Beautiful Feet History & Geography questions...

[BatmansWife]

I'm considering using the Beautiful Feet Early American History Primary study guide for my dd next year. I know she will be in 4th, and it says its for K - 3rd...but I really think she would enjoy those books. I'd rather she be at a higher grade than a lower grade for the guide; which is why I don't think I'd want to start with the Early Am. History grades 4 - 6.

 

I'm kind of confused when I look at the website, so here are my questions:

 

Does the guide have you read each book in it's entirety or just parts? I hope it's the whole book...yet, that's a lot to read too.

 

Do we need the timeline for the primary guide?

 

The Geography guide using the Holling books looks really good too. Can you do that guide the same year as the Early American History Primary? I'm not sure if that is way too much reading in one year (plus I want to get a few of the Moving Beyond the Page literature guides/books and a few Memoria Press lit guides/books).

 

I tend to like having a long range plan in place (although I sometimes change it) and I guess I don't really know what to plan after the Early American History Primary. What would we do the next year, the Early American History and then the following year do Ancient? What about Western Expansion and the Medieval...where do those fit in? I think because the guides are graded at several grades, it's confusing for me to see what the recommended progression is.

 

Lastly (for now), is Rainbow Resource the best place to buy the guides and the books?

[Ellie]

Beautiful Feet Books study guides pretty much tell you which pages to read, but not how many pages to read each day. You decide that. AFAIK, you read whole books. There will also be memory work, and copywork, and drawings, and maps, and stuff. :-)

 

It's up to you what you want to study. Rea Berg, owner of BFB, believes in doing American history with younger children, then doing world history, then repeating both. IOW, it isn't a classical model of a four-year cycle. Personally, I'd do the geography guide, then the Early American history, then Ancient, Medieval, Western Expansion, then the high school-level American history.

 

Even though more than one age-level is listed, you can still see what the progression is from younger to older. :-)

 

I'd buy the timelines.

 

I just buy those kinds of things directly from the publisher.

[BatmansWife]

Beautiful Feet Books study guides pretty much tell you which pages to read, but not how many pages to read each day. You decide that. AFAIK, you read whole books. There will also be memory work, and copywork, and drawings, and maps, and stuff. :-)

 

It's up to you what you want to study. Rea Berg, owner of BFB, believes in doing American history with younger children, then doing world history, then repeating both. IOW, it isn't a classical model of a four-year cycle. Personally, I'd do the geography guide, then the Early American history, then Ancient, Medieval, Western Expansion, then the high school-level American history.

 

Even though more than one age-level is listed, you can still see what the progression is from younger to older. :-)

 

I'd buy the timelines.

 

I just buy those kinds of things directly from the publisher.

 

 

Thanks Ellie. You are right that I can see it going from younger to older by the grade levels, but still there's no real sequence like there would be if you had "this" for 4th, and "that" for 5th, etc. I see on the website in the FAQ they talk about a suggested study sequence, but that's confusing in itself. LOL! I wrote the titles and grades down, which helped me better see it.....I think this might work:

 

Early American History Primary K-3 ~ 4th

Early American 4-6 ~ 5th

Ancient 5-8 ~ 6th

Medieval 5-8 ~ 7th

Early American & World 7-9 ~ 8th

Ancient 9-12 ~ 9th

Medieval 9-12 ~ 10th

Modern US & World 9-12 (2 years) ~ 11th/12th

 

This doesn't include Western Expansion, which is one semester and it doesn't include the Geography. I don't want to get hung up on having it written in stone....but it helps me to see ahead and know what I'll need to order next. But even the above schedule I'm unsure of because it's two early American in a row. I don't know...I guess we'll just start and see how it goes. :001_smile:

[Ellie]

Ah, but see, Rea is a homeschooling parent, and she knows that "grade levels" don't really apply to homeschooled children, and she wants to give parents flexibility to choose something that works with the approximate ages of their children. :-)

 

Also, you would probably not do both the primary American history and the intermediate American history. You'd do either the primary or the intermediate American history. They cover the same stuff, just at different reading levels and with different activities. Then you could do the world geography, then the rest.

[BatmansWife]

Ah, but see, Rea is a homeschooling parent, and she knows that "grade levels" don't really apply to homeschooled children, and she wants to give parents flexibility to choose something that works with the approximate ages of their children. :-)

 

Also, you would probably not do both the primary American history and the intermediate American history. You'd do either the primary or the intermediate American history. They cover the same stuff, just at different reading levels and with different activities. Then you could do the world geography, then the rest.

 

 

Yep...I got that with the grade levels. :o

 

OK...I'll look at the samples of the intermediate American history and give that some thought. I thought they would have covered different events and people.

 

Thanks!

[SilverMoon]

Ancients works the same way. You'd want to do either the intermediate or the high school one, but not both. There's a lot of overlap between the two levels.

[BatmansWife]

Ancients works the same way. You'd want to do either the intermediate or the high school one, but not both. There's a lot of overlap between the two levels.

 

 

Do you mean that the Primary and the Intermediate are similar with a lot of overlap?

[SilverMoon]

On 4/23/2013 at 7:32 AM, ~AprilMay~ said:

 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SilverMoon

[BatmansWife]

 

I don't think they have a primary ancients. I don't have a lot of BF experience, but I have read through the combined 5-8 (intermediate) and 9-12 (sr. high) ancients guide. My rising 8th grader will be using it next year. There isn't enough on the sr. high book list that's different from the intermediate book list to make it worth doing this guide twice. The spines and the bulk of the history are exactly the same for both levels. Some of the intermediate literature was replaced with more difficult literature for the senior high portion. My dd will be doing most of the sr. high reading and two of the intermediate books. (She read or listened to the majority of the intermediate books when she did Veritas Press ancients in 4th grade.)

 

 

Ohhh...I see what you are saying. I must have read too fast over the word ancients (and you are right, there isn't a primary ancients). I thought you were talking about the Early American. Duh!! Sorry about that! OK...well, it's good to know that about the Ancients for later on. Thank you!