Switching LANGUAGE ARTS to The Good and The Beautiful 

We switched to TGATB mid year as well a few years ago and we were able to “catch up” since they only have 120 lessons. It took us maybe a year or two to completely get on track with lesson 1 on day 1 of school but my kids didn’t even notice. They just did the lesson I told them to without thinking what level they were in vs what year of school they were in. We are very happy with LA for elementary and then switch to IEW for middle school. Btw - as a tip for spelling, my kids needed more hands on spelling practice. So we just took a blank notebook with the spelling words and I had them write the words every day: ABC order, in cursive, in spirals, etc. Having them physically write the words every day helped them to truly master the spelling words each unit.

I really like your "think through" videos. I am in this same process with curriculum! Thank you so much for sharing!

This is so timely, because I've been thinking about using TGATB for my middle daughter. We tried their handwriting this year and it just was like magical for her. She will just do pages and pages of it every day. I think it's the fact that everything is 'beautiful' and that it involves art and coloring and sweet birds and such. I never really thought it would be a good fit for us, but I think I may have been overlooking a perfect fit for her. Children are all so different

I didn’t use TGTB LA because of the phonics as well. This year I tried it out for my kinder & 3rd graders. We still use AAR since TGTB lessons are super short in the younger years. It’s been such a solid curriculum & I’ve seen so much growth in both of my kids this year!

Yes, we are loving the new 3rd grade TGATB! But I am also discovering the different curriculums for different personalities work and don't work

I think it’s amazing that you are recognizing your daughter’s need for a change of program and you are supporting her in that and she is excited! That’s awesome and I hope it continues to go well for both of you.

IEW is wonderful for structure.

Third grade was exactly when we picked up TG&TB, and I never thought I would. And while I don’t hate it, it is not how I think. But it’s EXACTLY how two of my kids function for entirely different reasons. Not a great fit for another of my kids, and that’s the beautiful advantage we have homeschooling our students. We adapt and get to choose and meet our kids where they are at and challenge them in ways they will respond and thrive!

The books are so great for level 3! It was a fun year for us when we did level 3 of the new edition :)

I love The Kingdom of Kind! TGTB is a solid program. My oldest is doing the last level of high school right now and it's served him well.

We have used and lived TGTB for 5 years now. Cannot wait for you to experience it. Even if it isn’t the perfect fit, you will gain so much insight about your two learners.

She sounds exactly like my daughter too. Young for the grade but switches over around January. Hope she loves it!

You’ve been talking about wanting to try TGTB for years, and I’m glad you’re giving it a try! Sometimes you just have to do it and see how it feels :)

Love TGATB! My daughter learned to read so early and easily during the kindergarten with the reading booster program. So glad it’s reigniting your daughter’s enthusiasm for school.

Always enjoy your videos, Angie! We are having work done IN our house this year and it's been TOTALLY disruptive! I have extra work to prepare space for workmen, extra talking, less space, "everything" out of place and not sure where it's going when it's time to find it's place!!! Ugh .. and I am supposed to be educating my children. We ARE BEHIND! It's aching on my heart, but we've been blessed (especially with extra finances) to get this work done in our home, I'm so thankful. Yet, overwhelmed and disappointed with myself and for my children. Sorry, didn't really mean to vent. I love how intentional and consistent you are with your homeschooling. I pray and strive to be as good a homeschool Mama as you are, someday! Keep up the good work, Angie! 😊

My kids are using Level 1 (used Level K) last year and the updated versions are much more phonics based. I love the booster cards and little readers and how it joins up with the curriculum. I don't always LOVE the sequence they introduce things, but it really seems to work for my kids.

my 4th grade son is excelling with IEW. We use the video teaching and he went from hating to even write one sentence to writing entire two page reports full of correct grammar, interest and humor. For his personality IEW is perfect fit. It is only a writing curriculum so we also use BJU Press for spelling, Fix it grammar and CLE language arts. AND of course all the Sonlight readers.

You guys might really like Essentials in Writing! It has made a BIG difference for my son's writing!! We love the very short videos and bite size chunks. It is not overwhelming, but they learn a ton!

