TGTB Lang Arts

[Green Bean]

Last one, I promise! First off, I am not interested in starting a debate or controversy about the author's religious views or that whole "hate" thing that went on a few years back. I just want to know if anyone uses this and likes it.

I'm looking at Levels 6, 7, and high school. I see they are releasing a new Kinder level in June so unless you were part of the piloting test group, I doubt anyone has a clue about the new edition.

I would still be adding MP guides for the classic books I just don't want my kids to miss out on. 

SO what do you think?

Edited February 22, 2022 by Green Bean

[desertflower]

My two oldest are doing level 6.  We skip the spelling portion and some of the writing portion.  Not that it's not good.  My two oldest I guess already know how to do that type of writing that is in the program.

We are taking it slowly as my second child is advanced in writing and taking a Writing and Rhetoric class with CAP.  I sprinkle in IEW with my oldest. 

We didn't start from the beginning.

I started my youngest this year with level 3.  It's working for her. I'm not crazy about the spelling part, but not concerned either since she's a terrific speller.  Again nothing wrong the spelling portion, it just doesn't work for me. 

 

[Kezia]

I started our homeschool LA with TGaTB.  We did half of level 4 for 4th grade. I liked it. My kid didn’t mind it. It could be independently done. The kid can still spell neighborhood in his sleep. “Really? Neighbor.... again?!” I liked that it was all inclusive language arts/geography/art and so nicely done. I could add math, science, history and feel we covered what we needed to each day. 
 

Although the reading stories were well written and indeed beautiful, and my child read them dutifully, they seemed dated and slow for a 9 year old boy. The writing seemed to be too advanced for my new to homeschooling 4th grade boy. The excitement I initially felt toward the curriculum had diminished and I really desired separate pieces for spelling, grammar, writing and geography that could be more customized to my child and what he wanted to learn. 

[Ting Tang]

I haven't used the curriculum, but I did purchase it, and I ended up selling it.  I think it is beautiful, and I have considered using it again.  However, knowing that I prefer to do some of the integrated subjects a bit differently, can't quite bring myself to buying it just yet again because I wouldn't be using the entire curriculum.  I feel like by NOT doing certain subjects, such as spelling, it could just be a distraction in a way.  I think using it for everything would make it worthwhile.  They really get you with the gorgeous art, that is for sure. We are using Memoria Press, and it prides itself on not being beautiful, LOL.  I am keeping it on my radar for next year.  I am trying not to make the MAJOR subject decisions until our year is done because this year has been a bust in some ways. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Ting Tang

[Green Bean]

nm.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Green Bean

[Janeway]

TGTB LA 6 will be free for download starting in June. So you could wait until then. I like it though and I paid for the printed version.

[AnneGG]

Take this with a grain of salt because I’ve only been homeschooling a couple of years and mine are little….

I think any all in one language arts is going to have weak areas. It’s the whole Jack of all trades, master of none. It’s just going to be really hard to give the moms what they want (short lessons, independent, hands on, no prep, etc,) without some area of LA taking a back seat. All in ones are just tricky for kids that aren’t a straight line in LA achievement.

We have used TGTB on and off for years and I’ve tutored other kids with it.  I do not think it is a rigorous LA. It is comprehensive but simple. There is a lot  content that appears to be in place purely for the child’s engagement. (Fluff.) That is perfectly fine for us, but for some of the kids I’ve tutored it has been a distraction. They liked it, but the concepts were not being internalized. Overall I like it, recommend it, and use it.  I definitely add in more phonics and phonological awareness with my younger tutees. I add extra spelling and writing with my upper elem tutees. The price point is excellent for what you get. I go into it knowing I will need to supplement. We do geography and art elsewhere in our curric so that’s no biggie. 
 

As for the pk-2 revamp, I doubt it’s anything completely different. Just like the math and science. They add some new graphics and change a few things, but the core is still the same. They may have more phonics built in. I def think it’s lacking in the current version. 

