Once Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Could you ladies help me out with some opinions on BF? I am thinking of using it next year with my 4th grade dd. She *loves* history and literature but has struggled with writing. I wanted to cover Am. History this year to prepare for required testing. It is a long story but I have been putting it off because *I* am woefully inadequate to help her in this subject (I was educated in another country). I have a son in first grade and wanted to include him so I was going to do the primary level. She could handle any amount of reading but like I said struggles with the writing component. These are my questions....What experiences have you had with BF (good or bad)? Would the lower level Am. History be too easy for a fourth grader? Will it require alot of knowledge on my part? I would appreciate an input! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 These are my questions....What experiences have you had with BF (good or bad)? Would the lower level Am. History be too easy for a fourth grader? Will it require alot of knowledge on my part? We are using BF this year for the first time. I love it! I am using "Ancients" for a 5th grader. I don't have specific information/experience on the Am. History but I can give you some general feedback. 1. The guide comes with more lessons than I expected. It is something like 77 lessons for the Ancients guide. You are expected to do 2 or sometimes 3 lessons a week in order to finish it in a normal school year. It is doable but we are definitely doing history everyday (some lessons take a few days for us to finish.) 2. I like their choices of books. I also like the questions they ask re. the reading. In the guide we have, I haven't noticed a need for the teacher to have a lot of knowledge herself/himself. There is an answer key to many of the "essay" type questions in the back. 3. I think it could be as writing intensive as you make it. Many of the essay questions can be answer orally or in discussion - you don't have to write the answers. 4. In the Ancients guide we're using (and we are using the Jr. High level, BTW) there are two "research papers". Right now we are working on one on Ancient Egypt (this is our end-of-unit project). The guidelines are pretty loose: work on a rough draft on your Ancient Egypt paper. Make sure you discuss, the origins, religions, etc." My ds loves to write and hates to be micro-managed when he does, so it works really well for him. If he needed more help, I think he might be really frustrated. But having said that, I don't know if the lower level requires papers like this or not. 5. You need to know that this is a Christian curriculum and one that sees God as providentially guiding or allowing historical events. Christian themes are very integral to the guide. For example, we just compared/contrasted Hammarabi's Code to the 10 Commandments. If you know that and like that, it is really good (it is a good fit for us). If you don't like that, you would be really frustrated because I think it would be hard to leave out. Most of the essay/discussion questions have this as an unabashed bias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I have the BF Early Elementary guide and, IMHO, it would be too easy for a 4th grader who's on target academically. There isn't much composition type work at all, maybe a couple of lists, and you could write the answers to some questions instead of doing them orally. You can work around the providential stuff, but if Am. history isn't your strong suit, this would be harder. I'd suggest going with the Intermediate level of BF or check out Sonlight Core 3 and 4 or Winterpromise American Adventure 1 and 2 OR use the freebie plans at Ourlosbanos: http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/history/americanhistoryindex.html Any of these would probably work better than BF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Once Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 Thank you for the feed back. I have not heard of Winter Promise and I will look at it today. We have used Sonlight and enjoyed it...I wonder if it would be too hard for my son. He will be six. The Ancients sounded like it had alot of composition which dd is not ready for but she would be in a lower level and the expectations might be different. She does copywork but it takes a awhile for her to write out her own paragraphy summary of SoTW. Would the two levels of BF match topically, making it easier to do together? I love the book list and I know my kids would too. Thanks again to both of you. Sorry for the ramble. Trina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I think the guides use many of the same books for the different levels. If you look on the website (type in "Beautiful Feet Books" or you will end up with foot fetish sites), you can see the books for each guide. You can also see samples of the lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karensk Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Primary Grades for dd8 and Intermediate Grades for ds10. We're nearly halfway through. The daily lessons in the two levels do not coordinate with each other, but the topics are pretty much the same. During the summer, I went through both guides and decided to go through them in units, focusing on biographical figures, something like this: Leif Erikson & the Vikings Christopher Columbus Pocahontas & Jamestown William Bradford & the Pilgrims Colonial life The Revolutionary War (Ben Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere) Lewis & Clark and westward expansion Abraham Lincoln & The Civil War Buffalo Bill I also had to decide which books to read aloud and which ones to assign for independent reading for each child (I added in extra history books from other lists). The reading assignments in the Primary guide are for the parent to read aloud; in the Intermediate guide, they're for the student to read independently. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I used BF Early American with a 2nd grader and preschooler and it was perfect. We loved it. I switched to MFW for this year because BF doesn't have any other primary level packages. I miss BF!!! I just wish BF had more lower level packages. The primarly level of Am. History is mostly copywork and coloring. The book selections are just incredible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qfbrenda Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 I used the primary Amer. hist. a few years ago with my oldest. We enjoyed: **the books **the coloring and pasting, but he was really into that kind of stuff **the guide set up as lesson 1, lesson 2... there was no pressure to do it every day, or catch up if "behind"... you just work through it at your own pace I didn't like: **the lack of teacher helps... the guide might say, "Discuss Patriotism" and then give you no idea of what to talk about **lots of coloring and pasting... my son didn't mind, but lots of young kids would get bored quickly **strong emphasis on Providential history, though you can work around it at this stage It would not be enough for a 4th grader. If you are looking for a program that includes books, I would look into Sonlight, Winter Promise, or My Father's World. Personally, I wouldn't try to combine your 4th grader and your 6yr old. They are almost too far apart to combine. You could have them cover the same topics, but it would be hard to find a program that would be appropriate for both, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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