Curriculum Review: The Good and the Beautiful Science
Science has always been a subject that we have struggled to find our footing in. That’s a little odd, because I have always loved science, but apparently I prefer learning about it to teaching it? It’s been difficult to find a curriculum that fit my teaching style, Claire’s learning style and combines good books with experiments.
The Good and the Beautiful is a newer curriculum that has become fairly popular in the homeschooling community over the last couple of years. When we were struggling with science, I decided to give it a try. Their Marine Biology unit was completely free, so it didn’t hurt to give it a try. We absolutely loved it! Since then, we have completed several other units and have a few still left to try. If you’ve ever wondered about The Good and the Beautiful’s science curriculum, read on!
What is The Good and the Beautiful?
The Good and the Beautiful is a curriculum created by Jenny Phillips, a homeschool mom who couldn’t find a curriculum that fit the criteria she was looking for. Jenny desired to teach her children through quality literature that exemplified good character and focused on God. She wanted this curriculum to be open and go, academically thorough and yet still visually appealing.
The Good and the Beautiful are more well known for their math and language arts, but their science curriculum is the only portion we have used. It is unit study based, so you purchase several units for a year. As a parent, you can choose the scientific topics or you can allow your child to choose the things they are most interested in learning about.
Each unit has 10-20 lessons. While the curriculum recommends that you complete 2 lessons a week, you can easily do less or more depending on your preference. Each lesson includes scripted teaching points and many include mini-books (you put these together yourself), and an experiment. Some lessons also include items to color or work on to include in a science binder your child creates.
Who is This Curriculum For?
While The Good and the Beautiful has expanded its curriculum to now include many subjects and grade levels, I’m specifically reviewing their elementary science curriculum. This curriculum is geared toward grades K-6, though it often includes extension projects for grades 7-8. These unit studies were specifically created with families in mind, so they appeal to a wide age range.
This curriculum adopts a Christian, young earth worldview, so keep that in mind. There’s no way to make this curriculum secular, but you can likely leave out portions that discuss the age of the earth.
Pro's of The Good and the Beautiful Science
The curriculum truly is beautiful! In addition to the scripted part of the curriculum, there are gorgeous, full color photos, mini-books that you assemble and lots of other lovely goodies.
There are a wide range of topics to choose from. We have enjoyed Marine Biology, Space, Botany and Meteorology, but there is everything from biology to chemistry to earth science. There are also units specifically for health, safety and sex ed.
The cost is amazing! If you’re ordering a physical copy, most of the science units are in the $20-$30 range. Everything is printed single sided on heavy duty, glossy paper. It’s very high quality! Each physical copy also includes a PDF of the entire curriculum, so you are able to print off additional worksheets for multiple children. If you own a color printer or would like to print the curriculum through a printing company, you can purchase the PDFs at around half the price of the physical copies.
The scripted nature of the teaching portion is very helpful for parents who have never taught before or don’t feel comfortable teaching science. You simply read through the script and then there are questions to ask. The questions are nicely dispersed throughout the reading, so it doesn’t feel like you’re endlessly droning on.
The ability to work through these units as a family is very appealing. It’s also time (and maybe sanity?) saving when you have quite a few children. It’s designed for the teaching portion to be read aloud to all the students and then there are separate sheets to fill out. While this curriculum is geared for K-6, there are some extension projects included for grades 7-8.
The Good and the Beautiful has been recording the experiments that are in their units. If you’re unable to get some of the supplies or if you just don’t have time to set up the experiment for that week, you can watch online! This is a huge bonus, especially for parents who are short on time, traveling or struggling to find supplies.
Cons of the The Good and the Beautiful Science
Some Christian parents may be alarmed to discover that Jenny Phillips is a Mormon. However, I’ve yet to stumble upon anything in the curriculum that is distinctly Mormon. Jenny formed a board of editors that included Mormons, Catholics and Protestants of all denominations in an effort to write a curriculum that was non-denominational. From what I can see, she was successful in this, but there will still be Christians who feel uncomfortable with a curriculum created by a Mormon.
While the curriculum itself in general is very open and go, there are some preparation elements. There are vocabulary words to cut out, games to prepare (which is mostly just cutting things out) and mini-books to assemble. The prep is fairly minimal for a science curriculum, but I thought I’d throw that in there for parents who might be tight on time.
In lessons that don’t have experiments or activities, it can feel like all you’re doing is reading. While the pictures are nice, I wouldn’t call the material much more engaging than reading a textbook with pretty pictures. Lessons that include experiments are much more fun and engaging, but the ones that don’t feel relatively bland.
While each unit does include a book list, I found that quite a few of the books didn’t delve any deeper into the topic than the lesson itself did. There were a few we enjoyed, but many just felt repetitive after studying a lesson with the exact same information.
