Beautiful Feet

[SeekingSimplicity]

Anyone using this?

 

 

I saw it in another thread, and had never heard of it before. Wow, it looks really good! We love living books here. I'm looking at the history of horses and the western expansion semester pkg. I'm thinking this might be a definite possibility for us and solve my curriculum woes.

[Cynful]

My daughter is doing the History of Horses. It's her "elective" so she pulls it out and does about 1-2 lessons per week. She really likes it alot.

 

We've also done the Geography through Literature program and I can't recommend it enough. It's wonderful and definitely get the maps if you choose to do this. Even my reluctant, almost teen, boy liked this.

 

I've also bought, but have not done, their History of Science and Classical Music programs. I'm hoping to incorporate those sometime this year and/or next.

 

We use Sonlight, but I do like BF too. Their guides are much more simple compared to Sonlight which sometimes seems very appealing (and other times I don't like :) ). BF's books are great also. If I weren't committed, at this time anyway, to Sonlight, I'd seriously consider BF as my alternative.

 

Let me know if I can answer any further questions for you,

[SeekingSimplicity]

Thank you! I've been considering a lot of options for the coming up year, and have been unable to commit to any of them. This I have a good feeling about!

[Annabel Lee]

I got the Early Am. Hist. for Primary Grades off Paperbackswap and it looks really good. The questions are thought-provoking and character-building. I like it because it looks "meaty" yet simple to do/implement. I plan to integrate it into our WP stuff (or sub. some BF for some WP sections) as soon as I get the first few books in on ILL.

 

The guides are not expensive at all - around $14. If you get that and not all the books to start with, you'll get a better idea of it w/o breaking the bank.

[SeekingSimplicity]

Thanks! I'll have to go check paperbackswap before I buy anything. I'm out of credits right now tho LOL. I'll see if I can find a guide and go from there. I should have some books, like Black Beauty already, boxed up somewhere. Would Horses be a history and a science?

[Cynful]

I think it could be science, history and literature all in one. :)

 

The first books you need in the lessons are King of the Wind and DK Handbook of the Horse (or something like that). She's also used the drawing one, something like How to Draw 50 Horses. (In case that helps.)

[G5052]

I've used both Sonlight and TOG for the lower grades, briefly tried the Early American History one, and am currently using the Ancient History one for a read-aloud guide.

 

For a laid-out, no-brainer program, Sonlight is better IMHO. Having things broken down day-by-day with readers was my kind of program. We used what was then Cores PK-4.

 

TOG was too much for me. That's another post.

 

I didn't like the books for the Early American Primary one. We were doing it over the summer, and other than the D'Aulaire books, I felt like the level of some of the other books was way over the K-3rd level. Stories of the Pilgrims is where we bogged down and sold it. I also didn't like America's Providential History. It was "too" providential for me.

 

Using the Ancient History one as a read-aloud guide for my two logic-stage kids has been great. I pencil mark to break it down to about 20 pages of read-alouds a day. Both have other things their using for reading/writing and it's worked fine. We plan to do the Geography one this summer together with lapbooks and the IEW e-book, and then will use the History of Science one for read-alouds during the 2010-2011 school year. I haven't decided beyond that.

Edited January 18, 2010 by GVA

[SeekingSimplicity]

Our library has all the books except the Handbook of Horses and the deck of horse cards. All I'd have to buy would be the guide, and those two books. Is it set up to where I could use library books, or would the books have to be out for extended periods of time? (like with Ambleside where you read a book over a really long period)

[MariannNOVA]

Our library has all the books except the Handbook of Horses and the deck of horse cards. All I'd have to buy would be the guide, and those two books. Is it set up to where I could use library books, or would the books have to be out for extended periods of time? (like with Ambleside where you read a book over a really long period)

 

Not sure how much this will help, but I am so excited :willy_nilly: that I can help out on the curric board with something that is not MCT or LCC that I MUST answer.

