I love The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts curriculum! The Pre-K was the very first thing we tried from The Good and the Beautiful and we have been in love with it ever since. It is truly good and beautiful.
Sarah has absolutely loved her “dog book” as she calls it. It is gentle and effective and sets an incredible foundation for learning. I have zero doubt I will continue to use this for all my children.
Previous Experience
Jacob began this program when he was in kindergarten and it was great for him. It solidified concepts and he has continued to move forward with the language arts courses. Now, as he goes into third grade {and Level 3 for Language Arts} I can truthfully say looking back that the Pre-K course was a wonderful foundation to start with.
What is taught in this course?
This course covers:
- Numbers
- Letters
- Letter Sounds {this course only covers the most common sound of each letter}
- Fine Motor Skills
- Colors
- Shapes
- Counting
- Rhyming
- Sorting
- Order of Events
What is included in the course set?
When you order the course set you receive a course book, a set of 4 spiral-bound letter flip charts and an activity packet.
There is also “The Vowel Song” which was written by Jenny Phillips that is a free download which I thought was so helpful. Even several years later, Jacob sings the song when I ask him about vowels!
Another part that I thought was very valuable was a set of 20 songs that teach the sounds of the letters. This isn’t included in the Pre-K course, but in the Primer level course. I find it to be most helpful during the Pre-K though because that is when I am introducing letters and sounds. Then I just use them in the Primer course as needed.
What age is this good for?
We started this when Jacob was five and Sarah was four. I think you could definitely start it earlier if you desired though. It is recommended for ages 3-4. Do whatever works for your family and kiddos.
How much prep?
One of my favorite things about The Good and the Beautiful {there are really so many things I love about it!} is that there really is such little preparation required. All I needed to do was cut out and prepare the games and activities that came in the Activity Packet, cut the flip cards, and gather the items needed for the course {which is mostly just things you probably already have on hand}.
AND since this was the second time doing this course, I just purchased a new course book for Sarah and everything else was already done. Easy peasy. I laminated all of the games when I did it with Jacob and they are still in GREAT condition.
How long does it take?
I think this largely depends on the child.
With Sarah, we spaced it out and definitely took our time. This was not needed for Sarah {she definitely could have gone faster} but we used this along with The Peaceful Preschool and so we kept the lessons aligned with that. So for her, it took us about eight months.
With Jacob, I didn’t go by number of lessons – I went by time. We started out by just setting a timer for 10 minutes but we gradually {but fairly quickly} increased the time because Jacob could and wanted to do more! The curriculum recommends anywhere between 10 – 30 minutes.
As long as we did at least ten or fifteen minutes I didn’t mind stopping early if Jacob was having an off day. I felt like at this age, it was more important to follow their cues. Again, I think you should do what works best for you and your kiddo – it will be different for everyone.
It took Jacob about six weeks to complete. There are 53 lessons in the pre-k course, and again, I think it will just depend on your child for how long you want to have it last.
Activity Packet – GAMES!
The course comes with several games that are adorable. These games make learning so much fun and does a great job of reinforcing letters and letter sounds.
Flip Books
The flip books are another really great resource. The children get to match the uppercase and lowercase letters together, as well as a picture. This, again, is just another great reinforcer of all that they are learning.
Favorite Moments & Activities
Final Thoughts
I love this course. It is such a gentle AND effective way of learning for young kiddos. It sets a solid foundation and is a lot of fun to boot! Can’t wait to do it again with my other kiddos!
Also, Sarah pretty much completed the entire course in her Aurora dress up so…what’s not to love?!
Take a look at little Jacob when he completed Pre-K…he is growing up so fast!
