Charlotte Mason Homeschool Geography Curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books

For a while now, I have been on the lookout for a fun way to introduce geography for to my kids. That’s why I was so excited to discover Beautiful Feet Books’ brand new Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool geography curriculum. Their Geography Through Literature Pack for K-3 was just released in 2022 and this resource is exactly what I was looking for! In this post, I’ll share what’s included and how we will be using this resource for the upcoming school year.

I received Geography Through Literature for K-3 from Beautiful Feet Books in exchange for my honest review, but all the opinions in this post are my own. This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission for purchases made through those links.

What is Geography Through Literature from Beautiful Feet Books?

The Geography Through Literature Pack for K-3 is a literature-based introduction to geography for kids in kindergarten through 3rd grade. The curriculum includes 36 geography lessons that take an average of 30-40 minutes to complete. By completing one lesson per week, families can finish their study of geography in one school year.

The curriculum teaches kids about map reading and geography terms. Kids will also take a closer look at American history as they study historical events from each region. In addition, kids explore nature study as they learn about physical geography and study different landmarks.

I love that this curriculum also includes additional reading activities. Follow up activities like nature walks and cooking help kids continue their learning even after they are done with the lessons.

What’s Included in this Charlotte Mason Geography Curriculum?

This curriculum includes beautiful and engaging resources that make studying geography fun for kids.

Instructor’s Guide

As soon as I opened the teacher’s guide for Geography Through Literature, I noticed right away that it is different than an average curriculum teacher guide.

Some homeschool curricula include beautiful illustrations in the student books, but in most cases, the lesson plans are designed to be functional and not beautiful.

I love that Beautiful Feet Books includes beautiful photographs, original illustrations, and quotes throughout the full color instructor’s guide. I really enjoyed looking through the lesson plans. It felt like an experience for me as well.

The teacher’s guide includes 36 lessons, each of which takes about 30-40 minutes to complete. Each lesson explains exactly what to read and do. The lessons also come with student questions and narration prompts for kids to complete orally or in writing. Although the instructor’s guide does not include an answer key, most of the answers can be found in the books that the family is reading together.

The instructor’s guide includes lots of extra resources to help students dive deep into their home geography studies. Many of the lesson plans include activities designed to make geography fun for kids.

Many of the lessons also include suggestions for additional videos to watch and websites to visit. They feature suggestions for field trips to take and even recipes to try to help kids experience the regions they are studying more fully. Each section also begins with a list of Rabbit Trails, which are suggested books to read for more information about the topic.

As a former teacher, I love how easy the instructor’s guide is to use. It was easy to customize lessons to fit my kids’ ages and ability levels from the wide range of suggested activities.

Check out the Scope and Sequence of Geography Through Literature here.

Living Books

The biggest component of the Geography Through Literature Pack is a set of 11 picture books. These diverse books are a great way to make geography come alive for younger children.

I love that this geography study is based on real books. My kids love it when we read books aloud together. This means that they are always excited and motivated by any curriculum that includes read aloud books.

I have also noticed that my kids learn better and remember more when we are learning from a living book. My kids remember the stories of the real people they read about. The details make these stories come alive for my kids.

My daughter’s favorite book was There’s a Map in My Lap! which is a part of the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library series. She loved the fun rhymes in this book and begged to read it over and over again.

My son was fascinated by the book Mike Fink. The illustrations from Steven Kellogg drew him in to the story, and we had a deep follow up discussion about exaggeration and tall tales after reading.

This curriculum is designed for kids in primary grades K-3, so it is important that parents preview the books to make sure that the subject matter is appropriate for their individual child’s maturity level.

See the full list of books included in the Geography Through Literature Pack for K-3 here.

Map

This curriculum also comes with a blank map of the United States. This map is not laminated, which means that kids can do their map work using their favorite pen or pencil.

My kids really enjoyed coloring and labeling the states, cities, and other geographical features we were learning about as we studied them. This map will serve as a record of our geography studies and my kids can continue to add to it as they continue to learn more about each region.

Check out all the Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum options from Beautiful Feet Books here.

Features of Beautiful Feet Books’ Charlotte Mason Homeschool Curriculum

My family is really enjoying the Geography Through Literature curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books. Here are some of our favorite reasons why we love these resource.

Based on Books

My kids said that the best part of this geography and history curriculum is the books. They love read alouds, and every single one of the geography books that is included with the curriculum is both engaging and educational.

I love the way that Beautiful Feet Books always chooses the best books to include in each of their curriculum packs. I can read the books to my kids with confidence, knowing that they will be full of wonderful things that make geography come alive for my kids.

Engaging

I love the way that this curriculum helps my kids get excited to study geography. My kids really enjoyed reading about real places around the United States.

I love that this Charlotte Mason curriculum includes activity ideas to help my kids explore geography even further after the lessons are completed. Our family loves the recipe suggestions and field trip ideas. I know that my kids learn better and remember more when we include hands on activities like these as a part of our learning.

The curriculum also engages my kids through the use of maps. My son was fascinated by the large blank map and couldn’t wait to label everything that we were learning on the map. We used it for some map drills as well and he enjoyed pointing out different states that he knows.

Easy to Use

As a busy home school mom, I love how easy it is to teach my kids geography with this curriculum. All the lessons are already planned in the Instructor’s Guide, so when it’s time for geography lessons, we just open to the next lesson and follow the directions.

The lessons are simple to complete and the extra activities are optional, which means my family can customize the lessons to fit my kids’ ages and the amount of time we have for geography each week.

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Flexible

I also love how flexible this curriculum is for busy families. The lessons are short and take only a few minutes each week to complete.

Each lesson is also broken up into numbered sections. This was really helpful for my family, because even if we only had a little bit of time, we could still complete part of the lesson.

I also think that older children could read the instructor’s guide and complete the curriculum independently.

Great for Multiple Ages

One of the benefits of a Charlotte Mason education, and of the Geography Through Literature curriculum, is the way that the whole family can learn together. This curriculum is designed for elementary students in kindergarten through 3rd grades. This means that siblings will be able to use the curriculum to study geography together.

I love that each lesson includes open ended discussion questions. These would be great for older students to answer, while younger kids enjoy listening to the stories.

Try Geography Through Literature from Beautiful Feet Books for Yourself

I am so glad we discovered the Geography Through Literature curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books! If you are looking for a fun way to introduce Geography in your homeschool using the Charlotte Mason method, I would highly recommend this curriculum.

Learn more about Beautiful Feet Books and grab the Geography Through Literature Pack for K-3 for yourself here.