The Good and the Beautiful

[ErikaElle]

I came across this homeschool curriculum and kind of fell in love with many of their books. Obviously our curriculum choices have been made for this school year, as we've been in school for weeks. BUT the curriculum lover that I am wants to purchase these anyway and use them to supplement where we need to. Kind of. OK, not kind of, but really, really heart-eyes wants to.

 

So, before I make any rash decisions, has anyone used TG&TB, particularly the language arts, history, or nature journal, for the elementary years? If so, would you recommend?

 

Edited September 17, 2017 by ErikaElle

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I am using language arts levels 2, 4 and 6, a couple of handwriting levels, the nature journal and a couple of the science units. 

 

So far, I am pleased. The nature journal in particular is really well-done and is exactly what I've been looking to find for ages. 

 

The language arts is pretty good. It's an all-in-one so there are the issues inherent with that. For example, my 2nd grader is reading at a much higher level than level 2 but the spelling and grammar at at the right level of difficulty. There is some geography included but it's fairly light. I wouldn't consider it a full course for geography. 

 

[scoutingmom]

I have students in level 5, 3, 3, and 1

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[rjand6more]

We are using LA:Levels PreK, K, 4

 

Love the Pre K.  Seriously love it.  I have used so many early reading programs.  This is the best I have used.

 

Level K has been so refreshing!  Not too heavy, lots of variety, colorful.  Very meaty!

 

Level 4.  It's OK so far.  DS likes the change.  He reads a lot, so the lower level reading is not an issue here.  Spelling may be a bust.  I'll give it another month.  DS likes the art and geography additions.  It's enough to add variety.

 

We have the nature books. They are very well done.

 

I also have 2 science units.  They look amazing.  Can't wait to use them later this year!

 

History would never work for me.  I love the 4 year cycle.

 

ETA:

I have 3 levels of handwriting.  We like them very much.

Edited September 18, 2017 by rjand6more

[mytwomonkeys]

We are using Level 7 with my 8th grader. So far I like it well enough, but I don't know that we will continue with it next year (will make that decision in spring). I feel like the amount of writing is really lacking, so I'm hoping that changes and it's just because we are still early in the program. But overall I do like the layout & my son seems to tolerate it well.

Edited September 18, 2017 by mytwomonkeys

[Soror]

I'm using pre-k and 2nd LA.

 

First off, it is heavily religious, beat you over the head religious. I'm Christian but prefer secular curriculum, I cut out several lessons and have edited others.

 

I've not used much of the Pre-K yet as dd doesn't the fine motor skills to do much writing yet and I really feel that the writing expected is a bit much, some may have those fine motor skills at that age but many don't and it annoys me when reading is too heavily tied to writing skills when they often don't correlate. I believe we'll finish out the book just because dd is dying to do "school" this year but I'll be sticking with LoE Foundations like I used with my older girls.

 

I find the lessons to be very uneven at the 2nd grade level. Some days it might be a page or 2 and some days 6. I also do not like the way she sometimes introduces multiple new concepts at a time, I'd rather work on one thing at a time. 

 

If I had paid for it I would be disappointed but using it for free has been fine, I just use the parts I want (mainly reading practice, some spelling, and a bit of the grammar) and chuck the rest.

Edited September 18, 2017 by soror

[Insertcreativenamehere]

 

History would never work for me.  I love the 4 year cycle.

I bought the history and sold it for this very reason!

 

 

I also have 2 science units.  They look amazing.  Can't wait to use them later this year!

 

I'm doing the Space Science with my 2nd and 5th graders and they LOVE it. They ask for it every day.

 

 

I feel like the amount of writing is really lacking, so I'm hoping that changes and it's just because we are still early in the program. But overall I do like the layout & my son seems to tolerate it well. 

I agree that the writing in the upper levels is not enough, at least for my liking. I'm using Writing and Rhetoric alongside it. 