[Green Bean]

nm.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Green Bean

[Janeway]

I wanna add my personal opinion. I think TGTB is perfectly strong. i’m finding it to be much stronger than what I used previously which was BJU. Also, since there was not long spelling lists every week, I just kind of assumed it would be weak. But after giving it a shot with my mediocre speller, I found that the method really does work with her. In fact, I no longer think that the long lists of words for kids to try to memorize each week are the way to go. 

[Green Bean]

nm.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Green Bean

[happynurse]

My son loves TGTB LA but doesn't retain squat. We do it for fun, or 'fluff'. (Isn't this artwork lovely? etc.) He is waaaay beyond what they consider geography, but again, it's nice fluff. He dislikes, but retains, CLE. I suppose he needs a much tighter spiral than what TGTB offers. I use them both, one lesson from each per day. 

[Tmhearn]

I will deviate a bit here and say that I think TGTB is a pretty good program for Language Arts. I have four kids, and we have always homeschooled.  We have used a number of different LA programs. When we switched to TGTB, I started my then 3rd grader with the 4th grade level. She is now on level 7 and in the 6th grade. My youngest used it on-level starting in 1st grade and is now in 4th using the 4th grade level. I will agree with previous posters who have commented on the literature selections. While lovely, they don't suit our needs, so I usually assign separate lit and select only a few readings for the year from those included in TGTB. 

[Green Bean]

Taryn, how is the writing instruction? Do you feel like it is preparing/has prepared your kids for upper level writing? Did you use the high school books?

[Tmhearn]

I haven't used the high school books. I feel that the writing is pretty good, though, in the younger grades. But that is just my opinion. 🙂 My oldest dual-enrolled at a local university as a junior in high school for college-level english (ENG 1101 and 1102). So, that is kind of my basis for judging writing. Will my kid be able to tackle college-level writing assignments by that point... I do feel that TGTB is preparing for that purpose. The writing assignments are broken down into small enough segments that reluctant writers don't feel overwhelmed. But there is still enough teaching along the way to get kids writing. Again, just based on my experience and opinions, I think it is a pretty solid program. But, everyone has different goals for their children. I am not likely to be raising journalists or english majors over here. Ha ha. So, I may be coming from a different place. I have an MBA in Finance and am currently working on an MA in History. I've likely got a Fashion major, a Finance major, a Law major, and possibly a politician or a salesman. 🙂 

[Green Bean]

nm.

Edited October 12, 2023 by Green Bean

[Lori D.]

On 2/21/2022 at 4:10 PM, Green Bean said:

...I'm looking at Levels 6, 7, and high school... SO what do you think?

Only because you also mention you're considering the high school level, from another thread on the High School board, I'm re-posting my observations about the high school LA from TGatB, in case anyone else following along on this thread is interested in the high school level.

________________________

From looking at the scope & sequence, overview statement, and booklist, TG&TB does not look to be high school level. 
Problems I see with TG&TB high school "LA" program:

1. The focus of the program
The program appears to be  designed to shield teens from worldviews which were deemed by the program creators to have "questionable moral foundations" (their phrase). However, from my experience, the high school years are actually the perfect time to be discussing and analyzing the range of thoughts and ideas found in variety of works of the Great Conversation that is Classic Literature through the ages. So the extremely narrow focus of the TG&TB program misses a huge opportunity.

2. The Lit. selection
A light amount of works covered each year. Some full works, and some excerpts. No traditional, classic novels, epics, plays or short stories appear to be covered as complete works. Some fiction is at a middle school level. Also a number of biographies, some of little-known people. The poets covered are nice, but limited to 19th century British with a few American poets. Overall, it looks like in an effort to only use safe or tame literature, the program throws away the opportunity for exposure to incredible quality, beauty, depth, and richness of writing.

3. The Grammar/Writing section
Nothing wrong with having light grammar review in high school, esp. in context of writing (for revising and proof-editing)-- However, I would be concerned that there would be such a heavy focus on Grammar (from the scope & sequence) that is usually learned by 8th grade, that it would be at the expense of spending the time on actually writing. There is a good variety of writing assignments, but the total amount of 4-5 assignments per year seems light -- typically high school students are doing that amount of assignments per semester(unless, perhaps, they are all longer, multi-page papers).

