The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
Curriculum Series: The Good and the Beautiful Math- Level K
Navigating the world of homeschool curriculum can feel like wandering through a maze without a map. What works for one child might fall flat for another, and with countless options available, how do you know you're making the right choice?
In this detailed review of The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten Math (Level K), homeschool mom Justine shares her complete experience after finishing the curriculum with her five-year-old son. We dive deep into what this popular curriculum actually teaches: identifying numbers 1-20, counting to 100, skip counting, basic addition and subtraction, shapes, colors, calendar skills, telling time, distinguishing left from right, measurement, coin values, patterns, and even/odd numbers. If you're wondering whether this curriculum would be too easy or too challenging for your child, this conversation offers valuable perspective from two moms using the same materials with different children.
Beyond content, we explore the practical aspects that matter most to busy homeschool families. Each lesson takes just 10-20 minutes to complete, making it manageable even on hectic days. The open-and-go format requires zero preparation – simply open the book and follow the clearly marked instructions. While the complete curriculum with math box costs $60, Justine shares clever money-saving alternatives, including free printing options and substitutions for the manipulatives. For families concerned about religious content, we discuss how minimal these elements are and how easily they can be adapted.
Whether you're just beginning your homeschool journey or evaluating curriculum options for your kindergartner, this honest review will help you determine if The Good and the Beautiful Math K aligns with your educational goals and teaching style. Share your curriculum experiences or questions in the comments – your insights might be exactly what another homeschool parent needs to hear!
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Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. Welcome With us today is Justine, and she is here to talk to us about the good and the beautiful Kindergarten level. Is that right, justine?
Speaker 2:Kindergarten level yep.
Speaker 1:All right, I use this as well, so we both started at the same time. Justine is completed with it. I am like lapping around the last lap like panting as we go. No, I'm just kidding. So the good and the beautiful. This is a popular one, and did you enjoy doing this? Did your son enjoy it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think it was really great. I did enjoy it. I just, you know, I think it was really great. Um, I, I did, I did enjoy it. I just have a few mixed feelings about it. He I feel like he kind of already knew everything that we went over. I don't know if that's. I think he learned most of it in preschool. So sometimes I had wondered if you know, maybe we should have moved on to level one or were we wasting our time? But I think it was definitely a good foundation because we actually have started math level one and there is a lot of handwriting, I'd have to say, and he does not like handwriting, so I don't think that would have went over well, so I think it's's definitely good curriculum to start with.
Speaker 1:And how old was your son when you started this curriculum?
Speaker 2:He was just over five and a half when we started.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and I started around the same time, my son's about six months younger, so, yeah, he was five when we started. The good and the beautiful kindergarten, or level K, I think, is how how it's called. And so what did it cover? And I, cause I'm like right in it now too, I can kind of pick up, you know some of the stuff, cause it's fresh in my mind what did this cover for, uh, you guys, for the kindergarten year, yeah, so I wrote down a bunch of things.
Speaker 2:I went through the lessons and looked at it Awesome, um. So I'll just kind of, you know, go down the list of what I wrote. Awesome. So I'll just kind of, you know, go down the list of what I wrote. So we're identifying numbers 1 through 20 and being able to, you know, write them out. We're counting to 100. We're skip counting by 2, 5s and 10s. We're doing addition.
Speaker 2:It got into a little bit of subtraction, but I feel like not very much. We did shapes and colors. How to kind of read a calendar, so say you know March 5th 2024,. Getting into the what are the days of the week, what are the months of the year, how to tell time on the hour, so two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock. Learning left and right, measuring in centimeters and inches, being able to identify a penny, a nickel, a dime and what each of them are worth, and it got into a little bit of counting them. You know, say I have two dimes, how much does that equal? Getting into patterns, number bonding so say we have the number 10, you know what different numbers can make up 10? So five and five, eight and two, one and nine, and then even in odd numbers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you covered that. I'll add tally marks.
Speaker 2:Yes, tally marks yes.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, but yeah, that was a great summary. Thank you for that Um, which is it's a lot actually. I mean, your kid did that in preschool, or did you don't know really where he learned it. He just like learned this.
Speaker 2:No, you know, I think he did because he knew. When we got to the tally marks, he knew what a tally mark was. And I was like, where did you learn this? And then I went back and asked his preschool teacher, because my younger son goes there now and she's like, yeah, we learned tally marks. I was like, oh OK.
Speaker 1:I guess she learned that in preschool. Wow, and my son went to a preschool as well, but he didn't learn any. I don't know what he did there. It was only like three days a week for two and a half hours. So by the time they got in and all sat down, it was probably time to get up and leave again. But um, yeah, so, so that's cool.
