Thanks for taking time to make this video. I have loved how thorough the Good and the Beautiful is, and how truly beautiful! But I’ve been experiencing the same feeling the last 6 months, that it just feels like so MUCH content, my kids just can’t keep it all in and they feel overwhelmed and frustrated and we jump around a lot from one idea to the next. I have realized that we need a more simplified and peaceful route. I appreciate your perspective!
I have 2 young boys. In August 2021, they were 5.5 years old and 4 years old. My oldest was showing that he was interested in math and reading and was catching on quick. So, we purchased TGATB level K LA, and math 1 for my oldest and pre-k & K primer as well as math K for my youngest. At first I wasn’t sure if it was going to work for us. We seemed to be enjoying it once we got into a daily rhythm with it. But my oldest would cry when he had to read or write. I assumed that this was just my child’s anxious/stubborn personality about having to try something new or hard. I didn’t know better…. So we pushed through and finished in May of 2022. Well, now I have to tell you… he loves reading! I often find my oldest reading to my youngest. He is becoming so confident and asks to read more to us. And it brings me tears of JOY! And to think I guilted myself for possibly pushing him too hard during that time. He worked through it, completed the work, and realized he CAN do hard things! Now his joy for reading pleases this mama’s heart. My youngest is also reading now. He completed all the prek and primer books and he can also read! The math books were so fun for my boys, they would tell you that Math was their favorite subject this year. However, I got to watch them and help them and in my humble opinion, their favorite part was the handwriting books! They expressed so much joy with the little drawing, coloring, and pattern copying in their handwriting books. My boys THRIVED this year using this curriculum. They grew SO MUCH in this past year. And I was blessed to be a part of it and to witness it! We are using the next level of books for this coming year. If it goes this well again we may stick with TGATB again! But I am always looking for alternatives as well, because I understand as we grow and change this one size fits all type of curriculum may not be the best fit for us in the future. Only time will tell. I just wanted to share our story and progress for other mama’s out there!
Thank you SO much for sharing! I really love hearing these stories! It's so important to do what is best for your family and even each individual child! My daughter handles TGATB LA very well and she's a fantastic reader - but it just wasn't a good fit for me boys. And now that I have 'tasted' the charlotte mason approach to LA and education in general, it's been really hard for me to picture going back to TGATB. But that doesn't mean it won't work for so many families and i'm so grateful for that company and all the work they do to provide great curriculums for so many families.
We’ve used TGTB for almost the past year. At lesson 74 we started having a hard time getting through. We paused and I happened to have language lessons for a living education, explode the code, bob books and ordinary parents guide to teaching reading. Taking the break from it has been great! We still use the mini books and reader as part of our day and I think after this semester he’ll be more confident and ready to go back to it. He loved it up until that point so I think it was more he was not developmentally ready for the next level of learning in the TGTB. And like you said he was only in kindergarten and was a bit advanced.
I love that you were able to notice he needed something different and pivot! 👏🏼 way to go! Sounds like you did just the right thing and I hope your son is able to jump back in feeling more confident! 💛
We had a similar experience this year with TGTB LA. It wasn’t a good fit for my level K kiddo at all. Tears everyday. We stopped it for her in Dec and shifted gears. My oldest, also level 2 did fine with it but it took the joy out of it for us and made it hard to get to other fun subjects because of the energy that was zapped from us. We are moving away from it for the year for us as well. It’s been great for us for seasons but like you, it’s not working for us anymore so it’s time to make a change! Looking forward to seeing what you chose.
Love your channel. ❤ I’m also so glad there are so many curriculum choices and something for everyone. For me, I LOVE all the spelling rules. I never learned any of these in school and always thought the English language was so weird. I always thought there was no rhyme or reason for why things were spelled the way they are. But now I understand why certain letters go where they are and why the silent e is where it is. I love to know the “why” behind things. I know that’s not important to some people and some would probably skip that. I love that as teachers we can use the parts we like and skip the ones we don’t. ❤
We switched from TGTB as well. My daughter was getting bored, and she would get distracted by the colors. I loved what it included, but it just did not work for us. I know plenty of people who have had it work well for them! We have switched to Sonlight this year. My children are loving it!
