Working Through the Modern American and World History Study

Today we're going to hear from Melissa of Reflections from Drywood Creek as she shares with us a peek at her family's experience with our Modern American and World History study! She shares lots of pictures of the guide and her children's work, so it's a lot of fun to be able to share their experience with you. Here we go!

Getting Started with BF Modern American and World History 

We are in our sixth week of the 2015-2016 school year.  I want to share a little bit about our Beautiful Feet Modern American and World History study.  The guide itself is much more aesthetically pleasing than the brown cover, comb bound guides of the past.  Initially, I was a bit worried about the spine cracking.  However, it seems to lay flat and so far has hung together well.  The color images, historic artwork, and short author biographies are a wonderful addition!

I'm using the study with a 5th and 6th grader.  I will be reading all the books aloud because up to this point, we have studied history as a family combining Riley and Ruben.  This is our sixth and final year of our first history rotation, which makes BF Modern American and World History the perfect fit, covering the Civil War to Modern Times. 

In the beginning, the study was a bit of a struggle because we were starting cold in the middle of A Child's First Book of American History.  When Lesson 1 began with assigning four chapters from A Child's First..., plus two chapters of Across Five Aprils, which were approx. 20 pages each, I was overwhelmed!  This was a couple hours worth of reading!  I knew then and there it would have to be split up. 

Eventually, we worked through A Child's First and started reading one chapter of Across Five Aprils during our scheduled school time and one at bedtime.  This worked much better, especially since Across Five Aprils is such a fabulous book!  I didn't want to cut it or save it for later.  The kids were constantly begging for more!  It was truly one of the best books I've read in some time. 

Anyway, following Across Five Aprils, we read The Perilous Road.  Both book are coming of age stories set during the Civil War.  However, Across Five Aprils is set in Southern Illinois and The Perilous Road is set in Tennessee.  Each protagonist is for a different side of the war, one being a Confederate and the other being for the Union. The Perilous Road is a much easier read, but, it's still a realistic telling of life during that time. 

In addition to reading, we are notebooking.  I have pulled in notebooking pages from Home School in the Woods' Time Travelers CD-Rom, The Civil War.  I have also printed pages from various Dover Coloring Books and The American Civil War History Pockets.  Riley and Ruben enjoy notebooking and pre-printed pages are easier for Ruben since there's more coloring and not as much writing involved.  Due to dyslexia, much of his comprehension work is done through oral narration and discussion, but the notebook gives a place for copywork and is a nice momentous portfolio to look back on.  I'm including photos of misc. notebook pages completed so far. 

Overall the BF Modern American and World History study is going great!  We are just starting Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass.  I plan to continue giving updates regarding this study every 4-6 weeks throughout the school year. 

 

 

 
 

Thank you Melissa! I love all the notebook pages you put together. Your children's notebooks truly are wonderful portfolios of everything they're learning this year. Read Melissa's original post here.

Are any of our readers working their way through our new Modern American and World History guide? Chime in and let us know what you think? What adjustments have made to make it work for your family? Do you like the built-in flexibility? We'd love to hear from you!

Our new 2015-2016 catalog is now available! If you want to view it right now it's available

online here. And if you would like to request a hardcopy, click here.

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