Thursday, December 10, 2015

Free Book Offer!


For a limited time, you can receive a beautiful hardback edition of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi
with the purchase of any complete literature pack! That's a $17.99 value on top of our already discounted packs. This classic makes a great Christmas gift as this story captures the message of selfless giving and is filled with gorgeous illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger. It's a Berg family favorite and one we read together every year so we're thrilled to be able to share it with you. Check out our packs here.

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Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Using our Medieval History Through Literature Study

Today Audria continues to share with us her family's adventure through Medieval history using our program for advanced intermediate and junior high level students. Even in the midst of sickness and an out-of-state move, Audria's lovely family had rich discussions on justice and injustice, heroes, law, order, and much more! Such a dynamic time period to study. Here's Audria:


Before I get into this section of the study I’d like to mention one little thing about the previous post. We had not yet read the Epilogue to Robin Hood when I wrote our report. During our move I had left the book in our apartment in Lexington while overseeing our move from Benton to Frankfort. Life got just a tiny bit crazy! I’ve watched many Robin Hood movies over the years. Not a single one of the films prepared me for the ending to the book!!! We were so devastated (and a tiny bit angry) by the manner of our hero’s death that I had to cancel school the rest of the day. Sparkles and Middle Boy just cried their hearts out. Oldest refused to concentrate on math or grammar until we discussed the injustice and greed that led to Robin’s death. Life is unfair sometimes and especially so for heroes (real or literary). I made some popcorn and we buried our sorrows watching Walt Disney’s Robin Hood. Roger Miller and Robin Hood always go together in my mind and his song ran through my head the entire time I read the book aloud.
You are welcome for the earworm!
all of our resources for this session
All our resources for this session.
The first three weeks of this session are devoted to the study of the Magna Charta through James Daughtery’s book The Magna ChartaThe first part of the book was a review of previous books on the Plantagenets. We found the review helpful since we had paused our studies for the move. Oldest became so fascinated with Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets that he purchased a book on them with his birthday money. He was fairly proud of himself for purchasing his first history text. Weeks twelve through fourteen have several words to define from the book. Usually Oldest looked the words up in a dictionary. Sadly, our dictionary was packed away in a box in storage. Oldest thought he had a free pass on the vocabulary words until I reminded him of the glossary’s existence in the guide! ;)
Oldest studied several websites to learn about the life of England’s common people and wrote a silly tale about a stable boy named Jack. We discussed the life and legacy of King Richard, King John, Stephen Langton the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Innocent III, and William Marshal. We studied the art of Albert Herter during our picture studies and discussed the symbolism of representative government in his work. We also read Marguerite De Angeli’s
Oldest with his birthday books
Oldest with his birthday books!
delightful book A Door in the Wall (a suggested read). We just adored this book and even the younger children listened in on this read aloud. We also discussed the importance of the Magna Charta to our own American history.
I was relieved that the guide had us take a look at the lives of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic since faith and religion took a hard hit with the death of Robin Hood and the politics of the Church during the Medieval period. I added a short study on the life of St. Hildegard von Bingen. She was a German Benedictine abbess and composer of beautiful music. I learned about her during my time in the monastery and the chant she composed for her communities returns my heart to the cloister. O Frondens Virga
illumination project
Illumination project
which I linked for you is my favorite of her compositions. I also adore her because she was a bit of a rebel. We read Life in a Medieval Monastery by Marc Cels and Places of Worship in the Middle Ages by Kay Eastwood. To round out our medieval religious studies we also read Magic in the Margins: A Medieval Tale of Bookmaking by W. Nicola-Lisa and Oldest worked on a small illuminated manuscript project. He chose to illuminate the Preamble to the Constitution.
Our next couple of weeks were spent learning about Cathedrals and Castles with David Macaulay’s books. Oldest and the younger siblings enjoyed making stained glass windows with tissue paper for art projects and watching YouTube videos about Guedelon in France. Oldest also watched a documentary about the Cathedral of Santa Maria in Florence and then explored the
some of Oldest's papers and projects
Some of Oldest's papers and projects.
subject further on Kahn Academy. I didn’t realize how much he had learned about architecture until he started pointing out features of buildings in downtown Frankfort. Currently he is working on building a Medieval city on Minecraft. His castle is designed after Visegrad the Citadel. He chose this castle primarily because my husband had visited there and brought home an informative booklet with diagrams of the topography and building plans.
The next two weeks of the guide (17 and 18) bring us to Medieval China and Marco Polo. Sadly, Oldest completed all of the reading for these sessions on his own. I love reading aloud these history books and it made me sad to miss out on The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean. I fell rather ill a few weeks ago with a chest infection. Oldest did read aloud a few chapters to me during my feverish days but as the fever subsided I developed a terrible cough and could barely breathe let alone read aloud.
architectural designs Oldest pointed out during downtown walk
Architectural designs Oldest now points out on our walks
downtown!
Fortunately, even without reading the book I was able to intelligently discuss the book and questions in the guide thanks to the answer key! We depended heavily on the Resources part of the study guide for the course this time around. I did notice this evening while checking over his map that he forgot to add the map work for China though he did mark Marco Polo’s route. Guess what his first assignment will be Monday morning!?!
Oldest with book
Oldest with book!
One of the projects was to build a paper model of The Temple of Heaven. We didn’t get to that project because the color printer is still packed away in a box. It looks like a fun craft so we plan to work on it at some point. Oldest did build a mini version of the temple with his legos. We read about the life of Confucius and reviewed Buddhism, Taoism, and Confusism. Just as he started reading The Samurai’s Tale by Erik C. Haugaard (another suggested book) he got my chest infection. The book must be really good because he kept reading while he was feverish. I just love this picture of him asleep by the Christmas tree with book in hand.
Legal note: The kind (and totally awesome!) folks at Beautiful Feet Books provided me with the literature pack and guide in exchange for this review series. I offered them no guarantee on what I would write here.
Thank you Audria! I love these little peeks into your home school. History is so valuable in teaching character lessons, as you've deftly pointed out in all your posts. Creating compassion, empathy, a passion for justice–these are all important aspects of historical study. You can read more at Audria's blog, At the Well

