@@OurHOMEschoolPlan we are doing level 1 ( grade 1) and 2 (grade 3). We are doing level 1 after LFLE 1, huge jump! but we are taking it slow and breaking down lessons. I notice this a more reading intensive program.
Great video! Thank you for taking the time to do these videos ❤️ Last year we started the year with MB LA 1 but it was way too much fluffy and not enough substance for my son. It's beautiful, I actually loved it, but my 7 year old son is not into fluff lol he wants to get right to the point.. He's not into coloring or reading all the little stories etc. He always says "mommy can we not do all that stuff and can we just get to the point so you can teach me". I decided long ago I'm going to listen to him because he already gives me clues on how he learns best. So, we ended up switching to TGATB and I had him do the placement test and we ended up going back a level to Level K. It is NOT at a typical kindergarten level at all, and it was a great fit and his learning exploded! He went from barely sounding out words to reading everything I put in front of him now, amazing curriculum but there is a lot more to it. This year we are getting off to a slow start because I had no money to purchase curriculum until last week (mid September) 😂 that's life when you are disabled with massive medical bills and very little income LOL I found books to read and made up math review for the last 2 weeks while we wait for all our curriculum to arrive this week. He'll be using TGATB level 2 now (that's how far ahead he got in 6 months just from getting the amazing foundation in level K last year! he basically finished it and went thru level 1 material super fast once it all "clicked"! I feel like this curriculum does take a little bit more effort on both our parts (but not too much) and he's growing by leaps and bounds with it. I'm grateful that there are so many beautiful curricula so there's something for every child learning style! I also do not regret trying MB for LA even though it wasn't the best fit for us, it's still a great curriculum! We also used them for science last year and even tried their math for kindergarten. We are doing the eclectic approach this year and using many different companies but I feel like by the "2nd grade" level I've been able to sort out what types of learning methods work best for him. I know I've gone on and on here 😂 but one more thing.. I REALLY love these curriculum videos because without them I'd have no clue what to try and I don't have money to play around with. I simply can't afford to buy multiple curricula so UA-camrs save me! ❤️❤️❤️
You’re welcome!!! I agree on the levels. I was going to do another comparison of MB level 1 and TGTB level 1 also bc as you said, they are not equal. My little one also placed into level 1 after completing MB and at times, it’s easy, and at times TGTB level 1 has been very challenging. I’m glad you are happy with TGTB and it’s wonderful how they really try to help accommodate small budgets. Such a blessing. (My 6th grader has already lost her main reader and I’m so thankful that it’s included in the free download. So I can’t print it myself or just have her read from the computer until she finds it!)
Love TGATB. We are using LA levels 1,4,6, and the level 8 book studies this year. I find myself really enjoying the stories in the personal readers. I am a huge fan of their “open and go” concept when you have several kids. I also sew up the bindings. I’ve done that on all my kids books and it’s worked perfectly.
It’s such a WELL DONE curriculum!! It actually surprises me sometimes with how well done it is. Did you use their language arts last year then?? I’m curious when they begin the diagramming. What level.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan Yes we did use it last year. It was our first year. There was very basic sentence diagramming introduced in level 3. I haven’t used level 2 so I’m unsure if that has diagraming.
Always delighted with your review. I checked Masterbooks before we started homeschooling last year. But then we opted for TGATB. Loving it so much. We used Level 7 last year then HS 1 next.
I didn’t realize that somebody said level 7 could be used for high school and now I’m wondering if I should’ve done that for my son. I bought him the HS language arts. I guess I’ll find out when I grade his first unit!!! 😜 Did you think level 7 was pretty advanced?
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan yes and not sure. Hehehe... Since, our curriculum is very different from where we live, I wanted something that would ease his way towards 9th grade and since it has been said that with TGATB, all the language arts they need to learn in the elementary year ends with Level 7 then that’s where we went. BTW, we also added the book studies for Level 8.
The Good and the Beautiful sounds like it’s exactly what I’m looking for. I homeschooled my daughter with Sonlight many years ago, but it doesn’t seem the same now when I’ve looked through it. Thank you for the detailed reviews and comparisons. I’ve already chosen a math and language arts based on two of your videos. 🙏🏻
Wonderful!! I’m so glad I can help!! I’ve always been curious about Sonlight. If my kids were younger, I do love how much good literature it incorporates. But I’ve never fully understood how the whole program works. I do love How TGTB works for LA and science.
Thank you for sharing this! We've been using Sonlight for about 5 yrs now and I'm just considering leaving them for my high schoolers because it's getting to be too daunting for them and the language arts seems like it can be stronger. I had one of my teens do IEW Structure & Style during freshman year and she loved it, but I stuck with Sonlight the following year because IEW 2C was not out yet. Now I'm debating whether I should get the next IEW for them since it is out now, or go with TGTB.
This was a very informative video! We are fairly new to homeschooling. We began in January and I began with Masterbooks for math. We are Christians so I did appreciate their biblical focus but my son found the material and excessive reading (a little much for math!) to be boring. After a lot of research and UA-cam videos I settled on TGATB for LA (level 1). We loved it so much that when we finished masterbooks math I ordered him level 1 TGATB math because I felt we had some gaps and I wanted to make sure he understood concepts before moving on. I do feel it is more advanced than Masterbook level 1. We also just started TGATB level 2 LA and their science curriculum, Little Hearts and Hands, and love them! They really did think of everything and we won’t be using anything else for now.
I am using the good and the beautiful level k primer language arts and level k math with my daughter.. my daughter loves it.. she looks forward to doing school everyday.. and always says she wants to do more .. its a wonderful curriculum.. so i plan to stick with the good and the beautiful as my daughter gets older and use it with my other children. This video was wonderful, it was very helpful for me to see what lies ahead, thank you so much for sharing:)
Thank you for this comparison video. I am deciding between the two right now and it's a hard choice. The price of MB would make my husband happier but G&B is just so much more pleasing to the eye.
I enjoyed your review! I use yarn to sew my TGTB books closed so the pages don’t fall out. Some people say they just pinch the coils tighter, and that works to close them up.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan It only takes about 5 minutes. You just close the book and turn it over to where the binding is supposed to meet. Then you weave yarn in and out of the loops on each side. I use a knitting needle to push the yarn in and out, but anything thin and pointy would help. Good luck 😄
Now I'm curious about the Diagramming the Scriptures book. We've used TGTB quite a bit, and I've been curious about Masterbooks. I'm kind of leaning toward TGTB still. It just looks more comprehensive, but I need to really look at what my kiddo will work with better more than my preference too. That's the hard part for me.
We have used them both and I am still torn! We used one, then went to other thinking we weren’t getting enough of something, and now I’m thinking we need to go back 🤪 I loved your comparison though! It made me think on a few things and hopefully I can narrow it down to which one we need. I will add that level 6 of MB doesn’t go much more into writing. It’s just the same with teaching the paragraph. Then they do the writing in the writing strands for middle school ages.
Thank you for clarifying that for level 6! I’m torn on how much writing they actually need til junior high anyway. I really think it depends on the child. If you’re child has a bent towards writing, then you might want more than Masterbooks. But if they aren’t into creative writing, or language arts at all, can it wait?!?! That’s the question. Having coming from classical conversations, they use IEW starting in 4th grade. They are repeating the exact same process for 3 years. In 4th grade, however, Mom is modeling most of the writing. Yea….MOM is helping A LOT with the writing hoping that the child can do more and more each year and by 6th grade hopefully being a fairly proficient writer. I noticed that even then, some kids were very good writers by 6th grade. And some still needed A LOT of help. So lots of different ways to go about this, but ultimately, I think it depends on the child and what they can do.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan Same with my daughter. I needed something without so many moving parts so to speak. One of your past videos encouraged me with this. I too have a child who wants everything to be fun :-)
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan right now we are using Simply Charlotte Mason's Using Language Well/Spelling Wisdom two days a week, and Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island two days a week. This is our first time using these, so I haven't formed an opinion yet, lol. I think I like the SCM better than the MCT.