We just switched for the same reasons too. My 4th grader was overwhelmed with all the business on the page. Then he was struggling to retain and daily it felt like a chore to do his work rather than something he looked forward to. We chose CLE to change to.
Thanks for the info and update. We also used about 3/4 of the Level K last year and it was too much. There are certain things I didn't want to focus on/Introduce till a later time and it was too long, took us in too many directions, and didn't have the focuses that I was looking for. We have since switched/simplified and it has been wonderful!
@@elizabeth0265 We are currently using 100 Gentle Lessons in Sight & Sound (from A Gentle Feast) for reading. For spelling we will use Spelling You See. And we don't have any formal grammar instruction yet, but she sees it through reading, Copywork, and a weekly penpal letter.
Can't wait to see what you have chosen this year! We also changed from TGATB. We are using Abeka this year and I really love how they teach phonics with blends and special sounds. I'm hoping it helps with my daughter's reading fluency🤞
I do not worry about spelling and phonics rules because there are so many exceptions. We mention rules but then give examples of words where the rules do not apply. Have your kids read lots of good books or read to them. I notice that kids know correct grammar just because they've heard it correctly spoken or have seen it in writing. Whatever curriculum you're using, I can assure you it will not be perfect, just as what a child may be using in public or private schools will not be. Simply adjust to your child's needs.
Yes to all of that! I found my boys really thrived and began reading really well once we ditched the curriculum and just focus on me reading to them and them reading to me! I'm hoping we can jump back into TGTB LA with their update versions this fall!
We switched from TGTB a couple years ago. I used it my first year homeschooling. Level K helped my daughter with her reading but she didn't retain much else. I think it was the pace and I felt the concepts introduced were somewhat random. My son used level 2 and didn't like it at all. We switched to BJU Press which we liked but now use First Language Lessons (well trained mind). LA has always been a wild card for me as it isn't my strong suit. I also want to give Lightning Literature a try when my son hits fourth grade next year. If we don't like that we will go back to BJU for middle school. I like FLL for the younger grades because it's mostly oral and very repetitive which my kiddos need. Great video!
Hi Joleen! I'm glad I'm not the only one who has discovered that TGATB doesn't work well for us(at this time). I have never tried FLL but it sounds really good! I also have never heard of lightning literature so I'll make sure to check that one out too!
Lightning literature was a bit like TBATB to me. It wasn't comprehensive at all, they randomly taught different something one day then another topic the next. You should check out Abeka.
You're welcome! I am really hopeful about their updated LA curriculums coming out this summer - I'm excited to try them and see if they work. There are so many things I love and appreciate about TGTB LA, but obviously it was just too much for my boys.
This was us this year too. We have moved away from TGATB LA and their new Math program. We are using Christian Light Education ( CLE ) for both LA , Reading and Math. We also added DK to keep the Geography going. For History we are using Notgrass . We do Notgrass differently by doing it family style. When we switched the LA and the Math at first we did both CLE and TGATB, when the kids gravitated to CLE we finished phasing out TGATB. The next school year will be CLE for LA , Math and Reading ( we do not use the light units with the reading program. We use their worksheet method ) , DK for Geography, Spelling You See ( which we had been doing along with TGATB ) , CLE for science. CLE is very affordable , has tons of samples , a really well written scope and sequence and they have free placement testing that helps you to place your child. This is year 18 for us and its still a learning experience for is.
I really like CLE for LA. So basic, straight to the point, no fuss. Easy for mom and child. I did order TGTB for LA since I do like the idea of adding poetry and geography in our day.
I want to know what you switched/switching too. I did the good and the beautiful with my son and stopped half way through level 2. He was just an overload. We switched to All about reading and spelling for now. It’s been great! But I wish I could have an all in one.
Hey! Great question! We switched to a gentle feast but I haven't been happy with their language arts component. I love everything else, but the language arts isn't a good fit for where my kiddos are. So we are kind of limping along while I search for a better LA option. The good and the beautiful has announced an updated LA version coming this summer, which gives me some hope - but we will see.
