High School: Teaching Modern U.S. and World History

Many parents question their ability to teach their high schoolers at home, but we believe that there is no reason to fear the high school years! And we're here to help. Here's our newest high school level study. It's chock full of great literature because we also believe that just because you're teaching high school level students doesn't mean you have to start using dry, boring textbooks. The high school years provide a unique opportunity to read some of the best historical literature available! These books provide a unique lens through which to view the course of human events and provide training in writing style, critical thinking skills, geography, and much more. The books you see pictured here make up our Modern U.S. and World History study and they're books from world renowned historians, biographers, and writers. Classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Rifles for Watie, The Hiding Place, and The Jungle bring color to the black and white annuls of history. Tales of courage like Unbroken and Lost Names inspire character traits we seek to nurture in our children. And the study guide brings it all together with historical and author notes, lesson plans, vocabulary, mapping activities, writing assignments, websites, additional book and movie recommendations and much more. Check out these sample pages from the study guide. 

If you're curious to hear from a family who used this study, check out this review. And if you've used it, chime in in the comments and let us know what you thought. 

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.

Review: Teaching History at the High School Level

Photo: A Diligent Heart

Welcome! Our 2017 REVIEW SERIES continues with a peek at one of our high school level programs. Marlene of A Diligent Heart shares her family's experience using our Modern U.S. and World History for high school. Her review provides all sorts of details on the structure, scope, sequence, and other components of the study and she had this to say about the discussion questions:

"These aren’t your typical question and answer discussion questions. They are legit get-your-kid-thinking discussion questions with the goal to build toward a deeper understanding and ideas instead of a simple answer to the question.

"Ideally, this is a fun opportunity for you, the parent, to join in and dialog with your kiddo about what they are reading. Because this is such a thought provoking set up, I feel this approach would be incredibly beneficial."

Read more about this classical/eclectic homeschooling family's experience here. Thank you Marlene!

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.

Review: Do I need the guide?

Our review series continues with a  Heidi's review of our Modern American and World history study for grades 5-8. This study picks up where our Early American History studies end and is chock full of wonderful literature selections. One question or comment we often hear is "I'll just buy the books and skip the study guide." This review, as well as all the others we're posting in this series, show why it's worth investing in the guide. It does ALL the work for you! We put months, if not years, into the development of each study guide, so you don't have to! And we keep our guides affordably priced (between $14 and $30 for a full-year study) so you really have nothing to lose. But don't trust us, see what Heidi has to say:

"This 83 pages, full color guide makes it simple and easy for you to open, read, and go! There was no prep work (other than having the study guide and literature on hand), and no printing. Each day I open the book to the next lesson and follow the simple directions. Teaching Middle School History couldn’t be easier!"

Read the complete review here.

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. 

Review: Using BFB as a Classical Homeschooler

Photo Credit: Dianna Kennedy

Our review series continues with Dianna of The Kennedy Family Adventures, a Catholic homeschooling mom of five who teaches in a Classical style. Her review of our Medieval History through Literature for grades 4-8 touches on so many topics that we get asked about all the time. For example, here are a few of the questions she answers:

~Will Studying History Through Literature Really Work in My Homeschool?

~How Much Will This Homeschool History Through Literature Cost Our Family?

~What if I Already Have Historical Literature on My Shelves?

~How Long Does it Take to Study History Through Literature?

Dianna also talks about our study guide and how they do all the heavy lifting for you. If you've been considering our Medieval History Through Literature study, definitely check out this review. It goes into great detail on the books included in the study, how it looked for her family when they used it, and much more. Thank you, Dianna, for the review!

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. 

Review: Adapting BFB for personal beliefs

Image from Raising da Vinci

We at Beautiful Feet Books write from our convictions as Christians and many of our studies include scripture verses and character lessons. We also put a lot of time and effort into each of our study guides to insure that they're as adaptable and easy-to-use as possible. This means that many secular homeschoolers also use our studies and find them easy to adapt to their personal beliefs. After all, good literature is a universal language!

Check out this review from Amanda from Raising da Vinci on how she and her son enjoyed the great literature selections from our Early American History for Primary Grades study. Here's a short excerpt that has been edited for brevity:

"I love so many things about this curriculum. I love how easy the study guide was to read (an inside look is shown below), which makes planning our day super easy (which is SO important with younger kids)...I love that the lessons are short...I love the book choices. SERIOUSLY AMAZING BOOKS!...I love that there is no set order you have to go through the curriculum...I also love that many of these books (depending on your child’s reading level) kids can read themselves... But mostly….I LOVE that they are living books. Kids learn best from stories rather than dry facts from a history book. "

Read the whole beautifully written and photographed review here.

Thank you Amanda!

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. 

Review: Using BFB with Special Needs

Image from Not The Former Things

We're continuing our review series with an entry from Shawna of Not The Former Things. She writes about her experience using our Modern American and World History study with her sons who both require special learning accommodations.

"My boys vary greatly in terms of their overall knowledge of history, their maturity, and the approaches that work best for their learning. Beautiful Feet Books spanned the gaps between them and allowed our entire family to learn together. Often, my oldest son would read the book aloud to his younger brother while I got a load of laundry started. Then, we would all discuss the learning and answer the questions together. It became a kind of family activity rather than a boring old history lesson."

Shawna writes about the literature, activities for keeping hands busy while reading, and the beauty of the study and literature. Read the whole review here. Thank you, Shawna! 

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. 

Review: Using BFB with Multiple Ages

Hi! Welcome to our blog. Over the next few weeks we're going to be posting reviews of our curriculum from real home schooling families like yours. We hope these posts give you a window into what it's like to teach history with living books and our easy-to-use study guides. These reviews come from a variety of home schooling families: large, small, Christian, secular, Classical, unschoolers, etc. One of the benefits of teaching history through literature is that it can be done no matter what your homeschooling style or approach! We hope you enjoy this series - we're excited about it!

"This has easily been the most natural and relaxed curriculum I’ve used in my entire eight years of homeschooling. Ever." - Shelly, homeschooling mom of 11

Today, we're featuring Shelly, of There's No Place Like Home. As a mom of eleven who didn't like history as a student, she provides a great perspective on grouping students in different ages and teaching them from the same BFB study guide. It's a question we get every day from parents who have students who they want to teach together and our study guide are so easy to adapt to multiple levels. See how Shelly did it in her review. Here's the review:

"I love history. 

"Let me rephrase that. I love history now. As a student, it was probably my least favorite subject (besides math, of course).

"All of those boring textbook assignments left me feeling like I didn’t care if I never read another history book again. And the memorization. Oh my Lord. In my opinion, if you’re looking for an effective way to kill any desire your child might have to learn about the past, make them memorize a slew of dates that have no meaning to them.

"I didn’t want that for my kids. One of my main reasons for homeschooling is that I want my kids to actually want to learn. 

Recently I had the opportunity to try out Beautiful Feet Books with my children, and all I can say is that this curriculum has fulfilled that expectation, well, beautifully…and then some...." 

Read the rest of Shelly's review here. And here's a YouTube review she posted:

Thank you Shelly for all the great details and thoughts on our study! We're so happy you and your kids loved these books.