The Good and The Beautiful Language Arts Review: Kindergarten

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Have you been considering the Good and the Beautiful Language Arts curriculum? This is an UNBIASED and UNSPONSORED review of the Good and the Beautiful’s NEW Level K Language Arts program! Come see what’s included and how it works. You’ll find the scope and sequence, a detailed overview of the units and my thorough review of the Reading Booster Program.

The NEW Good and the

Beautiful Language Arts Level K: What’s included

This is an all-inclusive language arts program so there are several parts that work together to make up the level k curriculum. The main component is the Level K Course Book, accompanied by the Reading Booster A Cards, the Reading Booster A Book Set, Reading Booster A Games, as well as the Integrated Letter Tiles App. I’ll go more into detail about each below. But a major concern for most people for any curriculum is the cost so let’s talk about that first.

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The Good and the Beautiful Pricing

The pricing for level k is mid-range for the full set in a printed version is around $70 (at the time of this writing). BUT the best part of this curriculum is that The Good and the Beautiful is currently offering this curriculum for FREE as digital download PDF Files! Yes, you read that right! You can purchase the printed version for around $70, but get the digital download of the same curriculum for FREE! I know, almost too good to be true, right?!

Personally, I like to purchase any consumable item for homeschooling as a digital download. That way I can print off more than one copy for my multiple children going through the same course. But I like little readers or main textbooks that were reading out of constantly as a physical book because I always prefer to read a book than look at a screen. That’s just my personal preference. So I purchased the Reading Booster A Cards and the Reading Booster A Books since they’re reusable for my other children, while I download the course books for free.

(Side Note: I do have an Ecotank printer so that printing off 300+ pages really just costs me the ream of paper. If you are a homeschooling parent and you’re looking for a good printer, while it is a bigger up front cost, it is worth it in the long run because you save money on most curriculum by purchasing digitally. So I highly recommend the Ecotank!)

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Placement Test

Also, before we go any farther, the Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level K Program does preface that before completing level k that your child should already know a few things. The child should already know their alphabet, be able recognize both uppercase and lowercase letters, and know the most common sounds of each letter.

If you don’t know what the child already know or you would just like to quiz them to make sure they’re ready then you can always take the placement assessment to make sure you get the right level. You can find the placement assessment here at the bottom of the page.

It’s a simple assessment that you don’t even have to print off if you don’t want to. I just had my child look at it on my phone and read off each item. You should probably have your child take the assessment when they are alert and ready to show off their skills. My child is a morning person, so I had them take it after breakfast so that they were in his best mood before attempting the assessment. If your child is not quite ready, you can use some of our free letter tracing activities or they have a Kindergarten Prep Course Set available for your child to brush up on some items before starting the Level K Program.

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level K Course Book

The Level K Program’s main component is the Level K Course Book. This one course book is both the teachers guide as well as the student’s workbook. Any part that is for you, the teacher, to know is in blue ink, while the text to read to the child is in black ink. This allows you to teach with confidence, while still being open and go. The Level K Course Book is organized in 3 Units that is then broken down into 120 lessons. When using this program, we aim for 4 lessons per week meaning we’ll finish a level in about 30 weeks. This leaves time for additional learning activities, field trips and sick days.

This course boasts of going over “phonics, spelling, homophones, plural nouns, capitalization, discussing literature, art appreciation, poetry memorization, using appropriate pencil grip, writing fiction and nonfiction, oral narration, reading comprehension, studying and creating maps, starting sentences with capital letters, and so much more” – according to their website. I have found that the course naturally intertwines all of these seamlessly.

Level K Sample Lesson

Above is a sample, I’ll walk you through a lesson so that you can see how it works. Lesson number 35 working on Spelling words B and D. Each lesson is laid out with bullet points of things to do. The first bullet point above shows you in blue letters – which means this is instruction for you, the teacher – “Work on reading booster cards or books for 6-10 minutes”. I will have my child read a booster card or two depending on difficulty, and if directed on the card read a reading booster book. If not, I will use the additional nature reader or africa reader as “reading” time.

Then bullet point number 2 tells you to write on a whiteboard “Werun” and “We run.” with additional instructions to dictate (say aloud) the sentence in the green box to the right and have the child write it on the whiteboard. Make sure the sentence starts with an uppercase letter, ends with a period and has space between words. We don’t actually use a whiteboard, we use the back of a previous page. This is a quick activity that will reinforce sentence structure and the ability to spell from dictation.