We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

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Monday, December 07, 2015

We need you!

Do you love Beautiful Feet Books? Has it changed the way you think about teaching history? If so, we'd love it if you voted in the 2016 Practical Homeschooling® Reader Awards™ Ballot. Beautiful Feet Books appears in several categories and you can also vote for your favorites in categories like math, science, grammar, and much more. Plus, Practical Homeschooling is offering a very cool prize to one lucky participant. Check it all out here. We really appreciate your support! The Reader Awards not only let us know if we're on the right track in terms of developing our curriculum but they're also very helpful to new homeschoolers looking for direction as they embark on this amazing, and sometimes overwhelming, journey. Entries close on December 10, so vote while you can!

We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

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Thursday, December 03, 2015

BFB Reissues d'Aulaire's Abraham Lincoln!

For the past year, Rea has been working on a re-issue of the d'Aulaire's classic, Abraham Lincoln. She's been coordinating the restoration of the original artwork, adding historical notes and background and much more. Check out this article in Publisher's Weekly featuring her work and the new 75th anniversary edition of Abraham Lincoln along with background on Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire!

Our new 2015-2016 catalog is now available! If you want to view it right now it's available online here. And if you would like to request a hardcopy, click here
We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

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Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Modern American and World History

Melissa is back with an update on their school year. She's working through our Modern American and World History for Intermediate grades. You can read parts I and II of her series. Within the post below, you can click on links to some of the literature she's been reading with her children for more detailed reviews! So helpful when planning out your study. Melissa has taken the flexibility built in to our studies and really made this work for her family. They're stretching it out, switching out titles where necessary and adapting lessons and we love to see this! This is one of the things we work hard at when we're writing out guides: making them structured enough to give guidance but flexible enough to allow for customization!

Here's Melissa: 

After finishing our first term of the 2015-2016 school year, I thought I'd give an update on the Beautiful Feet Modern American and World History study we're using. Part way through the term, I gave an introduction/overview of the program. Since, we finished up the term on lesson twenty-seven. I originally scheduled history three days per week, hoping to finish the term with lesson thirty-six. However, the assigned readings are very long so I had to split some of the lessons over two days. At this point, it looks as though the study may take more than one school year to complete unless we add history a fourth day per week.

So far, the books have been wonderful! We've read five books in their entirety, including: Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt, The Perilous Road by William O. Steele, a Frederick Douglass substitution, Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson, and Theodore Roosevelt by Genevieve Foster. We've also read assigned chapters of A Child's First Book of American History by Earl Schenck Miers.

As noted, I did substitute one book. The BF study uses Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. However, after reading aloud the Preface and a Letter, I could see the kids were not ready for it. After a bit of research, I opted to substitute Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom by Margaret Davidson. I think Douglass' original Narrative... is fabulous, but I felt it was more suited for upper middle school or high school. The kids will definitely be reading it at some point down the road. For now, Davidson's book was a good fit!



Here is a narration Riley wrote after we read Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom...

Frederick Bailey was born in February 1818, no one knows the exact date, he was a slave. Frederick wanted to be free. He decided to run away to the north. Frederick disguised himself as a sailor and got aboard a train. He rode the train to New York. He found a safe house there. While in New York, Frederick got married. He and his new wife moved to Massachusetts. Frederick changed his last name to Douglass to be safe from slave catchers. He was an abolitionist. He fought for freedom for the millions of slaves that were not free yet. He and his wife Anna, and their five children, ran a safe house on the Underground Railroad. Frederick gave many speeches against slave owners and even talked to President Lincoln. He died February 20, 1895. He was seventy-seven years old. The kids are not loving A Child's First Book of American History. However, I think it does a great job of filling in the gaps. It's sort of a spine book and Daugherty's illustration are a treat. Across Five Aprils is still my favorite with Foster's Theodore Roosevelt falling second. We learned a great deal about Roosevelt from this Initial Biography. I highly recommend it and am thrilled to see Beautiful Feet bring it back in print!

Overall, the study is going well. History is still the kids favorite subject. Below are a few more samples of their notebook pages....













Today, we are back from break, starting term two with The Wright Brothers, Pioneers of American Aviation by Quentin Reynolds. I haven't done much reading on the Wright brothers and am looking forward to learning more about them :)
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Thank you Melissa! Check out her blog, Reflections from Drywood Creek for great information on the Charlotte Mason method, book reviews, and much more! 

Our new 2015-2016 catalog is now available! If you want to view it right now it's available online here. And if you would like to request a hardcopy, click here
We would love to hear what you think! Chime in below in the comments section and share your thoughts. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages.  To learn more about Beautiful Feet Books, click here.

And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below!