A Year with A Gentle Feast

In September of 2020 we started our Cycle 1 year diving into “Columbus, Conquests, and Colonies.” Here are some of the highlights of our first year in A Gentle Feast:

History

In History we covered early exploration, conquests and colonization, and what life was like for different people groups in the midst of this period of time. Some of our favorite books were:

“If You Lived with the Iroquois” by Ellen Levine
“If You Lived in Colonial Times” by Ann McGovern
“Elin’s Amerika” by Maguerite de Angeli

We spent time in a number of wonderful picture books accurately depicting the realities of the past, and we loved the books that helped us to see into the lives of those who would have lived during that time. It only encouraged us as a family to pursue the truths of history, good and bad, and take time to discuss all of it. I’m grateful for the foundation that this will give us as we continue in our study of history next year.

Nature Study and Geography

This was our first year of living in the United States together as a family and we loved getting to experience seasons for the first time and the region of the country that we are living in. There were so many things we were able to learn about and then go see, which was amazing! Some of our highlights were:

Experiencing Autumn for the first time and getting to pick apples from the farm.
Winter! We went on hikes when it was safe to do so, and built an igloo.
Spring was awesome, especially because we saw everything grow leaves and buds in the forest, as well as, watched the birds come back and build their nests. It was so fun to practice identifying birds, flowers, and trees on our nature walks.

While we experienced these things outside, it was priceless to have great books to read during our school days that served to enliven the things we experienced! Some of our favorites were:

“Birds of the Air” by Arabella Buckley
“Houseboat Girl” by Lois Lenski- A Regional Fiction Book for Geography
“Little Flower Folks” by Mara Louise-Pratt Chadwick

Family

The best part of school this year was being able to do it as a family. One of the biggest reasons we switched over to A Gentle Feast for History, Geography, and all of the Feast Subjects was because I wanted my children to be learning together. We were on course to do all of their subjects individually and that just didn’t feel right and it didn’t fit. It would have consumed all of our time and made their subjects feel like a drudgery instead of a delight. As my two older children took on subjects together- it helped them to learn from each other, discuss the material we were covering, and just gave us more opportunities to love one another well. From baking apple pie from our hand picked apples, to playing out in the snow, or staying cozy inside reading aloud, it was all together. And we are so grateful for that!

You can learn more about A Gentle Feast to see if it would be a good fit for your family.