I started with TGTB Pre K, work great for my daughter. She know all her letters uppercase and lowercase and her letter sound. We used the Primer during the summer. It was too much for my daughter. It skip alot of things in my opinion and move too fast for her, blending sounds didn't come easy for her and now she can read some words but still struggle with reading. It's skip CVC like learning how to blend two letter sound first, eg. ba, be, bi, bo, bu ect.
That is wonderful to hear that you love the level 4! I have an upcoming 4th grader this fall and I hear the new LA updates are supposed to be really good. I'm hopeful we can do levels 4 and 2 this year and I hope it goes way better than it did last year!
I'm going to be switching to TGTB this year from Abeka and I'm worried if it is enough for the student it seems like it's very teacher heavy and I have four kiddos to teach this year. Would you say it's enough ?
I would say it depends on the grade. Grades k-2 are definitely VERY teacher heavy. It can't be done without the teachers help almost 100% of the time. But I hear that grads 3+ are more independent, though I can't vouch for that personally because I haven't done those grades in TGTB yet. When you say "would you say it's enough"? Do you mean enough rigor in the curriculum? A resounding YES would be my answer. It is very thorough a rigorous in my opinion. A little too much in my personal opinion. But TGTB has updated LA coming out this summer that I am anxious to try and see if they have improved it as much as they say they have. I hope that helps!
ugh, so sorry you have had this happen too. The good and the beautiful has a new updated version of their LA coming out this summer - It sounds promising and more gentle!
Thanks for taking time to make this video. I have loved how thorough the Good and the Beautiful is, and how truly beautiful! But I’ve been experiencing the same feeling the last 6 months, that it just feels like so MUCH content, my kids just can’t keep it all in and they feel overwhelmed and frustrated and we jump around a lot from one idea to the next. I have realized that we need a more simplified and peaceful route. I appreciate your perspective!
I have 2 young boys. In August 2021, they were 5.5 years old and 4 years old. My oldest was showing that he was interested in math and reading and was catching on quick. So, we purchased TGATB level K LA, and math 1 for my oldest and pre-k & K primer as well as math K for my youngest.
At first I wasn’t sure if it was going to work for us. We seemed to be enjoying it once we got into a daily rhythm with it. But my oldest would cry when he had to read or write. I assumed that this was just my child’s anxious/stubborn personality about having to try something new or hard. I didn’t know better…. So we pushed through and finished in May of 2022.
Well, now I have to tell you… he loves reading! I often find my oldest reading to my youngest. He is becoming so confident and asks to read more to us. And it brings me tears of JOY!
And to think I guilted myself for possibly pushing him too hard during that time. He worked through it, completed the work, and realized he CAN do hard things! Now his joy for reading pleases this mama’s heart.
My youngest is also reading now. He completed all the prek and primer books and he can also read!
The math books were so fun for my boys, they would tell you that Math was their favorite subject this year.
However, I got to watch them and help them and in my humble opinion, their favorite part was the handwriting books! They expressed so much joy with the little drawing, coloring, and pattern copying in their handwriting books.
My boys THRIVED this year using this curriculum. They grew SO MUCH in this past year. And I was blessed to be a part of it and to witness it!
We are using the next level of books for this coming year. If it goes this well again we may stick with TGATB again!
But I am always looking for alternatives as well, because I understand as we grow and change this one size fits all type of curriculum may not be the best fit for us in the future. Only time will tell.
I just wanted to share our story and progress for other mama’s out there!
Thank you SO much for sharing! I really love hearing these stories! It's so important to do what is best for your family and even each individual child! My daughter handles TGATB LA very well and she's a fantastic reader - but it just wasn't a good fit for me boys. And now that I have 'tasted' the charlotte mason approach to LA and education in general, it's been really hard for me to picture going back to TGATB. But that doesn't mean it won't work for so many families and i'm so grateful for that company and all the work they do to provide great curriculums for so many families.
We’ve used TGTB for almost the past year. At lesson 74 we started having a hard time getting through. We paused and I happened to have language lessons for a living education, explode the code, bob books and ordinary parents guide to teaching reading. Taking the break from it has been great! We still use the mini books and reader as part of our day and I think after this semester he’ll be more confident and ready to go back to it. He loved it up until that point so I think it was more he was not developmentally ready for the next level of learning in the TGTB. And like you said he was only in kindergarten and was a bit advanced.
