*HONEST* CURRICULUM REVIEW of Around the World w/ Picture Books Part 1 | Beautiful Feet Books | Tips

[@amandab.6815]

I agree with pretty much everything you said. But we also love ATW because we use it as a spine, not as a comprehensive study. We have been camped in China for about 2 months lol. And we have read over 20 books, just for China, and we have added other documentaries and other science related activities. Another recommendation- we have been using Jamie Martin's Give Your Child the World (which is a book of booklists broken down by the region of the world). It gives good read aloud suggestions.

[@SevenInAll]

I do think the curriculum is designed with library access in mind--making it a little bit challenging for those of us who don't really have that ability to source books on short notice or with a smaller budget...BUT on the other hand, living in Asia while studying Asia definitely has plenty of perks! :) We have also incorporated lots of videos or movies when possible. Watched a great newer film, "Storm Boy" for Australia, which was about a boy who raised baby pelicans orphaned in a storm...really resonated with my boys who are always hoping to find some animals to keep....ha!

[@haleighhowland]

I love that you use this as your spine for your kindergarten.❤️thank you for this review.

[@SevenInAll]

Thanks for watching!

[@RaisingThreeMarigolds]

This review was SO helpful! I have found that I’m very similar in teaching style to you and what you do with your kids, which is so helpful when I want a review of something I’m interested in doing with them 😊 Thanks for all the tips. I start this soon with my kiddos and I’ll be prepping before we get started to make sure we are getting the most out of the curriculum.

[@SevenInAll]

Glad it's helpful! I definitely found that making plans ahead of time helps a lot with the experience of using this! :)

[@melissacapps8453]

Thank you for sharing. I’m paring this w My Fathers World ECC. I appreciate your tips.

[@SevenInAll]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lauracampbell7644]

This was very useful for me. I hadn't thought about doing a contry notebook and it's such a good idea. My kids love learning geography, so that will be good to add. Thanks for sharing.

[@SevenInAll]

The country notebook has been an awesome routine--a way to record memorable aspects of what we learned, as well as a great tool for review, and something my son naturally likes to get out and look through and show his dad.

[@lisaroper421]

Nice review! We have used their Early American History, and it has been a good experience. I am definitely keeping my eye on these units!

[@SevenInAll]

Glad this was helpful!

[@kristinabronder8733]

I loved their EAH books/teachers guide. We learned so much and the kids were so interested in the books. So, I bought the guides for AW 1&2. I still like them but not in the same way. This review is spot on, with AW you really do need a lot more books and extras to really understand countries unlike EAH where the main book covered so much and the extras were that, extra. We are really enjoying it but like she said, its not open and go.

[@Mare00711]

When we got this curriculum, i did not expect so much extra I'd have to do. So far im finding a lot of read alouds on KZbin and i search for similar books at the library. Its way more broad than i thought it was going to be. But we are giving the around the world and us history one a try!

[@SevenInAll]

It's definitely not quite "open and go," I think it helps when we realize the extra books we'll have to go looking for, as well as videos.

[@christinel3504]

We are using BF Season's Afield and we really like it. I've been considering this one for next year because we also ise FIAR and they use some of the same books.

[@SevenInAll]

Seasons Afield looks like a beautiful study!

[@jerilyn-ourhomeschooltable]

I really like to use Beautiful Feet book lists alongside Notgrass History because I like to bring in some picture books instead of just novels for the Read Alouds. 😊 I was thinking about doing this around Kindergarten/1st grade when my littles get there. 😊 I love literature based curricula!❤ Thanks for sharing this!

[@SevenInAll]

I love booklists that incorporate quality picture books!

[@makeanddohandmade]

How much time have you been spending on each country so far? About to dive in next week starting with China! 💗💗

[@SevenInAll]

We spent 3+ weeks on China, I know (there's so much there!). Probably most countries have been about 2 weeks--we take the approach of doing a little every schoolday, one or two activities--reading a book, watching a video or two, working in our notebooks, having a special snack, or doing a craft. With my kids' young ages, it tends to work best for us to do our subjects daily vs. having longer lessons less frequently. We've also pretty regularly had family movie nights on the weekends to watch movies that connect with the country we're learning about (i.e. Anime like "My Neighbor Totoro" for Japan).

[@makeanddohandmade]

With your connections to China, that makes a lot of sense! Do you have an email for your KZbin channel? I would love to pick your brain about one more thing concerning this curriculum.

[@SevenInAll]

my email is seveninallfamily @ gmail.com@@makeanddohandmade

[@tori.homeschoolingmom]

I concur! We loved this study, but I borrowed 3-6 books from the library for each country to add depth. My son especially enjoyed the true/historical books like Manjiro and Emmanuel’s Dream, and I appreciated the folk tales. (Lon Po Po is such a better version of Red Riding Hood!)

[@SevenInAll]

I've heard from other overseas homeschool families that they've found it tough to really 'dive into' this curriculum with no library access and limited book shopping access. We have read Lon Po Po, too! And I really enjoy the historical picture books or ones based on real people--I feel like so many more in that genre have been published in the past twenty years or so, and it's a genre I really appreciate!