@@valleyhavenfamilyschool8951 wow!! My eyes kind of popped open bc these are more curriculums I’ve never heard of!! I mean I’ve heard of simply Charlotte Mason, but I’ve never looked into how it works together or any of the moving pieces of it. So much to choose from. When I went to my states homeschool conference this summer, that’s one thing Heidi St John said was when she started homeschooling, there weren’t many choices. So in a sense, it was less stressful. Now, parents have SOOO many choices, they stress out over which one is the best. Yep! Who can relate to this?!?! 🖐
Thank you for this honest review! We use TGATB in our homeschool and I was looking at MB to see if it would be a better fit for my son. You are one of the only creators out there doing an honest flip through and I appreciate that. I’ll be sticking with TGATB after seeing them compared. Thanks again :)
Thank you so much for that compliment! When I do reviews, I try to point out and show the things that I would want to know if I were researching a curriculum. I’m curious, though…what do you mean by honest? You feel other reviews are not honest? I know when I’ve looked at reviews for certain curriculum, I’ve been disappointed that maybe the reviewer didn’t provide enough details about WHY this or that. They just say generalities. Or what they are showing me, I can’t SEE what they’re talking about. So I try to do both of those things.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan I feel like it wasn’t just a gloss over of material. I watched two videos before I found your review and had to turn them off. Someone just said “I don’t like it because it’s in a book form” there has to be more than that 🤷🏻♀️ I enjoyed how you presented both sides and had evidence to back it up. It wasn’t just “I like it” or “I don’t like it, so I’m done” I just found your channel, so I hope you are still enjoying TGATB. I can’t wait to watch more of your content :)
In watching this one I feel really good in trying TGTB this year. He really needs to feel like it’s fun vs total sit down and memorize learning. Also I like the effects you do in your videos.
This is helpful! I’ve been using the good and the beautiful but was just wanting to see if I should switch to master books- but I think I’ll just stick with TGTB!
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan 2 different children Annnd I soooo agree on the day 4 &5 of MB....my son will do lesson 4 but no drawing and we do different spelling
Haha I love when you change your voice in your videos! Please don't ever take that out. I literally just had to stop the video and rewind it to show my husband where you said, 'I don't know, poofie in the middle." Lol Love it!
I love TGATB for language arts. It has beautiful illustrations and made teaching my then kindergartener how to read very easy. I prefer master books for math. Not sure which I like best for all other subjects.
And you never know…..another child may require a completely different approach! It’s nice to have all the options, as long as the number of options doesnt overwhelm you. 😉
This is exactly what I was looking for someone else to comment on I just bought llfla 4 but then I found TGTB. I first printed level 4 but soon learned that TGTB is more advanced than MB, so I went backwards to level 3 and we like it so far. It encompasses a lot more than MB, geograpghy, art, writing, etc. We also started their math curriculum and she is on par with level 4 there.
They might be more in line soon. TGTB is updating all of their language arts programs. I didn’t realize until this year that level 4 is supposed to be on 4th grade level. But their level 5 (last year) was 6th grade level. But their updated this year is on par with 5th grade…..agh!!! Eventually they’ll all be right but they have some that are still advanced and some that are not as advanced. So you’re child will be going to level 4 this year?
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan We just started level 3 this week. It will be good to solidify the basics anyway. She could have done level 4 but it would have been more of a struggle than I want it to be.
@@anniemetz5150 yeah. I think the level 3 is still advanced. I’m not sure how much it overlaps with the new level 4, when you get there. So if it does, maybe you’ll be able to breeze through 4 and that will give your child so much confidence! ;)
I had a friend who bought Masterbooks LLFLE. Her kids had been I. Christian school using Abeka. Not sure if she did a placement or just assumed the levels equaled the grade and she already (within weeks of starting school) ditched Masterbooks bc her kids were bored. 😢 taking placement tests rather than interpreting levels as grades is SUCH A SHIFT of mindset for so many. And Abeka kind of reinforces the “grade” mindset, rather than “what level is your child developing in this particular subject” mindset.
The Good and The Beautiful is really a beautiful curriculum. Unfortunately it was too "jumpy" for my son. I think the flow and concepts learned are seen over the course several years vs. an individual course.
Interesting….I guess I haven’t really noticed that. Level 1 definitely doesn’t jump around but I haven’t really noticed for level 4 or 6. Masterbooks, I’d say, jumps around even more. I did notice it there.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan I think the differences in individual learning styles makes each parent/student have a different experience with curriculum. I never tried level 1 in either TGAB or MB. My kid like MB becuase each day of the week has a structure that is the same each week. Level two provided too many focuses each day. But my older was good with that. That is why I love homeschooling though. We get to pick what works for each individual family and even individual kids within that family. It is truly a blessed situation.
My ADHD child struggled with TGTB LA it is just the listening we had issues with. Switched to CLE great for math's but LA we are having the same issue she is 7. I think Masterbooks would be better for her attention span but not so much academically plus shipping costs to Australia. We do 2 pages a day at the moment as the lessons are loooong...
ADHD is hard! I feel for you! My 6th grader is in that boat and I just try to tailor lessons to her and NOT worry about finishing the book. It’s so hard to not think that way. Another thing I do is mix up what she’s doing. Bought new timers recently to give her a short focus time. Then she can get up and take a break. Also switch up and throw math in the middle if I have to (bc she doesn’t mind math). ADHD is a hard one to figure out. 😕 I recently decided we were going to skip some of TGTB writing lessons and try some IEW in there bc she was getting confused with how TGTB was approaching it. I just keep trying new things and as long as we’re making progress, I’m trying to not stress about it. It would be so difficult to have to worry about shipping costs! I hope you find what you’re looking for! 😉
Thanks. It is so tricky hope it gets easier as they get older I find after lunch a great time for learning when the energy levels are not as high. Plus the Aussie dollar is down. At the moment we are only really getting through English and maths. Have year 3 Abeka science for next year just no focus for it right now or her geography one step at a time. She def excels with numbers.
I got my daughter the booster cards c and its her favorite thing. So I went ahead and printed a few lessons this weekend to see how she likes that. I get a feeling with all the art and geography intergrated it may be the right fit. ... I didn't want to like the tgtb lol but I also got the little hands and field science so my little ones could be included and i'm actually really impressed with it. So far we've enjoyed everything we have gotten from that company.
I've done both with my first two kids (1st-4th TGATB then switched to Masterbooks); I prefer TGATB so that is what I am going to be using for my 2nd grader next year. I loved how character building focused TGATB was. I just don't feel Masterbooks is strong enough in writing and I don't like their spelling. (They put it at the end of the week, so no review if you stick to their schedule). I hope my son will enjoy TGATB and we can use it until about 5th grade and then switch to a more writing focused program like Essentials in Writing.
We’ve used MB for three years for math - it was great for me as a new homeschooler - gentle and simple and a story each week…But we’re now going to TGTB bc I’m concerned they haven’t mastered the basic facts well enough and rather dread math…also going to try TGTB language arts - when I first looked at it several years ago it all looked so complicated and overwhelmed me (probably being new at homeschool was a part of that). Now we need that connection between the subjects and a better understanding of grammar etc. which has been lacking. Been using IEW and my creative writing artistic child really does not like it. Looking forward to more variety and color! Thanks for reviews
IEW is so good at the mechanics of writing…BUT….my middle daughter didn’t care much for it either. TGATB is very beautiful and has a lot of variety. For math, there are many curriculums that don’t drill the math facts like they need to be drilled. You may have to add that on as a separate 10 minute task for your homeschool day. I have to do that separately also for the very reasons you said. Even my middle schooler needs to be quicker with them. I did a couple videos with some math drill ideas to make it more fun if you need ideas. Here’s my first one: ua-cam.com/video/bsqzRJSfXc8/v-deo.html
Great review of these two curriculums! We are trying The Good and the Beautiful this year. We have been using A.C.E. It was a wonderful curriculum but my kids are growing tired of the repetitiveness in the paces. They are starting to feel a burnout. I was wondering if I should add building writers without tears to TGTB for my 2nd and 4th Grade levels?