Some parents may prefer science curriculums that spend a year or so on a topic, rather than individual units that take a few months to complete. These units are not cohesive and do not build on each other (there are a few exceptions to this, but not many).
With some of the units, you need to purchase some equipment that can really add up. Several units require a decent microscope and slides (this is the one they recommend) and the Meteorology unit requires quite a few components to make a weather observation station.
Those are my thoughts on The Good and the Beautiful! While we have enjoyed some units more than others (Marine Biology and Botany were wonderful), it has been a solid choice for science in our home over the past couple of years. We have struggled a little bit more with it recently, particuluarly in terms with purchasing supplies for our current unit (Meteorology). We’ve also been enjoying Ambleside Online, which has a science portion. It was feeling a bit much to do both. I’d love to find a curriculum that combines hands on activities and experiments with amazing living books, but that’s proven difficult to find. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
All this is not to say that The Good and the Beautiful isn’t a great curriculum. It definitely is! I’d still highly recommend it to homeschool parents, particularly those who are looking for something a bit more open and go.
Let me know your thoughts! Have you tried The Good and the Beautiful? If you use something else for science, would love to hear it! Leave me a comment and let’s chat!
12 Comments
Kim Carter
I appreciated your review — everything except the comment about Jenny Phillips’ faith. I am Mormon (or as we prefer to be called, a member of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints), and I am astounded by comments like yours in the homeschool community that continue to perpetuate misunderstandings about our faith. While you did not explicitly state a falsehood about our beliefs, your very first “con” about the curriculum is that Phillips is a Mormon. What does that have to do with the quality of the curriculum? It has nothing to do with it! All it does is directly feed into the misunderstanding that we are somehow not Christians.
admin
I’m so sorry if my comment was offensive or hurtful to you. That was certainly not my intention in any way. I only mentioned it as I know there are some families that would find issue with this, so I included it to be thorough. While many LDS beliefs do intersect with traditional Christian denominations, there are certainly some differences that many would be uncomfortable with. Many families would also find issue with Catholic curriculum or curriculums that have undertones of Calvinism, Armenianism or secular views. I always state the religious backgrounds (or lack thereof) of curriculums I review to help families make choices they are comfortable with. This is not just for Christians, but also secular homeschoolers who read my reviews. A person’s religious beliefs certainly play no part in the quality in a curriculum (we use curriculums from all kinds backgrounds!), but there are many families who prefer to know. I added it only to be transparent so parents can make an informed decision based on their viewpoint.
Amber Hall
Thank you for your review! I was searching for which unit to use next because we’re halfway through mammals. I was happy to see you enjoyed marine biology (because it’s free) and I was curious of you’d used a unit that would be fun for younger children (mine are 8 and under).
I have to echo what another commenter mentioned. Using the term “mormon” instead of the correct name of our church has become a bit derogatory, please consider editing the article to say The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints if your intention is to be respectful. Listing us as your first con is a little offensive. If I posted an article that said “I love this curriculum even though it was made by Jews” when the content wasn’t created to preach Jewish religious ideals, I think the Jewish community might not appreciate that.
Julie
Hi. I enjoyed the review, but I’m wondering how many units you have finished in a year? Is it roughly one a quarter? Thank you for your time.
Ashley
Thank you very much for the review… I’m looking at the Botony unit for the summer with my going-to-be 1st grader, so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. I want to include my going-to-be 4 year old as well. … I understand that there will be portions we will skip due to their ages, but I’m wondering if I can get your opinion on if there is still enough good content for that age that would still make it worth purchasing??
admin
Summer is such a great time to do Botany! If you don’t mind making adjustments for your kids, I think they’d still enjoy it. Of course, every kid is different. My daughter really enjoyed it as a new 2nd grader.
Bethanie
Thanks for your review! I looked at The Good and the Beautiful science and it didn’t seem to fit my family at the time. I may have to check them out again. We ended up deciding on Elemental Science for the grammar stage. It takes a classical approach but has several books to choose from as your stamples for learning the information. We follow the 2 day a week schedule. One day is learning information/memory work and recording it in your notebook and the other day always has an experiment. We got the experiment supply box and it has made science so much easier to do and fun this year.
admin
I’ve heard great things about Elemental Science! It’s one I hope to look into in the future. We may switch up science soon, but we do still have a few units left from The Good and the Beautiful. I love that there are so many different curriculum options to find things that work for different families!
Ruth Turner
Your review was informative. Thanks for posting it. Have you checked out Noeo Science? Their new editions include 70+ experiments each year and living books.
admin
I haven’t even heard of that science curriculum before! Thanks for the suggestion. I look forward to checking it out.
Dilana Dunn
Would these units qualify for credit in high school requirements for graduation?
admin
The units I reviewed are for elementary ages with extension ideas for middle school/junior high. I know The Good and the Beautiful has started making high school curriculum as well, but I haven’t looked into any of those yet.