What a perfect example to demonstrate how very bad I am at scheduling anything. Schedules almost make me break out in hives, though my inward self salivates in the Daily Planner aisle.
I hope to hereby designate Fridays for sharing my favorite products with you, but as you can see, I’ve already fouled up my very first one. We returned from Texas Wednesday morning at 4 am, and I haven’t been the same since. I must have skipped a day somewhere in all that traveling 😉
But without further ado, let me tell you about some books I am crazy about! Many of you enjoy the books at Beautiful Feet Books, But if you haven’t checked them out, you must!
The brainchild of Russell and Rea Berg, Beautiful Feet Books “is committed to integrating the best works of children’s literature into all aspects of the educational curriculum by publishing noted authors and study guides that enable parents and teachers to incorporate those works easily into a comprehensive study”.
Inspired by Susan Schaffer Macaulay, Rea began to pursue “living books” to incorporate into her homeschooling but found that many of the great historical works had fallen out of print. She and her husband have resurrected some of these wonderful books and have created study guides to assist parents who wish to implement a literature-based education.
Our family just unpacked 6 great books from BFB:
- Augustus Caesar’s World--Genevieve Foster
- George Washington’s World–Genevieve Foster
- Buffalo Bill–D’Aulaire
- Abraham Lincoln–D’Aulaire
- George Washington–D’Aulaire
- Benjamin Franklin–D’Aulaire
My children are so attentive as we read through the living histories of these men, full of colorful illustrations and engaging narrative. Once we got a taste of reading living books for school, it was difficult, at best, to stomach a history text book.
And if you’re like me, fully knowing the benefits of “living books” but struggling to know which ones to choose, the Bergs have made that easy. I highly recommend you peruse Beautiful Feet Books and invest in your family library!
19 comments
Thank you I can’t wait to check these out.
We are hooked on D’aulaire books – the story telling and the illustrations are pure and engaging. Enjoy them!
The D’Aulaire books are the best… we loved all of them.
Thank you very much! My son (almost 8 yrs old) loves reading but it is very hard for me to find what we deem acceptable books for him to read. He loves non-fiction and these will be great!!
We love D’Aulaire books. Our library has almost all of them and I get the rest through interlibrary loan. I love free!
We got our catalog a few weeks ago and the set you got is the exact one I’ll be ordering first. I’m especially looking forward to the Foster books after hearing Victoria Botkin so highly recommend them. And of course the D’Aulaire books are fabulous! Are you familiar with Queen Homeschool Supplies? They have been such a gentle way for us to apply a Charlotte Mason approach to our home education program.
~~Bless you Kelly~~
Amy,
Oooh thank you for the resource!
We have used BF books and curriculum for our entire homeschooling – 12 years. It is my absolute FAVORITE! I have all the packs – right now I have children in 3 different time frames and enjoying every bit of it. They do such an excellent job on the curriculum and the books are so good.
I was just getting ready to post about the D’Aulaire books myself! We only recently discovered them and have DEVOURED them. What a great way to introduce history to children 🙂
I think I’ll be incorporating a post about our favorites soon!
I just found your site through a friend that attended the Baby Conference. It’s lovely. It looks like your family is working hard to live a life of godliness. Lisa~
We have several of these books!
Those books look great!
But I have to say, I just loved this sentence: “Schedules almost make me break out in hives, though my inward self salivates in the Daily Planner aisle.” Oh, so funny.
We especially loved using the BFB study guide for Paddle to the Sea which we used as a springboard to doing our Michigan state history studies.
We have done several of the BF study’s. We’re doing Western Expansion this year and so far enjoying it! We love all the reading selections and it is just enough without being overkill like several other living books curriculums we’ve tried over the years(this is our 14th year!)
I’ve wondered whether these books are worth the purchase price.
Thanks for the recommendation, Kelly 🙂
Oh, I am right there with you sister. Love the hives comment!! Strict schedules make me sweat just thinking about them, but I regularly ponder Managers of Their Homes dreaming that one day I too will be “organized”. I also really appreciate Beautiful Feet and I really want to gab with you about the real function of school and productivity. Our family is very entrepenurial, production minded, but let me tell you. Spelling lessons are really neglected and keeping paper organized is well…
How do you REALLY keep tidy while all your little business men and women are “working” at “producing” things? I am a mother to nine busy bees.
I love it when women I trust make great recommendations. Thank you!!!
We took almost two wonderful years to complete Beautiful Feet’s Early American History, Primary Grades, and we still pour over the books on the list. We purchased them, and it IS worth it to me. Some books you just don’t want out of your library. Beautiful Feet’s literature falls in that category. Highly recommended.
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