Edited September 18, 2017 by insertcreativenamehere

[Tenaj]

I'm using levels 1, 2, 5 and 7 Language Arts and all the kids are really enjoying it.  We've had a few bumps along the way but the olders are able to work independently with their checklist and I work with the youngers.  The lessons are uneven in length especially in the younger levels but we just work for a certain amount of time then set it aside until the next day.  If we hit a short lesson, we finish and begin the next.  

 

Spelling has been a bit rough for my younger two but they seem to finally be getting the hang of it now.  Part of it was just learning how to study words because in the early levels, the spelling words are really sight words (or at least most of them are).  The dictation for spelling in the upper levels is working out great but we had been using dictation for spelling in years past so my kids were already adjusted to that approach.

 

I have the history but didn't switch to it because we decided to stick with a modified-HOD schedule for history.

 

My two youngest are using the handwriting books . . .Love them.  They beg to do the handwriting because they love the art part of it.

[jaredluvsjoanie]

All of it. I love all of it. :)

[Mommy to monkeys]

Sooo I purchased the History, 2 science units, and levels 7, 3, and 2 of language arts.
My kids didn't enjoy the history, and I was adding too much to try to  fill it out, so we dropped that.

 

I felt all over the place with the science units, so we dropped that.  

 

And I have mixed feelings about the Language arts.  My 7th grader is the only one still doing it. We're on lessons twenty something and she literally said to me this morning, "Oh gee...It's finally making me write something."  While the grammar is plenty, imo the writing is really not enough.  In order to MAKE it enough, she is doing more written narrations from her history books.

For my younger ones, their reading levels are just way beyond what their placement in the program has them doing.  And the reading/phonics is a huge part of the program.  I felt like we were wasting so much time covering things they mastered YEARS ago, so I ended up trying to skip things...but then I began skipping more than we were actually doing which is ridiculous. So we dropped it altogether. 

 

I think my 7th grader will finish the year out doing the LA, but that's it. I have no plans to use it with any of my other kids.

 

Im very disappointed. I just had such high hopes for it all.  It's no fault of the curriculum. Just didn't work for us.

 

 

 

[HomeAgain]

I wanted to like it.  I downloaded level 2 and 3 of the LA, but it has some issues I'm not prepared to deal with in a language arts curriculum:

 

1. The initial geography lesson is exactly the same in both levels, right down to stating that Pangaea breaking was the result of the Tower of Babel 4,000 years ago.  Once is an eye roll, twice makes me want to ball it up and throw it out the window.

 

2. Level 3 spends a good bit of time defining "good and beautiful" books, none of which are chosen because the writing is outstanding.  It rather beats you over the head in a morally superior sort of way.

 

Aside from the amount of work each day, which would have to be broken up and much is overkill, it just wouldn't work for us.  We ended up going with ELTL instead and have enjoyed the lessons along with the books and poetry chosen.

[5sons]

All of it. I love all of it. :)

 

Agree!!

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

We are using the level 2 LA for my third grader. We skip the spelling because we are doing AAS, but it has a similar approach and dovetails nicely. The phonics is good reinforcement to solidify any gaps. So far, we really like it. I wonder if it's enough grammar practice sometimes, but it is meeting my son right where he is at and gently nudging him and challenging him. This is just what he needed this year.

 

I don't know how long we will use it, but it's working well so far. It seems more Charlotte Mason vs. classical. The literature is more old fashioned. That can be a pro or con depending on who you are. We do WWE too, but sometimes it has narration and dictation that replaces WWE that day.

 

We are starting one of their science units this week.

 

I don't know about the history cycle for us, but it's an interesting approach.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I just found one hiccup with the editing. (We are only a few weeks in.) The proofreading marks aren't entirely accurate. They have you use a carat ^ for periods and end marks. Usually a period is inside a circle in proofreading. I can live with that. But the actual answers didn't match. In one sentence, you had "My friend Jane likes..." in the next sentence, you had "her dog, Max, ripped". One had commas offsetting the name, but the other didn't. Maybe they weren't focusing on commas or something, or there's an obscure grammar rule, but it confused my son.

