A Gentle Feast: Cycle 4 Review

This post is all about our second full year using A Gentle Feast for our homeschool curriculum.

Our first year fully immersed in A Gentle Feast curriculum was an appropriate fit. With 3 school age aggressive readers, I wanted to find something that something that could satisfy their appetite with an abundance of book suggestions.

We went with Cycle 3 because the year prior, we studied the Ancient Greeks. Cycle 4 felt like the next step, covering Medieval History. I appreciated that in addition to Medieval History, it also encompasses some US and European History, which I like touching on simultaneously.

In our current season, I wanted something that would fill our desire for a rich literature based education. However, it was important that it was also not overwhelming for me in planning. We decided to continue on in Cycle 4 for the 2022-2023 school year. Here is our review!

This post is all about A Gentle Feast homeschool curriculum, and how it can work for the entire family.

Can A Gentle Feast Cover it All?

Of course, this is going to vary depending on how you define “all.” A Gentle Feast does not cover math and some language arts essentials. However, it CAN cover everything else for a Charlotte Mason style if that suits your goal.

You’ll Want to Do it All

I used to want to do it all. The life giving aspect of the Charlotte Mason philosophy is very attractive. Just listen to any episode of the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast, and trust me. You’ll be dreaming of restructuring your homeschool days with tea times and picture studies.

The way A Gentle Feast is laid out, you’ll want to do it all. It is a generous feast of beautifully curated resources and living books. However, I realized that being selective with our time and focus could be labeled as intentional, rather than simply missing out or dropping the ball. This reframing of the perspective helped me to protect our time and energy, while still intentionally making the curriculum work well for us.

What We Used and Did Not Use

For Cycle 4 of A Gentle Feast, we utilized the US and Ancient History, Geography, Literature, Nature Study, Citizenship, some portions of Morning Time, and some folk songs. Loved each section we chose to use! Citizenship was something that was helpful for each of the forms, and I liked each of the book suggestions. I added some CM Simple Studies guides to supplement the nature studies, and it was a seamless addition.

We did not use the Science, Language Arts, Foreign Language, or Tea Time, or Art options. I would have, however, we just had other things planned for some of those subjects that we already had our hearts set on.

[RELATED POST: Our Top 6 Art Curriculum for Homeschoolers]

What it Does Not Cover

You do need to add in a math and writing/grammar option (for these, I love Right Start Math and IEW). However, I really like that with A Gentle Feast, there is more suggested than I can actually do. This allows us the option to add in some suggestions if time permits or if interest leads.

My first exposure to A Gentle Feast was their Morning Time Cycle 1, which we used many years ago. It is so easy to use and follow along. The printed guide is beautiful! An excellent way for me to ease into a fully curated and organized Morning Time as a Charlotte Mason style wannabe. I highly recommend picking up their Morning Time plans for someone interested in implementing some Charlotte Mason principles with superb guidance!

[RELATED POST: Review of Cycle 3 with A Gentle Feast Homeschool Curriculum]

Open and Go Curriculum?

Taking in the Morning Time guide, Language Arts, and History Cycles, I would rank them as very open and go. You will just need to look ahead at what books you’ll need to have on hand.

My main warning is to have membership to a well stocked library. There are quite a few books to go through, especially if you have more than one child that will use it. We did library pick ups every 2 weeks, found a few free options on Kindle, and some from Thriftbooks.

All plans for all forms are well laid out for you. Ideal for families with more than one child, and don’t want to spend too much time planning your weeks. You can easily use the 4 Cycles for years since each form suggests different books and plans as you progress.

Gentle For Large Families

What worked well for us with A Gentle Feast was I had 3 kids in three different forms (Form 1, Form 2, and Form 3). I appreciate that we were studying the same topics and time periods across each of the forms or ages of children.

My 8th, 5th, and 2nd graders were all learning about the Medieval period of time. Sometimes through read alouds altogether and/or through independent assigned reading. Seeing them form their own connections from the different readings was a great reward.

Living Books

All 3 of my kids will testify that they enjoyed our reading for this year. We read aloud Famous Men of the Middle Ages and most of the Among the nature series, which I think was a good choice. Their individual literature suggestions, geography reading, and medieval history books were hits.

A Gentle Feast also has an affordable option ($5) to purchase their curated book list. If you enjoy laying down your own schedule, without the pressure of a weekly grid, this could be a really great option. It is helpful to have living book recommendations across the different forms, but on the same topic. They also provide links within the book list of where to find the books (i.e., Scribd, free on Kindle, etc.).

This post was all about our experience in Cycle 4 of A Gentle Feast homeschool curriculum.

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