Thursday, March 26, 2015

Double edged sword of technology

I have a very angsty relationship with technology. On one hand, technology allows me to do work I love from home, maintain friendships with people around the world, and access limitless information with a few clicks. Both my husband and I are completely dependent upon technology for our livelihoods. I also live thousands of miles from my family and without smartphones, I wouldn't know that my nephew just started crawling or see a picture of my little sister in her costume for her latest ballet performance. These are obviously ways that technology adds to my life in positive ways. But–and we all know what's coming here–technology also has the distinct ability to magnify the negative and selfish traits we all bear. We've all read articles about dealing with jealousy fostered by the picture perfect lives of others, the pressure to be pinterest-worthy, or the insidious creep of materialism fostered by the fact that we can order what we want instantly and have it delivered in 48 hours (with free shipping!). All those subjects are worth considering and have been written of extensively. What I personally find more challenging is that ways that technology allows me to constantly be intellectually stimulated, letting me slip from the more mundane moments of life.

Kara Powell in her lecture entitled Numb Generations calls us to think a bit about what this escapism is costing us in our real lives. How do we allow technology to rob us of being completely present? As a mother who works from home, I can easily justify reading an article on education instead of stacking blocks with my son. Ironic, I know. Powell takes the warning to another level that we don't often read about in articles on technology and mindfulness. Powell asks us to consider if the absence of silence and space effects us spiritually. Could our addiction to technology and the constant stimulation it provides hinder our ability to seek God's direction, to tune in to His leading in our lives?

Check out Powell's talk here. After watching it, come back and share your thoughts. Have you ever gone on a media fast? Have you given up Facebook for Lent? Do you limit your screen time? How are you trying to model mindfulness to your children? Let us know!

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.
And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!



Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Considering BFB? Here's the info you need, Part IV


Today we're returning to our series for those of you who want to know more about BFB. If you're coming here for the first time, check out the previous entries (Part I, Part II, and Part III) for back ground information on our philosophy, the history of how we got started over thirty years ago, and much more. Today, we're answering some of the most frequently asked questions about how to use our curriculum. First, here are links to two articles that answer two of the most common questions we get from parents and teachers: 




Once you've understood our philosophy about teaching history in a chronological manner or starting with American history, the next question is naturally, where do I start? Here's our suggested study sequence using BFB:

Primary K-3rd Grade

Early American History (K-3rd grade)

Teaching Character/Primary (K-3rd grade)History of the Horse (3nd-6th grade)  
History of Science (3rd-6th grade)
 
Geography through Literature (3rd-7th grades)

4th Grade


Early American History (Primary or Intermediate)
 
Ancient History/Intermediate (4th-8th grade)
 
History of the Horse (3nd-6th grade)
 
History of Science (3rd-6th grade)
 
Geography through Literature (3rd-7th grade)
 
History of Classical Music (4th-8th grade)
 
History of California (4th-6th grade) Semester program
 
Teaching Character Through Literature/Intermediate (4th-6th grade)
 
The History of Western Expansion (4th-7th grade) Semester program
 

5th-6th Grade
 

Early American History Intermediate (5th-6th grade)
 
Medieval History (5th-8th grade)
History of the Horse (3nd-6th grade)

History of Science (3rd-6th grade)
Geography through Literature (3rd-7th grade)
History of Classical Music (4th-8th grade)
History of California (4th-6th grade) Semester program
Teaching Character Through Literature/Intermediate (4th-6th grade)
The History of Western Expansion (4th-7th grade) Semester program

Junior High 7th-8th Grade


Early American and World History (7th-9th grade)
 
Ancient History Jr. High (4th-8th grade)
 
Medieval History (5th-8th grade)
 
History of Classical Music (4th-8th grade)
The History of Western Expansion (4th-7th grade) Semester program

Senior High 9th-12th Grade


Early American and World History (7th-9th grade)
 
Ancient History (9th-12th grade) 
Medieval History Sr. High (10th-12th grade)
 
US and World History Sr. High Pt I & II (10th-12th grade)
 
US and World History Sr. High Pt III & IV (10th-12th grade)

Tomorrow we will provide information on the books that are included in each of our courses! If you need to know now, just click on any title above and you will be taken to our website where you will find a full list of each book required for the course.

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.
And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

To celebrate this day, we wanted to share a prayer with all of your from the patron saint of Ireland.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

~St. Patrick                                                       

To learn more about this fascinating historical character, click here

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Considering BFB? Here's the info you need, Part III


We hope you've been enjoying this series and are finding the information provided useful. Today we're going to link to provide some history of BFB. For instance, did you know that we have been working with homeschoolers since 1984! Here's some background.