[@LegacyHeightsAcademy]

(Sorry in advance for the long comment lol.) Do you have an opinion on this vs Five in a Row? I was wanting to do Around the World last year, but when talking with an acquaintance who also homeschools, she thought it sounded like I had too much planned (math, reading/phonics, spelling, handwriting, and then considering Around the World and a science) and she suggested Five in a Row since it kind of includes multiple subjects. I decided it sounded good and went for it. Bought the book, the Bible supplement, and all of the picture books. We ended up only doing like 6 out of 17 books, and rarely used the Bible supplement. 🙈 I just felt like we never had time to do it with the other lessons we were doing, and when we did FIAR we'd fall behind on the other stuff, so I'd kinda go back and forth. I'm learning I'm really bad at time management and planning, and I need a curriculum that says THIS IS WHAT'S NEXT, DO THIS! Not the flexibility to choose what's next and what to do... (If you haven't seen FIAR before, it gives you several options within each subject of what to teach...I guess I felt like you mentioned in this video, and I should've seen it as a sampling of info, not covering every single thing....but I just couldn't choose one thing to cover! If we didn't feel like we were "successful" with FIAR, do you think it's worth attempting Around the World? I'll have a 3rd grader and pre-k. I was able to bring in the preschooler a little bit with FIAR, so maybe I could do this with this one too? I also have no idea where to start looking for curriculum to do with them together once the youngest starts kindergarten....wondering if this would be better for that year? 🙈 I just don't know where to start lol. Also, do you have a video on how to do notebooking? We did lap books with FIAR and my son loved them at first, but after doing a few he would say "ugh we're doing a lap book again?" So I'm unsure about doing another curriculum that seems similar....

[@SevenInAll]

I think it might be helpful for you to see my end-of-year recap and review, because in that, I explain what I realized about why and where Beautiful Feet's Around the World fell short for me. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKrRkKiMbqZ4pc0si=xDo28pcxyfE4c2Gm First of all: - I am not specifically familiar with the Five in a Row approach, sorry, I don't have a lot to offer there. -I think it is VERY useful to learn about yourself that you thrive more with a "this is next, do this" approach in the curriculum you use vs. a choose your own adventure type of curriculum. :) Seriously, knowing yourself, and knowing what types of curriculum and plans help you to homeschool most effectively is SO very helpful and important, so this is a valuable realization you had. -Watch my end-of-year recap (linked above) for the issues that we had with implementing "Around the World" before deciding whether this will fit your needs. -One option you could consider if you're aiming for a world culture/world geography themed study, is the On Mission magazines from Gentle + Classical. This summer, they will be releasing a teacher guide to make it easier to use the On Mission Magazines as a full-year curriculum, as well as scheduling grids that say "read this next, do this next." :) -I do need to do a video on how to do notebooking in homeschool, that is on my to-film list. Thankfully, I think notebooking is a lot less tedious than lapbooking. :)

[@MrsLoraThomas]

@@SevenInAll Oh I will check out that video too. Thanks! I had just searched “Around the World” and came across this video. You are one of the homeschool moms I’ve been following for advice for the last couple years! I need to find somewhere I can actually talk to other homeschool moms and bounce off ideas. I don’t know how to begin searching for what to do when it comes to combining my kids with their age gap. 🙈 I look forward to your note booking video! Lapbooks were fun but definitely tedious lol. And I could never bring myself to glue anything in until I knew what all we’d finish and how it would all physically fit together haha.

[@thehomelife-88]

Doing U.S history this year with a combo of sonlight and notgrass 50 states. Originally was planning on doing sonlight C next year but now i'm thinking about this instead 😂

[@SevenInAll]

hahaha! Choices, choices!

[@cyn8733]

So I bought this and all the books. But I love curriculum and good books 😂 RANDOM... my little one said she wants to go to China and get on a boat to see the yellow river 😂 I saw a few reviews on Sonlight level K language arts. Which one you like best? I just bought Sonlight science level k and I love it. My little one is on Lesson 30 AAR. Do you think it's alot? All about reading Beatiful feet Sonlight Science K Sonlight Lit K Math with confidence

[@SevenInAll]

Sonlight K literature as in just the chapter book read alouds? If your child has the attention span for chapter book read alouds, I'd say go for it. The plan doesn't sound like too much to me, but you know how much we enjoy schoolwork around here. :)

[@cyn8733]

@SevenInAll I meant language arts level k, not literature. I enjoyed how short and sweet the lessons are in science. But looking at it a little closer, the activities seem too easy as she is reading. I guess I will wait until next school year. The anticipation will have to wait.

[@annajohnson7139]

I really appreciate your thoughts on this. I think that it’s interesting but I’ll probably make my own curriculum like this as opposed to buying one

[@SevenInAll]

If you have access to a good library, that can really come in handy for getting good quality titles about different countries.

[@RockSimmer-gal4God]

I buy the sonlight guide and books separately!!! I love to add stuff to literature curriculum including books!!! With sequence one we are watching videos for geography!!!our library is woke!!! We have tons of books on Australia but we live in Australia!!! My main geography take seats are mapping and culture!!! We lived in the U.K. and the British believe their is one world dull culture and it’s the British culture so I don’t want my kids to be like that!!! I love that this is a foundation to build on!!! I watched a Tv show with my oldest and bought out a book that we had read to discuss it more after seeing what we saw on the Tv show!!!

[@SevenInAll]

It's great to have opportunities to explore the variety of cultures around the world!

[@kristinabronder8733]

Do you have a suggestion for Australia, a picture book about life and culture not just animals? Im having a hard time finding some...since you mentioned living there you may have a good suggestion. 😊