I love that you were able to notice he needed something different and pivot! 👏🏼 way to go! Sounds like you did just the right thing and I hope your son is able to jump back in feeling more confident! 💛
We had a similar experience this year with TGTB LA. It wasn’t a good fit for my level K kiddo at all. Tears everyday. We stopped it for her in Dec and shifted gears. My oldest, also level 2 did fine with it but it took the joy out of it for us and made it hard to get to other fun subjects because of the energy that was zapped from us. We are moving away from it for the year for us as well. It’s been great for us for seasons but like you, it’s not working for us anymore so it’s time to make a change! Looking forward to seeing what you chose.
Yes! I’m so glad I’m not the only one who has felt this way! I’ll have my new curriculum video up today 👏🏼👏🏼
I'm sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. I'm excited to see what else you picked!
Thank you! My most recent video shows what we are using this year!
Love your channel. ❤ I’m also so glad there are so many curriculum choices and something for everyone.
For me, I LOVE all the spelling rules. I never learned any of these in school and always thought the English language was so weird. I always thought there was no rhyme or reason for why things were spelled the way they are. But now I understand why certain letters go where they are and why the silent e is where it is. I love to know the “why” behind things. I know that’s not important to some people and some would probably skip that. I love that as teachers we can use the parts we like and skip the ones we don’t. ❤
We switched from TGTB as well. My daughter was getting bored, and she would get distracted by the colors. I loved what it included, but it just did not work for us. I know plenty of people who have had it work well for them! We have switched to Sonlight this year. My children are loving it!
We just switched for the same reasons too. My 4th grader was overwhelmed with all the business on the page. Then he was struggling to retain and daily it felt like a chore to do his work rather than something he looked forward to. We chose CLE to change to.
Thanks for the info and update. We also used about 3/4 of the Level K last year and it was too much. There are certain things I didn't want to focus on/Introduce till a later time and it was too long, took us in too many directions, and didn't have the focuses that I was looking for. We have since switched/simplified and it has been wonderful!
Alyssa what are you using now? If you don't mind me asking
@@elizabeth0265 We are currently using 100 Gentle Lessons in Sight & Sound (from A Gentle Feast) for reading. For spelling we will use Spelling You See. And we don't have any formal grammar instruction yet, but she sees it through reading, Copywork, and a weekly penpal letter.
I’m so glad to hear I’m not alone in thinking this way!
Can't wait to see what you have chosen this year! We also changed from TGATB. We are using Abeka this year and I really love how they teach phonics with blends and special sounds. I'm hoping it helps with my daughter's reading fluency🤞
Oh that’s great! I have friends who love abeka! I hope it works well for you 💛 my curriculum video for this year is coming next!
We are switching from TGATB LA to Abeka this year! I’m nervously excited. I have a 7th, 5th and K4.
I do not worry about spelling and phonics rules because there are so many exceptions. We mention rules but then give examples of words where the rules do not apply. Have your kids read lots of good books or read to them. I notice that kids know correct grammar just because they've heard it correctly spoken or have seen it in writing. Whatever curriculum you're using, I can assure you it will not be perfect, just as what a child may be using in public or private schools will not be. Simply adjust to your child's needs.
Yes to all of that! I found my boys really thrived and began reading really well once we ditched the curriculum and just focus on me reading to them and them reading to me! I'm hoping we can jump back into TGTB LA with their update versions this fall!
We switched from TGTB a couple years ago. I used it my first year homeschooling. Level K helped my daughter with her reading but she didn't retain much else. I think it was the pace and I felt the concepts introduced were somewhat random. My son used level 2 and didn't like it at all. We switched to BJU Press which we liked but now use First Language Lessons (well trained mind). LA has always been a wild card for me as it isn't my strong suit. I also want to give Lightning Literature a try when my son hits fourth grade next year. If we don't like that we will go back to BJU for middle school. I like FLL for the younger grades because it's mostly oral and very repetitive which my kiddos need. Great video!
Hi Joleen! I'm glad I'm not the only one who has discovered that TGATB doesn't work well for us(at this time). I have never tried FLL but it sounds really good! I also have never heard of lightning literature so I'll make sure to check that one out too!