4. It is a "unit study" rather than an English credit
From the sample pages, the LA portion has a lot of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure practice / work pages, plus art and geography assignments. I am not seeing much instruction, information, or guidance for the writing, or for the literary analysis / discussion... But perhaps that is in the videos...?

 

From the samples and the scope & sequence, I personally would find this program to be too light and too narrow (as well as too "diffuse" by including extraneous topics) -- all to the detriment of a meaty, deep, and meaningful study of literature. JMO.

[Green Bean]

Thanks, Lori. I plan to add quite a few MP classics/lit/Shakespeare guides to pump it up at high school.

[AnneGG]

On 3/7/2022 at 12:52 PM, Lovinglife123 said:

What did you think of their older levels to their newer levels (which are already being replaced)?  I have the PDFs for levels 1-4 of their old 2nd edition program and whenever I use tgtb I tend to grab the older.  It’s a bit less busy and easier for me to skip things like spelling.  I generally use it on a tablet.  I also like their older math k-2/3.

I like the older versions better. I concur with everything you said! 

I noticed they removed the real art in the new math  and replaced it with their original art. I’m betting that will be the case in the pk-2 revamp and it appears that the their new pk-2 science will look like that too. I really liked the real art! 

It would be cool if they would allow you to buy digital downloads of pervious versions. 

[Green Bean]

New grade 5 released yesterday. What do we think?

I ordered Level 6 for the older 3. I'm waiting to see what Kinder Prep - 2 looks like.

[pehp]

I think you could try it and see....

I purchased 2 levels a couple years ago (maybe 7 and 3? I think that's right).  The lower level really helped my emerging/later reader--we used it for a couple of months, and then she was off and running. So it was quite helpful there.  I thought it was very "pretty," but for both levels, I wasn't really impressed with it overall.  Some of the stories, for instance, were genuinely poorly-written, to the point that my children and I would read them in order to chuckle at the overuse of certain words or the odd language choices.  My older child used it for maybe half the year, and then we just jumped ship. 

That having been said, I think you can make anything work, especially in elementary school.  I thought it was very "user-friendly." I remember that the mechanics/grammar aspects seemed solid.  I think it's perfectly fine for the younger grades; I wouldn't use it for a high schooler--but, to be fair, I didn't purchase any HS level books!  I just knew it wasn't for me when I looked at the book lists. I may be wrong about this, and it has been a year or so since I looked, but I think it avoided a lot of the books that I feel are essential for high school (Shakespeare! To Kill a Mockingbird!) & I was underwhelmed by the literature selections.  But I suppose one could use it and then add in literature--I just don't love supplementing things. If I buy something, I want it to be pretty much complete "as-is!"  We all vary on that point, though.  

With those caveats, I think it's worth a try!

[Green Bean]

I liken her story/book selections to Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice- very wholesome. MP will continue to be our main literature. 

[Green Bean]

Nm.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Green Bean

[Janeway]

I really liked the old level 4 but not the new. I suspect this will continue this way.

[seemesew]

I have used TGAB for all levels and now have 2 that have used the highschool courses. I am VERY pleased with the writing instruction and my boys have thrived with it. My oldest is doing college classes and he is getting A's on all his papers and the only writing instruction he ever got was through tgab. My 2nd son is not quite as gifted in the writing and has also only used tgab but he does very well just the same, I actually have a highschool teacher check his essays and he gets nothing but high marks which considering it is not his string point is a great point for tgab program.

Level 6 is where the writing instruction really picks up but it is done incrementally so kids who hate writing don't get overwhelmed but its still strong for gifted writers as well, by the end the kids have written 4 or 5 big assignments with lots of smaller ones interspersed. It also goes into a biography of Elizabeth Kenny the woman who is the "mother" of Physical therapy. It goes into Australia, history, and even wildlife. This level is my FAVORITE!

