Beautiful Feet Books: Around the World 1 and 2 (Curriculum Review)

Books, books, books! As you might have noticed by now, I’m obsessed with books. So you can just imagine my delight upon discovering Beautiful Feet Books and all their literature packs!

Today, I’ll be sharing my personal review of their geography sets for younger kids. Travel with me as we talk about Beautiful Feet Books’ “Around the World with Picture Books” Part 1 and 2.

What is Beautiful Feet Books?

Beautiful Feet Books publishes and provides guides, books, and other products with a literature-rich approach. They started with history sets but now they also have sets for music, character and geography (what we’re discussing today!)

The founder based the concept on Charlotte Mason’s approach of learning through living books. Charlotte Mason advocates the use of beautiful books instead of relying on dry textbooks. As a home educator following CM principles (I mix CM with Classical,) I am with them on this one!

(See related post: Why I Decided to Curate Our Children’s Books)

Around the World with Picture Books 1 and 2: Overview

The Around the World sets by Beautiful Feet Books introduce kids to world geography and culture through picture books.

Around the World with Picture Books Part 1 covers Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. Countries include: China, Japan, Thailand, India, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana. The set contains 15 books.

The sequel, Around the World with Picture Books Part 2 continues on the journey. This set focuses on South America and Europe, covering France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Brazil. The set contains 23 books.

Which Set is Better?

Let me start of by saying that both Beautiful Feet Books sets are very well done and I love having both on our personally library. However, as much as I loved Part 1, I have to say, Part 2 is hands-down my favorite! 😀

The stories were exceptionally beautiful and they really show you sides of that country that you may not have been aware of (like learning about a little town in Denmark that’s powered by sustainable energy and the true story behind Winnie the Pooh!) I learned so much myself as I was going through it with my 5 year old.

Are the Books Really Good?

Short answer: ABSOLUTELY. Here are the reasons why:

• Wonderfully written and illustrated: I am very particular with the kinds of books I give my kids. So, I was very pleased that the Beautiful Feet books are all either wonderfully written or beautifully illustrated (specifically the Anno books, which have to written text) or both!
• Great mix of books: I love that the selection was really carefully thought of and that it was a good mix of biographies (my favorite) and fun stories.
• Supplementary books are just as good too: Aside from the books included in the curriculum, they also give suggested titles of other books if you wish to go more in depth. These suggested books are just as wonderful. The only problem I’ve experienced with it is if you don’t live in the US or have trouble accessing the books in a local library, it might be a bit harder for you to acquire some of the titles.

What About the Lessons and Activities?

Each chapter is divided into lessons. It includes various lessons and activities including nature study, folktales, fables, music, art, poetry, and history. Some lessons are simple and connected to the books while some involve researching online, notebooking and crafts. Some thoughts:

• Great combination of lessons and activities: It’s a great mix of knowing notable people from that country, famous places and learning about their art, culture and even cuisine! I like the variety.
• Requires a bit of pre-reading for the parent: The lessons were written in a way that requires you to read and prepare before doing it with your child. This is probably the only thing I wish they could change because I’m a big fan of open-and-go materials. I would love it if they provided a ready-made spiel that I can simply read aloud to my kids, but I understand this may not be everyone’s preference!

Is it worth it to buy the whole set?

Background story:

I started with purchasing the Around the World Part 1 guide in digital format only. Then I had it printed with a local printshop here called 3L Printing. I then sourced the books individually at different local secondhand book shops online and purchased some of the harder to get titles from Amazon. IT WAS TEDIOUS! But also exciting whenever I scored a title. Haha. It took a long time to complete!

For the second set, I was provided the whole Beautiful Feet Books set and I had it shipped from the US to the Philippines. I used a third party consolidator who packed my items and sent it to me together with other items I ordered from the US.

With that said, here’s my advice:

• If you have no access to getting the books individually, I highly recommend just getting the whole set to save you the hassle. The books are so beautiful and definitely worth it. This is a better option as well if shipping won’t be a problem for you.
• However, if there are budget constraints, I would just recommend getting the Teacher’s Guide separately and then scouting for the books individually at secondhand book shops. You’ll need ALL the books to get the whole experience though. And some of the titles are available ONLY at their site, so you’ll still need to get them from there.

All worth it though. I really believe in investing in great books because you don’t know which one will make an impression on your child. In fact, one of the books from Around the World 2 inspired my son to be a “maker of renewable energy” in the future!

We’ll see how that goes. 😉

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Disclaimer: Beautiful Feet Books provided me with the Around the World with Picture Books 2 set for review. However, all opinions are unbiased and completely my own. (As mentioned, I purchased the first set entirely on my own.)

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