Speaker 1:Uh, cause I remember you saying to me a while back like oh, isn't this level like really easy, like you know my son's kind of bored with it and I was like um, no, I think I think for my son it was the perfect amount of difficulty, but not so difficult that he was frustrated, but it was introducing new concepts that he had not been like, things that I just assume that you know, like for instance right and left. I mean it's kind of funny that that's even in a math curriculum, but how wonderful that it is, because what other curriculum would it be in? I mean, it could be in reading, I guess, but like what you know, maybe reading to say like writing, say right hand, but um, I do love that they put that in there, and especially with the telling the time it teaches them on analog clock and digital.
Speaker 1:And you know, we happen to have a couple analog clocks in our house, but more more as decoration. But it's cool that, like you know, I could say, oh, this is. I don't think if I wasn't using a curriculum, I don't know that I would think to tell him like, hey, let's learn, let's learn how to use the clock. So I did like it for that. Okay. So you kind of talked about like what the day-to-day was. Because you talked about all of that, how long did each lesson take to complete with your child?
Speaker 2:I think it took my son a max of 10 minutes a day, If, if he actually sat down and, you know, did it through. I think a max of 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say probably 15 or 20 for a probably closer to 20, if it was something more difficult, like one of the more difficult lessons, um, you know, and that's given. Yeah, if they're actually sitting, because you know they're active boys sit down and then get up, and oh, I just thought I have to do this and that you know, so but yeah, I would say for me around. So probably between 10, 20 minutes, for me, maybe closer to 20. And how many lessons did this have?
Speaker 2:So they technically say 120, but I about six of those lessons are the unit assessments. So I think you're you're getting close to the end, so I think the last lesson is one 118, 118. Um, and then 119 would be the final unit assessment and then if your child got anything wrong then the final final assessment would be less final unit assessment, and then if your child got anything wrong then the final final assessment would be less than technically 120. So again, there's six unit study, six unit assessments, but there's two for each unit. So if your child doesn't get anything wrong, at least for me, I kind of just went on. I didn't make him do the second one because he got it correct.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. So yeah, just to give people an idea about 118, 120 lessons which, like we don't do it every day, like I aim to do it five days a week. It's probably three on average, four on a good week, you know. So do you remember how much this curriculum cost you?
Speaker 2:I believe to get the book and the math box is a total of $60. You can also print the curriculum for free, and then you'd of course maybe have to buy a math box. Maybe you can find it used somewhere, I know, specifically for Math K. You could probably just make the box yourself by things around the house or even going to the dollar store.
Speaker 1:Well, you know you're right, because I'm thinking about what's in the math box right now. It has little sticks and you could definitely find something it doesn't have to. Well you do want them to be sticks, because they do that kind of like where it shows the design, oh, the spatial recognition yeah. Yes, and so they're supposed to recreate the design using the sticks, but you could still use something else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could Like from the dollar store.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like popsicle sticks or yeah, there you go, that's perfect. Then there's some dice and some of them have plus minus signs and some of them have like go up to like the numbers 12, so you would have to have something like that.
Speaker 2:And then there's which I think, yeah, I think for. From going back to the dice, um, you know you could get them out of one of your games that you have, you know, upstairs in a closet. Um, or I know I have this dice. I think I got it from the dollar store years ago. It's a six-sided dice with a dry erase kind of like dry erase board on each side so you can write anything you want. You know you might not be able to find a plus minus dice in the store, but you could write plus minus on this, on, you know, a dry erase one. And you know, get it for much cheaper if. If that's what you were looking, if that's what you needed to do.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good point. And then the other two things I think were like little game pawns and it's easy enough you could use anything for that Right. Yep, oh, all right. Well, it does not look like the good and the beautiful will be sponsoring this podcast anytime soon. It does not look like the good and the beautiful will be sponsoring this podcast anytime soon. We're trying to find workarounds, but that's okay. Okay, could you do this with more than one kid at a time?
Speaker 2:I think you could. I think it might be helpful, though, if they had their own booklets, just because you know, after you learn the time you're kind of going in and drawing the little hand and the big hand, so we can tell if you know how an analog clock works, you know writing the numbers 1 through 20, or even tracing those numbers. There's a lot of tracing in the book, so I think there's maybe bits and pieces that you would want your own, so I mean, you could also I don't know if I mentioned this, but you can also print off the curriculum rather than buying it.
Speaker 1:Well, you did mention that and I didn't realize. You can take that to your local library and just pay, like you know. If you don't want to use up all your printer ink, you can take it to the local library and they can print it right for you for a few cents, you know. So that's a good idea too.
Speaker 2:Right, and I also for this specific curriculum. This is kind of what I bought it for, but I bought the the I don't know one of those printers that everyone talks about, the EcoTanks, and that's what I'm doing. I'm actually printing the Math 1 curriculum because I did find a Math 1 box on a Facebook page group for, you know, a discounted rate. So I was like, oh well, I can get math one for less than 20 bucks rather than spending 60. So I am printing math one.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good idea. Okay, so no, I never heard of that printer, eco printer, but that's cool too. But then also, yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't know how if you were to download it, maybe you email it to yourself or put it. Do people use USB drives anymore? I don't know, but I think you could and take that to the library and they could print it for you as well.
