I'm excited to announce, we'll be trying the NEW Beautiful Feet Modern American and World History course! Just look at all these great books....
....don't they look fabulous! The study covers 1860 to modern times and is geared for 5th-8th grade. I plan to spend over a full year on this program beginning now, 2014-2015 school year, as we'll be studying the Civil War in our third term, and continuing next school year, 2015-2016, when we'll finish our first complete history rotation in modern times. Since I'm stretching the study, I do plan to add books and some commentary from the TruthQuest American History for Young Students III guide. Nearly all the BF books shown above are listed in TruthQuest's AHYS II & III, which makes them double delicious! ...Even Levi is excited ;-)
Are you beginning to plan your 2015-2016 school year? I'd love to hear about it. Please consider leaving a comment below....
Hi Melissa, this looks very exciting! I am contemplating using BFB for my 6, 9th, and 11th grade children this summer, but have a couple of reservations. I love their books and that their program is truly literature-based (love that you mentioned they are in the TQ guides as well). I have heard that some of their higher level books (high school) are more on the darker side. I haven't read many of their listed high school level books, so I personally wouldn't know. If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear your take on these high school programs, if you have used them. In speaking with BFB, they did mention that they are currently revising their US & Modern guide to condense it into a full year, which I am very excited about. Thanks for anything you are willing to share! (you may also respond via my email, if that would be better.) I have been following your blog for some months now and really value your experience. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHey Jackie in TN,
ReplyDeleteI've been contemplating your questions for the past few days trying to decide whether to answer here or write a post. I've decided to give a brief answer here, but may do a future post on how we used BF for high school. With that said, we did use BF at the upper levels, however, I have original guides, not the revised editions. I have also heard the negative comments regarding new edition reading being "dark" and more difficult, but have no experience to draw on. Our dd LOVED the BF guides she used at the high school level. I used the original US & Modern over a two year period and thought it worked well. I thought the book choices were excellent and our dd commented many times on how much she enjoyed the "thought provoking" questions in the guide.
I am currently personally reading Quo Vadis? as part of a book study with a friend. We are using the original BF Ancient History guide for our study. I too am finding it enjoyable. I must say, the book itself is wonderful! I also like the guide because it breaks up the reading for us and gives us questions to ponder as we're reading and for discussion.
I do plan to continue with BF through high school with the younger kids. I'm not sure if I will stick with the original guides we have or purchase the updated editions. I like the current book choices and will have to wait and see how the updated book lists shake out.
Hope this helps. Thanks so much for logging on and your kind words regarding our blog :)
Blessings,
Melissa