An Honest Review of the Good and the Beautiful for Kindergarten

Around this time last year, we made the decision to start homeschooling. Searching for curriculum and trying to figure out what was going to work best for me and my daughter was really overwhelming. I’d heard lots of people say that they liked The Good and the Beautiful curriculum, which is what I ended up using. But I was frustrated that I couldn’t find an in-depth breakdown or review of the curriculum anywhere during my search. So even with recommendations from friends, I felt a little bit like I was acting on faith when I placed my first order with The Good and the Beautiful. After a year of using their Kindergarten curriculum, I think I can shed a little light on it, hopefully sparing someone else some anxiety about starting the program.

Overall thoughts: I am very happy with this Kindergarten curriculum! There are so many homeschool options out there, and once you start down that rabbit hole it’s easy to get lost. Every curriculum promises that it’s the best one, but when you’re reading dozens of reviews the real question on your mind is “is this really all that it claims to be?” The Good and the Beautiful promotes itself as a beautiful, affordable, thorough, little-to-no-prep-required program for teaching your child everything they need to meet federal grade level objectives. And, in my experience, it is all of those things! If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of starting your homeschool journey and you don’t know how to begin, this curriculum will be a very good fit for you. It’s not intimidating, requires no prior teaching experience to use, and isn’t time consuming or labor intensive for you or your child.

The most important reason I love this curriculum, though, is because my daughter loves it and is thriving in it. In less than 20 lessons, she was reading 30 sight words, could segment and sound out almost any three-letter word, and could do the same for many four letter words. Now she’s reading early reader books with little or no help. She can write numbers using numerals, ten frames, and tally marks. She is able to break down numbers into ones, tens, and hundreds. She’s counting by ones, fives, and tens. And she’s learning to do basic addition and subtraction. But best of all, she looks forward to doing school and frequently asks me if we can do school, even on the weekends. This Kindergarten curriculum has been a blessing for both of us.

Now I’m going to go through and review the three parts of the Kindergarten curriculum that we have been using. I want to be as balanced and thorough as possible, which is why I wanted to give my overall thoughts first to provide some context. I do have some criticisms, because no curriculum is going to be perfect and every homeschool family will have their own unique preferences. My goal, though, is to give you tools to decide if The Good and the Beautiful will work for you.

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts – Level K: What I like

• It’s inexpensive – For as little as $57, your Kindergartener can get a very thorough introduction to phonics, sight words, reading comprehension, spelling, and reading fluency that will get them reading at grade level. You can add on handwriting and additional early reader box sets of books, which will cost slightly more, but they aren’t necessary for your child to meet Kindergarten objectives.
• It’s self-contained – Everything you need to teach your child to read is included in the program. That includes the coursebook (complete with sight word activities), phonics flash cards, beginner books, and a Level K reader. The only thing you’ll have to provide yourself is pencils, paper, and little baggies to organize the flashcards with. And the coursebook doesn’t require you to make or do anything that isn’t already included in the book. You can literally open the coursebook and do the work for the day without any preparation beforehand.
• It’s beautifully and thoughtfully put together – The artwork in all of The Good and the Beautiful’s curriculum is exactly what their name promises it will be: beautiful. It’s clear that this program was thoughtfully and lovingly put together with an emphasis on beauty, gratitude, joy, mindfulness, nature, art, and God. I love that it teaches appreciation for art and literature from the very beginning. Kindergarteners have short attention spans and don’t need to receive all-day instruction. Most history, science, and art instruction will be beyond their capabilities. The Good and the Beautiful weaves these things into both the language arts and math curriculums, so you feel like your child is being prepared through exposure to learn these things more thoroughly down the road.
• My daughter is thriving in it – This is not my daughter’s favorite subject, because it requires the most work and is the least intuitive for her. But she is still thriving in this program. She’s had a lot of progress in not a lot of time and is really proud of the skills she’s learning. In less than one unit, she had mastered enough skills to start reading early readers on her own. When we started the course, I would never have expected to see her progress so fast. The first few lessons were a real struggle and the concepts did not come naturally to her. I was worried she might not be ready to start Kindergarten (she was only 4.5 when we first started). But even though the concepts were challenging and she struggled at first, it didn’t take long for us to start seeing remarkable improvement. The lessons are designed to include lots of practice in lots of formats in a very short, manageable session. So with just a few minutes 3-5 times a week she’s learned and improved so much!

