I have used this curriculum in level K, 1, 2, and 3 but this review will focus mainly on the 3rd level (only the old version. They just released an updated version recently and will be trying that with my 3rd grader in the Fall). Before getting into my pros and cons I will briefly say we highly enjoyed this year of Language Arts! 10 out of 10 would recommend and re-use!
The Deets: There are 120 parent-led lessons in the Level 3 Language Arts course. “Lessons are engaging for children and academically robust while also optimized to reduce parent teaching time. In just a small amount of time each day, children learn foundational language arts subjects including phonics, reading, spelling, writing, grammar and punctuation, literature, art, poetry memorization and appreciation, and geography.”*
My Pros: Initially, the appearance of this curriculum is amazing! We loved the beautiful, colorful pages and every new day we enjoyed just looking at the worksheets, artwork, etc. We got through the entire year without the need to switch to any other Language Arts resource, which says a lot.
My 3rd grader really enjoyed the other “subjects” blended in. Like Art, geography, and even hands-on cooking recipes. We made homemade butter and some Molasses cookies and it was so much fun!
I loved the way they introduced Paragraph writing and structure. I can’t say enough good things about it, in fact. I call it the “cut and paste method” and it was so effective. I have 2 older daughters and so have had experience teaching 3 children how to write paragraphs and this curriculum, by far, nailed instruction on the head in this area! I will be using this Level 3, FOR SURE, with both my younger daughters. As well as because of the Paragraphing lessons, in particular, being such a success.
You can buy the full course and readers, however, they also offer the courses completely free in a PDF version as well and so that is awesome when working with a budget.
My Cons: There aren’t many and, honestly, this isn’t even my “con” per se but speaking from my son’s POV… it was definitely his con. He really disliked the questions and writing portions along the way of what his current Reading was about. He enjoys reading books very much but he’s always hated discussing what his book is about (he’s getting better at the end of 3rd grade though, more than he was in the beginning of 3rd grade) and he REALLY dislikes having to write about it. Any type of book report work elicits moans and groans and complaints and so I’ve taken on a very laid back approach to this because I want to continue to foster a love for reading and not allow the “comprehension” part of it to take away from that. Because of this fact, I just simply skipped over that portion thru-out the school year.
Lastly, again not really a con, but my son has always been advanced in spelling. For whatever reason unknown to me he just one day knew how to spell many, many words at a high level, and even if he can’t spell it easily, he can usually get it right just by sounding it out in the end. So we found the spelling lists (at the level) a little redundant and usually skipped that work. I did, however, just do a quick verbal “spelling bee” along the way when the new words would come up because he very much likes to show off his spelling skills still. Haha!
*This excerpt was taken directly from The Good and the Beautiful’s website