I agree so much about each kid being different and having to change things around that. My first 2 were very similar but my 3rd required some changes. We are loving TGTB.

Wow, so excited to see how it works for you. It will help me see your comparison of TGTB to sonlight for LA!

We just switched back to TGTB and we are so glad to be back in it. We love the lessons and the readers!

Is writing in Rhetoric or Write Shop on your list to consider? I am eager to hear what you are considering for writing next year. I have a 5th grader that is going to need a writing program next year and I don't know what route we are going to go. IEW is on my list, but there are TONS of review for that program.

It sounds like a wonderful switch for your daughter! I am happy for you! I also adore LOE and I would totally want it for my second child but children are so different. And that is beautiful. In the homeschool world, there is nothing like the feeling of: I found such a great fit for my child and I , curriculumwise! So congratulations to you both!

We tried TGTB in August and September. It was too distracting and the lack of uniformity in exercises from week to week threw both of us off. We switched to Master Books and it was a great fit for us. Sometimes you just need to change!

Use the TGTB LA with Sonlight readers for my 4th grade twin boys. It works great together

For Language Arts 3rd & 1st grade my kids have really enjoyed TGTB. They also read all the books from Bookshark for their independent reading during afternoon quiet time as we love their book selections. I don’t like TGTB language arts for writing so we do IEW for that. Sounds like a lot but they are able to do a lot of TGTB independently and pretty quickly. Sounds like this may work great for your daughter. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

I’m interested to hear how you like it after using it. I’ve used TGATB for three years alongside LOE programs. I had decided NOT to use it for level 3 this year and only got it at the last minute for exactly the same reasons you mentioned- the way they teach phonics and spelling drives me batty and I really don’t enjoy their readers. 😂 I’m so glad I ended up getting it again this year to use as a supplement. The art, poetry, geography, writing, and grammar lessons bring so much joy to our school day. My son loves competing the lessons each day. We skip the spelling, phonics, and readers and use LOE Essentials online and Sonlight readers instead. It has been a GREAT fit this year!

The timing of this is so funny, because TGATB LA is working so well for my second grader, but I got on RU-vid today to see what else is out there, specifically SL LA, because my mom guilt said there’s probably a better fit out there. 😆 I pair ours with First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise (purchased an older edition on eBay for just a few dollars) to make the grammar more of a spiral. We do that out loud, and it only takes a minute. And, we use All About Spelling, which is just personal preference.

We’re using TGATB Language Arts 2 and 3, and I like so much, especially 3! This our first time using it and my son is doing really well! He loved Timothy of the 10th Floor so much that we bought the rest of the series. Honestly, I’m enjoying the books and curriculum just as much as he is. We are considering IEW or Night Zookeeper for writing going forward because I want my boys to have a little more structure with their writing.

We just made the switch to The Good and the Beautiful for high school.

I have been curious about why you haven't chosen TGATB in the past, so I was really interested to hear your explanation! 😁 I also found TGATB phonics instruction to be a little lacking at the preschool and Kindergarten level and had to supplement with All About Reading. Since they've redone the program, though, their phonics instruction is much more similar to All About Reading now in my opinion. And it's so beautiful! And so easy to teach. I keep trying other programs with my kiddos and I just keep coming back to TGATB. I hope you and your children enjoy it as much as our family does.

IEW seems like it would be a good fit for your son. Excellent for adding in that structure that many kids need to have for stability in order to really excel.

I am using TGATB 3 with my daughter, and it has been a good fit for her. I hope it works so great for you folks! (We do substitute the spelling for spelling you see)

You have to get your son IEW SSS

We have been having writing curriculum issues too. We did IEW and MCT last year and EIW this year and both didn’t work for my 4th grader. I’m currently looking at write by number and Write Shop.

Good luck with TGATB, we had to ditch it and switch (both Lang. Arts and Math) because it was just not doing the job academically, especially upper elementary; which was disappointing because I so wanted to love it. We have often found that at times we have to do things differently for one child than we do for another and that is one of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that we can give them a customized education that is just right for their needs instead of a generic one size fits all box.