"Meeting" Charlotte Mason

In 1984 my parents, Russ and Rea Berg, began looking into homeschooling. They had three young children at the time and had been reading For the Children's Sake, Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Shaeffer Macaulay. It was a revelation! Macaulay championed a return to traditional forms of education centering around curiosity and creativity, and surrounding your child with an environment that nurtured those traits. In contrast to the one-size-fits-all classrooms and post-industrial educational models, Macaulay, championing the ideas of Charlotte Mason, advocated the development of each child's unique giftings. The role of literature in this mission was foundational. Children should be reared on the best books available. They should have easy access to inspiring biographies of historical heroes, they should be able to enter the imaginative worlds of fantasy, know what it was like to live long ago by reading great literature set in other times. This approach would encourage a child's natural curiosity and foster a life-long love of learning. It would also encourage the development of empathy and compassion as children learned about their place in history and the courage and struggles of those who came before them. To read more about Rea's discoveries, you can read this article

Building a Library of Classics

Once Rea was sold on this unique and inspiring educational method, she set about to find the very best children's literature for her young children. Books like Honey for a Child's Heart, The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life by Gladys Hunt and Books Children Love, a Guide to the Best Children's Literature by Elizabeth Wilson proved invaluable. Hunt and and Wilson combed through the available literature, listed Newbury and Caldecott award winners, provided direction in creating an inspiring family library. As a child, I devoured the books that surrounded me. In these stories I found inspiration, purpose, and identity. Family read-aloud time was a priority and I have many fond memories of countless nights spent reading wonderful stories. I learned to love E. B. White, Ralph Moody, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Brinton Turkle, Robert McCloskey, Alice Dalgliesh, Carol Brink, Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire, Marguerite De Angeli, Eleanor Estes, Elizabeth George Speare, and many more. We never had television and this allowed us the freedom of time; time to spend reading alone and together, time to explore, and time to partake of imaginative play. Once formal education began in our home, Rea continued to emphasize the role of literature. We did not use history textbooks, we read biographies, original source documents, great books by authors like Jean Fritz who have a gift for making history come alive.

As a child I remember boxes of books arriving regularly and I knew this was special. Each box held multiple worlds and ideas and new experiences. We also made regular trips to the library where caring librarians help us find dusty treasures that had been sitting for far too long in forgotten corners. Each time we left the library we all had checked out our limit and with four children, that was lot of books.


The power of story as teacher

As my siblings and I got older our homeschooling adventure naturally shifted from lots of informal reading time to a more structured form. Frustrated by the dreariness that marked so many of the history textbooks available,  Mom began formulating our history and English curriculums around the books we were reading. We learned about 
American history through biographies on Abraham Lincoln, old collections of Pilgrim stories, first hand accounts of encounters with George Washington, and harrowing recollections of Revolutionary War soldiers. Living in California offered great opportunities to delve into the history of the Wild West and we read about gold miners seeking their fortunes, the doomed Donner Party expedition, the great San Francisco earthquake, Buffalo Bill and his traveling spectacular. It was exciting. History was the stories of real people just like us! By reading biographies, historical fiction, award-winning literature, and first-hand accounts, we were being given the gift of a legacy. History became personal and relevant. It was not just a collection of facts consisting of names and dates. It was "our" story, it told us why we were here. That is the beauty and importance of history. It is not necessarily the dates and facts that are of most importance. It's the reasons behind the stories that give our lives meaning and help us understand who we are. I have never heard of a child not wanting to hear stories of her parents and grandparents childhoods and that is simply because as humans we long for connection and placement. And yet, so many children's natural curiosity for what came before them is squelched when they're given a history textbook. It may provide all the facts but no matter how well-written, it cannot provide the narrative that we long for as human beings. Story does that.


Word spreads

So we were immersing ourselves in story and as anyone who knows my mom can attest, when Mom is excited about something, she's evangelical. Her friends rarely left our home without a book loan, she had a book recommendation for everything. As a child, I was sure that birthday party invitations would soon dry up because we were arrived with our tell-tale flat, square gifts!

Mom faced a couple of challenges in her pursuit of the best books. The first was that this was in the early 1980s so there was no access to the internet and finding some of the more obscure titles required hours of research and lots of phone calls to book finding services. Secondly, we lived in a tiny little gold-mining town and did not have access to vast libraries or other resources. Mom decided the best way to ensure that her friends all had access to these books, was to start selling them herself. She applied for a business license and soon the UPS man was making daily deliveries and boxes of books were taking over an entire room in our home.


