Beautiful Feet Books is the first Charlotte Mason style homeschool we have ever used. I’m going to share a review of their Around the World with Picture Books Part 1 and 2.
Selecting a great homeschool curriculum can be a combination of exciting and dreadful. With the increase in homeschoolers across the world, there are SO many options these days. This can be both a blessing, and sometimes, a curse.
As a home educator for the past 8 years, I find writing curriculum reviews something I’m most motivated to do. Why? It is because I know how much they helped me in my own journey.
Beautiful Feet Books was the first Charlotte Mason style curriculum I ever used. Today, I’m going to share a homeschool review about Around the World with Picture Books Parts 1 and 2.
This post is all about Beautiful Feet Books Around the World with Picture Books.
Beautiful Feet Books
About Beautiful Feet Books
Beautiful Feet Books is based in California. They create “literature packs,” which essentially includes a Teacher Guide along with the living books that are woven throughout the guide. You can purchase the teacher guide on its own or the whole pack, which includes the selected published books.
Their vision is to create, develop, and publish Charlotte Mason inspired history and literature homeschool curriculum to help families have the best books, foster curiosity-driven learning, and deepen relationships between parents and kids. They are homeschoolers themselves! The company has been in the business of bringing a literature rich education to families for 30 years.
How We Found Beautiful Feet Books
Like I mentioned, my first Charlotte Mason style curriculum was from this shop. I was more of a traditional style homeschooler with books that resembled textbooks with worksheets and tests. Felt totally normal. Felt safe. Then I started getting into listening to homeschool themed YouTube videos while I was cooking. It opened up my eyes to this Charlotte Mason style.
No worksheets, no fill in the blank tests, no textbooks?! I started researching more into this world of oral and written narrations, living books, and excuse me, poetry tea time. It sounded really neat, but I needed a hand to hold. A guide of some sort so I was not fumbling my way through lessons, which is what I pictured myself looking like in my mind.
I started researching the Charlotte Mason style curriculum. There were a few absolutely nots because I knew I did not want to change everything 100%. I needed to dip our toes in slowly. When I found Beautiful Feet Books, I was drawn in to the book lists, and the way they made Charlotte Mason accessible to a newbie like me. We went with Early American History for Primary Grades. It went so well, that I usually have a literature pack going on in some form these days.
Around the World with Picture Books
Pros
- Quality Booklist: What I’ve learned over the years is that finding a company that has great booklists is a gigantic time saver. It cuts the time of needing to pre-read books for 3 voracious reading children (just not realistic for me). The Beautiful Feet Books booklist is just that.
- No Rigid Schedule: I love me a pretty scheduling grid, don’t get me wrong, but grids can cause stress. They can taunt you saying, “Mom…you didn’t get that done on Thursday like it says to do in the Thursday square.” The literature guides can be moved through as fast or slow as you wish. They are numbered, and not labeled by day. The guides are high quality, glossy, and with a lot of nice photos.
- Fun: Each country has a lot of living books included in the pack, but also suggested reading, which I picked up what I could find at the library. Not only living books, but recipes, nature journaling, cultural education, and some field trip ideas. There is a lot to choose from for each country based on your and your children’s preference.
- Teacher Friendly: I have had Charlotte Mason style curriculums that assumed you knew what to do and what questions to ask for narrations. Overally, I feel these 2 literature guides actually guide you through each lesson. You can then pick and choose what you decide to do.
- Multitude of Subjects: Especially for Kindergarten and first grade, I can see this covering many subjects! There is a history, geography, writing with narrations, art, and nature study/science. Add in a math and reading source, and you may be set for the year!
Cons
- Teacher Intensive: Depending on your season of life, if you need something more open and go, and like to do all the things suggested in the teacher’s guide, this may not be the right time. If you’re short on time, you can easily just read the books in the order suggested and assign some simple notebooking or use the free downloadable coloring pages. While you can prepare ahead of time, and make it feel open and go, it doesn’t have the open and go vibe in the traditional way may you think of it. However, I do think that it is generally difficult to homeschool well without a big teacher presence in that K-3 range.
[RELATED POST: Review of Right Start Math]
- It’s a Lot: This is something I love about it, but I can see some people feeling tempted to do it all. DON’T DO IT ALL. Unless you and your children just cannot get enough of a country, I would pick and choose what books, projects, assignments, and deep dives you think would be enjoyable for the family.
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Our Rhythm with Beautiful Feet Books
Just to give you a sample of how we typically rolled with Around the World with Picture Books from Beautiful Feet Books. Here is a sample of our “visit” to Brazil.
- Living Books: Jabuti the Tortoise, The Dancing Turtle, The Great Kapok Tree, The Great Snake: Stories from the Amazon, Victoria Goes to Brazil
- Animals: Toucan, Jaguar, Golden Lion Tamarin, Three-Toed Sloth
- Create: Three-Toed Sloth, Table Soccer Game (from Atlas Crate)
- Watch: Brazil from Above (was on Amazon Prime) and Street Food from Latin America (was Season 1, Episode 2 on Netflix)
- Watercolor: Brazilian landscapes and sloths
- Make and Eat: Brigaderios
So, in preparation for each country, I would:
- Refer to the booklist and place holds at the library and see if there were any extra related books
- Print out the free animal coloring pages that are offered on the Beautiful Feet Books site.
- Search any related and kid-appropriate videos or shows that would bring the country to life and remind them that it is not a fictional place.
- If I chose to do a watercolor of the landscape, I would see if there was a tutorial on Youtube.
- Ensure we had ingredients for the recipe.
Extra Resources Used
You don’t need these things, but for your reference, there were some things I purchased to supplement Around the World with Picture Books:
- Atlas Crates subscription: This is Kiwi Co’s world cultures box designed for children 6-10 years old. The kids enjoyed the crafts and recipes here. I just ordered a 1 year subscription, and saved the boxes for when we arrived at that country. It didn’t always match up, but it was still fun.
- Watercolor Journals: I picked up one for each child. They used it for nature journaling, and would document animals, flags, and landscapes here.
This post was all about Beautiful Feet Books Around the World with Picture Books.
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Yes! I agree with all of this. I love Beautiful Feet, just wish I had more time to do more of it.
I’m currently using Around the World Part 1 and will likely use Part 2 next school year. Did you find the Anno’s books beneficial for part 2? My student was not very interested in Anno’s China so I’m debating purchasing the other four needed for Part 2.
Great question! I did not utilize it. It just didn’t capture our attention either.
I’m really drawn to the Beautiful Feet books but the price is feeling a little steep for my budget this year. Do you think it’s possible to just get the teachers guide and source the books myself as we go?
Yes, I think that is a GREAT idea to save!
This was so helpful! I’ve looked through the guide a number of times in preparation for the upcoming year, but just haven’t been able to get a good feel for how to approach it. Your explanation was super helpful! Thank you!
I’m so glad! Thank you for sharing that!