Level 7 has even more writing instruction and can be used as a highschool course if you student is behind.

The highschool courses have novels, and art projects they do each unit there are 10 units for each level. This is not formatted like the younger year because it is not setup in a daily format so its up to you and your student to schedule it out. There is a paper due at the end of each unit and it is specifc how to write it, gives options of what to write on, and then has some basic grading information. The grammar and writing guide is quite helpful and you'll use it a lot! There are also various videos for teaching and such in the units.

I am very happy with the program. I know many think it is too gentle but I have seen that just because its gentle does not mean they aren't learning and I am pleased with how my kids are doing with their college classes after using it.

[seemesew]

On 3/7/2022 at 10:52 AM, Lovinglife123 said:

What did you think of their older levels to their newer levels (which are already being replaced)?  I have the PDFs for levels 1-4 of their old 2nd edition program and whenever I use tgtb I tend to grab the older.  It’s a bit less busy and easier for me to skip things like spelling.  I generally use it on a tablet.  I also like their older math k-2/3.

There are things I really like of the new program (I was in the pilot group)  especially for the K-2 program as the current one is not really age appropriate in many things like the dictation they have kindergarten kids doing. The reading will be more phonics based and I'm happy with that. As for 3-5 changing I'm not sure how I feel, the older 4 was a favorite of mine and it was SO nice how it was less parent involved than the current one, but it didn't have as much writing instruction as the new one so good and bad about both I suppose.

I showed my son (who is doing level 6) the new level 5 and he said "There's WAY too much color in that!" so I think the older versions will be better for kids who get overwhelmed by too much color.

[seemesew]

On 3/12/2022 at 9:02 PM, pehp said:

I think you could try it and see....

I purchased 2 levels a couple years ago (maybe 7 and 3? I think that's right).  The lower level really helped my emerging/later reader--we used it for a couple of months, and then she was off and running. So it was quite helpful there.  I thought it was very "pretty," but for both levels, I wasn't really impressed with it overall.  Some of the stories, for instance, were genuinely poorly-written, to the point that my children and I would read them in order to chuckle at the overuse of certain words or the odd language choices.  My older child used it for maybe half the year, and then we just jumped ship. 

That having been said, I think you can make anything work, especially in elementary school.  I thought it was very "user-friendly." I remember that the mechanics/grammar aspects seemed solid.  I think it's perfectly fine for the younger grades; I wouldn't use it for a high schooler--but, to be fair, I didn't purchase any HS level books!  I just knew it wasn't for me when I looked at the book lists. I may be wrong about this, and it has been a year or so since I looked, but I think it avoided a lot of the books that I feel are essential for high school (Shakespeare! To Kill a Mockingbird!) & I was underwhelmed by the literature selections.  But I suppose one could use it and then add in literature--I just don't love supplementing things. If I buy something, I want it to be pretty much complete "as-is!"  We all vary on that point, though.  

With those caveats, I think it's worth a try!

Okay so I agree here that they do not include some "normal" literature sections because a certain criteria isn't met and that can be a draw back. However, I've been pleased with the sections that they do have them read just the same. What I did was just add extra reading on top of the literature in the courses since there are only 5ish books per year I thought that was very doable. It gave my oldest and I chance to talk about things more in the added books and then he did the writing for the assigned books. Anyways that's how I handled it so I wasn't really changing the curriculum at all.

[Green Bean]

seemesew-- Thank you for your thoughts. Having someone who has used the entire thing speak about it is so helpful. I'm excited we have a path forward now after so many years of schlepping along.

My 3 olders just did the Grammar Prep Unit as a review before starting Level 6 tomorrow. My feedback on that is they should have made it more streamlined- not so many full color pictures which didn't have anything to do with the lessons. For such a short unit, which is intended to be printed out, it was a waste of space and ink.

 

[seemesew]

22 hours ago, Green Bean said:

seemesew-- Thank you for your thoughts. Having someone who has used the entire thing speak about it is so helpful. I'm excited we have a path forward now after so many years of schlepping along.