You’re kids are very young. I wouldn’t worry about writing. TGATB touches on some writing in level 4. For your 2nd grader, I’d just stick to grammar and you could always add on journaling prompts if you just want to give them an opportunity to write stories or express themselves. 😉
We like that the bible is in TGTB language arts and when it is it starts a dissussion aim our home as we often pause to discuss as it’s part of our family culture!!! Sorry I can’t spell. We love TGTB art lessons!!! They are so fun according to my daughter!!! I love that geography is included in the language arts curriculum!!!! We only do the spelling rules in language arts as we do spelling a different way as spelling tests don’t work with my kids and I’ve taught them a way to make a reference book in a notebook with the spellings and then it broken down phonically. We don’t do the readers often as I get my kids to write papers on them!!!
Reading can be so tricky. I'm not a good reader. So I empathize with forcing kids to read things they aren't interested in (bc that is the story of my childhood). But when theyre interested, they'll naturally read and want to. So choosing reading is a balance, IMO. You want to expose them to things, but at the same time, I just want them to read anything (that's appropropriate, that is. :) Tell me more about this spelling reference book. My middle daughter struggles with spelling, so I'm always looking for ways to help her.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan my kids write the spelling then next to it write it broken down into phonics or something that means something to them. I try to get their use phonics tho.
@@RockSimmer-gal4God interesting….:) it makes sense bc that’s how I can see TGTB is teaching my 2nd grader how to break down the words. Now I wonder if this would benefit my 6th grader to write it this way. Hmmmm…..🤔 you’ve got me thinking…. Thank you!
Do you know if all of the art and sentence diagramming is in the high school levels? I have decided to use Tye Good and the Beautiful for language arts and history next year, and Sherman Math. Now I need to find a good science program.
Yes art and diagramming are in the high school program. 😉 We are loving Shormann math!! I actually have a review that needs to be edited but coming soon on that. Shormann science has also been a blessing. I’ve heard good things about Apologia science also. And I’m always a fan of Compass Classroom. I LOVE their history and Latin. So I’m sure their science is also fantastic. I might look into that next year. Compass has so many subjects I’m intrigued with. Their Economics course looks so good also!!: so you should check them out also. Here is a link to Compass. It is an affiliate link, FYI. . affiliates.compassclassroom.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=585
My 9 year old is finishing level 3 of TGTB. He doesn't enjoy writting and gets overwhelmed when there is too much on a page. I would love for him to fo TGTB level 4, but I feel there is a huge jump in writting. What do you recommend, pushing through TGTB or maybe moving to MB level 5/6 until he gets the stamina for more writing?
You could do either. When. My daughter did TGTB level 5, I didn’t make her do ANY of the writing (except a choice few assignments). So you as teacher, can tailor DOWN the assignments. Regarding the “too much on a page,” I’d say Masterbooks may is basically a page per day. Not too overwhelming. TGTB probably does have more per page because it includes more than grammar. It’s also geography. The nice thing about TGTB 4 is it’s two separate books. The rest of their curriculum levels are 1 book, but if I’m not mistaking, level 4 is still 2 books. You only need 1 per day and the books alternate. 1 book is grammar, literature, and geography. The other books is the writing and the art. I’m not sure if that helps. Since I don’t know your child personally, it’s hard to say what I’d do. I think the two curriculums are comparable in terms of “workload”. I think TGTB is more creative with more variety. I definitely do not feel that TGTB is necessarily more rigorous than Masterbooks. I hope that helps.
I switched from ABeka to Language Lessons for a living education 3 and 5 and gave it 6 weeks. Definitely not for me nor my kiddos. It seemed to me it doesn't build on concepts but rather jumped around. This was hard for my younger child who is still learning and trying to master the parts of speech.
@@AnnePeaceWithGod my 5th grader is doing IEW structure and style and Fix it grammar. This is working well for her. My 3rd grade son I moved him to grammar galaxy and the good and the beautiful. So far he likes both of these and it (in my opinion) is working much better than the MB.
Would you say the writing instruction in TGTB is detailed enough for a logic minded kid who struggles with writing? I currently have my son using the first level of IEW which has been so good for him. But I’m wanting to use TGTB next year for grammar. Would you continue with IEW and just skip the writing sections in TGTB? Or is it enough? Also how would TGTB compare to Fix It Grammer? Thanks so much for your videos!
I can’t answer that question for you. I don’t know your child. TGTB writing is different from IEW. It’s not as “logical.” But it can still work for some kids. TGATB grammar has more grammar practice than fixit. But fixit is also very good. I couldn’t say one is better than the other. They’re different. They’re both good.
#1 very affordable #2 beautiful stories #3 there are series in box sets and also re prints of old stories. #4 it’s also easy to find my child’s reading level. #5 my son who has struggled to love reading and to learn how to read learned through TGTB and also loves the books in the TGTB Library which is rare for him. Have you looked at the library?
@@samanthagraveswalters8443 no I haven’t. None of my kids love to read. :( so intend to introduce them to books that I already know about. (For example my 6th grader is reading my old Babysitters Club books) and I have a ton of books in our personal library that we’ve never read bc I tend to grab familiar titles I see at used book stores or at garage sales.
@@samanthagraveswalters8443 I agree! My daughter was kind of bored with the Abeka seatwork text and random reading. She started TGTB level 1 and I bought her 5 of their books and she adores them! I really like them as well. Her reading has taken off in a short amount of time. They do a great job with the whole thing.
I'm currently using Phonetic zoo by IEW. You can check that out here: IEW.com/affiliate/280966/PZ When we've used TGATB language arts, their spelling is built in. I've also used "A reason for Spelling" which is good if you need concentrated spelling help. You can learn about that one in this video: ua-cam.com/video/yld2U5Z1MhU/v-deo.html
Do you think TGTB would be too much on top of Classical Conversations Essentials program? We did MB last year when my daughter was just in foundations but I need something that will help with grammar. She’s having a hard time understanding the grammar the way it is presented in CC and MB doesn’t go into diagramming. BUT I don’t want to overwhelm her either. Also, is TGTB parent led or can the student work through most of it on their own? I have a child in Challenge A as well and 3 other littles so I only have so much time per child for school work 😅
So first, what week of CC are you on? Have they already begun diagramming? CC goes very slowly in terms of diagramming. I think TGTB on top of Essentials would be a lot….yes. But also-it just depends on how you are practicing essentials. But writing the papers (from IEW) alone is going to start becoming more time consuming. And it’s soooo good they way it’s taught. TGTB would definitely be an excellent fit with foundations, though. Adding it to Challenge A work…..I think that depends on your child. CH A used Lost Tools of Writing which is ALSO going to start getting more intense as the year goes by (as well as Latin). But if your child is breezing through the literature, and doing great with all the memorization, you could maybe add it if you feel like they need more grammar practice. Just don’t be afraid to cut out work if it’s too much for your CH student. The map drawing in CH A also gets increasingly harder. They have A LOT to memorize. Parent intensive depends on how independently your child is able to work. I didn’t involve myself too much with my oldest. But my 6th grader requires a lot of my attention. But she has ADHD. I would say generally speaking, TGTB expects children to begin to be more independently around 5th grade-ish. Before then, there is teacher involvement but similar involvement to what you’d do for Masterbooks. I hope that helps. Let me know if you need more….😉
I should add in here….. If I had looked more closely at “our mother tongue” last year, I may have used that for my son to solidify his grammar. That book is more than just diagramming. It’s kind of like essentials in that it starts from the beginning and adds a little bit at a time BUT…..it’s ALSO has exercises to practice. So that might be a good choice to look into for both your kiddos. I’m not sure if there is a flip through of that book anywhere. If there’s not, maybe I can do a quick video on it. But man, my list of videos is piling up 😂😂😂 I need an editor to help me!!! 😜
We are only in second week BUT I tried to go over some stuff with her over the summer since I did it with my other daughter all of last year. Yes I definitely wouldn’t do it for my Challenge A student, her work is already taking her all day. I was thinking for my 4th grader because I think she is going to need something to grab her attention. I’m excited for IEW I know she is going to do good with that but the grammar is a little dry for her. TGTB looks more engaging. I also have the “my mother tongue” book I just haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet 🤦🏻♀️ thank you so more for your response. I’ve heard some families do CC and TGTB and they say it lines up well. I don’t want to overwhelm my 4th grader but TGTB really looks like it would get her attention! A video on my mother tongue would be great! 😬
@@sarahconyers2573 in truth, I just HAVE my mother tongue. I haven’t used it yet. I just got it last year from a friend. But I was looking through it and wondering if I could incorporate some of it daily. So I’m just looking at it myself. But if you have it, then you already know what’s in it. That’s all I would’ve done. 😉 I was an Essentials tutor and went through the training three years so that’s why I also feel like I understand this stuff pretty well. TGTB grammar isn’t the main course. So if that’s what you wanted to add it for, and weren’t going to use it for writing or reading, it’s hard to say if you’d think it was worth your money. I do have a video recorded about how a week of TGTB would work. I just haven’t edited it yet and not sure when I’d put it out. Maybe in the fall? So that may give you an idea of if $66 was worth the money for what YOU want to use it for. Have you looked on CC connected? They have an essentials portion, and I heard that somebody on there created printable with weekly exercises and what to practice. They might have additional diagramming practice there. I know they have editing exercises.
