years on one level because it may start zapping your children’s love of history.
Keep in mind that Beautiful Feet is literature based FIRST. meaning that reading is the foremost activity.
With my sons, I read aloud to them in high school when we started high school just so that they could get the flavor of it.
With your crew that would work great too. Sometimes you just read and move on. It’s not always necessary to do “something”.
Make the time you are reading one that the kids look forward to.
Read, discuss together what happened and move on. Selectively pick things to do.
The age span you have to teach though is different than mine though.
I know BF just expanded the Ancients to cover both MIDDLE and HIGH School grades in ONE guide. It has separate notes for each level.
The beauty of this too is that you can read the levels for high school but choose from the middle school activities for your younger crew AND if your high schooler needs them too,
I think the guide for Medieval history was update like that also to include two levels.
Remember that it is EASIER to supplement with things for younger crew than it is to come up with high school level work that can count as credit.
For example, it is easy to find a castle or knight for your younger kids to color when they want to.
Add in one or two meaningful hands on projects that don’t zap your energy but that can be full of fun for the WHOLE unit.
The basics to remember is to read and move on!!
Hi,
I was looking at “Early american and world history”‘s sample üage and it seemed that one lesson had a lot of work for one day in it. Did you fid that your son was able to complete the lessons in about one hour? On the page that I looked at there were two maps to draw and two longer answers with many questions that didn’t seem like short answer questions. Could you share a bit of how you got throug the material or what you cut out if you did?
Bless you.
Hi Maria,
I didn’t hold it to an hour. Remember, there are about 3 subjects tied together for some of the lessons which makes this a great tool for the highschool level. There is the reading or literature, then like you said two questions to answer which is composition and then maps to draw which is geography. So to be fair, that is about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of time.
So no, I feel like the time is underestimated especially for a high school student who enjoys it or just likes to take their time.
The way I did it is to look ahead and decide what the boys would cover or write solo and what we would do together. A lot of it can be read together and discussed orally and move on. High school kids like to do this and debate things, so I would.
Decide which parts matter to you. Do you really need to go that in depth on each subject?.
I was using another composition curriculum too, so some days I completely cut out the writing and he simply discussed with me what he learned and did the map work.
So don’t have him/her do ALL of this AND then do other subjects later which is why it’s important to look ahead.
That is how we used it. I tended to cut back some of the other curriculum resources we used especially because my son was enjoying it. Too, with composition, reading and geography all tied together, it made more sense to him.
Hope that helps!