Ever since our children were little, our history and geography lessons have revolved around our travels and literature studies.
Whenever we read a new book, we pull out our maps and timeline cards to dive deeper into the real-life details about the characters’ lives. If we can, we take a trip to see the settings for ourselves, like a certain little town on the South Dakota prairie. It’s such a fun way to study history together as a family!
I received a free trial of this product and was compensated for my time writing the review, but all opinions are my own! Read our full disclosure policy here.
With our oldest child now in middle school, I decided to add something a little more intentional to our history schedule this year.
She is a young writer, and I knew that she would love a literature curriculum full of the best stories. Our second daughter thrives on facts and details, so anything curiosity-driven is a great fit for her.
Beautiful Feet Books is a Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum that combines beautiful stories with easy-to-use guided lessons for a rich history experience. It matches our family’s philosophy of education perfectly:
MAKE LEARNING FUN WITH
- good books,
- hands-on learning experiences,
- and family adventures.
The Modern American and World History Pack arrived just as we were finishing our previous unit study. We decided to dive in at the beginning of March instead of waiting for fall. Now we can enjoy the incredible books throughout the summer! (We typically do read-alouds and shorter day trips/weekend travels all season long.)
Our kids are avid readers, and the sight of 22 new books made them giddy with excitement. (I set the box aside so they don’t devour them before we have a chance to read them together.) I love that we are adding the best stories to our family library. Our girls can re-visit the books again and again whenever they want.
Curiosity-Driven History
The girls were excited to set up their brand-new history notebooks. We also made a list of possible “field trips” to correspond with our studies. So far, we have planned trips to:
- The Pony Express National Museum (St. Joseph, Missouri)
- Buffalo Bill Museum (Le Claire, Iowa),
- and the National World War I Museum and Memorial (Kansas City, Missouri).
We’re excited to take slightly longer trips to visit Teddy Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota and Dayton, Ohio to see where the Wright brothers (and sister) grew up. {Bookmark this post for future travel updates.}
Locally, we visited several grave sites of Civil War soldiers, the monument on our town square erected by the Grand Army of the Republic, and a veteran’s memorial at the nearby college. We also checked out more library books about Frederick Douglass and George Washington Carver. We discovered that Carver lived in Iowa for many years before moving to Alabama.
“I like writing in my history notebook. My favorite book so far is The Wright Brothers: Pioneers of American Aviation. Learning about the entire family (not just Orville and Wilbur) was fun. Before we read the book, I didn’t know they had more brothers and a sister named Kate.”
K, age 8
Learning as a Family
Starting our day with read-aloud time has been a real treat these last few months. While we often read aloud together in the evening as a leisure activity, this has been our first experience with a Charlotte Mason-inspired literature curriculum.
Every morning, we have snuggled up on the couch together to read a few chapters together. And every night, the kids excitedly shared new facts they learned with their dad. Our family discussion about Teddy Roosevelt even led us to a video about the President’s role in saving football (A Football Life: The Forward Pass).
Easy-to-Use Guided Lessons
The Modern American and World History Pack came with a teacher guide that breaks down each of the books into short lessons and includes interesting tidbits and discussion questions. Our family has loved the “open-and-go” ease of the guide that allows us to take our learning outside, on the trail, and in the car.
“I have liked all the cool things I’ve learned from the books so far, like the Wrights having a sister and Teddy Roosevelt going on safari. My favorite thing is the illustrated timeline! This curriculum has really helped me learn a lot, and I’m excited to read more of the books.”
A, age 11
If you are a family looking for a curiosity-driven history curriculum with the best stories and easy-to-use teacher guides, you definitely want to check out Beautiful Feet Books!
Before you go, be sure to check out these posts about our family adventures for more curiosity-driven history fun!
We have enjoyed BF books too! I’d love your opinion on their history spine!
It’s been a good discussion starter so far. We’ve learned interesting things about the Pony Express and baseball. 😉 I think it helps that my kids already have their history timeline memorized and have a pretty good grasp of world history in general. I tend to supplement with other materials and LOTS of library books about whatever topic we’re studying.