This was a FANTASTIC review, as always! I agree with you. :) I think both curriculums are excellent, but they offer different things. It just depends on what you are looking for for your student. My oldest daughter (the one that is similar to your daughter hehe) used Masterbooks level 3 & 4 and it was a perfect fit for her. It worked because it included all aspects of LA in ONE book and that is what she needed because she is who she is. :) She skipped the story on day 1 (said it was for babies, plus, like you, I don't need Bible in LA because it is integrated into our family lifestyle daily), she did alI the writing assignments, all the grammar, skipped day 4 (hated that page!) and then I would call out her spelling words on Monday and she usually skipped the day 5 worksheet too b/c she could already spell the words. I bought MB level 5 for this year and by week 5 I knew it wasn't going to work for her this year. :( There seemed to be so many WORDS on each page and she was coming to me for help every single day (for the grammar lessons) and I need her to independent! Reading from a worksheet to learn wasn't cutting it for her.....so I switched her over to Essentials in Writing Level 5 (from Masterbooks level 5) b/c they have video lessons that I heard were pretty engaging. My plan all along had been to switch to EIW after she finished the Masterbooks Language Lesson series, so we just ended up skipping MB 5 & 6 and moving on to EIW earlier, which I am totally fine with because I was thinking it was time for her to have more writing instruction anyway. Masterbooks writing seems to focus on the paragraph from levels 3-6 and my daughter is ready for more. She is doing well with EIW. My younger daughter with dyslexia started LLFLE 2 this year and is thriving with it. I am supplementing with some Logic of English Essentials though with her (the free online videos & their reading set). I think she will probably do LLFLE 2-3 and then I will move her to EIW like her sister. Maybe she will do level 4 of MB too. We will see. I really really like MB levels 2&3 and level 4 was fine as well. Level 5 was just different in a bad way for my oldest. I definitely agree with everything you said about both of these curriculums. I have never used TGTB but I've seen enough flip throughs that I think I can say that I agree with you. :) It all depends on what you want for your students! I am curious.....is your daughter doing well with TGTB 4? I really can't see my daughter doing TGTB which is why I've never even tried. Just too many moving pieces for her, I'm afraid. BUT if art, geography and sentence diagramming, plus included readers (I do love that - especially for my dyslexic child who I have to prod to read still) is your goal, TGTB is an excellent choice!! I just need our LA curriculum grammar, writing, spelling, reading b/c Gather Round covers geography/art, etc. I am interested in TGTB LA for high school though.... Maybe you could do a flip through one day of a high school level!
Thank you so much!!! 😊 So far, I think TGTB is more challenging than Masterbooks for my 6th grader. TGTB says to only work for 45 minutes. But her focus is so………..not there…..unless I stay with her for the entire 45 minutes, she just moves too slowly to accomplish anything. And my goal for her is to start working more independently. So it’s tricky. BUT If they focus, 45 minutes is plenty of time to accomplish a lesson. The Spelling and writing workshop alternates. One day it’s about Spelling practice. The next day about writing. I like that, bc my daughter hates writing. Which makes me SO SAD!!!! The grammar isn’t too bad. She already LOST one of her readers. 🤦♀️ (palm your forehead) I told her if she didn’t find it…guess what she’s getting for Christmas. Lol!) She loves the art and the geography so far (bc the geography so far has been basically just reading about places in the world -Italy right now. They had pictures of Venice and explained why they use gondolas. The leaning tower of Pisa…..so all of that has been very interesting to her. Too hard to say if she’s doing well with it at this point. But if I had this, as a child, I would’ve LOVED it!! So much little bits of how to think creatively in it. I think that’s all very fun! I really love all the fun ideas they have for practicing Spelling words. I’m going to do a comparison of the MB level 1 and TGTB level 1, I think also. Bc there are different things to compare there. But one thing I was pondering today as I was giving my second grader another activity…I think TGTB is a level up on the creative thinking, which will help children who do have an aptitude for writing. And also, they are VERY good at the simple, yet fun and creative ways to reinforce a concept. Like in the Spelling practice. But also….like today, my 2nd graders last assignment was to go to the back yard, choose 10 things in nature, and write the first letter for each thing she found. A simple activity that got her outside exploring, then we taped the items to paper and she wrote the letter and attempted to write the words (the misspellings are adorable right now!) but it’s the little activities like that AND….that the book TOLD me to do that. I didn’t have to plan for it. I didn’t search for extra ideas. I didn’t even have to go to the appendix for additional ideas like Masterbooks has (I never went there when we used it bc honestly, I forgot about it) Did I answer you, or did I digress into a completely different aspect??? Lol!
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan This answers my question! My daughter would be the same way....it would be a fight every day if she had to focus for 45 mins. haha! I too am working on independence with her & she has made a ton of progress with this with EIW & Gather Round. I would have liked TGTB as a student myself too. :) If your kids can handle it I definitely think it is a solid LA program that also covers many other subjects well too. Gather Round provides those little extra meaningful fun activities that don't require extra planning and time from me! I love things like that and so do the kids. That activity you described your younger daughter doing is so cute. I did Logic of English Foundations with my dyslexic daughter (LOVED it) and tried LLFLE 1 with her last summer. I didn't really like it. There is NO WAY she could have learned how to read with that course, but it was okay for a summer review I suppose. I thought the intro to grammar was done well, but grammar is what I like best about the Masterbooks LA. I think MB does well introducing sentence writing in level 2 and then paragraph writing in level 3 but I definitely think the writing in levels 4 and above could beef up, which is why I wasn't all that sad to go ahead and move away from MB with my oldest. And, yes, I rarely go to the appendix for MB extra activities - I forget it is there too! I do wish the spelling was integrated into all five days of MB lessons. I know that's what they say the extra activities are for, but like we said....I forget about them! Keep me posted on TBTB with N this year! And I hope she finds her reader. I was laughing at that. I can see her face on Christmas morning already when she opens that present. hahahaha! These kids are too funny!
New to homeschooling. My son who will be going into 5th grade. What level do I buy of tgatb? Ive heard masterbooks i would buy level 6 due to a year behind. But I keep hearing tgatb is different levels
TGTB might be a little more advanced but not much. They have free samples online. I’d download them and take a look to decide. I think it depends on the child. I chose level 5 for my 7th grader bc I liked the new format better than the old and bc she struggles with writing. But I also supplemented with another writing program. So it really just depends on what you want. 😉
We tried TGTB, and we found it to be way too scattered. Too much switching gears in one lesson. As much as I wanted to love it because it truly is beautiful, it just did not work for my daughter who needs things streamlined. Masterbooks was just the right fit.
I felt the same. Infact, as I was editing this, I was thinking, I said Bible integration wasn’t the highest priority when I choose SOME curriculum, but I did enjoy the stories and the integration in the Masterbooks curriculum. It’s also what I love about “A Reason for Spelling.” But ultimately, the style, and the variety and how it’s taught is my first priority. If there were two identical curriculums in that way, I’d choose the one that had even more Bible in it. I wish I had made that point more clear.
