Sonlight VS Beautiful Feet and another option tossed in for good measure

Amy asks:
Hi Sheri, I have twin 12 yr. old girls and am undecided between Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere core (which has been overhauled this year) and Beautiful Feet (probably the Medieval Period). I just stumbled on BF. Seeing that you've done both, do you have a suggestion? 

Here are the programs she is asking about:


Sonlight Core F: Eastern Hemisphere*

(image from Sonlight website)

Core F: 3 Wk Sample request page

*I am basing my opinion on the older version that I own.

The updated one offers 3 weeks to look over and appears to easier 

to read/use.  I won't have access to the updated version until late June when

it is available. Please keep this in mind when pondering this info.

VS

Medieval BFB History Guide *    

(image from BFBooks website)

Sample pages can be seen by scrolling 

thru the cover image on that page.

*I do not have the updated version so all of my opinions are

based on the old one but by looking thru the samples,

I see they have vastly improved the look/layout and

it is much more appealing to the user

And just for giggles-let's toss into the bunch the 

Heart of Dakota Resurrection to Reformation  or the HOD Revival to Revolution *

   

(images from Heart of Dakota website)

*I have not used either of these two guides, but am currently using the

HOD Creation to Christ one. The layout is the same, the subjects 

covered are the core plus a few extra just like the C to C guide.

I tossed these two in because they hit the era that you mentioned

you'd be interested in for the Beautiful Feet choice. On each page

with the description you can download a sample of the pages for a

better look at what they offer.

There are obviously many more history program choices, but the reader asked specifically about the SL or the BFB so that is why I am focusing on them.  I added the HOD because the layout and coverage is quite similar.  Remember, it all depends on what best suits your family and their current interests. We use them all-mostly because of the eras they touch on and sometimes due to the amount of time I have to put into preparing the material and teaching it.  

Factors to consider:

*The era you want most to cover 

*The manner in which your child(ren) best learn

*Literature vs textbook or unit learning-which best fits your family's style and preference

*Your pocket book-these can be spency unless you do what I do (I will write another post on how to save money on books later)

*Your life right now-is is crazy busy?  New baby?  Family situations that are demanding more time that usual?  A recent or soon to be move?  Any big events that can change the amount of time you have to invest in the planning/gathering and subsequent tutelage of it to your student(s) should be taken into consideration so that you choose a program that is easiest for you and your students to work through without causing undue stress and possible burn-out (for/in you or your students)

Now that you have pondered those factors-you can turn your attention to the program's strengths and weaknesses.  Mind you-this is my opinion and experience noted from this point on.  What worked for us may not for you and vice versa. You ultimately need to decide on what you know will work, take a bit of a risk to test something you never have tried before and just roll with it.  Some of the programs I thought would never hold my kids' attentions or work for them-did. Others I thought were just "perfect" for us went over like a lead balloon.  The nice thing about the above programs is they all hold good resale value and some even offer money back guarantees....so take it with a grain of salt and for those who believe in this-PRAY about it first.  It will make a huge difference in how things go.

They are all good programs in their own right.  All use literature as the foundation of the program and all have some type of layout to follow (which remember-you do not need to do everything!).  All adequately cover an era/time frame so that the child will have a good grasp of basic history in those areas.  Some include additional subjects already figured out in the plan (math, science, lang. arts, writing, etc.) others have a bit of it and some only offer the history with some vocab/writing assignments (BFBooks).  It all depends on what you need and are looking for.  I strongly suggest going over each site and reading through all their information to get a better grasp of what they offer. I also strongly suggest downloading the samples, and asking your dear daughters to look over it too so they can see which program best matches what they like.

Here is the chart you can go over. It is not extensive in all areas-but a brief (personal) overview of them.  I am basing this on my guides and how they worked for us. Right now we are using HOD's Creation to Christ program so I am basing the info on what I see on the site and what we have experienced by using the C to C guide.  I hope this helps by offering some 'real world' opinion/advice.

Odds and Ends

We wrapped up another unit in the HOD Creation to Christ study.  So far, so good-the boy seems to like it.

