A Middle-Grade Homeschool History Curriculum that Encourages Exploration

In writing this review, I was provided product and compensated for my time; all opinions expressed are my own.

History is not and has never been my favorite subject. I know a lot of you just gasped right there because you love it. Don't get me wrong, I find it a lot more interesting now that I homeschool, but it is still low on the list. 

Of course, as homeschoolers most of us desire our kids to love learning. I am no exception to this, and I do have at least one child interested in history.  How can we encourage our kids to explore things they find interesting, but we don't? 

One way to do it is to allow exploration of rabbit trails, those little subjects already in the curriculum that your kids want to dive into further. 

It can be hard to find the time for this when teaching multiple ages with different curricula. I mean searching for quality resources takes time and going over them takes time and there isn't that much time!

Luckily Beautiful Feet Books has created a beautiful middle-grade Medieval History curriculum that aids the investigation of rabbit trails!

Beautiful Feet Homeschool History

All of the Beautiful Feet History Curricula are Charlotte Mason style (aka literature-based) and include various activities and websites to explore in the teacher's guide. 

The Beautiful Feet Medieval History Curriculum is geared toward 5th to 8th graders. Not only does it cover European History during the middle ages which is what we focused on in public school, but also includes other parts of the world including China and Africa. 

Great Feature in the Medieval History Guide

Like all Beautiful Feet History Curricula, the middle-grade Medieval History Curriculum has a brief introduction to each section and then required readings for each lesson plus some questions for students to reflect on. It also includes map work, vocabulary, and additional websites to browse. 

But what I find really interesting about this teacher's guide is the inclusion of book lists for rabbit trails! If your student finds a specific time or event in history interesting, you can head to the rabbit trails list for that section and select more books for them to read. 

Another fun rabbit trail inclusion that specifically intrigued my son was the addition of historic recipes for each section of the teacher's guide. 

Using Beautiful Feet for Homeschool History

I know with a lot of history curricula that include a bunch of activities it can seem overwhelming, but that isn't the case with the Beautiful Feet Medieval History Course. Many of the other options include so much required work that following rabbit trails isn't really possible; here you only have 98 required lessons for the year. That leaves many days for exploration! 

The Beautiful Feet Teacher's Guide is very streamlined. Each section starts with an introduction followed by books kids may want to explore. After that come the lessons for that section. Each lesson lists the reading along with the reflection questions, applicable vocabulary, map work, timeline, and extra websites or videos. It even includes warnings for parents as to when they may want to review a resource prior to giving it to their child. Then one or two applicable recipes are provided at the end of each section. 

Since Beautiful Feet books utilize literature learning many books are necessary. If your child doesn't enjoy or is still struggling with reading, you can definitely turn the books into read-alouds if time permits, or check your library for audiobooks. When using the curriculum, I would recommend doing a lot of the reflection questions out loud or at least discussing them with your child after they answer them.

The Medieval History Curriculum does include some research projects as well, which is good for this age to start learning how to approach research. Some of the rabbit trails books may be helpful for those as well, but definitely a visit to your library to see how to look things up.

And like any homeschool curriculum, you should definitely use only the resources you like and replace the ones you don't with some of your choosing. If your child enjoys history and/or reading add more literature! If not, skip the extras. Make the curriculum work for you and your student!

Music: Celebration

Musician: Alexander Nakarada

URL: https://filmmusic.io/song/4759-celebration

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Beautiful Feet Medieval History is a flexible history curriculum that encourages as much exploration as your middle-grade student wants to do. 

Right now you can get free shipping on orders over $150, and first-time customers can use the code IgniteWonder for free shipping on any size order!  Be sure to take a look at all the curricula Beautiful Feet offers!