 

The kids are I are beginning GEOGRAPHY, A LITERATURE APPROACH tomorrow -- this is the BF guide that uses the Holling C. Hollings books. I was able to get all the books at the library and I ordered the maps and guide from BF. The first book in that series, PADDLE TO THE SEA, will be used for 10 weeks -- we are doing BF one day a week.

The next book in the series, TREE IN THE TRAIL, is for 9 weeks. Then there are the other books - MINN OF THE MISSISSIPPI - 10 weeks; SEABIRD - 9 weeks

 

The maps are amazing -- I second what the other poster said about getting them. Also, I haven't bought any here, but you can look for the books that go with the BF guides here on the For Sale board and many times they are there at an excellent price.

 

HTH -- Mariann:001_smile:

Edited January 19, 2010 by MariannNOVA

[Cynful]

Of course, it will depend on how often you do the lessons - though it could be easily once a day or three times a week or even once a week depending on what the rest of your days/week look like and also on her reading level.

 

In History of the Horse, King of the Wind is started in Lesson 2 and finished in Lesson 11. Then Black Beauty is started in Lesson 15 and ends in Lesson 34. I don't even think you'll need the horse deck of cards but my daughter does like them to play with and play games too.

 

Hope that helps,

[Homemama2]

I used BF Early American Primary last year w/ my 1st grader and 4 yr old. They LOVED the books! (so did I!) Even my 4 yr old would beg me to keep reading! I didn't do all the copywork they suggested bc it was too much for my lil' lefty boy who struggled alot w/ writing. I didn't use the America's Providental history book although I bought it-didn't really see the point of that one. But I highly recommend BF. I used the library for all the books I could and it worked out fine...I wish they had the 4 yr cycle for early elementary. :001_smile:

[SeekingSimplicity]

Thanks!

I can only keep library books out for 4 weeks at a time, they can't be renewed after that and I have to wait to check them back out. So I may just have to look at the guide and see which ones we need to buy, and which ones we want to get from the library.

 

I'm excited about finding this!

[HollyDay]

I'm a huge BF fan. We've done Lit Guide to Geography, History of Science, History of Classical Music, US Intermediate, Us Westward Expansion, and Jr High Early American and World.

 

I must say again, that I love BF guides. But, of all of them, I am the most disappointed in Westward Expansion. We started it right after finishing Early US Intermediate. US finished just after the Civil War. Westward Expansion backed way up to about the end of the Revolutionary War. We were supposed to go through Lewis and Clark AGAIN. We were supposed to go back into Abraham Lincoln's early days AGAIN. It just didn't flow. We started Abe Lincoln's World last week. And I am still trying to figure out how young Robert E Lee driving his mother around in their buggy has anything to do with Westward Expansion. I am from VA, I have a minor in history. So, I really added to the US Intermediate guide. We expanded that out quite a bit. Maybe that is why we are not interested in going back into that time frame again so close to finishing it. I thought the Westward guide would pick up after the Civil War and cover that time period out to the late 1800s. But, that is not the case. I do not think I would have purchased this guide had I known that.

 

That is not to say it is not a good program. If you did not do US Intermediate, you would not have the repetition to deal with that we do. Again, I love BF. Just think this one guide is missing something (IMHO).

[michelle l]

I realize this is an old thread, but I'm hoping someone can pop in and answer some questions.

 

Would this program be a good follow up to early US history? We did SL 3 last year. This year I made a switch, and now need to jump ship! I'm looking for something to be 2nd half of US history, and if it would integrate world history of that time that would be excellent! (which it looks like A. Lincoln's World does)

 

It also says the program can be done in one semester, three times a week. Does that seem right to you? Because one semester is what we have!

 

Lastly, I'm not looking for things to "do". Read together, narrate perhaps, and move on. We not big worsheet/formal Q&A/ project people. Wish I'd realized that before I'd ordered this year's curric. Oh well, live and learn.;)

[AngelBee]

Glad you bumped as I have been looking at BF. :)

 

Taking notes...