Beautiful Feet Early Amer. and World Hist. Jr. High -- anyone used this?

[FlockOfSillies]

I'm interested in the guide for scheduling purposes. I'm considering using the Westward Expansion guide as well, since there's so much overlap.

 

I've been trying to come up with a schedule using Human Odyssey as a spine, with the WTM topic recs as a guide. I had been trying to use the Guerber/Miller books (Story of 13 Colonies/Great Republic), but I can see it's going to take a while for me to flip through them and come up with a schedule. We've been so busy this summer that I haven't had any real time to plan. Time is no longer on my side, which makes me lean toward the BF guides.

 

Am I just exchanging one boatload of work for another, or will BF save me planning time?

[HollyDay]

I've used Early American and Westward Expansion (intermediate) guides as well as Early American and World (Jr High) guide.

 

If you are looking at the intermediate guides, I would highly recommend doing both Early American and Westward Expansion together. They are designed to be done back to back (my understanding at least). But, Westward goes back into history. Early American ends just at the close of the Civil War. Westward goes as far back as late 1700s. Both really cover Lewis and CLark. Dd and I found it discouraging to go back into time that we had already covered. Now, if I did them together, it would have flowed much better.

 

I think the Jr High guide is a lot of reading. The Foster books are pretty dry (boring if you ask my oldest). This program ends prior to the civil war. I am not sure I would want to add additional reading (by combining 2 guides) if I wanted to cover the program in 1 year.

 

BF requires very little planning. It is basically open and go. The only thing I did was look ahead at the recommended additional reading or dvds so I could put them on hold at the library. If you are combining 2 guides, you will need to look at when to combine them. It should be something as simple as flipping through the guide and using post-it notes to remind you when to bring in additional books or discussion questions.

 

HTH!

[FlockOfSillies]

Well, I'd been looking at the Jr. High guide because I want to do American History in context with World History.

 

I should have my dd (rising 7th) look over the Foster books again and see if she prefers them over the Guerber/Miller books.

 

"A lot of reading" was what got us into trouble with TOG. Do you think the Intermediate level programs, combined with Human Odyssey, will be enough work? Too much?

[HollyDay]

I don't think BF Jr high is as "much" at TOG. If that helps any. I'm not familiar with History Odyssey so I can't help much there. My dd thought Foster was better than Guerber (and so did I).

[profmom]

This is an old thread, but, if you who have used BF's JH Early American and World History, is there a book you'd leave out (all or part) to reduce the amount of reading? We aren't doing the notebooking, just the reading and some of the questions, but I may need to cut back some to give my ds more time for other subjects.

[smillard00]

Depending on what you did the previous year or have planned for the following year, it is possible to leave off something. For example, I am doing Medieval with my 6th grader this year. I noticed that the Columbus book overlaps with Early US and World Intermediate. So we have the option of doing Columbus in either year. Also, if you look at the high school level Modern US and World courses, they overlap some with the Abraham Lincoln book. So you could omit from that end. Or if you are planning to do Westward Expansion next, that is only a semester course, so you could just work as far as you can this year and then pick up the next year and then move on with Westward expansion. There are lots of options. When my ds did this study, he did all of the guide questions and writing assignments and we even added in the book on William Penn that was new at the time and wasn't included in the study and he finished in plenty of time, but he is one who loves to read.

[profmom]

Thanks, Samantha!