As a homeschooling parent, one of the biggest challenges is finding the right math curriculum that not only meets your child’s academic needs but also keeps them engaged and motivated. Math is an essential subject that many students struggle with, and finding a program that makes it both interesting and understandable can be a daunting task.
That’s where Simply Good and Beautiful Math comes in!
This curriculum promises to make math fun and accessible for all learners, using a unique approach that combines hands-on activities, real-world examples, and engaging visuals.
But does it live up to its promises?
In this review, we’ll take a closer look at Simply Good and Beautiful Math and see if it’s the right fit for your homeschool. So, whether you’re a seasoned homeschooler or just starting out, keep reading to discover if this math program is simply good and beautiful enough for your child’s needs.
Overview of Simply Good and Beautiful Math
Simply Good and Beautiful Math is a math curriculum designed for homeschooling families. The program is created by Jenny Phillips, who is a homeschooling mother of four. The curriculum focuses on making math fun and engaging for students, using a combination of hands-on activities, real-world examples, and beautiful artwork. The program is designed to be used with students from kindergarten to sixth grade (more grades coming soon, hopefully).
Before coming trying Simply Good and Beautiful Math we had tried, with varying degrees of success, Horizons Math, Beast Academy, Teaching Textbooks, and gameschooling. As you can see, I’ve got a little experience comparing homeschool math curriculums! And, as a former high school math teacher, I knew any math curriculum we used had to be solid and teach our girls good math strategies and how to really think.
The curriculum is divided into levels, which are designed to be completed in one year. The levels differ slightly depending on if you have younger or older learners. For grades k-3, each level consists of a student workbook and manipulative box. Now, for those of you who may have tried Good and Beautiful Math in the past when the manipulative box was huge and so overwhelming, don’t despair, this new math box is AMAZING! There are just a few items (usually coins, a few game pieces, some themed pieces, and maybe some dice or a clock) and they are all neatly organized in a box. The gameboards are all embedded into each lesson. One thing I am really impressed with about this curriculum is how creatively they use the items in the math box for such a huge variety of activities throughout the year. A little more on that later.
Pros and Cons of Simply Good and Beautiful Math
Let’s do a quick breakdown of the pros and cons of the Simply Good and Beautiful Math curriculum.
Pros
VERY affordable (free if you don’t mind a little work)
Visually pleasing layout
Clear instructions
Variety of activities
Nice balance of bookwork and games/activities
Open and go
Gently introduces independent learning
Spiral approach
Cons
Grade levels are prominently displayed on the front cover, which could be discouraging if your learning is “behind” (even though we parents know that’s not a thing in homeschooling)
Currently only covers up to grade 6, as of 2023(although 7-12 are in the works!)
Teaching Style
The learning approach and teaching style of Simply Good and Beautiful Math is unique. It looks like a workbook, but the pages don’t feel like a workbook. Yes, there are practice problems, but there are lots of word problems, activities, and puzzles, too! The program is designed to be used with multiple learning styles, including visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. The hands-on activities and real-world examples are designed to help students who may struggle with math concepts understand them better. My girls love the frequent games and activities that are sprinkled throughout the lessons. Somehow it is just more fun to zoom a car around a neighborhood and answer addition problems than it is to answer them on a plain worksheet!
The teaching style of Simply Good and Beautiful Math is designed to be easy for parents to use. There is no separate parent’s guide (woohoo!). Everything you need to know or say is written right alongside the student work, making it easy for parents to teach even if they have little to no experience with math.
Which Grades Does Simply Good and Beautiful Math Cover?
Simply Good and Beautiful Math is designed for homeschooling families with students from kindergarten to sixth grade. Jenny Phillips, the creator, has said that they are working on curriculum for upper grades. They anticipate level 7 being released early 2024 and then subsequent levels in the coming years. I’m hoping they keep up with my daughter, so we don’t have to switch!!
The program is designed to be accessible for all learners, providing multiple ways to learn each topic and at the same time challenging students with spatial reasoning, logic puzzles, and small projects (like building a birdhouse in Math 5!).
On What Level Should My Child Start?
Simply Good and Beautiful Math is designed to be used with students from kindergarten to sixth grade. Each level is designed to be completed in one year. There are 120 lessons per level, so there is plenty of wiggle room for field trips, sick days, and…..life and you can still finish in one school year! If you’re unsure what level your child should start on, you can use the placement tests provided on the Simply Good and Beautiful Math website.
The placement tests are designed to help you determine which level would be the best fit for your child based on their current math skills. Don’t be surprised if your student places a level lower than you expected since this curriculum does tend to be more advanced that a public school curriculum.
Pricing and Availability
One of my favorite thing about The Good and the Beautiful is how affordable they keep their curriculums. The math curriculums for K-6 are FREE TO DOWNLOAD. Yep, free. I mean, you’d have to pay to print the pages, but still, that’s a pretty generous deal. We’ve actually used the free downloads twice when we switched over in the middle of a year. I looked at where we kind of were in the lessons and just started from there. If we are using the book for the whole year I just purchase them because it’s easier.
To purchase the complete kit for each level ranges from $50 for level K up to $70 for level 6. This would include the student workbook, math box for younger levels, and the second workbook and answer key for higher levels.
What is Included in Each Level?
As I mentioned before each level of Simply Good and Beautiful Math consists of 120 lessons. The workbooks use a spiral approach meaning that students are constantly reviewing skills they learned earlier. I love this approach compared to a mastery approach because, let’s be honest, who masters something the first time they learn it?!?!
In the levels K thru 3, each lesson is teacher-led. There is text in each lesson that you would read to the child as you go through the lesson. Each lesson also has a short Independent Practice section where kids will answer a few problems or do an activity on their own. I love this section because it slowly grows kids confidence in being able to do math on their own!
Starting in level 4 the lessons because completely independent, if you choose. I say that because my daughter still prefers for me to sit with her while she does the lesson if its a challenging topic for her. Most lessons begin with a short video (about 10 minutes) that introduces the topic, provides several examples, and has the student practice a few problems. The videos almost always relate the math topic to a real world topic, too, which is awesome. My daughter actually said the other day while watching her video “Wow, math is just everywhere!” (My math teacher heart was silently cheering, while I tried to maintain my composure, LOL.)
Would I Recommend Simply Good and Beautiful Math to a Friend?
The simple answer is YES! The Good and Beautiful Math program has been such a good fit for our family. The program is designed to make math fun and accessible for all learners and we have definitely found that to be the case. By using a unique approach that combines hands-on activities, real-world examples, and engaging visuals, Jenny Phillips has nailed it when it comes to homeschool math curriculum!
The program is easy for parents to use, with clear and concise instructions for each lesson. I also love how the levels slowly move children toward independent learning. My oldest is definitely NOT an independent learner when it comes to math, but the video sections starting in level 4 were a game changer. They gave her the confidence to do more and more of her lessons on her own! Yay!
As a former math teacher I am extremely satisfied with the content, delivery, activities, and level of difficulty presented in The Good and Beautiful Math. I hope this helps you find your homeschool math curriculum fit!
You can check out there website and their extensive previews on their website.