My 3 olders just did the Grammar Prep Unit as a review before starting Level 6 tomorrow. My feedback on that is they should have made it more streamlined- not so many full color pictures which didn't have anything to do with the lessons. For such a short unit, which is intended to be printed out, it was a waste of space and ink.

 

I have not done the grammar prep but can see that too many images for that would be silly.  I have infact thought there were too many for the math at times but its still been my favorite so far so I let it pass. The nice thing is come July all levels K-8 in math and Language arts will be free in PDFs so people can really get a feel for it before buying.

 

 

[seemesew]

6 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:

@seemesew  what do you think of the new pilot one???  Thinking of buying the old one on sale.  The new one looks like it involves some technology (which is a downside for me).  Not just the letter app but other things.

I like the new version but there are other videos to watch and short audiobooks. Its not every lesson but more than there is currently. There isnt enough technology to be a deal breaker for me and I am one who doesn't like too much in our school. As for getting the old now I think it depends on how much you like the current program. I never did like the current K as it was too hard and jumped in places expecting them to be able to read words they didn't know the phonics principles for. But I know other who love it! I like the current level 1 and 2 just fine though the new is holding my sons interest more and tha.t is saying a lot, lol!

 

 

[seemesew]

14 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:

@seemesewHow is it holding his interest more?  Does it have lots of activities?  Also is it comparable to all about reading for its phonics approach or does it still include a lot of sight words?  I was thinking current 2 might be good for review and fun activities.  We do all about reading.

It does have more hands on kind of like the math in the way that there is nothing to prepare before hand (usually). It does have sight words but not as many as before. I have only seen sample of all about reading so I'm exactly sure if it approaches the same way however AAR is mastery and TGAB is spiral so they are different I would imagine. Its kind of hard to explain and I'm really not allowed to say much more. If you watch the video's on the new LA on youtube and pause you can see more of the pages in the books and maybe that will help you!

[Green Bean]

seemesew- how do you feel about he new grade 5 especially in the writing arena? Do you feel it is just as strong as the previous version? I did not look at it before the change as I was thinking my older ones would skip it. As it turns out, Level 6 is too advanced for 2 of mine so back down we go.

Edited May 31, 2023 by Green Bean

[seemesew]

16 hours ago, Green Bean said:

seemesew- how do you feel aboutt he new grade 5 especially in the writing arena? Do you feel it is just as strong as the previous version? I did not look at it before the change as I was thinking my older ones would skip it. As it turns out, Level 6 is too advanced for 2 of mine so back down we go.

I haven't looked too much at the new level 5 but all of the updates I've seen so far (for this edition change) really hasn't changed what they learned as much as just changing the art/color/sequence of things taught. Very few things have been taken out in the versions I tested and looking at the little I saw of level 5 I looks like its about the same. My thoughts are it probably teaches writing a bit better because that seems to be the way the new versions are going but its also going to be a bit more on grade level in other ways, most likely the grammar/dictation. I honestly haven't looked through it ton since my 13 yearold did it last year and my next won't for a few years but those are my initial thoughts after looking at it briefly.  

[Green Bean]

Thank you!

[Green Bean]

Kindergarten Prep released today! 🎉 

I made my order first thing. So excited!

[seemesew]

35 minutes ago, Green Bean said:

Kindergarten Prep released today! 🎉 

I made my order first thing. So excited!

It looks so good! My youngest is already past it 😪 But I love the looks of the changes!!!

 

[Green Bean]

I bought the Math K, too. I’m really looking forward to this.

[Green Bean]

We are loving the math and the Kinder Prep! Little Man just adores the Doodles Handwriting 1 & 2, as well. I'm on the second printing of both!

What I am not liking is reading all the older kids' book list samples and finding nearly every single one has children being left behind by their parents or the main characters are orphans. So far, all the stories in 5 and 6 are about kids being orphaned or parents leaving them behind. It is giving me serious pause about using these with Little Man as he is particularly sensitive to that sort of thing. Of course, he is only 5 now. Hmm...