I’ve never seen anything that I didn’t agree with. I did find some thing on their website that lists out any thing from Mormons and which curriculum it’s from….to be transparent. There wasn’t much. And quoting a Mormon is different that teaching Mormon doctrine. I mean, we might quote Mitt Romney when speaking about current history. Doesn’t mean doctrine is being taught. The only thing “Mormon” I see is the teaching and emphasis on good character. But that’s also a Christian desire. (The curriculum doesn’t touch salvation, honestly. I’ve never seen it. So the “Christian” aspect is basically “good character” and God created the earth and everything in it. And honestly….seriously…. The Christian aspect is not really a priority for this curriculum. It’s sprinkled in. But it’s not like every lesson even has a Bible verse. It doesn’t. It’s just a “good” and “beautiful” curriculum. That’s all.
We’ll see how long my 6th graders book lasts. If you noticed in the thumbnail, the middle TGTB book…a little wrinkled? Yeah…that’s the kind of child she is!! 😂 my son is so neat and careful and his still fell off the spine. She’s not careful or neat……oh boy! 😜
I’m so sorry I missed your comment!! We’ve used A reason for Spelling in the past. It worked well bc it gives 5 days of practices for the word list she was on. And most of the weeks had variation. There were some exercises that were always the same. But then they gave ideas for how to practice creatively also. I do have a video explaining what a week of lessons is like. (I just rearranged all of my playlists….but I think you can find it in my 4th -6th grade curriculum playlist. It’s also in the “ Do school with us” playlist. 😉
Which curriculum are you leaning towards???
We did MB last year and trying TGTB this year. Will keep you posted :)
@@cristinapena6303 which level of TGTB are you doing???
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan we are doing level 1 ( grade 1) and 2 (grade 3). We are doing level 1 after LFLE 1, huge jump! but we are taking it slow and breaking down lessons. I notice this a more reading intensive program.
@@cristinapena6303 we’ve done the same with my 8 year old. She went from level 1 of LLFLE to level 1 TGTB. Levels are not equal for sure! 😉
Master books
Great video! Thank you for taking the time to do these videos ❤️
Last year we started the year with MB LA 1 but it was way too much fluffy and not enough substance for my son. It's beautiful, I actually loved it, but my 7 year old son is not into fluff lol he wants to get right to the point.. He's not into coloring or reading all the little stories etc. He always says "mommy can we not do all that stuff and can we just get to the point so you can teach me". I decided long ago I'm going to listen to him because he already gives me clues on how he learns best.
So, we ended up switching to TGATB and I had him do the placement test and we ended up going back a level to Level K. It is NOT at a typical kindergarten level at all, and it was a great fit and his learning exploded! He went from barely sounding out words to reading everything I put in front of him now, amazing curriculum but there is a lot more to it.
This year we are getting off to a slow start because I had no money to purchase curriculum until last week (mid September) 😂 that's life when you are disabled with massive medical bills and very little income LOL I found books to read and made up math review for the last 2 weeks while we wait for all our curriculum to arrive this week. He'll be using TGATB level 2 now (that's how far ahead he got in 6 months just from getting the amazing foundation in level K last year! he basically finished it and went thru level 1 material super fast once it all "clicked"!
I feel like this curriculum does take a little bit more effort on both our parts (but not too much) and he's growing by leaps and bounds with it.
I'm grateful that there are so many beautiful curricula so there's something for every child learning style! I also do not regret trying MB for LA even though it wasn't the best fit for us, it's still a great curriculum! We also used them for science last year and even tried their math for kindergarten. We are doing the eclectic approach this year and using many different companies but I feel like by the "2nd grade" level I've been able to sort out what types of learning methods work best for him.
I know I've gone on and on here 😂 but one more thing.. I REALLY love these curriculum videos because without them I'd have no clue what to try and I don't have money to play around with. I simply can't afford to buy multiple curricula so UA-camrs save me! ❤️❤️❤️
You’re welcome!!!
I agree on the levels. I was going to do another comparison of MB level 1 and TGTB level 1 also bc as you said, they are not equal. My little one also placed into level 1 after completing MB and at times, it’s easy, and at times TGTB level 1 has been very challenging.
I’m glad you are happy with TGTB and it’s wonderful how they really try to help accommodate small budgets. Such a blessing. (My 6th grader has already lost her main reader and I’m so thankful that it’s included in the free download. So I can’t print it myself or just have her read from the computer until she finds it!)
Love TGATB. We are using LA levels 1,4,6, and the level 8 book studies this year. I find myself really enjoying the stories in the personal readers. I am a huge fan of their “open and go” concept when you have several kids.
I also sew up the bindings. I’ve done that on all my kids books and it’s worked perfectly.
It’s such a WELL DONE curriculum!! It actually surprises me sometimes with how well done it is.
Did you use their language arts last year then?? I’m curious when they begin the diagramming. What level.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan Yes we did use it last year. It was our first year. There was very basic sentence diagramming introduced in level 3. I haven’t used level 2 so I’m unsure if that has diagraming.
Always delighted with your review. I checked Masterbooks before we started homeschooling last year. But then we opted for TGATB. Loving it so much. We used Level 7 last year then HS 1 next.
I didn’t realize that somebody said level 7 could be used for high school and now I’m wondering if I should’ve done that for my son. I bought him the HS language arts. I guess I’ll find out when I grade his first unit!!! 😜
Did you think level 7 was pretty advanced?
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan yes and not sure. Hehehe... Since, our curriculum is very different from where we live, I wanted something that would ease his way towards 9th grade and since it has been said that with TGATB, all the language arts they need to learn in the elementary year ends with Level 7 then that’s where we went. BTW, we also added the book studies for Level 8.
@@paularodillo you added the studies to level 7? Wow! You really went for it!!
The Good and the Beautiful sounds like it’s exactly what I’m looking for. I homeschooled my daughter with Sonlight many years ago, but it doesn’t seem the same now when I’ve looked through it.
Thank you for the detailed reviews and comparisons. I’ve already chosen a math and language arts based on two of your videos. 🙏🏻
Wonderful!! I’m so glad I can help!!
I’ve always been curious about Sonlight. If my kids were younger, I do love how much good literature it incorporates. But I’ve never fully understood how the whole program works. I do love How TGTB works for LA and science.
Thank you for sharing this! We've been using Sonlight for about 5 yrs now and I'm just considering leaving them for my high schoolers because it's getting to be too daunting for them and the language arts seems like it can be stronger. I had one of my teens do IEW Structure & Style during freshman year and she loved it, but I stuck with Sonlight the following year because IEW 2C was not out yet. Now I'm debating whether I should get the next IEW for them since it is out now, or go with TGTB.
This was a very informative video! We are fairly new to homeschooling. We began in January and I began with Masterbooks for math. We are Christians so I did appreciate their biblical focus but my son found the material and excessive reading (a little much for math!) to be boring. After a lot of research and UA-cam videos I settled on TGATB for LA (level 1). We loved it so much that when we finished masterbooks math I ordered him level 1 TGATB math because I felt we had some gaps and I wanted to make sure he understood concepts before moving on. I do feel it is more advanced than Masterbook level 1. We also just started TGATB level 2 LA and their science curriculum, Little Hearts and Hands, and love them! They really did think of everything and we won’t be using anything else for now.
TGATB is definitely unique. There is something special about how they put all of their curriculums together!
I am using the good and the beautiful level k primer language arts and level k math with my daughter.. my daughter loves it.. she looks forward to doing school everyday.. and always says she wants to do more .. its a wonderful curriculum.. so i plan to stick with the good and the beautiful as my daughter gets older and use it with my other children. This video was wonderful, it was very helpful for me to see what lies ahead, thank you so much for sharing:)
You’re welcome!!! And I agree….it’s such a beautiful and sweet curriculum making learning so much fun!
Thank you for this comparison video. I am deciding between the two right now and it's a hard choice. The price of MB would make my husband happier but G&B is just so much more pleasing to the eye.
You’re not wrong!!! it really is beautiful!!
You’re welcome!
I enjoyed your review! I use yarn to sew my TGTB books closed so the pages don’t fall out. Some people say they just pinch the coils tighter, and that works to close them up.
Yarn?? So how does that work?? I wish you could show me a pic but there’s no way to link one here is there.
