A History of Science | BFB | Update

Our minds have been delighting in the beautiful stories we have been enjoying from Beautiful Feet Books’ A History of Science book package. It is a beautifully curated collection of books, with a thoughtfully laid out guide.

I first mentioned A History of Science back when we started the school year. At that point we were newly starting out with the books and I wasn’t sure if we would follow the one year schedule or their two year schedule. We have solidly shifted into somewhere right in the middle, but I may possibly continue these readings through summer and finish within a calendar year.

A History of Science consists of 11 books about specific scientists, 1 audio cd, 2 books that help you dig deeper into the lives of the scientists and their scientific experiments, and the guide book that schedules the reading and activities out for you, while offering helpful insights and additional resources.

My favorite thing about the living books Beautiful Feet Books provides is that they don’t feel like work. They are books you could read as bedtime stories or curled up in hammocks on a lazy afternoon- they’re beautiful and cozy. The books are bright and engaging to burgeoning minds and the teachers guide book is excellent for digging deeper, applying what is being taught, and connecting resources to help with the readings.

I have heard it said that, when trying to determine if a book is an excellent one for children, open it up and read a few lines to yourself. If you find yourself wanting to know more, it’s likely a great book. Rudimentary, perhaps. But if you’re looking to start somewhere in finding great books it is a good place to start. Let me share with you some of the lines from the books we have read from A History of Science;

“Architects couldn’t plan buildings without geometry. Surveyors couldn’t make maps. Nobody could design and airplane, a boat, or a rocket. Engineers couldn’t build bridges. Artists needed it for drawing pictures; plumbers needed it for putting in pipes. Navigators needed geomotry, and so do physicists.
Archimedes carried the study of geometry farther than any other man in ancient times, and he made many important discoveries about solids …” (Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick)

“In his lectures Galileo began to make fun of the other professors for their closed minds. The students loved him and the other professors hated him more and more. They came to his lectures and hissed at his ideas.” (Along Came Galileo by Jeanne Bendick)

“Those were busy years. Leonardo was on call to do whatever his patron wanted – design a heating system for the duchess’s bath, for example, or paint a portrait of the Moor’s favorite lady. He oversaw the pouring of metal into molds for the making of cannons. He decorated the vaulted ceiling of a room in Ludovico’s castle with a grove of trees, and he worked as an engineer in the building of canals.” (Leonardo Da Vinci by Diane Stanley)

One of the most fun connections we have had with these books is our Feast for the Famous that we started at the end of term one and are gearing up for with the close of term two soon upon us. From these books and our other school books (following Ambleside Online year three and four) the boys chose some of their favorite characters and thought up a food to match the person. You can see more of our feast from term one here. Aristotle and DaVinci both made the cut from our A History of Science books.

Beautiful Feet Books says right on its home page that the goal of education is to engage students – friends, this book collection does just that. We have had such rich conversations based on our readings from these books. Cultivating a home where conversations can evolve and ideas can be explored and we are anchored on God’s word is so important to us as parents, and BFB provides such a beautiful platform for all of those desires to grow from.