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Beautiful Feet American History

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Our homeschool style has always been very literature rich. I usually spend a lot of time planning these book choices. This year, I took a different route and tried something new. We have been using Beautiful Feet American History and I have been so incredibly pleased by it. I received a full set for review and after I got it I was so impressed that I decided I wanted to use the younger set for my other kids, too. (This is a sponsored post in behalf of Beautiful Feet.  I am being compensated for this post, but all thoughts are my own.) 

Beautiful Feet literature-based American history

What is Beautiful Feet American History?

Beautiful Feet is a history curriculum that teaches history through literature. They have been around since 1994. In their quest for great literature for kids, they began reprinting amazing old classics.

I came across their website years ago in looking for good literature myself. Over the years, I have visited their site for ideas on good books, but never actually purchased a full set of their curriculum.  I was so excited to get the chance to try it out!  The book lists are amazing and make learning history fun and interesting.  They have sets for varying topics and grades. And they do not only cover history, but also character and geography!

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What really brings it together are their literature guides. They have a historical overview, the outline for reading, vocabulary study, discussion questions, notebooking ideas, and more! I am loving the simple outline and flexibility that comes with it.

In my discussions with a few other homeschool parents who have used Beautiful Feet Books, I have heard a few people talk about getting the books alone and not needing the literature guides. I have to say that I disagree completely. I was trying to do that in the past,  but never felt like there was enough structure and consistency to it. The Literature guides help with book order and guide you through it in such a wonderful way!   They are an amazing addition to this literature-rich curriculum.

 

How We Feel About Beautiful Feet American History

I have been using the Modern American and World History curriculum with my 6th grade son. He is so happy with it and has really been thriving with this literature set. He is loving each and every book.  We have not done any modern American history yet besides the Story of the World books, so a lot of the content is new to him.  He has been learning about the Civil war period and is really enjoying it. He often forgets that he is supposed to only read certain chapters each day and reads beyond the assigned amount.

homeschool-american-history

His thoughts on the Beautiful Feet American History program are that is it is simple and to the point. It makes history come to life and is making him think about how much the decisions we make matter in everyday life. The war really changed the lives of so many!  He thinks it is the best way to learn history that we have ever done! He loves how the books are all related to each other, but each one has its own style and direction with new things to understand.

His favorite book that he has read so far is The Perilous Road.  He can understand the wording and really relates to the characters. He liked how the main character is so passionate about beliefs. It made him think about his own life and beliefs or passions.

modern-american-history-book-list

I have been following behind him and reading the books after he finishes. I have to agree that the books are wonderful! The books are all such high quality and are really great literature. This matters to me.  I have been so pleased with our experience with Beautiful Feet American History. We will be sticking with this one. I am grateful to feel like I finally found the one that fits our homeschool style without having to change a thing about it!

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6 Comments

  1. I’m not sure if you’ll see this post, but I’m very thankful to have found your site. I’ve sat and read many helpful posts here. ( in top of hundreds other places) I would love to know, after reading about your experience, what you have landed on. I’m looking for a break from mfw, and beautiful feet, trail of learning, time traveler and winter promise are my new intrigues. In your opinion, which (if you know wp) of these are the most engaging, enjoyable, and fun for a family with 4 levels? Bf looks rich in lit. Time trav. Looks fun, trail or learning seems inclusive of other subjects, but not maybe as much as mfw, and so looks inclusive like mfw, but I find so little about it. Cathy Duffy likes it. If you have any thoughts…. momma to momma, id love them.

    1. Hey Kori! I have not used My Father’s World, so I cannot give a comparison on that for you, but will tell you my experiences with the others! I have tried Beautiful Feet, Time Traveler and and Trail Guide to Learning. They are all VERY different from one another.

      Trail Guide is a pretty all-inclusive curriculum (minus math). It has a scripted teaching approach guiding you on what to say & discuss. This works well for lots of people. We liked the literature, history & geography aspect of it a lot, but were not fans of the writing/LA part of it, so we skipped those parts. This curriculum moved really slow, though. The book passages for the day were never enough for my kids! They wanted to move through the topics more quickly, but overall it was a very positive experience. They have great stuff!

      The Time Traveler units are lots of fun and are great additions to literature and other things you may already be doing. I know many people like to use unit studies exclusively, and this would fit well into that category. I have used them more as extras. They are well-liked by some of my kids. They are very crafty and lots of coloring/cutting. gluing. My boys do not enjoy this so much, but do like the content of them a lot.

      Beautiful Feet has a marvelous selection of historical literature that we absolutely loved. This is my favorite of all of them. I have used their book guides for a few years and have always been very pleased with it. This is just history and literature, unlike Trail Guide. I like that it is quite open-ended and not a very scripted/directed curriculum, but that is my style of teaching.

      Hope this helps!

      1. Thanks for your speedy reply. I’ve been doing this for 7 years now and still spend hours every year choosing curriculum. That’s my personalityOnce it’s picked though, I go with it… I’m not a plan hours on the weekend homeschooling mom, I did that for several years when I taught public school. My kids get a different version at home. Open, read, go. Can I ask… if you do beautiful feet, what L. Arts and spelling do you add. Do you try and work with the material so it’s connected to the books at all? Ive not done that since my unschooling days. but some of those programs that do, sound interesting… My only hesitation with beautiful feet is pulling in the other sunjects, and then brI going too much! Some spelling and language arts think they are your only subject!!! If you get bogged down, you don’t need to reply!!! Thanks for your first reply, super helpful. Always love connecting with homeschooling sisters!!! P.s, I love your site!!! I’ve been consulting it right along with cathy Duffy!

    2. Hello! I know this is an old post, but I hope you’ll still see it! I am torn btw MFW and BF. I am wondering why you took a break from MFW and if you liked BF better. It seems as if it’s been a few years since you posted. Wondering if you have insight to share. xo

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