[Green Bean]

Just saw the new K flip through! I’m beyond excited! Anyone else?

[wisdomandtreasures]

After June 1, all levels up to 8 will be free.

[Green Bean]

8 hours ago, Lovinglife123 said:

It looks better for phonics.  I’m curious if they’ll discount k/1 further.. I’d love to snag them for 75% off and use it with all about reading.

Today is the last day the old levels will be available.

[Janeway]

On 5/17/2022 at 11:02 PM, Green Bean said:

We are loving the math and the Kinder Prep! Little Man just adores the Doodles Handwriting 1 & 2, as well. I'm on the second printing of both!

What I am not liking is reading all the older kids' book list samples and finding nearly every single one has children being left behind by their parents or the main characters are orphans. So far, all the stories in 5 and 6 are about kids being orphaned or parents leaving them behind. It is giving me serious pause about using these with Little Man as he is particularly sensitive to that sort of thing. Of course, he is only 5 now. Hmm...

Is that the new version? I really liked the older version of level five and level four. But when we went over the new version of level four I did not like it so I figured with level five I would just print off the older version instead of using the newer version. The stories were very good in the older version.

[Green Bean]

Yes- the new version.

I’m the opposite of you, we did not like the old versions of 4 and 5, but the new are working great.

I’m not thrilled with Level 6. I feel there is a lot of fluff, but the writing instructions are great. We just skip the fluff. I’m looking forward to the revised version of that level. I will have 2 that will get to use it.

One of mine will start Level 7 after our break. It looks “meatier” than 6. I hope so cause this child blew through Level 6 in under 2 months and that was with doing everything but the drawing.

All in all, I am super happy with it and plan to stick it through.

[seemesew]

On 5/24/2022 at 2:26 PM, Green Bean said:

Yes- the new version.

I’m the opposite of you, we did not like the old versions of 4 and 5, but the new are working great.

I’m not thrilled with Level 6. I feel there is a lot of fluff, but the writing instructions are great. We just skip the fluff. I’m looking forward to the revised version of that level. I will have 2 that will get to use it.

One of mine will start Level 7 after our break. It looks “meatier” than 6. I hope so cause this child blew through Level 6 in under 2 months and that was with doing everything but the drawing.

All in all, I am super happy with it and plan to stick it through.

That's funny! we have loved level 6! My 2 boys who have done it both said it was their favorite. They loved learning about Australia :0) Its definitely our favorite level!

[Brittany1116]

So as of tomorrow, grade 8 reading/guides will also be free? I was considering the Lincoln book for my 6th grader next year.

[Green Bean]

Apparently so. Guess we will find out after midnight! 🙂

[wisdomandtreasures]

Yes! 🙂

[seemesew]

19 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:

So as of tomorrow, grade 8 reading/guides will also be free? I was considering the Lincoln book for my 6th grader next year.

Yes! They are freee!!!! https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/free-homeschool-language-arts/

[Nm.]

Anyone have some updates on tgtb math and LA?  Interested in levels 2,4,5,6 in math and level 4,5,6 LA.

ETA We did 4 levels of tgtb math this morning and it went SO smooth.  This may be a great fit for us.  With only 120 lessons we can do some MM topics between levels. 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Nm.

[Janeway]

13 hours ago, Nm. said:

Anyone have some updates on tgtb math and LA?  Interested in levels 2,4,5,6 in math and level 4,5,6 LA.

ETA We did 4 levels of tgtb math this morning and it went SO smooth.  This may be a great fit for us.  With only 120 lessons we can do some MM topics between levels. 

I think the math is a good solid program. But I would not try to fit MM in to it. The lessons get rather long and you will find times where you will want to break a lesson up over two days or just take a day off. TGTB is so complete (as is MM) that neither call for supplementing. You will just have burned out kids who grow to hate math. Pick one and go with it. 

[Nm.]

I am thinking of just a few problems a day instead.  Even Level 6 seems pretty short compared to what they were doing!  Maybe it depends on the lesson?