Lightning literature was a bit like TBATB to me. It wasn't comprehensive at all, they randomly taught different something one day then another topic the next. You should check out Abeka.
Thank you for sharing, I was on the fence if I was gonna use it this year.
You’re very welcome! It definitely has worked well for us until this point. So don’t write it off completely. But I hope my honest opinions help
Thank you for your honesty 😍
You're welcome! I am really hopeful about their updated LA curriculums coming out this summer - I'm excited to try them and see if they work. There are so many things I love and appreciate about TGTB LA, but obviously it was just too much for my boys.
This was us this year too. We have moved away from TGATB LA and their new Math program. We are using Christian Light Education ( CLE ) for both LA , Reading and Math. We also added DK to keep the Geography going. For History we are using Notgrass . We do Notgrass differently by doing it family style. When we switched the LA and the Math at first we did both CLE and TGATB, when the kids gravitated to CLE we finished phasing out TGATB. The next school year will be CLE for LA , Math and Reading ( we do not use the light units with the reading program. We use their worksheet method ) , DK for Geography, Spelling You See ( which we had been doing along with TGATB ) , CLE for science. CLE is very affordable , has tons of samples , a really well written scope and sequence and they have free placement testing that helps you to place your child. This is year 18 for us and its still a learning experience for is.
Thank you SO much for sharing your experience and what has worked well in your homeschool. I'm definitely going to check out CLE for LA!!
I really like CLE for LA. So basic, straight to the point, no fuss. Easy for mom and child. I did order TGTB for LA since I do like the idea of adding poetry and geography in our day.
Happy to hear this about CLE. I'm really looking into this for my third grade
I want to know what you switched/switching too.
I did the good and the beautiful with my son and stopped half way through level 2. He was just an overload. We switched to All about reading and spelling for now. It’s been great! But I wish I could have an all in one.
Hey! Great question! We switched to a gentle feast but I haven't been happy with their language arts component. I love everything else, but the language arts isn't a good fit for where my kiddos are. So we are kind of limping along while I search for a better LA option. The good and the beautiful has announced an updated LA version coming this summer, which gives me some hope - but we will see.
I started with TGTB Pre K, work great for my daughter. She know all her letters uppercase and lowercase and her letter sound. We used the Primer during the summer. It was too much for my daughter. It skip alot of things in my opinion and move too fast for her, blending sounds didn't come easy for her and now she can read some words but still struggle with reading. It's skip CVC like learning how to blend two letter sound first, eg. ba, be, bi, bo, bu ect.
Yes I know exactly what you mean. Did you find something better for your daughter?
I felt the same way. However I love the level 4
That is wonderful to hear that you love the level 4! I have an upcoming 4th grader this fall and I hear the new LA updates are supposed to be really good. I'm hopeful we can do levels 4 and 2 this year and I hope it goes way better than it did last year!
I'm going to be switching to TGTB this year from Abeka and I'm worried if it is enough for the student it seems like it's very teacher heavy and I have four kiddos to teach this year. Would you say it's enough ?
I would say it depends on the grade. Grades k-2 are definitely VERY teacher heavy. It can't be done without the teachers help almost 100% of the time. But I hear that grads 3+ are more independent, though I can't vouch for that personally because I haven't done those grades in TGTB yet. When you say "would you say it's enough"? Do you mean enough rigor in the curriculum? A resounding YES would be my answer. It is very thorough a rigorous in my opinion. A little too much in my personal opinion. But TGTB has updated LA coming out this summer that I am anxious to try and see if they have improved it as much as they say they have. I hope that helps!
Interested in following your homestead page but can’t find it
Hey! we are generation acres farm on youtube :) and instagram.com/generationacres.farm on IG
Is this the new version or older version you’re reviewing?
I think the new levels are completely different from the older levels you are reviewing. They are shorter and more independent. T
How do you think the language arts curriculum compares to ABeka?
I have actually never done abeka language arts so I’m not sure
That is what happen now with my boy 7 Year old, and I don't know what to do...
ugh, so sorry you have had this happen too. The good and the beautiful has a new updated version of their LA coming out this summer - It sounds promising and more gentle!
I love this one that is out now! waaaay better than what I taught from as a teacher for the public schools.
What are you using instead???