It is no secret that historical fiction is a passion of mine. Not only do I enjoy reading historical fiction myself, but we incorporate a ton in our homeschool learning as well. Teaching History Through Literature with Beautiful Feet Books makes learning with historical fiction easy!
Throughout our homeschooling years we have read many historical fiction books. I find that having a story-line, a person to follow, something to engage in, increases their depth of knowledge and willingness to continue learning more. I have to admit that the process has not always been easy. It can take significant time, energy, and effort to find great literature to use in your homeschool. That’s where Teaching History Through Literature with Beautiful Feet Books comes in.
Teaching History Through Literature with Beautiful Feet Books
Beautiful Feet Books, “believes great literature has the power to unlock history and make it come alive.” They help families do this by choosing the best literature available and making their Teacher Guides easy to use.
The Teacher Guides are your “how to”. They are organized into easy to follow lessons, incorporating hands-on activities, vocabulary, notebooking, geography, and so much more. Many of them even have a free picture packet download to accompany the study. They are the coloring pictures reference in their Teacher Guides. These guides are designed to be a complete history course.
What is Offered at Beautiful Feet Books
Beautiful Feet offers resources for Teaching History Through Literature across all grade levels. Click Here to find their recommended study sequence.
K-3rd – Early American History, Around the World with Picture Books Part I and Part II, Teaching Character Through Literature
4th-6th – Early American History, History of Science, History of the Horse, Geography Through Literature, Teaching Character Through Literature, History of California, History of Westward Expansion
7th & 8th – Modern American and World History, Ancient History Intermediate, Medieval History Intermediate, History of Classical Music
9th-12th – Early American and World History, Ancient History Sr., Medieval History Sr., Modern U.S. and World History, Government and Economics
How to Use Beautiful Feet Books Literature Guides
Resources Needed:
What’s great about these Beautiful Feet Books Literature Guides is that they are virtually open and go! In the beginning of each Literature Guide there is a list (with photographs and descriptions) of the Literature you will need. I have found that if you can’t afford to purchase them all, you can often get away with purchasing the larger, more reference based books that are used throughout, and then getting the smaller literature books for each section from the library. This makes these a very affordable means of teaching history through literature.
What Types of Activities Are Included:
Besides reading, there are tons of other learning activities included with these Literature Guides. While each section begins with a list of supplemental books (ones I usually pick up at the library right before we start the section), they also begin with a list of hands-on activities you can include with your children. There are tons of various art project ideas, hands on crafting ideas, cooking, and more that go along with each section.
Each section is broken down into Lessons where you will find reading assignments, mapping, vocabulary, comprehension questions, websites to visit and even report ideas.
Scheduling for Literature Guides:
The literature guides are meant to be completed one in each year with 3 lessons per week and approximately 32 weeks. This allows you plenty of flexibility to take breaks when necessary or to add things in if you would like (possibly some time period history movies).
If you are looking for literature based history than look no further than Beautiful Feet Books Literature Guides! You won’t find an easier way to include literature in your homeschool studies!
Check out another Beautiful Feet Books Review: This one specifically of The Modern American and World History Guide
Other History Options
- Using Timeline for Homeschool History Studies
- Magic Tree House Unit Studies Curriculum
- The Giant American History Timeline
- Constitutional Literacy Review
- 5 Reasons to Use Dover Coloring Books for History
Heidi Ciravola is mom to three kids who were all homeschooled. Two have graduated college and one is finishing homeschooling high school. She spends much of her time navigating the high school waters (from electives to college prep) and reviewing homeschool curriculum for all ages. You can find her writing about these things as well as her love of books and homeschool life in general over at Starts At Eight.
Good help here, thanks! Have you done the high school levels? Do they have writing assignments at that level?
Christy, I have not used any of the high school level ones. I looked, and according to their website descriptions for the high school teacher guides, they do have writing assignments at that level.
How long does your high schooler spend on the books and lessons each day/week?