We have done a few projects covering poetry (which I am sadly not real keen on-I dunno why poetry is not my thing but it isn't).  Thankfully, HOD's C to C covers Robert Frost who is one of my favorite poets (well just about only poet I truly like) so I am glad we're covering him. We have done a couple copywork lessons from some of his poems, to which my son is required to paint a page to paste it one.  The boy has done this without complaint and that makes me happy b/cuz he is not really my artsy child. Now personally, I would like to see some variance on the techniques and mediums used for these projects (but seeing how we've only done 2 of these I can guess I have to wait and see if other ones change up a bit) because too many similar styles will lead to boredom and I don't want that for my son...so I will get back to you on that...but here are the two we did...

The glare from the flash makes it hard to read...but the goal was accomplished.  Those are suppose to be sticks in a stream (blue one) b/cuz the poem talks about cleaning one out.

Maybe we should have glued a bunch of sticks on it instead to give it a more realistic feel...maybe we will still do that. :)

In the history section, we have had a project involving salt dough.  Now thankfully, this recipe didn't require baking it (you can read my salt dough fiasco post here) so that was good. What we failed to do is read ahead and clarify the directions because we messed up a bit.  But hey-that is what makes it truly our project!  LOL...

So we were suppose to make a cylinder shaped thing that had our names on it in Cuneiform. What we misread/misunderstood was that it was suppose to be in reverse relief. That means that whatever we wanted to have impress images onto something else, we had to cut away from to make those images stand out-we did the opposite instead. Our cylinders are marked into and cannot leave an impression. 

these are kind of blurry but I tried to get close so you can see the Cuneiform writing on them.

Son's on left, mine on right.   

The Cuneiform cylinders on left, building on right

We also had extra dough (yes, there is a story for this too). Now I should have read ahead to see what we'd be doing with it, but the boy was enamored with brick building parts of the stories we were reading and begged to make his own. So we did.  We got quite a few and then once they were dry, he created a small foundation of a building (like we'd find in an area of ruins)...we glued them together with flour/water paste and he happily built an old house.  What we were suppose to make was a clay tablet with writing and then use our cylinders to impress our name stamp on (like they would have done back then). So again-we proved ourselves to be rebels.  

View from the side, you can see the "mortar" that was used to hold these together. It is kind of fragile but I have a picture of it now, so if it collapses or ends up in the trash [which it will], I still have a photographic record of it. Helpful tip: taking pictures of all those projects your kids make is easier to store and keep than actually holding on to every single thing they create. Save the best ones and take a pic of the rest.

That said [that we're rebels], it also is my point. We took something and made it more personal to us (my son had much more fun and learned more by creating his project than if he had done the one assigned)...and since the brick making/building went hand in hand with what we had been reading about (tower of Babel, jobs of some people, etc.) I let him do it. That is the beauty of homeschooling-the project fit him, not the other way around. Years ago I would not have dared to overstep the guide's assignment. I am so over that now because life has taught me to adjust, personalize and focus on the child's learning style/interest, not what any particular lesson/program says they should/must complete. We learned, we laughed and we didn't burn any projects. Life is good.

Dinosaurs study for HOD Creation to Christ study

So as a part of the Creation to Christ curriculum, dinosaurs are studied. But not as in depth [of a study] as I want-so I am adding in some goodies for the boy and we'll just mosey along at our speed covering a bit here and there from the resources and activities I have, as well as the study in the guide.

I was looking through my shelves and found most of what I was searching for.  I have to hit the stash in the basement for a couple books (including the dinosaur joke book my hubby had as a kid) but for the most part,  I will use what is shown in this picture.  I am sure I will add a few more notebooking/lapbook components as we go through the unit but this is a good start.

I was just drifting off to sleep the other nite when my brain snapped on and reminded me that I had a set of dinosaur pictures [bulletin board set] that I bought eons ago when the two older kids were very young.  I have not covered the dinos like I have had wanted to with the boy, so I am excited for this unit.  He has always enjoyed dinosaurs (those Jurassic Park movies are on his top 10 list-even tho they are gross) so this should be fun!

