Download Sale!

For one week only, we are offering 33% off of our downloadable History Through Literature Study Guides!

If you've been curious about a guide, this is your chance to snag it for a great price along with the convenience of an instant download! Any of the following guides are on sale for this limited time offer.

 
                   
 

Check them all out here!

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.

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!

Thoughts on Plagiarism

As we head in to a new school year, it is worth discussing one of the most important skills a student can be taught: using and citing resources correctly. My husband is a seminary professor who also works with undergrads and knows first hand that plagiarism is rampant–even among students in Christian and faith-based schools. Students who have not been taught proper citation are at risk of unwittingly breaking school honor codes and others who are have a misconstrued notion of scholarship believe that citing sources will do their papers harm. In honor of the fact that we're back in school and some of you may be sending scholars off to college for the first time, I highly recommend the following article by Karen Swallow Prior, professor of English at Liberty University, "Plagiarism and Scholarship: A Lesson from the Bee". It's definitely worth the read.

If you need help on how to correctly cite sources Duke University provides an excellent handbook for the top five styles of citation including Chicago, MLA, Turabian, and APA!

This website also provides guidance for teaching students how to choose reliable sources and cite them.

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.

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!

There's still a couple places!

Rea's back to school event is quickly filling up! She's added Early American History to the topics covered so if you're teaching that time period or Medieval and Renaissance or Modern American and World History, here's your chance to be inspired for the coming school year! Here's the details:

Hello Friends,
I still have room in my Back-to-School Literature Soirée coming up on August 29th!  If you would like to come or have friends that might be interested please spread the word!  We are going to have a wonderful day getting inspired and challenged as we look at the amazing literature of the Middle Ages (King Arthur, Robin Hood, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Joan of Arc, Scottish Chiefs, A Thousand and One Nights, etc. etc.) the Renaissance (and the best books to explore the wonder of Renaissance ideas!).  I will also present on Early American History and Modern American.  These two studies will flow right into each other and introduce some amazing literature that I think you'll find inspiring and a joy to share with your students.  I'm still waiting to hear if there is interest in a Poetry in the Home session! 

Here is all the info and a link to sign up!  Hope to see you there.

Date: Saturday, August 29, 2015

Time: 9:30 am -3:30 pm

Place: 1306 Mill Street, San Luis Obispo

Cost: $30 (which includes lunch)

Make your reservation here.

I've received interest in the following time periods: Renaissance & Medieval, Early American, Modern America & World (Civil War to Contemporary–based on our two new guides) and/or a session on Poetry in the Home.  Each of the former historical periods will be explored through the best literature to use across various grade levels. For the Poetry in the Home session, the currently popular trend focused on memorization of facts highlights the importance of what we set the minds of our children to memorize. This powerful faculty is critical to cognitive development, but can be infinitely effective in cultivating a sense of humor, facilitating joy in the family, and encouraging moral and ethical awareness.  Some ladies mentioned they would like to have books for purchase at the Soirée, so if that is something you'd like to see please let me know.

•Please note this is a Lady's event.  We do hope to offer a couple's event some time early 2016, so watch for that.  Also, nursing babies 4 months and under are welcome to attend with their mamas.  

Reading Aloud and Brain Development

Anyone who is familiar with Beautiful Feet Books knows that we're huge advocates of reading aloud. Reading aloud at all ages is something we believe in strongly and know from our own experiences that reading aloud can have profound effects on children and their families. When the decision is made to commit to reading aloud as a family, some almost magical things happen. New research from Pediatrics confirms that reading aloud to young children is key to developing their ability to tell stories, to use words, to imagine scenarios and much more! You have all probably experienced this as you make the decision to turn to books instead of screens, as your children fall in love with the characters of classic children's stories, and as you look forward each day to the time when you all snuggle up on the couch to read.

As you embark on this new school year, keep in mind that some of the best learning occurs when you're simply reading aloud. "The researchers found differences in brain activation according to how much the children had been read to at home." As the study found:

Children whose parents reported more reading at home and more books in the home showed significantly greater activation of brain areas in a region of the left hemisphere called the parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex. This brain area is “a watershed region, all about multisensory integration, integrating sound and then visual stimulation,” said the lead author, Dr. John S. Hutton, a clinical research fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Interestingly this very area of the brain is very active when older children are reading to themselves, leading researchers to believe that the early and frequent exposure to reading aloud leads to easier and more developed reading ability later.

