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History is my absolute favorite subject to teach. There is something about learning long ago that makes me appreciate the present so much more.
History is beautiful, and the way we teach it should be too!
That is why I was so excited to dive into Beautiful Feet Books Early Elementary History with my youngest this spring. It was exactly what I was looking for in an early elementary history curriculum.
About Beautiful Feet Books
I LOVE books, and so do my kids! Beautiful Feet Books is ALL about the books! This program is a read aloud curriculum that is designed to be a literary approach to the study of Early American History. This approach is based upon the Charlotte Mason philosophy.
The goal behind Beautiful Feet Books is to use literature or “living books” as the backbone of their curriculum. Each book is chosen based on whether or not its story is WORTH passing down. Meaning that each book is carefully selected. The pictures in each book are beautiful and stories are easy to read with young children.
The teachers guide from Beautiful Feet Books is open and go. Each lesson is laid out for you, and you can choose whether or not to complete the study in one or two years. Some lessons include additional notes, suggestions, or recommendations for further study.
Each student is recommended to create a notebook to go along with their studies. This will include pictures, maps, reports, poetry, and copy work. We didn’t do the notebooking lessons because he is a young kindergartner. We did, however, print out the coloring sheets from the picture packet. They were the perfect add on for his young age. Many of the lessons also include comprehension questions to spur discussion. Some were over his head, but many he was able to answer and discuss.
If you want to use the coloring sheets and notebooking option, plan on downloading the picture packet from Beautiful Feet Books website. These are NOT available to purchase from BFB ( I even asked in person at GHC).
What I Like About Beautiful Feet Books Early American History
The books are inexpensive when purchased together from Beautiful Feet Books. This means no searching for the books from the library when you need them. However, if your budget is small, MOST of the books are available from the public library (at least mine were). Which means you would only need to purchase the teacher’s guide.
The lessons are short and to the point. This means that my fidgety kid doesn’t bore easily from the lessons. He actually has asked to read MORE than what is assigned. This is a win/win for us!
The coloring sheets keep him busy, which means he is more engaged in what he is hearing. With kids who love to move, you NEED to keep them doing just that. Otherwise, they just aren’t learning. I love that most of the lessons have a coloring sheet assigned also.
Overall Thoughts on Beautiful Feet Books
I think Beautiful Feet Books is a wonderful program for the early elementary grades. If he was doing this as a kindergartner with older elementary grade siblings, I think he would have gotten more out of the program. I really wish I would have known about Beautiful Feet Books when my girls were younger. It seems to be exactly what I was looking for! We plan on using it fully next year when he is six.
If you are looking for a literature-based history curriculum that requires little prep work, or busy activities than Beautiful Feet Books is an excellent choice. It’s no fuss approach to history is exactly what I was looking for. The books are high quality, engaging, and gorgeous to look at. The program gets the job done and doesn’t require a lot of “extras” to implement. It makes history simple and for me, that is beautiful.
Yes! You can find it all here: http://www.bfbooks.com/Literature-Packs/Early-American-Primary
So is there a place I can get a list of the beautiful feet books?