I love BYL!! I do my best to get the books used. If I can't get them, I will try to see if my library has them or can get them. Our library uses a system that borrows books from other libraries in the state. I'm in Indiana.
Oooh, I think our FiveStar Flex Notebinders would work perfectly as an Interactive notebook that doesn't require gluing pages in(its one of my biggest pet peeves😂) i can just hole punch printed worksheets and fill in with the notebook paoer as needed! I might have missed it but did you mention around how much it cost to buy all the books? We don't have a very good library system in my area(KY) they do offer intrastate library loans but those can take a few months to receive and you only get the book for 2 weeks. There's also a 6 book limit which shocked me when I moved to our current county, previous counties had 10-15 book limits. I'm looking at BYL for next year but I don't think it would work out unless we bought all of the books.
Yeah I think those notebooks would work great! We tend to not always use full papers or like to have space to write but there are many different ways to use BYL. I haven't done a video about cost yet. In August I will have a video with the full cost of curriculum and books for both of my kids. But I did use a local used book store, Thriftbooks, Book Outlet, and Amazon (new and used) to purchase the books. I think that books could also be slowly purchased or even just borrow the audiobooks from the library if that is available. ❤️
History Channel youtube channel does have The Civil War I highly recommend it! I loved watching it with my father! You can split it up to 50 min it is 3 hours ). Their history 🏰 episodes. Were 3 hours long.
Hi.. Thank you for a great in depth review of the curriculum. I would like for your insight into my dilemma. I have always watched many people incorporating either torchlight or BYL into their current curriculums, esp those who are into secular homeschooling. My dilemma is, even though, I have always liked their list of books for all the levels they provide, I am never doing the same history level at the particular grade my child is. What I want to say is, next year my kid will be in 4th grade and she will be doing Ancients with both CC and HQ combined... 1) And if I go to BYL, they have their ancients in the 1st level and I am supposing the books ( Read alouds and readers) too are catering to the 1st and 2nd grade child... I don't know now, if I choose to buy BYL level1, will she be enjoyigng the readers as they are for lower grade kids... 2) Another question is, when I saw the list of books suggested in CC ancients time, they already look extensive enough... then should I be looking for extra books to add in History? It is a very difficult question for me... I have been pondering back and forth for a long time now... like what is BYL or Torchlight going to help me with.. even more number of books to add to the already extensive list of books in CC AND HQ .. or is it just going to tell me how to spread them out in different weeks throughout the school year, so it will be easy for me to schedule them... 3) I have lightening literature level 3 and Hearth and story level 5 picked out for next year for her.. together they make up a good list of literature to read... So buying BYL level 1 , will it be helpful in any way... should I buy it for the scheduling of the books BYL suggests for literature in level 1 for my advanced reader who is doing 2 diff literature curriculims next year? 4) Poetry is included in Hearth and story and also I am trying to incorporate UNDER THE HOME POETRY UNITS, which is free once a week, for her upcoming school year... So is BYL level 1 going to be again just another add on.... Point I am tryimg to ask is, if History, literature, and poetry are decided and picked out for my child for the next upcoming year already at her grade levels, will it make sense to buy BYL then at level 1? What would I use it for... keeping in mind, that I don't want Art , narrations, copywork from them... because I have them either picked out already or they are part of our writing curriculum.... I hope my question is not a jumbled up mess and makes sense what I am trying to ask...
Hey! Let me preface this with I haven't ever used a lot of the curriculum or levels of curriculum you have mentioned. So I can only speak from what I have researched about these curriculums without having used them. The best place to maybe find answers would be on Facebook groups. I believe there are ones that talk about how to combine these different curriculums. For my personal preference, we have not ever combined curriculum with others. It confuses me too much. 😉 We add to or substitute as needed because curriculum is just a guideline. I hope that this helps!
It covers history, literature (books we read together), readers (books just my son reads), poetry, science, art, and poetry. Because of the Charlotte Mason approach, it incorporates copywork, dictation, and narration along with maps, summary writing, etc. We add in additional writing and grammar curriculum.
I love BYL!! I do my best to get the books used. If I can't get them, I will try to see if my library has them or can get them. Our library uses a system that borrows books from other libraries in the state. I'm in Indiana.
