Middle School: Modern American and World History

"We have Modern American and World History here...The book selections are terrific! The teacher's guide has great thought provoking questions. Great for conversations about the readings." -Carmen S.

"Beautiful Feet Books inspired us to learn together, dream big, and discover a more modern, global view of history."

Shawna from Not the Former Things

"The Modern American & World History is geared towards 5-8th grade students. This makes it the perfect study for middle school history using literature! This 83 pages, full color guide makes it simple and easy for you to open, read, and go!" Heidi from Starts at Eight

So many people ask us what to do after completely our Early American History studies for Primary and Intermediate grades and this is the answer! As we are deeply committed to the idea that students do best when taught what is familiar first, we strongly encourage beginning your history studies with Early American history. You can read more about that here, and listen to Rea explain it even more in a Episode 15 of the Wild + Free podcast. As this is foundational to our approach to teaching history, it makes sense that following our Early American History for Intermediate Grades study, we would offer a Modern American and World History study. The Modern American & World History study covers the American Civil War up to modern day for 5-8th grade students. It is the perfect follow-up to those who have already completed our Early American intermediate course. This new study uses the second-half of A Child's First Book of American History by Earl Schenck Miers as well as a host of new and classic literature. Characters studied over this year-long course include the Wright brothers, Teddy Roosevelt, Gladys Aylward, George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, Sergeant York, Jackie Robinson and many others. Your student will come to appreciate and understand the most tempestuous period in history through award-winning literature. This full-color study guide includes notes on each book, recommended supplemental literature, resources, activities, comprehension questions, vocabulary, and web links. This guide will take you and your intermediate grade student from the year 1860 to modern day while covering the Civil War, Reconstruction, the turn of the century, WWI, WWII, Civil Rights, Korean War, Vietnam War, and contemporary America. Organized into easily followed lessons, students (and parents!) will learn the modern history of our nation along with corresponding Christian principles, poetry, geography, character studies, and much more!

Click on the thumbnails below to see sample pages from this study:

REVIEWS

Click on image to read complete review

Starts at Eight

Not the Former Things

It is our passion to make teaching history easy and accessible to everyone. Great literature is the best way and our guides make it approachable. And everything is available in a discounted pack that ships for free!

We hope you find this helpful. Please never hesitate to contact us with any questions. We can be reached at 800.889.1978, letters@bfbooks.com, on Facebook, and Instagram.

Modern American and World History

One of our newest programs in our Modern American and World History for grades 5-8. This literature-rich study picks up where our Early American History for Intermediate grades leaves off and has been very popular from it's introduction. Karyn from Teach Beside Me has been using it with her 6th grader and recently reviewed it here. A couple of highlights from her review hit right at the heart of what we want to accomplish with our literature approach to history programs. Here's a couple excerpts:

"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...He often forgets that he is supposed to only read certain chapters each day and reads beyond the assigned amount...His thoughts on the program are that 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...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."

"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."

Thank you Karyn for your kind words. Please read the complete review and check out Teach Beside Me for other great reviews and homeschool resources. 

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Modern American and World History review

Today Melissa updates us on her family's progress through our Modern American and World History study! See what using great books does for brining history to life! Within this post, the hyperlinks on different titles will bring you to reviews that Melissa has written on many of the books used in this study so if you're considering this program, check out those links for detailed reviews!

We are a little over half way through our Beautiful Feet Modern American and World History study (lesson 65 of 117) with only a couple weeks left of our academic school year.  The program is fabulous!  The books are incredible!  However, as previously mentioned, the readings are long and I've had to split the lessons in half so we are not making the progress I'd hoped.  Fortunately, our kids love history so much that in our discussion on how to proceed, they were quick to jump at the chance to continue over summer....now that says a ton about the program if you ask me ;-)

The books we've read so far are:

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
The Perilous Road by William O. Steele
Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom by Margaret Davidson (subbed for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson
Theodore Roosevelt by Genevieve Foster
The Wright Brother: Pioneers of American Aviation by Quentin Reynolds
Sergeant York by John Perry
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
Rascal by Sterling North
Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman by Gladys Aylward
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert De Jong (currently reading)

As I was typing this list, I immediately began to feel sentimental.  My memories are fond.  I was thinking about a favorite and couldn't narrow it to one book.  I can totally see how the folks at Beautiful Feet had a hard time making the final cuts.

In looking at the books ahead, we've read Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop and The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin in the past while using Sonlight so I don't plan to re-read them, although, they are excellent books.  Riley remembers both.  Ruben was sketchy so I may have him read them independently.  I have also heard fabulous reports on Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan and will consider substituting it depending on how I feel the coverage is after skipping the above two mentioned books and also considering time. 

For more information on our study, you can read my Getting Started post here and our Term One Review here.  There are also samples of numerous notebooking pages at both posts as well as the linked books above.  Overall, we are loving this BF study and not only will continue, but also recommend it!  

Thank you Melissa!

We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

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