I used TGTB for a few years with my 3rd grader. She did really well with the phonics portion but really didn't retain much as i had hoped she would. My son did Level K. This curriculum didnt click with them. My kiddos feel the same way as your 10 year old does. I hope TGTB works for your daughter.

I agree with so many of the comments here. I am currently trying to decide whether to continue using TGATB or to piecemeal the components with various curricula. TGATB can sometimes be all over the place. I already supplement spelling with Spelling-U-See, phonics with All About Reading, and this year I introduced Fix-It-Grammar for my 3rd grader (and he has really flourished with it). But TGATB is extremely easy to implement. One lesson a day, shared reading, and it hits all of the topics. I'm not sure it is the best curriculum at any given subject, but it also doesn't miss anything. I find Sonlight Language Arts to be difficult to implement, especially their spelling. I also find that some of their mechanics teaching is a bit much, especially for my daughter who struggles with even basic grammar. I love Sonlight's readers. They are the strongest part of Sonlight curricula.

Thanks for being willing to share when something you love just isn't working. We're looking at switching to Sonlight for a similar reason and I'd love to hear if you have any tips about when the best time is to order to get the best deals? Thanks!

Your daughter sounds similar to mine. She is also in 3rd grade and has a summer birthday. We're currently using TGTB LA Level 3 too. It's been a good fit so far. I might end of adding in some more/different composition but probably not until next school year. We came from LOE Foundations.

I would love to hear your thoughts are on The Good and The Beautiful vs. Sonlight for Science.

I remember you used Lightning Literature, BYL, and Torchlight in the past. I’m looking into those and I’m wondering why none of those made the cut for Language Arts in your opinion.

We love TGTB! I hope it keeps working!

That’s exactly what we do! We use TGATB LA with the sonlight readers ❤️ I have tried a few times to leave TGATB and I always come back 😂

This new level 3 looks very good! I wonder if they are updating 4 as well??

Great job! Relationship over curriculum ❤.

For structured writing, perhaps Winning With Writing or the writing section of Essentials in Writing would suit your son.

Have you heard of Winning with Writing? I’ve seen some great reviews on it lately and maybe that will be more step by step for your son. Teaching and learning the writing process is tough!!

You should check out hmh writing handbook grade

Hi! I'm interested in Brave writer, but I don't understand how it works😅 Is it easy to implement? I'm just considering the writing portion. It would be amazing if you make a video! ❤

I'm curious now that you've been using this for a few months how do you feel about it? I started my son's first grade year with TGTB language arts and it did not go well. I switched pretty early on to abeka and that worked really well for him in first grade. Second grade, not so much 😔 I'm not sure what to do with him next year for 3rd grade. I love abeka but I'm not sure it's right for him. I've researched pretty much every grammar program out there (that's the only part I'm really interested in) and I can't find anything I like. I can't believe I'm considering using TGTB language arts again but I'm wondering if it would be a better fit for him now that phonics isn't really a big part of it. He likes creative and fun, hands on things. Are you enjoying it? Do you feel like it's enough instruction and review for your daughter to retain? I'm curious for any feedback you can provide now that you've been using it a bit. Thanks!

Sonlight LA left my kids very weak in grammar. We switched to CLE for K1-2. For 3rd I’ve considered TGATB. I am still on the fence.

I hope TGATB 3 works well. I have an almost 8 1/2 year old son, he’s working through Sonlight la 3 and also uses Rod & Staff English 3. Rod & Staff is very simple and effective, not exciting but still very good. Are you doing HBL D in the fall? Will you be doing la D in any way? Think I recall you were trying to get both of our older students ready for la D. X

I agree with not liking TGATB phonics. We do Abeka LA for K4 and K5 for an amazing foundation and then switch to TGATB for 1st. My son saw how many workbooks Abeka had for 1st grade LA and he was like…nope 😂

I was looking into Guest Hallow ELA. Have you tried it or reviewed it?

Check Jady A writing workshop, it is great