So, plan in reading aloud time. It's easy when you choose literature based curriculums! And make sure your children have easy access to beautiful well-written books. Frequent trips to the library, thoughtful purchases for the family library–these are all investments in your children. Of course, reading Going on a Bear Hunt fifteen times before noon can be the epitome of mundane but what you're doing is so important! For more, check out this article on the study.

While intellectual ability is obviously important, we're also going to be talking about reading and emotional development later this week, so stay tuned!

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.

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!

Rea's Back-to-School Soirée

The last Saturday of August Rea will be hosting her sometimes annual Back-to-School Soirée! Here's what she will be presenting:

I am covering back to school ideas as well as Modern America & World (Civil War to Contemporary–based on our two new guides) and/or a session on Poetry in the Home.  The historical periods will be explored through the best literature to use across various grade levels. For the Poetry in the Home session, the currently popular trend focused on memorization of facts highlights the importance of what we set the minds of our children to memorize. This powerful faculty is critical to cognitive development, but can be infinitely effective in cultivating a sense of humor, facilitating joy in the family, and encouraging moral and ethical awareness.  Some ladies mentioned they would like to have books for purchase at the Soirée, so if that is something you’d like to see please let me know.

•Please note this is a Lady’s event.  We do hope to offer a couple’s event some time early 2016, so watch for that.  Also, nursing babies 4 months and under are welcome to attend with their mamas.  Hope to see you here!

Date: Saturday, August 29, 2015

Time: 9:30 am -3:30 pm

Place: 1306 Mill Street, San Luis Obispo

Cost: $30 (which includes lunch)

Make your reservation here.

Sale!!

Drastically reduced prices on the D'Aulaires! In celebration of the 20th anniversary of our first publication of Leif the Lucky, we're  offering these gorgeous books for $10.00 each! Regularly priced at $17.95, you can now get all 7 for $70.00 or purchase them individually for $10! This is the perfect time to add these classics to your library! Buy here. Limited time offer, cannot be combined with other offers.

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.

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!

U.S. and World History Update!!

As we draw closer to completing the brand-new US and World Modern History Study Guide, we wanted to keep you up-to-date and give some details about the study.

This one year adventure will cover 1850 to 2002 and while the book list will feature some of the same titles we had in our previous study, it will also include seven brand-new titles like best-sellers Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and A History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert. Gilbert's work will provide a spine for the course as it covers the most dense period, 1900-1999, and will provide much-needed background information on the inevitable gaps between the literature.

As you all know we are completely rewriting this high school study guide. One of the suggestions we heard
frequently concerning the old guide was the lack of study notes and corresponding answer key for several of the books. We heard you loud and clear! This new edition features comprehensive study notes and discussion questions, vocabulary, web links, and answer key for each title. Also, the new study is truly "modern" as it goes far beyond the Vietnam War, where the old one ended. By popular demand we have also included a literary analysis section for a handful of the classic literature choices which will assist students to learn and understand the literary devices used by renowned authors like Harper Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Stephen Crane, and others.

A new area of focus in the study is the emphasis on improving the student's critical thinking and writing skills. Both of these are reinforced through practice. Instead of providing simple comprehension questions, the study notes will help students analyze and process information in order to develop their own opinion, and defend it. The writing assignments will also augment this by instructing students to choose one side of an issue and support their stance with evidence.

The new US and World Modern History Pack is currently available!!! If you purchase the pack we will send you the

books now and then email you the download version of the Study Guide by the end of August and mail you the print version in September. On the above page you can see the final book list and a description of the study.

As the reading level, content, and emphasis on writing have all increased we will recommend this study for 11th and 12th grade students.

Check out the sample pages below! Click on thumbnail to zoom in. 

We have so enjoyed creating this study. It is an amazing time period and we believe this course represents it well. If you are looking for a comprehensive history and literature study on the modern time period we wholeheartedly believe this is the best literature-based study you will find. 

Thank you for your interest and patience!

 

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.

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!