Inside the Guide: Beyond Little Heart’s Picture the Past Box of Plans
This “Inside the Guide” series provides a quick snapshot of Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory! It’s a handy “how-to” reference, just one box of plans at a time. Have you ordered Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory from Heart of Dakota? Or, are you considering using Beyond Little Hearts with your family? Well, either way, here’s your quick-start “Inside the Guide” for… Beyond Little Heart’s Picture the Past box of plans!
Quick Start Info
Time It Takes: 15 minutes
Days It’s On: Days 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
Description: Beyond Little Heart‘s Picture the Past box of plans provides the read-aloud schedule and follow-up skills for the Visual History Set of books. These carefully-chosen books provide a clear visualization of the people, places, and events students are learning about in history. Each of the 29 beautifully illustrated read-alouds helps children ages six to eight better “picture the past”.
Visual History Bookmarks coincide with the books they match. All 29 full-color bookmarks include daily questions and “Picture Clues” activities specific to their read-aloud book counterpart. Bookmarks are not consumable, so they can be used again and again with subsequent children.
A Handy How-To
Each Picture the Past book coincides with the history study, giving children a more complete, fuller view of history. So as you chronologically move through American history from 1565-1865, these vibrantly illustrated books move through time alongside the Economy Package’s history “spine” books (which purposely have fewer pictures).
The Visual History Set works alongside the history spines, and the “Reading About History” plans coordinate with the “Picture the Past” plans. For this reason, it is best to do the Reading About History read aloud sometime prior to reading the Picture the Past book. A nice order might be to do the Reading About History box, the Rotating Box follow-up, and then the Picture the Past box. Furthermore, it’s nice to alternate reading books with hands-on activities to keep young children’s attention.
The Picture the Past daily readings are purposefully kept short, as in about seven to nine pages a day. Though you may be tempted to read the whole book on the first day, don’t give in to temptation! Instead, savor the reading and pour over the pictures, drinking in every beautiful detail.
Reading the whole book in one day steals the thunder. It’s always good to leave the reading on a “cliffhanger” and keep them excited to come back for more the next day! Sticking to the plan of reading less pages also helps your young children better answer the questions.
Specific Notes for Beyond Little Heart’s Picture the Past Box of Plans
Your young kiddos might not be able to answer the questions very well at the start. They need to learn to train their brains to listen as you read aloud. That is why it’s important to limit the reading to the pages assigned each day.
If you find they continually struggle to answer questions, before you read each time, simply remind them you will be asking them questions after the reading. Don’t elaborate on the questions or elongate the discussions. Attention spans are short! Better to enjoy the shorter reading and successfully answer the few questions than to draw out the reading and drag out the discussions.
I liked to tuck my child under my arm or under a cozy blanket right next to me as I read aloud. Sitting on the couch and having the book open between us encouraged my child to focus, follow along, and visualize the history by looking at the illustrations.
Once you’ve finished the book, you will need to look through the book in its entirety for the culminating “Picture Hunt” activity. Plan on having fun with this activity! Read the given clues one at a time, and your little one will go on a ‘picture hunt’ to find the one illustration that matches all the clues. This is the perfect ending to finishing the book!
Visual History Set Bookmark Samples:
Click the following link to see some of Heart of Dakota’s very own bookmarks: Bookmark Samples
To order the Visual History Set for Beyond Little Heart’s Picture the Past box of plans, click here!
To order the rest of Beyond Little Heart’s packages, click here and then click on each basket to customize your order!
This Post Has 2 Comments
The Visual History set for Beyond was released when I was in the middle of Beyond with my older son. The books were available before the new guide, so we did our best to add in what we could. But now his younger brother is getting ready to start Beyond in August. I’m excited to get to use the Visual History set to its fullest with these great tips!
So glad you will be able to enjoy the whole set with your son this August! I hope you have a wonderful homeschool year, Jaime, and thanks for reading and commenting on the blog!