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts – Level K: What I don’t like

• It’s not designed for hands-on/active learning – Unlike the Level K math curriculum, The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts does not include a variety of learning techniques. Your child will have to sit down and focus on reading and writing for an entire lesson without any breaks for kinesthetic, tactile, or sensory learning. The lessons are short, so this may not be a problem for your child, but if you have an active, fidgety, kinesthetic learner, they may struggle to sit through a whole lesson. Now, just because these things aren’t built into the curriculum doesn’t mean you can’t include them. Instead of having your child write spelling words with pencil and paper, you could have them write the words in shaving cream or cornmeal. You can write sight words on notecards and have your child jump on them or hit them with a fly swatter as they read. There are lots of ways to get creative with what’s already provided by the curriculum. But if you’re hoping for those things to be built into the program, you’ll be disappointed.
• The coursebook can’t be reused – Because your child will be writing in and coloring on the coursebook, you won’t be able to reuse it for any younger children. You can reuse the flashcards, reader, and beginner books, but you’ll have to purchase a new coursebook for each child. Luckily, you can do that kind of a la carte purchase on The Good and the Beautiful website, but it does detract a little bit from the cost friendliness of the program.

The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting – Level K: What I like

• It’s inexpensive – This handwriting program costs only $10-$13, depending on whether or not you want to print it at home or purchase the workbook. I already had a printer, hole punch, and binder on hand, so this curriculum only cost me $10, and I can reprint it as many times as I want. Which means that, unlike the language arts and math coursebooks, I can reuse this program with each child without having to repurchase the workbook. In the long run, that saves a lot of money.
• It incorporates multiple skills – Every page has tracing activities, but many pages also include coloring, drawing, copying, mazes, and freewriting activities. And everything is interspersed in such a way that your child is rarely doing the same exact thing two days in a row.
• My daughter loves it – When it’s time to start school, my daughter runs to the table and gets out her handwriting workbook and completes the assignment for the day without any help. This is one of her favorite parts of school!

The Good and the Beautiful Math K: Disclaimer – Since I purchased The Good and the Beautiful Math K, a new program called Simply Good and Beautiful Math has replaced the curriculum that I bought. I will be reviewing the materials that I have and comparing them to the new curriculum. I think many of the critiques I have of the original math curriculum still apply, but many of them have been corrected by the new program. I will be sure to specify explicitly when a criticism of the original materials does not apply to the new curriculum.

The Good and the Beautiful Math K: What I like

• It’s inexpensive – The math curriculum I purchased through The Good and the Beautiful used to cost more than $100. I bought it on sale (I think for around 60% off), when they were phasing out that curriculum before bringing in their new curriculum. The current program (Simply Good and Beautiful Math) costs only $50, which includes both the coursebook and the “Math Box” full of manipulatives. One of the reasons The Good and the Beautiful changed their math curriculum was to lower the cost. Their mission as a company includes making homeschool curriculum affordable, and the new curriculum is definitely more affordable.
• It’s self-contained – Just like the language arts curriculum, The Good and the Beautiful’s math curriculum (both the old and new program) is designed to be entirely self-contained. Everything you need to teach your child math is included in the course and you don’t have to buy anything extra. You can open your coursebook to the right lesson and just teach without having to lesson plan or prep.
• It’s beautifully and thoughtfully put together – Again, just like the language arts curriculum, The Good and the Beautiful’s math program emphasizes beauty, gratitude, joy, mindfulness, nature, art, and God. It includes exposure to art, history, literature, science, etc. I love that everything feels interconnected across the different programs. While I haven’t been able to flip through Simply Good and Beautiful Math yet, I’m confident that it will maintain that same focus on thoughtful, thorough, integrated curriculum.
• It incorporates different learning styles – Unlike The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts, the math program incorporates lots of different learning styles. It’s great for kinesthetic/tactile learners because it utilizes lots of manipulatives and encourages physical learning activities both inside and outdoors. There is a good balance of worksheets, manipulative learning, and games throughout the curriculum, making it fun and engaging for young learners.
• My daughter loves it – Because the math lessons are so hands-on and include lots of games and activities, my daughter really enjoys doing math. Even if she’s had a hard time with the Language Arts lesson for the days, she still always chooses to do math afterwards, because she loves it! As someone who has never considered myself to be good at math and dreaded math class as a kid, I’m so excited to see my daughter enjoying her math lessons. I hope that as we continue into Simply Good and Beautiful Math 1 she will continue to find joy in learning math.

