History of Science with Beautiful Feet Books

^{Disclaimer: We received this product for review purposes. As always, we are not required to write a positive review. All opinions are honest and my own. This post may contain affiliated links.}

My family was given the opportunity to review one of Beautiful Feet Books’ Core Curriculum: History of Science. I was very impressed with the number of books and can immediately see the potential rabbit holes families can enjoy or specific unit studies that can be created for more in-depth learning.

What is Beautiful Feet Books?

Beautiful Feet Books is a literature-based homeschool history and science curriculum using living books (books that engages the reader and draws them into learning more about a subject) to help bring history alive.

Details:

Grade/Age: Geared towards grades 4th-7th.

Parent Involvement: Truly depend on your child’s ability. However, since this course is aimed at multiple grades, A History of Science, can definitely and easily be incorporated as a family subject.

Schedule/Lessons: There is no rigid, day-by-day schedule, but the course is set up with 85 lessons and designed to complete three lessons a week to be finished within one year. But no worries, the course can easily be adjusted to meet your family’s needs and personal timeline.

Costs: The curriculum pack, which includes the Teacher Guide, the literature books (13), and the timeline, will cost about $170. For a more budget-friendly home, you can purchase the Teacher Guide only and borrow the books from your local library or thrift shop your most favorite books.

Parent Resource: Beautiful Feet Books is a Christain Based Literature Curriculum company, however, and most appreciated, is an introduction page to parents in regards to faith and science.

Each family has a responsibility for the spritual education of their own children and with that in mind, I have written this study to allow parents to education their children according to their convictions and consciences.

-Rebecca Berg Manor, Curriculum Developer

But please be aware, that there will be Bible verses sprinkled and referenced throughout the course.

BEAUTIFUL FEET BOOKS HISTORY AND SCIENCE HISTORY CURRICULUMS

“Introduce the fascinating world of science to your homeschooled child and spark their curiosity and desire to understand the world around us! Engaging biographies are used to tell the life stories of famous scientists like Archimedes, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Einstein, and others, and are paired with hands-on experiments to prove the scientists’ theories and test their discoveries.” – Beautiful Feet Books

History of Science includes:

• Teacher Guide
• 1 Time Line
• 13 Books
• 1 CD

If you use the curriculum as intended, you can complete this study within one year; 2-3 lessons per week. Each lesson is estimated to take an hour for grades 4-6. You can find a complete scope and sequence on the product page.

How It Works

The lessons are pretty much straightforward. Your kids read the assigned literature pages, and there are discussion questions and opportunities to define vocabulary words. Sometimes, if you choose to, art can be incorporated into the lessons like sketching your lab observations.

Additionally, there are tons of hands-on projects/lab instructions to really give your students a more rounded education. The best part though is it is totally optional and MOST items can be found in your home. You can cherry-pick the labs that please your kids the most without the guilt of not completing all the projects.

Our Experience

For the purpose of this review, my kids and I read a couple of books, discussed some of the topics, and went over the new vocabulary words. To be transparent, I didn’t dive too deep into the lessons because, honestly, I was trying to access if they liked the books and if so, how would I incorporate A History of Science into our already planned curriculum lineup for next year.

Fortunately, I received positive feedback in regards to the topics, but some of the books were a little dry for them. So, I intend to use the lesson guide and books with added additional picture books alongside media resources to be used more like unit studies alongside our science spine. When time permits, I will add a science project to the lineup as well.

Our Overall Impression

I really appreciate the open-and-go teacher manual. The flexibility of the scheduling and the optional hands-on projects. This curriculum can definitely be used as a family subject and weaving Beautiful Feet Book literature into our science studies really adds another layer of understanding and connection. But, a major drawback for me was the lack of diversity. All the scientists mentioned are well-known European scientists, except for George Washington Carver.

Honestly, Beautiful Feet Book: History of Science, gives me a nice jumping point, and allows ample space for our tailored learning to branch out and level up the content with black and brown scientists.

For example, below are some of the scientists mentioned in the curriculum, that I will enhance with black and brown scientists for a fuller picture of the history of science.