The Good and The Beautiful Level K Math (Curriculum Review)

If you’ve ever spoken to me about homeschooling, you would most probably have already heard something about The Good and The Beautiful Math from me. Luke and I have been using it for almost a year now and it’s been the most effective material I’ve used for him so far.

Here’s our review about the Level K Math Curriculum. Hope you find it helpful!

What is The Good and The Beautiful?

The Good and The Beautiful is a homeschool curriculum. They have workbooks and materials for various subjects such as Language Arts, Math, Science and more.

You can get the materials by purchasing them online at their website. Learn more about it here.

Level K Math

Level K is pegged to be appropriate for age 5. My son was about to turn 4 when we started it and to be honest, a 4-year-old doesn’t really need to work on a Level K curriculum. But Luke has shown interest, so I started to take him on it slowly. It’s been 11 months since we started and we are almost halfway to it.

How to Get the Materials

If you live in the Philippines, you might be wondering how I got my hands on these materials.

I purchased them all as digital downloads on The Good and The Beautiful website. Then I had them printed and bound at a local printshop called 3L Digital Printing Services. They did such a beautiful job and even accommodated my request to use a white binder (purely for aesthetics’ sake hehe!) The books were then shipped to my address.

To give you an idea of the cost, 3L Digital Printing Services charges P4 per colored page, P150 for the binding per book and P150 for shipping within Metro Manila. It’s very affordable and definitely saved me a lot of time and effort rather than having to print everything on my own!

As for the materials, I sourced them myself from different places. I got the shape puzzles from an Instagram store (I forgot the name already I’m sorry huhu!) Then, I got the wooden cubes and 10-sided die at Shopee. I printed the paper materials and laminated each of them myself. Yes, even the little bee manipulatives. I was pretty crazy and I would not do it again. Haha.

And so with that, I would DEFINITELY recommend just getting the entire physical pack from TGATB if cost is not an issue. Use a shipping or PO box service to have the items sent over from the US. It will save you a lot of time and hassle. Don’t do what I did unless you enjoy the “challenge!” 😀

Why I Love The Good and The Beautiful Level K Math

1. It’s open-and-go: Literally requires no prep time and I love that. All the instructions for the teacher are written on the workbook and they are very simple. As long as you have all the materials, you’re ready to go anytime.
2. Everything is presented beautifully: I’m a very visual person so I really appreciate beautifully made things (and at the same time, very easily annoyed when something is not designed well!) And I’m very happy with The Good and the Beautiful. The layouts are neat, font is easy-to-read and not ugly and the drawings are not tacky like most children’s textbooks are (sorry!) The materials are also simple but purposeful.
3. Very interactive for the child: More on that below!

Daily Dose

You begin each lesson with what is called the “Daily Dose,” neatly presented as a checklist at the start of a new lesson.

Here, you’ll be asked to do things that would help familiarize the child with different skills such as knowing how dates are written, how to read from a calendar, place values and even simple graphing.

The Lessons

The lessons cover a wide range of math concepts that slowly progress as the child moves forward. Level K covers these and more:

• Number Recognition: Counting, Ordinal Numbers, More or Fewer, Recognize without Counting
• Algebraic Thinking: Addition, Subtraction, Using Tally Marks, Place Value
• Geometry: 2D and 3D geometric shapes, recognize direction and position
• Fractions: Identifying half and whole, dividing in half
• Graphing: Creating and reading Pictograph, Bar, Venn Diagram
• Measurement
• Patterns
• Time and Money
• Problem Solving

Complete list of concepts studied can be found here. This link is actually a math curricula comparison chart, which compares the lessons that are taught in this curriculum to other popular Math curricula and also to the National Math Standards in the US. As you can see from the chart, TGATB Math is very thorough and sometimes even exceeds what is expected.

The topics covered may sound complicated but each lesson is presented really well. They are also short and can be finished in a few minutes.

You also don’t just answer a worksheet per se. Instead, there are activities that the child will be doing in order to learn these concepts. That way, it does not feel like a chore for the child, which is of course, wonderful.

Using Manipulatives

I love that manipulatives are used in the lessons. It’s very helpful for retention and helps keep my son’s attention better. For him, it’s like playing with toys. What he doesn’t know is that he’s learning as he plays! Win-win for us!

My 4 Year Old’s Verdict

As mentioned, I started this with Luke before he turned 4. We’ve been doing it up until this day (he’s 4.5 years old now). I know it’s quite early to start him on Kindergarten Math (I assure you, I’m not a Tiger Mom!) but I honestly really just wanted to see how he would find it at first. And lo and behold. His verdict? “10 stars out of 5!” Haha.

He LOVES it so much that he asks me if he could work on Math instead of his other subjects! And I’m not surprised.

My son is a kinesthetic learner; he has to move around and touch things. TGATB Level K Math incorporates a lot of hands-on activities; it’s not just all writing and answering the workbook. There are manipulatives we can work on, cutting exercises, games and even physical activities that require him to get up, hop and jump!

Like I said, he thinks it’s all play but he’s actually learning already. Overall, I’m happy with this curriculum and I plan on getting the next one after we finish this.

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Check out other homeschooling ideas and lessons here.