Hello! "Secular" household here. We hope this helps all the families considering homeschooling next school year 2025-2026 and beyond.
Time4Learning was the initial go-to for our son in 2020 for 2nd grade. Though incredibly flawed, it got us through the pandemic. We placed him back in public school for 3rd and 4th grade believing that this move would allow him to socialize more. Quite the contrary. We discovered that the school was not allowing the kids to interact in any way during lunch and on the bus ride home and barely in the classroom. Those are super important moments when kids should be allowed to socialize. So back to homeschool he went.
Even though we are a "secular" family, we decided to give The Good and the Beautiful goodandbeautiful.com a try for 5th and 6th Grade math and Language Arts. There are religious views incorporated, but I looked over the sample lessons and it was an excellent curriculum and decision as the lessons are open and go. The art was beautiful and the lessons were rigorous. Our son has really improved in writing, vocabulary and grammar skills. For 5th grade math there are pre-recorded video lessons with a teacher that teaches the lessons before he begins his practice lesson offline. It is also helpful for parents to understand the concepts as well to act as sort of a tutor when your child needs more assistance. Independent learning still needs to include a guide when needed. When they are struggling with a specific concept, slow down... Homeschool allows your child to move on when they are ready. For additional help in math, search for other YouTube channels to help your child excel in math: youtube.com/@MathwithMrJ makes math easy to understand.
The Good and the Beautiful Math 5 assignments can be a bit long and include a review that covers previous concepts learned. Parents should determine what their child can handle in one day. Create your own daily lesson plans if you need to break longer lessons up into 2-3 days. Math 6 seems to be a little shorter per lesson. There are 120 lessons for both math and language arts. At this time we think we will stick with The Good and the Beautiful math courses.
The Good and the Beautiful 5th Grade Language Arts was excellent to me. It includes literature, grammar, poetry, art appreciation, writing skills, spelling, vocabulary and geography. However, for 6th Grade L.A., more religious based material was incorporated and the reading material was a bit boring.
I am sure as students move to other grade levels in T.G.A.T.B, more and more religious and Christian-American values and viewpoints will be added. So I changed the literature for 6th grade and included my own literature: The Season of Styx Malone (my son's favorite chapter book, now😆), P.S. Be Eleven, Sounder, The Little Prince, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and finally, Hello Universe (which may be a close second favorite)! Teachers Pay Teachers has some awesome book studies ready to go along with answer keys! You do not have to be a certified teacher to apply for an account and purchase lessons and activities on teacherspayteachers.com
For poetry, I used education.com as a source to find poetry activities for Maya Angelou, Edgar Allen Poe and Langston Hughes. We watched videos to listen to their poems recited. Great experience.
I still enjoy the grammar taught via The Good and the Beautiful. It's one of the best grammar and writing programs I've seen, but we are considering new options for 7th grade L.A. --- perhaps Oak Meadow which has a weekly break down and more interesting literature.
For our 4 year old daughter we use education.com for fun learning games, and we will continue to use The Good and the Beautiful Level K (she's an early reader, so we were able to skip Pre-K) for Math and Language Arts as the core curriculum. It is important to look over the lessons ahead of time to add more fun and engaging things to each lesson. Maybe there's a Sesame Street video or a book or even a read-aloud experience on youtube.com/@clayandstone that goes with what you're teaching today... Use The Good and the Beautiful as a guide for your daily lessons and do your own thing to extend the lesson. It's a great starting point.
It takes a village, but when you don't have one, seek out the best resources possible for you and your tiny family. Homeschool is never a one-size-fits-all and comes with many trials and errors. You'll eventually find what works just right for you and your children. Greatest of luck on your homeschooling journey.
Happy Homeschooling to you all!
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