Beautiful Feet for Ancient History

[kloumc]

I'm looking for an evaluation for the combined junior high and high school guide through Ancient History offered by Beautiful Feet. Is it a "light weight" course? What is the Bible component of it like? What features of this program do you like? dislike?

 

Thank you for your time and insight!

Edited April 1, 2009 by kloumc
typo

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . because I haven't actually used any of their curricula.

 

However, my impression looking at the book lists is that it's not the most rigorous program out there. Both the levels of the books and the number of them seem awfully light to me. And I feel this way about their packages across all age levels.

 

I have been known to visit their website to see what books they're using for certain historical periods when I'm looking for ideas. However, I almost always look a category up from my child's age, and I always assign much more than they include in their packages.

[amtmcm]

I haven't used the Ancient History so I'm very interested to see responses.

 

However, the History of Science has been rigorous for Intermediate (4-8th) grades. The reading itself is a little easy, but the questions, writing and experiments are fabulous! I've added extra reading, but I like that the reading in the lessons is easy to get through as it makes it easy for me to estimate how long the lesson will take so I can schedule an appropriate amount of time.

 

We'll be using more Beautiful Feet in the future.

[momof2boys]

I have used Beautiful feet in the past with my boys and find that it is rigorous enough. I guess it just depends on what someone considers rigorous and what they don't. i think that it is just a personal choice. I would suggest buying the guide to look over before you purchase everything to see what YOU think. Better yet if you go to your states homeschool convention then wait for that and look at it there before purchasing.

Just another opinion.

Good luck on your choice.

gloria

[Margo out of lurking]

My 8th grade dd used the combined jr. high/high school Middle Ages guide last year. I was looking specifically for something that was not as heavy in reading as we'd used in the past. She's read SO much over the years, and I wanted to have math and science (her weaker areas) be more of a priority in our school year. In the past, she was used to, for example, Sonlight, TOG, SOTW AG, etc.

 

I did not think it was lightweight. It was very appropriate. Someone used to heavier reading might consider it lightweight; someone using workbooks or DVDs in a box might consider the reading rigorous.

 

The Biblical component was minimal. There were a (very) few questions throughout the course that asked the student to compare the actions of a historical figure in Biblical context. Of course, Ancients might offer more of an opportunity given the time frame, but Middle Ages could have taken more advantage of it with church history.

 

What we liked: it was a big step for my dd working more independently, and this was doable. I didn't have to read the books to keep up. There was some flexibility with book choice, a few additional recommendations, and of course, I always appreciate adding in whatever I choose. There was no "schedule" or need to "check the box" that something be done within a certain time frame. I appreciated the price. Many books were available at my library; the others I purchased prior to beginning the year.

 

What we didn't like: the answer key was very bare bones, some answers were not included at all. The writing exercises were too broad and often vague (this could be an advantage to some); as a result, we skipped maybe 1/3 to 1/2 altogether. There was NO schedule at all (yes, I know I listed that as a positive too). I had no clue if we were on track, about half way through, or what. I like flexibility, this was a little more than I would prefer.

 

We would use it again, and I wish they had something more in line with the time frame of SOTW Vol. 3, Early American tied in with World History. But they don't offer that at this level, so I think we'll be switching to Notgrass for 9th grade. I'd definitely consider it again, in fact, it would be my next choice if Notgrass doesn't work for us.