We have very, very limited wall space in the education room, so I had to put these puppies up on the entrance walls [which is kind of angled, hence the two pictures to show all of them].  This spot is actually good b/cuz the boy sits so he can look up at them, at any time.  I DID NOT put the evolutionist time line up-what I want to do is put up a couple note cards highlighting a few Bible verses that mention the leviathan.  The little people are to show the scale (although this is far from being accurate) of the dinosaurs to humans.

Resources:

Answers in Genesis Magazine (love this site)

(you can get the Answers books there too)

Dinosaur notebooking pages

Lapbook components from Homeschool Share

the other books I probably got from Amazon

I have no idea where I got the dino bulletin board set-

it would have been from a teacher's store/catalog

The Adventures in Science: Dinosaurs booklet is 

probably out of print-it came in a group of activity books

 that I also bought years ago.  It has a bunch 

of activity pages and such...so I will just pick and choose

 what we want to do.

OH YEAH!  I just remembered I have the 

Dinosaur and Things Game by Aristoplay!

I bought this when my oldest was about 4/5 yrs old!  By the looks of the box, you can tell it's been played with a lot!  :)  Even tho the boy is on the outer age limit noted on the box, we'll still play but be sure to add those question cards to make it a bit more difficult. And yes, we know this shows millions of years as the dates-we simply ignore them.  

Heart of Dakota: Creation to Christ curriculum for the boy

So after much deliberation, examination, ponder-ation, and prayer-ation:  I took the leap and bought the guide to use with the boy.  We have been skimming along with history this year because we simply didn't have the cashola before the start of this school year to purchase much material.  So we made do. Which is totally acceptable, esp. when I have a boat load of books on the shelves. We wrapped up a few snippets of American history from our previous study...but it didn't last long.  So we've been lacking in that subject for him for the most part! Ouch!  That is not acceptable for this history loving mama!  So I debated. I am was sadly devoid of early/beginning times to ancient civilizations for my elementary age kids (well now it is just one kid) and so I wanted to find something-something that would hit that era with good coverage but not be so in depth or overwhelming that he'd run in fear every time we did our history lessons.

image from Heart of Dakota

So after reading my good friend Lynn's 4 posts on the Heart of Dakota curriculum....and after all those "ation" thoughts noted above...I felt good about purchasing the guide which covers creation to Christ.  I already have most of the books needed on my shelves or in my 'puter (as eBooks) so it wasn't hard to make the final decision.

Anyway-I received the guide today and I will start to get a handle on what I need to do [read thru it to figure it all out], wait for a couple books I had to order and get him started in another week or so.  We'll just keep on with it until it is done (probably sometime next spring).

I do love how the Charlotte Mason style is integrated into the whole enchilada.  With HOD (Heart of Dakota) the plans cover Bible, History, Science, Lang. Arts, Narration, Copywork, and she has math (Singapore) scheduled in it too.  I use Abeka math for the younger years, so (as noted in the guide) we'll do our own thing.  I will also throw in a bit of my own ideas/plans for lang. art stuff (I am not using their Reading Program) and am changing the science up a tad (he doesn't want to cover the human body so I will do a more in depth study of dinosaurs since we haven't really had the time to do that. I may be able to toss in a bit of the human body stuff later).

What is missing is the study of great artists/musicians and nature study.  So maybe when I get some time I will write a complimentary guide to go with it on those very things :) But that is OK, I do my own thing with those anyway and I enjoy coming up with my plans for it. Actually, I have decided to continue on with the Impressionist artists and plan on adding in a bit of a mini-study on Egyptian art and poss. Roman/Greek art too. The musician has yet to be determined, and nature study is always a breeze to include.

So there you have it-our new way of doing things for the boy this year and next.  I will try to post some updates as we move through it but until then, take a look see at what my pal Lynn wrote (some great, thorough posts) about HOD.

(about the Preparing Hearts for His Glory but the layout is the same for the other guides and it gives you a good glimpse of what the goal/layout is)

From my pal, Lynn's blog:  Ladybug Chronicles

Post 1: Lang. Arts

Post 2: Science

Part 3: History

Part 4: Poetry and Bible