Creating structure

Now all my mom's friends and fellow homeschoolers had easy access to the books that were making history come alive, but now what? It was great to have a wonderful library, but people craved a bit more structure. While she was teaching us, Mom had been putting together study notes, reading assignments, discussion topics and unwittingly creating a history curriculum entirely based on literature. As we got a bit older, Mom and her other homeschooling friends starting doing co-op classes and guess who always taught history? As their children became excited about history, these happy parents began asking for Mom's study notes. And so she typed them up on a typewriter and made photocopies. I distinctly remember this point in my childhood because we were making lots of trips to the little printing store around the corner from our house.
These hand-typed study notes became the basis for Beautiful Feet Books' History Through Literature curriculums. Soon enough there was a growing demand from parents seeking to switch from textbooks, or others who loved literature but wanted a guide for using these wonderful books as a history curriculum. The typewriter was traded in for one of those original Apple Macintosh computers and homeschooling time now included lessons in running a small business! Lessons like how to take inventory, how to collate the printed study note pages and bind them in a plastic binders, how to check in arriving shipments and politely take an order. And as the homeschooling movement grew from those early days, so did BFB. Conventions and speaking engagements soon followed as people latched on to this new approach that harkened back to a long storytelling tradition we had lost sight of in our educational approaches.

BFB now sells over a dozen history study guides covering everything from ancient to modern history, geography, literature, and more. If you have any questions relating to the history of BFB, please feel free to ask! 
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.
And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!


Monday, March 09, 2015

Considering BFB? Here's the info you need, Part II


Last week we provided some articles and videos on education and educational philosophies that, we hope, helped you understand a bit more about the thinking behind Beautiful Feet Books' approach to history. This week we will be providing more information on what we believe as a company and how that shapes our study guides and literature choices. If at any point during this series, you have questions, please feel free to post them in the comments or on our Facebook page

Today, we'd like to share with you a series we wrote on BFB Fundamentals. If you've ever wondered if BFB is classical, what teaching history through literature looks like, who is the Charlotte Mason you keep talking about, this is the series for you! Check it out by clicking the following links:


Later this week we'll address the questions of chronological history, teaching American history first, and much more! We're excited about this series and hope you enjoy it!

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.
And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!

Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Considering BFB? Here's the info you need, Part I

If you are considering switching from a packaged or box curriculum to a literature based study, it can be very overwhelming. To help you understand why we believe so strongly in using literature to teach history, take a look through the following blog entries. They help explain our educational philosophy, why standard classroom education does not work for many students, the history behind compulsory education, and much more.





Over the next few weeks, I will be posting more on our educational philosophy, how to get started in a Charlotte Mason approach, benefits of learning with stories, and much more. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, March 03, 2015

BFB Benefits!

At BFB are excited about partnering with homeschooling families to help them train and equip their children to become life-long learners: passionate, curious, and engaged in their communities. We believe that using literature to inspire and educate is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this goal. We also recognize that many families who choose to educate at home do so at a financial cost. In order to help make excellent educational materials more accessible, we offer the following: 


| Free Shipping |

Order any complete pack and shipping is free! It's also free on all orders $200.00 and over. 

| Lowest Price Guarantee |

Lowest price guaranteed on all our Jumbo Packs. If you find a Jumbo Pack listed for less, just let us know and we will happily match the price AND give you a $10.00 credit on your order!

| Money-Back Guarantee |

Try our products risk-free for 60 days! If after 60 days you are not satisfied, simply call us to receive a Return Authorization number then return your purchase in re-salable condition and we will process your refund less shipping.

Special Price Offerings |

This designation Special Pricing signifies a reduced price wherever it appears on our books and products with savings of 10 to 40%! We are passing on the savings from special purchases to you!

Customize Your Pack |

If you are ordering any of our "Jumbo Packs" please give us a call. We will gladly deduct any item(s) you may already own and adjust the price accordingly. From three to five titles allowed depending on pack. Please note the Geography Pack is not eligible for deductions.

| Facebook Fan Offers |

Sign up as our Fan on Facebook and you will have access to special exclusive promotions. You’ll also learn about new products, special events, and much more!
If you're new to BFB or have been using our study guides for years, please do not hesitate to contact us with questions. We're here to help whether you have inquiries about our approach, our materials, how to teach using literature, or any number of topics, we've been homeschooling and helping others homeschool for 31 years! So give us a call or drop us an email: letters (@) bfbooks (.) com.