 

We needed something gentle for my son this year, and I was on a strict budget which led me to this. We will see if we stay with it. I know I want to do Writing and Rhetoric as we love it with my older son, and if you start adding in other stuff, etc. There's no point. I do think the biggest drawback of the program is the all in one factor because children might be in different levels of different aspects of language arts. The all in one is convenient, but there's a reason why a lot of curriculum is broken up into subjects for maximum customization to the child's level.

Edited September 19, 2017 by AdventuresinHomeschooling

[sewingmama]

We are using the LA.  My kids needed remedial help as I have never found a LA program that worked for us and I've bought some expensive ones.  I am happy enough so far. Its good at filling in gaps but not so sure I would use it for a total beginner It seems to make large jumps in assumed abilities sometimes. Still I do like it better then anything else so that's good.

 

Havent tried the history but do plan to in the future.  We are doing the 4 year cycle with SOTW right now.  Once we have done all four years I will switch. I don't mind if her history doesn't cycle.  I don't want to start all over again...blah ...not for me.

[mom2vikha]

I use Level 7 language arts with my 6th grader. She loves it. Very independent. We started with Ananlytical but she wanted something pleasant. Definitely lacks in writing but she does an online class. So i didn't bother much about it. Not sure if it will change for her.

[Rebecca in KY]

We are using LA 3 for my 4th grader. He enjoys it more than any other LA we've done, mostly because of the varied lessons. We tried Rod and Staff for a couple of years and it was torture for both of us. We also did MFW's update of Language Lessons for Today - I hated it because there was no clear progression of skills. It seemed totally random. The Good and the Beautiful definitely mixes things up and doesn't follow units like R&S, but it does incorporate review periodically, which I appreciate. My son likes the picture studies and geography, and it's surprising just how much LA is incorporated into those lessons. It's a win here.

[mamakelly]

I'm using level 3 with my 4th grader. I'm on the fence. I want to like it, but it doesn't feel very smooth. I feel like we are jumping all over the place with it and I'm not sure I love it. The spelling is ok, but I don't like having to keep testing him on words to figure out which words he knows and doesn't know. He seems to know how to spell most of them, so it takes forever to find ones he doesn't know. I'll probably give it another week or two before I decide if we will continue or not.

[Epicurean]

 

1. The initial geography lesson is exactly the same in both levels, right down to stating that Pangaea breaking was the result of the Tower of Babel 4,000 years ago. Once is an eye roll, twice makes me want to ball it up and throw it out the window.

 

What?! I was hoping we could edit it to make it secular, but now I'm not so sure.

[michaeljenn]

We bought LA level 2, 4 and 7, History 1 and several science units.  I had high hopes for this curriculum.  I REALLY wanted to make this curriculum work for our family because I felt like we would get more covered in less time.  We found that not to be true.  My kids have done CLE LA and Reading for the past 3 years so TG&TB was simply way too simple for them. They were not challenged at all.  We also used Sonlight the past few years, but that was way too much reading for us which is why we decided to give TG&TB a try.  My kids thought it was too simple and "kiddy" even with the student explorer pages.  We never ended up using the science and chose to go with BJU Press DVD for science..... this is where it got interesting.  My kids LOVED their DVD lessons, so we added on the History and they loved that.  My 8th grader is now doing English, Lit, History, Science and Spanish with BJU DVD.  She takes Algebra 1 in an outside class.  My boys are doing BJU Math, Science and History DVD and I am parent teaching BJU English/Reading/History.   

 

I CANNOT believe we started the year with TG&TB but ended up using BJU.  My kids are happy as can be and it is working wonderfully.   

 

So my final thoughts about TG&TB is that it is a good program, but just didn't fit our needs this year.   If you had a child that has not had much grammar or writing, then maybe it will be good, but it just did not seem like enough to me.  It appeared to be when I read over the program, but implementing it was a completely different story.  

[mamakelly]

 

I CANNOT believe we started the year with TG&TB but ended up using BJU.  My kids are happy as can be and it is working wonderfully.   