Ok. I just looked at the spiral and think I know what you did. I’ll have to try it!
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan It only takes about 5 minutes. You just close the book and turn it over to where the binding is supposed to meet. Then you weave yarn in and out of the loops on each side. I use a knitting needle to push the yarn in and out, but anything thin and pointy would help. Good luck 😄
Thank you for explaining necessity of sentence diagramming. I have been desiring a logical/rational purposs for learning it. Thank you!
It helps when you know the “why” behind things. I’m like that too. If it doesn’t make sense to me, then why do it? 😉 glad it was helpful.
Now I'm curious about the Diagramming the Scriptures book. We've used TGTB quite a bit, and I've been curious about Masterbooks. I'm kind of leaning toward TGTB still. It just looks more comprehensive, but I need to really look at what my kiddo will work with better more than my preference too. That's the hard part for me.
It’s a balance. What will work for your child but also for you. You, as teacher, have some influence in that if you aren’t excited about it……😉
We have used them both and I am still torn! We used one, then went to other thinking we weren’t getting enough of something, and now I’m thinking we need to go back 🤪 I loved your comparison though! It made me think on a few things and hopefully I can narrow it down to which one we need. I will add that level 6 of MB doesn’t go much more into writing. It’s just the same with teaching the paragraph. Then they do the writing in the writing strands for middle school ages.
Thank you for clarifying that for level 6! I’m torn on how much writing they actually need til junior high anyway. I really think it depends on the child. If you’re child has a bent towards writing, then you might want more than Masterbooks. But if they aren’t into creative writing, or language arts at all, can it wait?!?! That’s the question.
Having coming from classical conversations, they use IEW starting in 4th grade. They are repeating the exact same process for 3 years. In 4th grade, however, Mom is modeling most of the writing. Yea….MOM is helping A LOT with the writing hoping that the child can do more and more each year and by 6th grade hopefully being a fairly proficient writer. I noticed that even then, some kids were very good writers by 6th grade. And some still needed A LOT of help.
So lots of different ways to go about this, but ultimately, I think it depends on the child and what they can do.
Omg wow, those are incredible pictures! He’s an artist!
Thank you so much!!
I’ve been waiting for this unfiltered, sassy review from you!!!!! Thank you!!!
Lol!! You’re welcome!!! 😉
MB was never enough for us. Switching to TGTB was the best choice for my son.
I can see that especially if your child excels in language arts. I chose MB bc my daughter has ADHD and focusing is a challenge. 😜😜😜
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan Same with my daughter. I needed something without so many moving parts so to speak. One of your past videos encouraged me with this. I too have a child who wants everything to be fun :-)
@@melissakolb625 😜 we “get” each other!!!! 😜
Enjoyed this video. I have just purchased TGTB LA level 2 for our first year of homeschool. This in depth look tells me I am on the right track.
Yah!! I hope you have a fun year with it!
Great review! You are making me want to use TGTB! I love the company and what they stand for.
That’s the thing with curriculum research sometimes!!! 😜 it makes you want to try everything! 😉 what do you use now for Language Arts?
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan right now we are using Simply Charlotte Mason's Using Language Well/Spelling Wisdom two days a week, and Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Island two days a week. This is our first time using these, so I haven't formed an opinion yet, lol. I think I like the SCM better than the MCT.
@@valleyhavenfamilyschool8951 wow!! My eyes kind of popped open bc these are more curriculums I’ve never heard of!! I mean I’ve heard of simply Charlotte Mason, but I’ve never looked into how it works together or any of the moving pieces of it. So much to choose from. When I went to my states homeschool conference this summer, that’s one thing Heidi St John said was when she started homeschooling, there weren’t many choices. So in a sense, it was less stressful. Now, parents have SOOO many choices, they stress out over which one is the best. Yep! Who can relate to this?!?! 🖐
I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation, look forward to hearing more, God bless you and your students!
Thank you!
Thank you for this honest review! We use TGATB in our homeschool and I was looking at MB to see if it would be a better fit for my son. You are one of the only creators out there doing an honest flip through and I appreciate that. I’ll be sticking with TGATB after seeing them compared. Thanks again :)
Thank you so much for that compliment! When I do reviews, I try to point out and show the things that I would want to know if I were researching a curriculum.
I’m curious, though…what do you mean by honest? You feel other reviews are not honest? I know when I’ve looked at reviews for certain curriculum, I’ve been disappointed that maybe the reviewer didn’t provide enough details about WHY this or that. They just say generalities. Or what they are showing me, I can’t SEE what they’re talking about. So I try to do both of those things.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan I feel like it wasn’t just a gloss over of material. I watched two videos before I found your review and had to turn them off. Someone just said “I don’t like it because it’s in a book form” there has to be more than that 🤷🏻♀️ I enjoyed how you presented both sides and had evidence to back it up. It wasn’t just “I like it” or “I don’t like it, so I’m done”
I just found your channel, so I hope you are still enjoying TGATB. I can’t wait to watch more of your content :)
@@Penelopepper ok. Yes! I’ve seen reviews that also and they definitely frustrate.
We enjoy do some TGTB still! :)
In watching this one I feel really good in trying TGTB this year. He really needs to feel like it’s fun vs total sit down and memorize learning. Also I like the effects you do in your videos.
Thank you!!
Yes, I think TGATB has a lot of variety and fun activities mixed in there. Enjoy your year! 😉
Great review! I love how unbiased it was!
Thank you so much!!
Your son did sooo beautifully on those pictures. Love it. Way better than me.
Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing detailed information like The binding comparison.
You’re welcome!! I’m glad it was helpful!
We use TGTB (have from pre-k) but I’ve been looking at Masterbooks! This is helpful! Thanks.
I’m glad it was helpful!! What level of TGTB are you on now?
This is helpful! I’ve been using the good and the beautiful but was just wanting to see if I should switch to master books- but I think I’ll just stick with TGTB!
I’m glad it helped!! They’re both solid programs but I definitely think TGATB has a little more creative variety!
We use both 😬
Whatever works for each child
Thanks for sharing
Yep, I agree!
So do you use both for 1 child? Or 1 child uses Masterbooks and another uses TGTB?
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan 2 different children
Annnd I soooo agree on the day 4 &5 of MB....my son will do lesson 4 but no drawing and we do different spelling
Haha I love when you change your voice in your videos! Please don't ever take that out. I literally just had to stop the video and rewind it to show my husband where you said, 'I don't know, poofie in the middle." Lol Love it!
🤪 I’m glad you love it!!
Thanks. This is our 1st year of homeschooling. Very helpful
You’re welcome! Are you excited????? 😉
Thank you for the in-depth comparison. Ive been thinking of both of these❤
You’re welcome!! ☺️
I love TGATB for language arts. It has beautiful illustrations and made teaching my then kindergartener how to read very easy. I prefer master books for math. Not sure which I like best for all other subjects.
And you never know…..another child may require a completely different approach! It’s nice to have all the options, as long as the number of options doesnt overwhelm you. 😉
This is exactly what I was looking for someone else to comment on I just bought llfla 4 but then I found TGTB. I first printed level 4 but soon learned that TGTB is more advanced than MB, so I went backwards to level 3 and we like it so far. It encompasses a lot more than MB, geograpghy, art, writing, etc. We also started their math curriculum and she is on par with level 4 there.
They might be more in line soon. TGTB is updating all of their language arts programs. I didn’t realize until this year that level 4 is supposed to be on 4th grade level. But their level 5 (last year) was 6th grade level. But their updated this year is on par with 5th grade…..agh!!! Eventually they’ll all be right but they have some that are still advanced and some that are not as advanced.
So you’re child will be going to level 4 this year?
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan We just started level 3 this week. It will be good to solidify the basics anyway. She could have done level 4 but it would have been more of a struggle than I want it to be.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan She is doing level 4 math
@@anniemetz5150 yeah. I think the level 3 is still advanced. I’m not sure how much it overlaps with the new level 4, when you get there. So if it does, maybe you’ll be able to breeze through 4 and that will give your child so much confidence! ;)
@@anniemetz5150 how did it go? Considering switching from MB to TGATB. My middle kids are probably around that level.
