Look no further for a The Good and the Beautiful curriculum review. This post lists pros and cons of this popular homeschool curriculum, explains how to use it, and answers common questions in order to help you decide if this curriculum is right for your family.
I am in no way affiliated with The Good and the Beautiful curriculum or company. I do not receive any kickbacks from them, financial or otherwise. The opinions expressed here are my own.
(This post does contain affiliate links from other sources, however. I will be compensated for any purchases made through my affiliate links. Thank you for helping to support my family!)
What is The Good and the Beautiful curriculum?
What and Why
I first heard about The Good and the Beautiful a few years ago from some of my fellow homeschool moms. They had discovered an amazing curriculum and were in love with it! They wanted to share the new find with all the other homeschool families they knew. I liked the sound of it and, naturally, (because I’m all about curriculum chatting!) asked lots of questions.
Per their website, The Good and the Beautiful strives to “teach advanced academics while connecting children to the good and the beautiful in life and learning.” The whole curriculum is very clearly and very effectively designed around this concept.
The author -Jenny Phillips – left a career in music to homeschool her children. She has a degree in English and wanted to ensure a strong academic and character-building education based in “good literature” for her children. She published her dream curriculum in 2015. Since that time, this open-and-go curriculum has grown exponentially. With her own warehouse, tons of books in print, and a loyal following of thousands, Jenny has definitely achieved her dream and apparently met a need in the homeschooling community.
What they say
Per their website, The Good and the Beautiful Curriculum (I copied and pasted this bulleted list directly from their homepage. See the original here.):
- Emphasizes family, God, high character, nature, and wholesome literature
- Requires no daily prep time—just open the book and follow the instructions, learning and exploring along with your child
- Family Style – History, Science, & Electives
- Combines multiple subjects, which connects learning and eliminates the need for six to seven different courses
- Thorough phonics reading program creates excellent readers
- Thorough and advanced courses leave no gaps
- Offering a free book list for all ages
What others say
I first heard about The Good and the Beautiful curriculum from other homeschool families who were using it. They could not stop raving about how great it was and how much they were enjoying it. A few things families said repeatedly that they liked are:
- The cost. The company intentionally tries to keep costs at a minimum to be affordable for most. They offer many of their subjects as free downloads.
- The quality. It is a truly colorful and beautiful curriculum with nothing held back. Hard to get such quality for the low/free cost.
- Ease of teaching multiple grade levels.
- Integration of subjects.
- The gentle-nature of teaching. Kids actually enjoy it and don’t find it to be boring or overly strenuous.
How to use The Good and the Beautiful curriculum
Next up in our The Good and the Beautiful curriculum review is how to use it. Using this curriculum is fairly simple and straightforward. While not “scripted” so to speak, The Good and the Beautiful teacher guide does provide full lesson plans and instruction on how and what to teach for each lesson. It is teacher-led, meaning that the teacher/parent will need to go over the lessons with the student. However, students grow more and more independent as they progress through each grade level, needing less and less help from the instructor.
The Good and the Beautiful is self-contained. If you purchase their curriculum in full, every subject will be covered, including math and science. You can also purchase each subject separately and piece together several different curricula as fits your family’s educational goals.
The lessons coincide with each other across grade levels. So you as the teacher can introduce concepts to multi-ages of kids and just give deeper material and more complex assignments with each progressing grade. I liked how the workbooks themselves stay colorful and engaging even as the levels progress.
They provide a free booklist of pre-vetted books that are age appropriate and gentle in content on their website. Some books go along with the curriculum and others are recommended side reading. I appreciate the rankings of literary, moral, and educational values of each book to help with choosing. While some of the books may be harder to find, Amazon carries many of the titles. You can also support small businesses through bookshop.org for many of the titles as well.
The Good and the Beautiful curriculum review: Pros and Cons
Every good reviewer knows that no curriculum is flawless. And every curriculum has something positive you can find. The purpose of this The Good and the Beautiful curriculum review is to present my observations on this curriculum in order to help you decide whether or not it is a good fit for your family. The following is a list of positives and negatives I have found.
Pros
- Colorful, engaging workbooks. As I scoured their website and examined their curriculum both digitally and in print, it took my breath away. It truly is a beautifully designed curriculum. And again, I love that the workbooks for middle and high school are just as beautiful and colorful as the ones for younger grades.
- All-inclusive. Many homeschoolers like the ease of choosing one company to cover all subjects. This definitely takes the burden off having to research and choose separate curricula year after year.
- All grade levels. This curriculum covers preK through high school. No having to start over with a new company because your student has reached the end of the program. (A hassle for sure, believe me!)
- Price. The price of The Good and the Beautiful is very reasonable. Many of their digital products are free, and the printed materials are extremely competitive. You definitely could not find a curriculum at this level of quality for less than the prices they offer.
- Not denominationally-affiliated. This curriculum advertises itself as generically Christian. While I don’t completely agree with the truthfulness of that statement (see cons list below), they do focus more on character building than instilling doctrine.
- Gentle approach to education. While not strictly Charlotte Mason style, The Good and the Beautiful is very gentle in how it teaches each subject. Children are not burdened with too much book work. They are encouraged to get out into nature, to use their senses, and to take learning at their own pace.
Cons
- Academics. While the website claims that the material is advanced and students go deeply into material covered, I did not feel that was the case with the ones I examined. I felt instruction was minimal, not explaining things as thoroughly as it probably should or going as deeply as others into various subject matters. I personally prefer stronger academics so that my kids are not held back from anything they may want to do because of a lack in their foundational education.
- Western-Centric. Much of the curriculum seems to be about the US. There is very little world-focus or valuing of other cultures. They do have country/culture studies and a world geography component. But the curriculum as a whole has an “America is the best” slant.
- One-sided history. This point tags along with the one previous. A careful evaluation of their history program found a statement (in the US government package) about not approaching historical texts with bias and being sure to go to primary sources for truth. Both very good points. Then it proceeded to teach kids how to insert their own biases into what they read and picked and chose what to accept from primary sources. I was very disappointed in the curriculum’s treatment of Native Americans and peoples of color (both directly and mainly by omission). I did not feel that US history is presented truthfully or fairly.
- Not accurate self-representation as far as religious content. The Good and the Beautiful represents itself as non-denomination-specific, able to be used with all subsets of Christianity. However, it is very conservative in its presentation of most issues and uses the KJV translation for all scriptural references. The author is very vocal about her affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormon) but insists that she has put no doctrinally-specific teaching into the curriculum. While they are absolutely free to believe and teach as they choose, the curriculum should represent itself as conforming to evangelical or conservative beliefs and teachings rather than for all who identify as Christian.
The Good and the Beautiful curriculum review: In Summary
In this The Good and the Beautiful review, I have laid out what the company says they are, what homeschooling families enjoy about it, how to use it, and a short pros and cons list based off of my own observations. If you are looking for an all-inclusive, conservative Christian, gentle curriculum, then this one definitely fits the bill. It is low-cost and has many freebies available for download. If you are looking for an academically rigorous, progressive or secular, individualized curriculum, then this one is most likely not a good fit for your family.
I hope this review has helped you in your family’s curriculum-deciding process! Let me know in the comments if you have anything to add to my pros and cons lists.
Check the Reviews tab above for more reviews of homeschooling curricula – like Real Science 4 Kids and Logic of English – as well as a few books I review as I read them with my kids – like Amari and the Night Brothers and more!
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