Speaker 1:Yep definitely All right. Or if you have one of them government jobs you just print it. No, I'm kidding, All right. So now that you're in the math level one, you're doing a lot of writing, and so we'll do a different episode on that as you kind of round out your year on that. But for the level K was there like games or a lot of writing or crafts or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there are definitely games. I wouldn't say a whole lot, but they were in there and I was very surprised. You know, we would go through the game and my son would say, oh, can we play again? And we'd play, like you know, five times, which kind of made me feel good, because there's some days where he doesn't want to do schooling at all. But when you get to a game it's like, oh, can we do it again? So that, you know, again made me feel good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So there there's a few games, no real crafts. They got like the, the, the spatial recognition things, where you kind of have to, you know, take the blocks and the sticks from your box and kind of build what they have built. There's as much handwriting, I feel like, as math should be. I guess I would call it handwriting because you're tracing numbers, you're drawing, you know the hands on the clock, you're doing your addition problems. It's not a whole lot, but there's definitely way more. In level one, you know we're learning how to spell the numbers and writing actual dates now.
Speaker 2:So there's definitely a lot more in level one.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that gives people a good idea if they don't know which one to start with, what level their kid is at. Yeah, all right, and so this is a religious curriculum, correct?
Speaker 2:It is correct. Yeah, I wouldn't say there's a whole lot in it, and even if there is, I feel like you know there's a sentence or two that you could probably just skip over if you, you know, don't practice religion or you know, don't want to introduce that to your child, which is fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, it's definitely not heavily baked into every lesson, it's like a little something here or there. Um, and I agree, you like I changed the name. When it says read to your child, I say okay, read to Colin. You know, so that it's just easy enough to change a word as you're reading it Um so would you use this again on your younger son?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will definitely use this for for my younger son.
Speaker 1:Yep, don't you sometimes just think like, oh, I'm through that curriculum and then I got to redo it all over again? I know people that have like nine kids. All right, so did. Did your son enjoy this curriculum?
Speaker 2:You know, I think in the very beginning, when we first started, you know, I was new to homeschooling so I was like, okay, let's do this over the summer, see if we can actually homeschool. So when I was doing that, taking my trial run before actual school started in the fall, you know he was sometimes wanting to do three lessons at a time, and I think he really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:And you know, I think he did enjoy it. I just think maybe I pushed a little too hard so there were some days he didn't want to do it. So it's kind of something that I'm learning for myself Try not to push so hard. But I think he did enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think my son too. Yeah, like I said, it was a good balance of being hard enough to where he was learning, but not so. It was not that easy for him. He wasn't getting frustrated, you know, not too frustrated, but he was learning, so it I don't even know if I'm making sense. Um, oh, justine, thank you so much. So this is the good and the beautiful level K. I hope this was helpful to anyone listening, and do you have anything else you want to add about it?
Speaker 2:I do just want to add one thing that we maybe didn't really cover. So it is an open and go curriculum. So it's, you know, literally you open it, it tells you specifically what to read to your child, which I think it makes life so much easier. There's nothing for you to prepare. You know, there's blue lettering which you kind of read to yourself, and then there's the black lettering which is what you read specifically to the child. So I just think that makes it so much easier.
Speaker 1:That's it. I am going to put that as one of my questions now on. That I ask people for this series is is this open and go? That's great, that's a good point. Yeah, because there's nothing that you need to prep beforehand, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Thanks. Just one other thing Also. Before you start each lesson, there's like a little, a little box at the top of the first page and it's called practice if not mastered. So you know of the first page and it's called practice if not mastered. So you know, I did it with my child. I think he kind of knew most everything we went over, but I always did it. It's just, you know, practice counting from 60 to 80. If you don't know it, it's something that you should obviously work on. You know, have him raise his right hand, have him raise his left hand, have him, you know, take out a whiteboard and have him draw or write the number 20 on the whiteboard. Does he know what number 20 looks like? So it just kind of goes into those things that you should have mastered. And if not, did the uh did it with him the other night.
Speaker 1:He came home from work I'm like, can you do his math with him? And he goes through the thing he goes. Oh my God, that was just the review. Now you've got to do what you're actually learning. Oh, I'm glad that you came on. You had a lot of great points that I'm going to now put in our list of questions for for my other uh episodes. Thank you so much, justine. We'll have you back on and, um, if you want to hear more about Justine's story and how her homeschooling in general, what got her into it and all of that, I will have her on the main podcast where we can chat about that as well. Sounds good, thanks, cheryl. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast or my main podcast, the Homeschool how To with friends, family, on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you for your love of the next generation.