So true about the levels. My 4th grader used level 1 TGTB and would be in level 4 LLFLE
I had a friend who bought Masterbooks LLFLE. Her kids had been I. Christian school using Abeka. Not sure if she did a placement or just assumed the levels equaled the grade and she already (within weeks of starting school) ditched Masterbooks bc her kids were bored. 😢 taking placement tests rather than interpreting levels as grades is SUCH A SHIFT of mindset for so many. And Abeka kind of reinforces the “grade” mindset, rather than “what level is your child developing in this particular subject” mindset.
The Good and The Beautiful is really a beautiful curriculum. Unfortunately it was too "jumpy" for my son. I think the flow and concepts learned are seen over the course several years vs. an individual course.
Interesting….I guess I haven’t really noticed that. Level 1 definitely doesn’t jump around but I haven’t really noticed for level 4 or 6. Masterbooks, I’d say, jumps around even more. I did notice it there.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan I think the differences in individual learning styles makes each parent/student have a different experience with curriculum. I never tried level 1 in either TGAB or MB. My kid like MB becuase each day of the week has a structure that is the same each week. Level two provided too many focuses each day. But my older was good with that. That is why I love homeschooling though. We get to pick what works for each individual family and even individual kids within that family. It is truly a blessed situation.
My ADHD child struggled with TGTB LA it is just the listening we had issues with. Switched to CLE great for math's but LA we are having the same issue she is 7. I think Masterbooks would be better for her attention span but not so much academically plus shipping costs to Australia. We do 2 pages a day at the moment as the lessons are loooong...
ADHD is hard! I feel for you! My 6th grader is in that boat and I just try to tailor lessons to her and NOT worry about finishing the book. It’s so hard to not think that way. Another thing I do is mix up what she’s doing. Bought new timers recently to give her a short focus time. Then she can get up and take a break. Also switch up and throw math in the middle if I have to (bc she doesn’t mind math). ADHD is a hard one to figure out. 😕 I recently decided we were going to skip some of TGTB writing lessons and try some IEW in there bc she was getting confused with how TGTB was approaching it. I just keep trying new things and as long as we’re making progress, I’m trying to not stress about it.
It would be so difficult to have to worry about shipping costs! I hope you find what you’re looking for! 😉
Thanks. It is so tricky hope it gets easier as they get older I find after lunch a great time for learning when the energy levels are not as high. Plus the Aussie dollar is down. At the moment we are only really getting through English and maths. Have year 3 Abeka science for next year just no focus for it right now or her geography one step at a time. She def excels with numbers.
Have u checked out TGTB high school LA? It is so unique. We are starting it next year.
Yes! My son is doing it this year. My niece did it last year, so I heard about how it worked from her. I’m anxious to grade the first unit!! :)
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan PLEASE do a review....high school right around the corner for us
Would love your input
@@tess04231211 you know I will!!! 😉
I got my daughter the booster cards c and its her favorite thing. So I went ahead and printed a few lessons this weekend to see how she likes that. I get a feeling with all the art and geography intergrated it may be the right fit. ... I didn't want to like the tgtb lol but I also got the little hands and field science so my little ones could be included and i'm actually really impressed with it. So far we've enjoyed everything we have gotten from that company.
It’s always nice to feel excited about curriculum! It’s a good way to start! 😉
I've done both with my first two kids (1st-4th TGATB then switched to Masterbooks); I prefer TGATB so that is what I am going to be using for my 2nd grader next year. I loved how character building focused TGATB was. I just don't feel Masterbooks is strong enough in writing and I don't like their spelling. (They put it at the end of the week, so no review if you stick to their schedule). I hope my son will enjoy TGATB and we can use it until about 5th grade and then switch to a more writing focused program like Essentials in Writing.
I hope your son enjoys it too!
We’ve used MB for three years for math - it was great for me as a new homeschooler - gentle and simple and a story each week…But we’re now going to TGTB bc I’m concerned they haven’t mastered the basic facts well enough and rather dread math…also going to try TGTB language arts - when I first looked at it several years ago it all looked so complicated and overwhelmed me (probably being new at homeschool was a part of that). Now we need that connection between the subjects and a better understanding of grammar etc. which has been lacking. Been using IEW and my creative writing artistic child really does not like it. Looking forward to more variety and color! Thanks for reviews
IEW is so good at the mechanics of writing…BUT….my middle daughter didn’t care much for it either. TGATB is very beautiful and has a lot of variety.
For math, there are many curriculums that don’t drill the math facts like they need to be drilled. You may have to add that on as a separate 10 minute task for your homeschool day. I have to do that separately also for the very reasons you said. Even my middle schooler needs to be quicker with them. I did a couple videos with some math drill ideas to make it more fun if you need ideas. Here’s my first one: ua-cam.com/video/bsqzRJSfXc8/v-deo.html
Great review of these two curriculums! We are trying The Good and the Beautiful this year. We have been using A.C.E. It was a wonderful curriculum but my kids are growing tired of the repetitiveness in the paces. They are starting to feel a burnout. I was wondering if I should add building writers without tears to TGTB for my 2nd and 4th Grade levels?
You’re kids are very young. I wouldn’t worry about writing. TGATB touches on some writing in level 4. For your 2nd grader, I’d just stick to grammar and you could always add on journaling prompts if you just want to give them an opportunity to write stories or express themselves. 😉
I love the Jehova witness story! Thanks for sharing :)
You’re welcome! 😊
Thank you for explaining diagramming purpose!!
You’re welcome!!! 😉
Really great video!
Thank you so much!!
I agree that TGTB spiral binding isn't too great. My wonderful hubby took a piece of string and wove it into TGTB binding and we have no issues now.
Yep! That’s what we did too!! I even made a fun 1 minute short video about it starring my daughter! ua-cam.com/users/shortsa2pR0rqGHpw?feature=share
Wow what a great video with comparing the both curriculums! Awesome video! Subscribed :)
We are using TG&TB too :)
Thank you so much!!! Yah for TGTB!!
We like that the bible is in TGTB language arts and when it is it starts a dissussion aim our home as we often pause to discuss as it’s part of our family culture!!! Sorry I can’t spell. We love TGTB art lessons!!! They are so fun according to my daughter!!! I love that geography is included in the language arts curriculum!!!! We only do the spelling rules in language arts as we do spelling a different way as spelling tests don’t work with my kids and I’ve taught them a way to make a reference book in a notebook with the spellings and then it broken down phonically. We don’t do the readers often as I get my kids to write papers on them!!!
Reading can be so tricky. I'm not a good reader. So I empathize with forcing kids to read things they aren't interested in (bc that is the story of my childhood). But when theyre interested, they'll naturally read and want to. So choosing reading is a balance, IMO. You want to expose them to things, but at the same time, I just want them to read anything (that's appropropriate, that is. :)
Tell me more about this spelling reference book. My middle daughter struggles with spelling, so I'm always looking for ways to help her.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan my kids write the spelling then next to it write it broken down into phonics or something that means something to them. I try to get their use phonics tho.
@@RockSimmer-gal4God interesting….:) it makes sense bc that’s how I can see TGTB is teaching my 2nd grader how to break down the words. Now I wonder if this would benefit my 6th grader to write it this way. Hmmmm…..🤔 you’ve got me thinking…. Thank you!
Do you know if all of the art and sentence diagramming is in the high school levels? I have decided to use Tye Good and the Beautiful for language arts and history next year, and Sherman Math. Now I need to find a good science program.
Yes art and diagramming are in the high school program. 😉
We are loving Shormann math!! I actually have a review that needs to be edited but coming soon on that.
Shormann science has also been a blessing. I’ve heard good things about Apologia science also. And I’m always a fan of Compass Classroom. I LOVE their history and Latin. So I’m sure their science is also fantastic. I might look into that next year. Compass has so many subjects I’m intrigued with. Their Economics course looks so good also!!: so you should check them out also. Here is a link to Compass. It is an affiliate link, FYI. . affiliates.compassclassroom.com/idevaffiliate.php?id=585
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan thank you so much for the thorough review, and I will start looking into those Science courses!