The third bullet point says to have the child use the letter tiles app to spell the following words: bed, dot, bet, dip, did, beg, dim, and bat. (See below my review of the letter tiles app). I will have my child spell the words on the app and then have them use the word in a sentence after they’re done spelling it.

The forth bullet point gives a small poem to read. Then as a bonus activity have them finish some creative sentences out loud.

The next page starts the Independent Review Section which includes reading a sentence and coloring a star if the sentence is actually happening in the picture below. For the Independent Review sections, I typically read the instructions and then walk away to allow my child to read and decide on their own whether the sentences match or not.

The final page is also Independent Review, so I come back over to read the directions and then walk away again to allow my child to work independently to answer the questions or in this case find the words. This is actually a “longer” lesson because it has 3 pages to do instead of the typical two pages. If we don’t include the 6-10 minute reading part, then language arts normally takes us between 10-15 minutes to complete. The reading booster a cards and books can be done at a separate time to allow the child to do no more than 15-20 minutes in a sitting for the kindergarten level.

The Level K Course book is full of beautiful artwork that is both colorful and engaging. The artwork truly brings the lessons to life. The short easy lessons are a combination of spiral and mastery so that the child can easily practice new concepts in bite-sized pieces so as not to overwhelm the child. This course also includes various ways of teaching like the hands on letter tiles, or the visual aids in the homeschooling app for videos explaining certain concepts or simply reading a story. I feel like since they added so many different ways of presenting the idea a child with any learning style can use this curriculum. I know when I research a curriculum, I want to know exactly what will be taught and in which order. Therefore, I included the table of contents below that shows the scope and sequence of the entire course. These are also available as a free pdf sample pages on GoodandtheBeautiful.com.

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level K: Table of Contents/Scope and Sequence

The following is the Table of Contents for The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level K:

Reading Booster A Cards

If I am being completely honest these booster cards and booster books are my two favorite parts of this new curriculum and could totally be used independently as a reading program. The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level K intertwines Reading Booster A Cards into the curriculum. So if you are using the level k course book then you will need to complete these cards and books as well. Since they are self paced, your student can go through them as quickly or slowly as needed.

Each lesson will direct you to work on the cards for 6-10 minutes. Personally, I use 1-2 cards daily even if we’re not doing our language art’s lesson that day as daily readers. For my child who loves reading, they will quickly read and master these cards each day. For my child who is not so fond of reading, we will work on those same 1-2 cards until mastered, which could take a couple of days to fully master. I love the layout of the Reading Booster Cards because of the ease of using with varying levels of reading and different learning styles! Once, for my kinesthetic learner, we did a reading walk where we walked around the living room until we finished those particular cards for the day. I’ve included a couple of examples here to show you what you can expect.

Although, they are not all laid out the same, quite a few of them have a small lesson at the top that will introduce a new concept and then you practice that concept with new words. For example, this card (Card #1 shown above) introduces blending to read CVC Words so it gives a list of words ha-t, ha-m, ha-d. You are supposed to have the child sound out the blend ha and then add the last letter so that they say the words hat, ham, and had. Again, these cards are available as FREE pdf downloads on the good and the beautiful’s website so there is no need to purchase if you are on a tight budget! These are a great way to practice reading even if you are not using their full language arts curriculum.

Once the child can complete a single card without hesitation (meaning you might have to work on the same card for several days before the child has mastered it), then the child earns a sticker from the back of the book and places it on the “mastered” circle at the bottom right hand corner of each page! This reward encourages the child to keep going even if its hard.

I have also come up with an additional incentive for my children when they complete a full level curriculum book! Whenever my child completes all of the level A Cards and level A Books then they earn a “bake whatever you want with mom day” in the kitchen! It usually ends up being super fun for both of us celebrating a completed level! They can then move onto the level B Cards and B Book Set!

