Last week I shared how we are using a new All-Inclusive Language Arts Curriculum with our three middle children. For the last two years we have struggled with our older two of the three to really grasp reading and phonics. After receiving this curriculum, we saw immediate changes and improvement in our kindergartner. Now that we have used this curriculum for almost a full month, we are seeing more and more benefits.
Our oldest child learned to read very easily and quickly. To be honest, it was one of the easiest things I have done in our entire homeschool journey. Then came our middle three children. Our #2 and #3 are only 14.5 months apart, so they began kindergarten at the same time. Our son quickly picked up on letters and sounds, while our daughter was much better at math and struggled with her reading.
We have plodded along with our reading and phonics program, which has done its job, but it has left gaps. With our new curriculum, The Good & the Beautiful, we started back with Kindergarten for all three of our middle children. Our youngest is working her way through it slowly, while our other two are moving more quickly.
Note: I received this product in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I was paid as compensation, but not paid for a positive review. You might wonder why I am saying “we” now. My husband being the primary homeschooling parent right now, as I work and we travel, he has worked through this curriculum with our children and we have talked at length about the plusses and minuses. So, you will see him in the pictures teaching instead of me. The opinions expressed are the conclusion of both of us.
What we like about The Good & the Beautiful
As a Thrifty Homeschooler, I love finding deals and saving money. I have long had a motto, “if its free, it’s for me!” But as we know, not everything free is good. Many times the old saying, “you get what you pay for,” however we have found with The Good & the Beautiful that is not the case.
All-Inclusive Language Arts Curriculum – There are so many different options to choose from for Language Arts. With our oldest we had a spelling curriculum, a reading curriculum and a grammar curriculum – all separate. The Good and the Beautiful brings all of them together in one curriculum. This is both time saving and money saving.
Levels 1-5 are FREE – This is the best part! While we opted to receive the physical products for the purpose of the review, they do offer their products in PDF form absolutely FREE for levels 1-5. Everything included with the physical products are available for download as well. The only cost you’ll endure will be the printing paper and ink. The flashcards used with the Kindergarten level is used thru the 2nd grade, which means more money saved.
Easily done in a group – After our family Bible time, the middle three gather around for phonics and flashcard review. Even though they are on different levels, we have them do this together for several reasons. First, the younger ones are learning from the older ones as they see the flashcards and hear the answers. Second, it helps the older children learn to teach and encourage the younger ones still learning.
Filling in some gaps – As we began working through this curriculum with our oldest of the middles, we started to see some notable gaps. He was reading better and better, but the sounding out of words didn’t come as easily as it should. He was lacking the phonics, which is the reason we started him back in the Kindergarten program as a way to review and fill in those gaps. Each day he is improving and the gaps are becoming smaller and smaller, which will only improve with time.
Spelling is encouraged from the beginning – I once thought we needed to wait on spelling until they knew their letters, sounds and were reading better. After using The Good & the Beautiful I no longer believe that to be the case. I now see how teaching them to spell along with learning the sounds of the letters is not only better, but more beneficial.
Since we have seen such drastic improvement in all three of our children using this curriculum for just a short time, we are excited to see where it takes us. If you have been looking for a well thought out, all-inclusive language arts curriculum, please check out The Good & the Beautiful. I think you will like what you see.
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