staceyobu Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Can you comment if you used this curriculum and if you think it would be enough/too much for a first grader. i was curious especially about the "Stories of the Pilgrims" since it looks like that resource is used a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I am interested in what people say about this because I am planning on using it over two years (k and 1st). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy7 Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I used BF Early American History Primary for this age...but mainly as a read aloud. I didn't try to do the notebook. I think that would be way too much. It would have been for my children, anyway. We have fond memories of cuddling while reading great books, though. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arstephia Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I read the books to my kids but we gave up on the notebook work at that age. Also, some of the books went over their heads. I highly recommend the older level guides, but the younger ones weren't as easy to use as written. As far as great sit and read aloud books and having things to talk about it, they were great. Just don't stress about doing all of the aspects of the guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 :bigear: Also thinking ahead for 2012 and 2013. LOL. Pathetic, I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin's Song Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 We also did not care for the notebooking. I actually found the guide unnecessary. We did not care for the first few books (specifically the first two D'Aulaire books). DD thought they were boring and I had "theology" issues with them ;) (ymmv). We did like Pilgrim stories but gave up on BF right after that. I am going to spend some time prereading the rest of the books and then use them casually as read alouds. A lot of people love BF, though. It would be fun to add a few activitiy books or even Evan Moor history pockets to go along with it. That was my plan before I decided to set it aside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 We also did not care for the notebooking. I actually found the guide unnecessary. We did not care for the first few books (specifically the first two D'Aulaire books). DD thought they were boring and I had "theology" issues with them ;) (ymmv). We did like Pilgrim stories but gave up on BF right after that. I am going to spend some time prereading the rest of the books and then use them casually as read alouds. A lot of people love BF' date=' though. It would be fun to add a few activitiy books or even Evan Moor history pockets to go along with it. That was my plan before I decided to set it aside.[/quote'] Your two oldest are the same ages as my three girls, so I have a question for ya! ;) When you say you found the guide unnecessary, do you mean that BF would be possible with just the book list? :bigear: Also, would the notebooking or other aspects be more feasible with a bit older age-range, say maybe 2nd & K (twins)? Or would that still not work? We are doing Geography ("Around the World") this year for 1st/Pre-K, but I'd like to do American History for the following two years (before we start our "four-year cycle"). I just can't imagine dragging the twins through Egypt at this point. :tongue_smilie:My first grader is :Angel_anim:, but the twins are so :willy_nilly::willy_nilly:. If you didn't like BF for Am Hist, what do you like? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmeraldGirl Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I used the books as readers but didn't care for the guide. So I supplemented with ideas and projects from Guest Hollow (free on line) and History Pockets, notebooks and lapbooks. We learned so much and are really enjoying Early Am History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin's Song Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Your two oldest are the same ages as my three girls, so I have a question for ya! ;) When you say you found the guide unnecessary, do you mean that BF would be possible with just the book list? Also, would the notebooking or other aspects be more feasible with a bit older age-range, say maybe 2nd & K (twins)? Or would that still not work? We are doing Geography ("Around the World") this year for 1st/Pre-K, but I'd like to do American History for the following two years (before we start our "four-year cycle"). I just can't imagine dragging the twins through Egypt at this point. My first grader is , but the twins are so . If you didn't like BF for Am Hist, what do you like? Grrr, darn computer ate my long post! Okay, short answer... Yes, you can do it with just the booklist. The comprehension questions in the guide are inappropriate for grammar age kids. EX: What was Columbus' greatest downfall and weakness? :001_huh: If you don't use those then you're left with "color pg x, paste in notebook, copy this caption, copy this poem, read these 5 Bible verses" etc... You can do it much better using WTM-style narrations/notebook (and it would be more appropriate for grammar stage kiddos). If you're into planning you might want to add something like History Pockets or a project book like this. Guest Hollow might give you some ideas. My 4 yr old son (almost 5) had absolutely no interest in the BF books. That's not saying much, though, because he's only interested in things with wheels right now :D. Have you considered MFW Adventures? It is only one year, though. It was my top choice for this coming year before I found out about dh's deployment. It looks perfect for k and 2nd. Maybe you could beef up the state/bird study and go heavy on the book basket to stretch it over two years? I'm not familiar enough with it to know if that would work or not. Sorry about all of the parenthesis. I'm scatterbrained tonight. ETA: Don't know where the exclamation mark came from :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin's Song Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I used the books as readers but didn't care for the guide. So I supplemented with ideas and projects from Guest Hollow (free on line) and History Pockets, notebooks and lapbooks. We learned so much and are really enjoying Early Am History. Oh yeah, what she said :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate CA Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Can you comment if you used this curriculum and if you think it would be enough/too much for a first grader. i was curious especially about the "Stories of the Pilgrims" since it looks like that resource is used a lot. I loved this curriculum, but I confess I didn't use the guide very much. It is a worthwhile guide, but I really just wanted to read the books and do the timeline. The guide came in handy with timeline information and which books to read first if you don't know American history very well. The books are just absolutely wonderful and the Stories of the Pilgrims was fascinating reading to my little ones. They lived such a different life and my children loved them. I highly recommend this program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura in VA Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I loved this curriculum, but I confess I didn't use the guide very much. It is a worthwhile guide, but I really just wanted to read the books and do the timeline. The guide came in handy with timeline information and which books to read first if you don't know American history very well. The books are just absolutely wonderful and the Stories of the Pilgrims was fascinating reading to my little ones. They lived such a different life and my children loved them. I highly recommend this program. Thanks for your input, Kate. I have all of the d'Aulaire books and have been thinking of using Beautiful Feet with my youngest. I think we'll be doing this next year! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I bought all the D'Aulaire books and started out using the guide. As others said, there isn't much to the guide. Most of it consisted of copying a page out of the D'Aulaire book, coloring it and writing a sentence beneath it. We did that for a few weeks and then moved on to MFW Adventures. (This was a summer project for us when I was in the early years of homeschooling and I couldn't get enough of it. I think I used 2 programs a year in those early days.) Anyway, we did wind up reading the D'Aulaire books (which I love) and I've just fit them in here and there between our SL reading over the years, but we dropped the guide very quickly. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalphs Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 (edited) Dh and Dd read through BF Early American History Primary during Dd's third grade year. I would highly recommend either purchasing Rea Berg's "Stories of the Pilgrims" or the original edition published by Yesterday's Classics www.yesterdaysclassics.com There is also an audio version available for sale at www.rainbowresourcecenter.com or there may be a free version on the Librivox website www.librivox.org I would forgo the edition sold by Christian Liberty Press, because they have revised the book to fit the schools/churches theological statement. Edited January 16, 2011 by kalphs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I actually found the guide unnecessary. :iagree: We ended up just using it as a booklist in first grade. We loved the books. We did add in a unit on Native Americans which was alot of fun using History pockets, More than Moccasins, and a ton of library books. When we get back to American History I plan to use the book selections from BF primary for my youngest and BF intermediate for my oldest along w/ whatever history program we end up going with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.