Reading Booster A Books

The TGAB Level K uses the Reading Booster A Book Set which replaces the Level K Personal Reader from the old edition. This set includes 20 beautiful books that coordinates with the Reading Booster A Cards. The Reading Booster A Cards will tell you when to incorporate the Reading Booster A Books. For example, on card #9 the child will read through two pyramid sentences and then at the bottom of the page it states, “Have the child read the Reading Booster A Book #5, The Jet.” So we then read through that book. If a book is not suggested, I usually pull out the additional nature reader or Africa reader to still incorporate reading for the day.

Additional Readers that Correlate with Reading Booster A Cards and Books

An additional component that correlates with these books, but are not “required” are the My First Nature Reader and My First Africa Reader books for level k. My First Nature Reader comes with 20 short books for brand-new readers. My First Africa Reader comes with 22 short books for brand-new readers. Each book also focuses on one or two phonics concepts or groups of kindergarten sight words.bI’ve featured both of their tables of contents below to show you that they match up with what they are already learning throughout the level k course.

I don’t know about you, but in my home reading is the main focus during Kindergarten. So I decided that it was worth the extra money to purchase these additional readers that perfectly correlate with the new language arts program that my child was completing. I feel like it really helps them feel more confident in reading when practicing concepts they just learned. I love that these readers follow the same lessons that the main reading booster cards and books are using.

Reading Booster A Games

Now on to my children’s favorite part of this homeschool year, the Reading Booster A Games are found on the FREE Homeschooling App! These fun games practice the sight words or new blending lessons by hearing the word spoken aloud and choosing the right spelling in a practical and fun way. One of the games, pictured above for example, the child earns a sticker of something from the ocean and gets to create a ocean scene as they practice their sight words! I have given my kids 10-15 minutes to play on the app after completing their full school day so that they earn it as a treat for doing well. They love it and it encourages them to work diligently. This is just an example of some of the fun games that they get to play and love!

Integrated Letter Tiles App & Homeschooling App

The addition of the FREE Letter Tiles App has made for some fun spelling times with my children. I give them my phone with the app open and start doing an oral spelling test. My kiddos get to type in the correct spelling of each word and then show them to me. As a fun bonus, I have my kiddos use the word in a sentence. If its a homophone (a word that sounds the same but is spelled differently. Like the words there, their, and they’re), then I will use the word in a sentence so that they will know which one to spell.

About the Founder: Jenny Phillips

Jenny Phillips was a singer/songwriter before she started to homeschool her young children. As Jenny started to homeschool her children, she couldn’t find what she wanted in a curriculum so she decided to create her own. This birthed the beautiful curriculum that is now The Good and the Beautiful Homeschooling Curriculum. She is well known as a member of the of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As such, there is much debate on whether this is a “Mormon” curriculum with lds beliefs.

As a bible believing Christian, I have not encountered any Mormon doctrine yet. Jenny boasts of being a “multi-denominational curriculum, rejoicing in the common good that all Christians share”. So basically, she created it to be a generic “Christian” curriculum where there are general references to creation, God creating the beautiful earth, praising God and other such references, but not any doctrinal differences. I feel like this is a really well laid out curriculum and for the price it can’t be beat! If you feel lead to use this, I feel like this works as a great option during all of the elementary grade levels and into the middle school language arts levels. Once you hit high school, I think there may be more references to lds beliefs during their book studies.

The Pro’s, the Con’s and My Conclusion

The Pro’s: 1) I like that the Good and Beautiful homeschool curriculum gives a strong foundation of reading skills, grammar lessons and independent work. 2) I love the price! I love that it’s a free option as a digital download. 3) It’s a great choice for an All-in-One Language Arts program and I love that it’s open and go.

The Con’s: 1) Because it’s open and go and all in one it may not be as rigorous as a traditional homeschool curriculum or even a classical one. But to me that’s kind of the point.
2) I think a lot of people don’t use this curriculum simply because of the founder’s LDS beliefs. To that I say, download it for free and see for yourself if it’s a good fit for you or not. No condemnation if you feel like it’s not a good fit for you or your family.

Conclusion: I think this is a solid choice for those considering it for level K. I think this is the perfect fit for someone who wants open and go language arts that wants to use a variety of learning strategies to allow your child several options of learning.

Also, as a reminder they also have a beautiful book list full of really good books for each reading level! These are definitely something that I invest in for our home library so they can continue to be used over and over again.

I hope you found this helpful! Let me know in the comments below!

-Danielle

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