 

 

LOL, I have a brand new 4th grade BJU English workbook in my garage and I'm about ready to toss TGAATB and go get that BJU book out of my bins. I'm 100% sure that I'm done with The Good and the Beautiful though. After typing my response last night, I realized that I'm just plain old not happy with it, and I need to switch him now. Which do you think is more thorough, BJU or Christian Light? oddly enough, those were the two I was trying to decide between. 

[nixpix5]

My DD is 2nd grade this year and doing level 2. It is way too easy for her. She likes it alot because it is varied, but for our family it is no where near enough. We already planned to use BJU 3 next year and I let her go with TG&TB in place of A beka 2 since she seemed solid on most of what it covered. I find it needs to be supplemented to death. So she is doing TG&TB, R&S 2, SYS C, and a WWE/ELTL hybrid. At this point I haven't a foggy clue why I am still using it besides she pulls it off the shelf everyday and happily does it. It takes her a couple of minutes to do so it isn't hurting anything but I wouldn't feel confident using it alone for her.

 

4pillars we love BJU! Love the math, love the English and love the science. Good, solid, and tested curriculum. Can't go wrong with that! I just need to stop falling for the new and flashy :)

[mytwomonkeys]

I’m going to spend today looking through TG&TB & decide if and how we will continue to use it. I purchased Wordsmith & Writing with Skill 1 (not sure how I’ll use both but couldn’t decide on which one to purchase). Anyway. I’m really just not sure that supplementing and adapting to make this work is worth it. I may just cut my losses and move on. If my son just really loved it, I may feel differently. I already own Easy Grammar 8, we use quill.org already & if I add a writing curriculum... do I really need TG&TB? Maybe for sentence dictation and we can finish up the reading assignments. As I thumb through today, I’ll see what else we can keep.

Edited September 22, 2017 by mytwomonkeys

[5sons]

I wanted to add that we use 1-4 lessons A day and it is working great. I feel like it's getting the job done nicely :)

[mom2vikha]

Well, the level 7 does say that it starts as a review from previous levels and ramps up. Hmm.... Now I am worried after reading the posts here. This child has pretty good grasp of grammar and I don't want her to sail through the rest without a challenge....

[TXBeth]

But the actual answers didn't match. In one sentence, you had "My friend Jane likes..." in the next sentence, you had "her dog, Max, ripped". One had commas offsetting the name, but the other didn't. Maybe they weren't focusing on commas or something, or there's an obscure grammar rule, but it confused my son.

Just a side note to explain this:

Presumably you have more than one friend, so the appositive Jane is essential to knowing which friend you are talking about, so no commas. On the other hand, she apparently has only one dog, so adding his name is just extra information, a non-essential appositive phrase, thus the commas.

[jaredluvsjoanie]

 

 

Just a side note to explain this:

Presumably you have more than one friend, so the appositive Jane is essential to knowing which friend you are talking about, so no commas. On the other hand, she apparently has only one dog, so adding his name is just extra information, a non-essential appositive phrase, thus the commas.

[jaredluvsjoanie]

Whoops! I flubbed up quoting TXBeth. She is exactly right about the comma usage.

[luvmy8kids2004]

I don't know if it is ok to respond with an intent to purchase but if it isn't allowed please forgive me.  I am looking for those that are not happy with the Good and the Beautiful that have level 3 or level 4 readers for the language arts and Literature etc that want to sell.

 

Edited February 19, 2018 by luvmy8kids2004

[Starrinytes]

We are currently using TG&TB LA, and it's a really lovely program. We are secular, so there is A LOT of adjusting on my part, but my 9 year old really loves it. My 6 year old doesn't care for it, and will likely be switching to MCT next year, but that's a different story (she is VERY particular). I don't care for the spelling in TG&TB, so we use a separate spelling program. It's laid out well and very easy to use in general though. I think it's great for some kids and not for others (just like everything else haha). Levels 1-5 are available for download for free, so you can always download and see if it's something you think might work for you. We ordered the actual books and the printing is really great quality- I definitely recommend going that route if you can and do decide to use it!