I love using a literature-rich approach to homeschooling, filling our home and our days with beautiful books, rich stories, and deep conversations. But I also know that for many moms, the stack of books and the giant binder of lesson plans that come with many literature-rich curriculum options can feel really overwhelming. One of the things that caught my attention with Beautiful Feet Books is the beauty and simplicity it brings to a literature-rich homeschool. Its simple literature approach to homeschooling and beautiful teacher guides make Beautiful Feet Books a great open-and-go homeschool option.
Need a simple literature approach to homeschooling?
Disclaimer: I was compensated for my time in reviewing this product and writing an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was under no obligation to post a positive review.
We were graciously given the “Early American History Primary” literature pack, recommended for K-3rd grade. The pack included all of the required books, a student notebook, a bookmark, and the teacher guide. I began using this with my current third grader and will continue to use it next year during his fourth-grade year. Everything about this pack invites you in; no one that saw it could resist flipping through and admiring it.
Beautiful Feet Books is a literature-rich, unit study style of homeschooling. While it does have a notebooking and narration approach to the reading that is similar to Classical or Charlotte Mason styles, it does not follow the history rotation you would typically find with those homeschool styles. Also, you could combine a few of your children of similar ages and reading abilities, but it is not intended to be a whole-family learning curriculum. Children of different ages and abilities would have their own topics or eras of history they would be studying separately.
The curriculum uses quality “living books” for each topic. Many of these books would probably be available at your local library. If you needed to save a little money and purchase the teacher guide separately, you could find these titles elsewhere. But for a pack of beautiful, brand new books (and the quantity of books you receive) the pricing is very reasonable. While I love the book choices, the teacher guide was probably my favorite part.
Beautiful Feet Books Teacher Guide
Full page, gorgeous pictures make opening the teacher guide a treat, an absolute delight. It’s like opening a favorite magazine. The thick, silky pages filled with colorful pictures made me want to cozy up with my cup of coffee and spend an afternoon flipping through to see what’s ahead.
At the beginning of the guide are a few pages of introductory information with suggestions for pacing. Whether you decide to complete the guide in a year with 2-3 lessons a week, or stretch the guide to two years and complete only a single lesson a week, the guide encourages you to find a pace that fits your family and learning objectives. This ability to set your own pace makes Beautiful Feet Books a great option for families with learning challenges who are still seeking a literature-rich approach.
There is no rush, no check sheet, no getting behind, no guilt. It truly is a self-paced approach. In our teacher guide for Early American History, there are 7 units and a total of 94 lessons. The lessons are numbered (Lesson 1 to Lesson 94); there is no “week 1” or “Day 145,” nothing that would subtly suggest you aren’t where you should be.
The lessons are laid out simply and aesthetically, easy-to-read and easy-to-follow. A brief overview of the day’s objectives, the reading assignments, and a couple of questions for either narration or notebooking are provided for each day. Sometimes a youtube video or google search term for a project idea is provided. But this isn’t necessarily a hands-on curriculum. Though with the self-pacing, you could definitely add as many hands-on ideas as you would like. Beautiful Feet Books is more of a reading and notebooking approach to learning, similar to what you find in a classical or Charlotte Mason approach.
Each unit opens with “Rabbit Trails,” a list of additional reading ideas if you or your child wants to delve further into the topic. The end of each unit closes with some fun recipe ideas that tie in with the culture or era of the study. Again, gorgeous magazine-worthy pictures of the food fill the page beside each recipe. Even my seventh grader was drawn in and eager to bake some of the suggested recipes.
Beautiful Feet Books Student Notebook
In comparison with the Teacher Guide, the student notebook is surprisingly simple and plain. Just a cardstock cover with regular lined pages inside. Especially, considering that this notebook was recommended for K-3rd, this surprised me. It seemed more suited for an older child. I knew immediately we were going to have some trouble with it because my third grader has had some struggles with his handwriting and line-spacing.
To help him with his handwriting and stretch what he can do, I often will write out his longer writing assignments in pencil and let him trace my writing. So this is the method we used for the Beautiful Feet Books notebooking assignments. I traced the copywork on the page, and he took a few days to trace over it. If you don’t want to take the time to write the work for your student, you could choose to either do the work orally or get a better notebook option.
The only other aspect to this curriculum that I noticed would take a little bit of planning ahead or outside prep is visiting the website, downloading the free pdf of images that accompanies the notebooking assignments, and printing them. That’s it. It’s pretty simple.
Beautiful Feet Books for a Simple Literature Approach to Homeschooling
Beautiful Feet Books is a really delightful program for both the parent and the child, a simple literature approach to homeschooling. The curriculum is religious and provides opportunity for seeing the hand of God at work in history. However, it does have purchasing options that separate the religious elements from the teacher guide to allow for use of charter school funds.
While inviting critical thinking and depth with its assignments, it allows for rigor without feeling overwhelming. If you are looking for a way to incorporate great books into your history and literature study but need a simple lesson plan, Beautiful Feet Books is ideal. It’s also a good choice for someone who needs to take a more relaxed pace with their child without the feeling of being behind. While it does not provide a list of alternate ideas to customize for your child, the simplicity of the lessons allows plenty of opportunity to create your own customizations within a week of learning.
Also, if teacher guides typically overwhelm and intimidate you, Beautiful Feet Books will be a lovely change. This teacher guide will remind you of flipping through your favorite magazine; it’s a luxury not a drudgery.
- Beautiful, engaging “living books”
- Open-and-go unit study
- Narration, notebooking style of learning
- Gorgeous, simple teacher guide with fun recipes and simple activity ideas
- Guilt-free, flexible pacing
The Beautiful Feet Books website provides some great samples and videos to allow you to see what each literature pack includes and which set would work best for your child. Plus there are options to customize your literature pack if you currently own a few of the titles already. This is a company that really has taken a lot of time thinking through the details to create an excellent program. Visit their website to see all of the different literature packs they offer.
Plus, pick up your free copy of 5 Ways to Know If A Book Is Worth Sharing With Your Kids by Josh Berg.
Then, enter the giveaway! Ten winners will receive a $100 store credit to use at Beautiful Feet Books.