Used and library is the way to go
We love BYL! Levels 5, 6, and 7 were my my daughter's favorite. I'm looking forward to starting BYL5 again next year with my younger son.
Oooh, I think our FiveStar Flex Notebinders would work perfectly as an Interactive notebook that doesn't require gluing pages in(its one of my biggest pet peeves😂) i can just hole punch printed worksheets and fill in with the notebook paoer as needed!
I might have missed it but did you mention around how much it cost to buy all the books? We don't have a very good library system in my area(KY) they do offer intrastate library loans but those can take a few months to receive and you only get the book for 2 weeks. There's also a 6 book limit which shocked me when I moved to our current county, previous counties had 10-15 book limits. I'm looking at BYL for next year but I don't think it would work out unless we bought all of the books.
Yeah I think those notebooks would work great! We tend to not always use full papers or like to have space to write but there are many different ways to use BYL.
I haven't done a video about cost yet. In August I will have a video with the full cost of curriculum and books for both of my kids. But I did use a local used book store, Thriftbooks, Book Outlet, and Amazon (new and used) to purchase the books. I think that books could also be slowly purchased or even just borrow the audiobooks from the library if that is available. ❤️
Thanks for the review! This looks like a great step up after History Quest! (Sidenote, i jusy read Hattie Big Sky for myself and it was really good!)
History Channel youtube channel does have The Civil War I highly recommend it! I loved watching it with my father! You can split it up to 50 min it is 3 hours ). Their history 🏰 episodes. Were 3 hours long.
Hi.. Thank you for a great in depth review of the curriculum. I would like for your insight into my dilemma. I have always watched many people incorporating either torchlight or BYL into their current curriculums, esp those who are into secular homeschooling. My dilemma is, even though, I have always liked their list of books for all the levels they provide, I am never doing the same history level at the particular grade my child is. What I want to say is, next year my kid will be in 4th grade and she will be doing Ancients with both CC and HQ combined...
1) And if I go to BYL, they have their ancients in the 1st level and I am supposing the books ( Read alouds and readers) too are catering to the 1st and 2nd grade child... I don't know now, if I choose to buy BYL level1, will she be enjoyigng the readers as they are for lower grade kids...
2) Another question is, when I saw the list of books suggested in CC ancients time, they already look extensive enough... then should I be looking for extra books to add in History? It is a very difficult question for me... I have been pondering back and forth for a long time now... like what is BYL or Torchlight going to help me with.. even more number of books to add to the already extensive list of books in CC AND HQ .. or is it just going to tell me how to spread them out in different weeks throughout the school year, so it will be easy for me to schedule them...
3) I have lightening literature level 3 and Hearth and story level 5 picked out for next year for her.. together they make up a good list of literature to read... So buying BYL level 1 , will it be helpful in any way... should I buy it for the scheduling of the books BYL suggests for literature in level 1 for my advanced reader who is doing 2 diff literature curriculims next year?
4) Poetry is included in Hearth and story and also I am trying to incorporate UNDER THE HOME POETRY UNITS, which is free once a week, for her upcoming school year... So is BYL level 1 going to be again just another add on....
Point I am tryimg to ask is, if History, literature, and poetry are decided and picked out for my child for the next upcoming year already at her grade levels, will it make sense to buy BYL then at level 1? What would I use it for... keeping in mind, that I don't want Art , narrations, copywork from them... because I have them either picked out already or they are part of our writing curriculum....
I hope my question is not a jumbled up mess and makes sense what I am trying to ask...
Hey! Let me preface this with I haven't ever used a lot of the curriculum or levels of curriculum you have mentioned. So I can only speak from what I have researched about these curriculums without having used them. The best place to maybe find answers would be on Facebook groups. I believe there are ones that talk about how to combine these different curriculums.
For my personal preference, we have not ever combined curriculum with others. It confuses me too much. 😉 We add to or substitute as needed because curriculum is just a guideline.
I hope that this helps!
Is this a full ELA curriculum? It seems like a ton of reading which I love but does it cover grammar, writing, etc?
It covers history, literature (books we read together), readers (books just my son reads), poetry, science, art, and poetry. Because of the Charlotte Mason approach, it incorporates copywork, dictation, and narration along with maps, summary writing, etc. We add in additional writing and grammar curriculum.