The Good and the Beautiful Math K: What I don’t like

• It’s repetitive – This is true of the language arts curriculum as well, but because reading is a completely new skill the repetition doesn’t feel like drudgery, it feels like practice. If your child can count to 20+, recognize numbers 1-10, identify basic shapes, recite the days of the week and months of the year, and complete simple patterns, then a lot of this curriculum will feel extremely repetitive. In my opinion, you could start this program as soon as those basic concepts have been mastered in preschool rather than waiting until kindergarten. My daughter and I will frequently skip large portions of the lesson, because she just doesn’t need the additional practice. The repetition may not be a bad thing for your child. They may need or enjoy the additional practice. But for us, it’s been burdensome rather than helpful.
• It’s cumbersome – The original Good and Beautiful Math curriculum is clunky. It includes two large workbooks and a giant box that contains manipulatives, flashcards, a calendar, a large place value chart, and pattern block mats. At least 2/3 of the box is used every single lesson. It’s cumbersome. It takes up a lot of space. And it can get frustrating having to juggle all the extras required for each lesson. Now, to be fair, the new curriculum appears to be much more streamlined. Simply Good and Beautiful Math has paired things down to just one coursebook and a small box with only a handful of manipulatives. So this criticism is largely irrelevant for the new system.
• The manipulatives are too specific, confusing, and flimsy – The curriculum I bought comes with bee manipulatives and garden manipulatives (pictures on cardboard cutouts) that can only be used with The Good and the Beautiful Math Level K. And while the pattern block manipulatives could potentially be used for something else, they’re about half the size of typical pattern blocks. So you can’t use them on any other pattern block mats than the ones that are included in the box. They’re also made of cardboard, so if my baby ever puts one in her mouth, that block is now useless. The quality just isn’t there. Also, the flashcards in the box are very confusing. There are multiple 1-10 flash card sets, plus several sets of numbers that are in some random, non-ordinal order. I can’t figure out why they didn’t just give you two sets of 1-20 flash cards and allow you to sort through them to find the cards you need for a given lesson rather than giving you a ton of duplicate cards without an explanation why. Like I said before, it’s cumbersome and frustrating. Again, these issues appear to have been fixed in the new curriculum. Simply Good and Beautiful Math has only one small box of manipulatives, all of which appear to be made of wood or plastic, so they’re much more durable. And the confusing amount of excess has been eliminated. However, the manipulatives are still very specific to the curriculum itself, and you probably won’t get much (if any) use out of them outside of the specific math program you got them with. But with the new, lower cost I’m less bothered by being unable to reuse the manipulatives.   
• The coursebook can’t be reused – Because your child will be writing in, coloring on, and even cutting up the coursebook, you won’t be able to reuse it for any younger children. However, you can purchase just the coursebook a la carte on The Good and the Beautiful website, so you won’t have to pay a full $50 for every child (the coursebook is only $30). NOTE: if you want to, you can purchase a digital download and print the coursebook yourself. Or you can get it professionally printed by The Homeschool Printing Company (which will cost more, but be more durable). This is slightly more cost effective, but not by much. I highly recommend the work done by The Homeschool Printing Company, but be warned! Turnaround times (especially during “back to school” season) are long. Sometimes as much as 10-14 weeks! So plan ahead and make sure you’re printing your materials months in advance of when you will need them.

Final thoughts: The Good and the Beautiful K-8 includes lots of science courses, a thorough 4-part world history course, and several electives including typing and drawing. In my opinion, these courses are geared for kids ages 6+, which is why we haven’t tried them and I’m not reviewing them. On their website, The Good and the Beautiful recommends that if you have older children doing these programs, your Kindergartener can participate and learn a lot, but you shouldn’t feel the need to start these programs for younger children until you feel that they are ready. I do have a couple of their science courses (Marine Biology and Space–which I got as free downloads when they updated them–and Safety, which I purchased). We haven’t used any of these programs yet, but I’ve looked through all of them and they are, in my opinion, on par in terms of quality with the rest of the curriculum we have used.

I hope this review was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions about The Good and the Beautiful‘s Kindergarten curriculum that I didn’t already answer. Be sure to share this post with your friends who are considering homeschooling this year. And if you’re using a different curriculum, I’d love to hear your thoughts about it.