My 9 year old is finishing level 3 of TGTB. He doesn't enjoy writting and gets overwhelmed when there is too much on a page. I would love for him to fo TGTB level 4, but I feel there is a huge jump in writting. What do you recommend, pushing through TGTB or maybe moving to MB level 5/6 until he gets the stamina for more writing?
You could do either. When. My daughter did TGTB level 5, I didn’t make her do ANY of the writing (except a choice few assignments). So you as teacher, can tailor DOWN the assignments.
Regarding the “too much on a page,” I’d say Masterbooks may is basically a page per day. Not too overwhelming. TGTB probably does have more per page because it includes more than grammar. It’s also geography. The nice thing about TGTB 4 is it’s two separate books. The rest of their curriculum levels are 1 book, but if I’m not mistaking, level 4 is still 2 books. You only need 1 per day and the books alternate. 1 book is grammar, literature, and geography. The other books is the writing and the art.
I’m not sure if that helps. Since I don’t know your child personally, it’s hard to say what I’d do. I think the two curriculums are comparable in terms of “workload”. I think TGTB is more creative with more variety. I definitely do not feel that TGTB is necessarily more rigorous than Masterbooks.
I hope that helps.
I switched from ABeka to Language Lessons for a living education 3 and 5 and gave it 6 weeks. Definitely not for me nor my kiddos. It seemed to me it doesn't build on concepts but rather jumped around. This was hard for my younger child who is still learning and trying to master the parts of speech.
My friend who came from Abeka to MB said the same thing. Abeka is maybe a mastery approach? And MB spiral?
We also came from abeka to MB, what curriculum should we do? We do love teaching textbooks math
@@AnnePeaceWithGod my 5th grader is doing IEW structure and style and Fix it grammar. This is working well for her.
My 3rd grade son I moved him to grammar galaxy and the good and the beautiful. So far he likes both of these and it (in my opinion) is working much better than the MB.
@@amandapatterson9182 thank you I've never heard of those curriculums.
Would you say the writing instruction in TGTB is detailed enough for a logic minded kid who struggles with writing? I currently have my son using the first level of IEW which has been so good for him. But I’m wanting to use TGTB next year for grammar. Would you continue with IEW and just skip the writing sections in TGTB? Or is it enough? Also how would TGTB compare to Fix It Grammer? Thanks so much for your videos!
I can’t answer that question for you. I don’t know your child. TGTB writing is different from IEW. It’s not as “logical.” But it can still work for some kids.
TGATB grammar has more grammar practice than fixit. But fixit is also very good. I couldn’t say one is better than the other. They’re different. They’re both good.
They also have an amazing literature in their library
I’d love to know more. What do you think is amazing about it??
#1 very affordable
#2 beautiful stories
#3 there are series in box sets and also re prints of old stories.
#4 it’s also easy to find my child’s reading level.
#5 my son who has struggled to love reading and to learn how to read learned through TGTB and also loves the books in the TGTB Library which is rare for him.
Have you looked at the library?
@@samanthagraveswalters8443 no I haven’t. None of my kids love to read. :( so intend to introduce them to books that I already know about. (For example my 6th grader is reading my old Babysitters Club books) and I have a ton of books in our personal library that we’ve never read bc I tend to grab familiar titles I see at used book stores or at garage sales.
@@samanthagraveswalters8443 I agree! My daughter was kind of bored with the Abeka seatwork text and random reading. She started TGTB level 1 and I bought her 5 of their books and she adores them! I really like them as well. Her reading has taken off in a short amount of time. They do a great job with the whole thing.
Wondering what spelling curriculum you use?
I'm currently using Phonetic zoo by IEW. You can check that out here: IEW.com/affiliate/280966/PZ
When we've used TGATB language arts, their spelling is built in.
I've also used "A reason for Spelling" which is good if you need concentrated spelling help. You can learn about that one in this video: ua-cam.com/video/yld2U5Z1MhU/v-deo.html
Do you think TGTB would be too much on top of Classical Conversations Essentials program? We did MB last year when my daughter was just in foundations but I need something that will help with grammar. She’s having a hard time understanding the grammar the way it is presented in CC and MB doesn’t go into diagramming. BUT I don’t want to overwhelm her either.
Also, is TGTB parent led or can the student work through most of it on their own? I have a child in Challenge A as well and 3 other littles so I only have so much time per child for school work 😅
So first, what week of CC are you on? Have they already begun diagramming? CC goes very slowly in terms of diagramming.
I think TGTB on top of Essentials would be a lot….yes. But also-it just depends on how you are practicing essentials. But writing the papers (from IEW) alone is going to start becoming more time consuming. And it’s soooo good they way it’s taught.
TGTB would definitely be an excellent fit with foundations, though.
Adding it to Challenge A work…..I think that depends on your child. CH A used Lost Tools of Writing which is ALSO going to start getting more intense as the year goes by (as well as Latin). But if your child is breezing through the literature, and doing great with all the memorization, you could maybe add it if you feel like they need more grammar practice. Just don’t be afraid to cut out work if it’s too much for your CH student. The map drawing in CH A also gets increasingly harder. They have A LOT to memorize.
Parent intensive depends on how independently your child is able to work. I didn’t involve myself too much with my oldest. But my 6th grader requires a lot of my attention. But she has ADHD. I would say generally speaking, TGTB expects children to begin to be more independently around 5th grade-ish. Before then, there is teacher involvement but similar involvement to what you’d do for Masterbooks.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you need more….😉
I should add in here…..
If I had looked more closely at “our mother tongue” last year, I may have used that for my son to solidify his grammar. That book is more than just diagramming. It’s kind of like essentials in that it starts from the beginning and adds a little bit at a time BUT…..it’s ALSO has exercises to practice. So that might be a good choice to look into for both your kiddos. I’m not sure if there is a flip through of that book anywhere. If there’s not, maybe I can do a quick video on it. But man, my list of videos is piling up 😂😂😂 I need an editor to help me!!! 😜
We are only in second week BUT I tried to go over some stuff with her over the summer since I did it with my other daughter all of last year. Yes I definitely wouldn’t do it for my Challenge A student, her work is already taking her all day. I was thinking for my 4th grader because I think she is going to need something to grab her attention. I’m excited for IEW I know she is going to do good with that but the grammar is a little dry for her. TGTB looks more engaging.
I also have the “my mother tongue” book I just haven’t gotten the chance to read it yet 🤦🏻♀️ thank you so more for your response. I’ve heard some families do CC and TGTB and they say it lines up well. I don’t want to overwhelm my 4th grader but TGTB really looks like it would get her attention!
A video on my mother tongue would be great! 😬
@@sarahconyers2573 in truth, I just HAVE my mother tongue. I haven’t used it yet. I just got it last year from a friend. But I was looking through it and wondering if I could incorporate some of it daily. So I’m just looking at it myself. But if you have it, then you already know what’s in it. That’s all I would’ve done. 😉 I was an Essentials tutor and went through the training three years so that’s why I also feel like I understand this stuff pretty well.
TGTB grammar isn’t the main course. So if that’s what you wanted to add it for, and weren’t going to use it for writing or reading, it’s hard to say if you’d think it was worth your money. I do have a video recorded about how a week of TGTB would work. I just haven’t edited it yet and not sure when I’d put it out. Maybe in the fall? So that may give you an idea of if $66 was worth the money for what YOU want to use it for.
Have you looked on CC connected? They have an essentials portion, and I heard that somebody on there created printable with weekly exercises and what to practice. They might have additional diagramming practice there. I know they have editing exercises.
This was a FANTASTIC review, as always!
I agree with you. :)
I think both curriculums are excellent, but they offer different things. It just depends on what you are looking for for your student. My oldest daughter (the one that is similar to your daughter hehe) used Masterbooks level 3 & 4 and it was a perfect fit for her. It worked because it included all aspects of LA in ONE book and that is what she needed because she is who she is. :) She skipped the story on day 1 (said it was for babies, plus, like you, I don't need Bible in LA because it is integrated into our family lifestyle daily), she did alI the writing assignments, all the grammar, skipped day 4 (hated that page!) and then I would call out her spelling words on Monday and she usually skipped the day 5 worksheet too b/c she could already spell the words. I bought MB level 5 for this year and by week 5 I knew it wasn't going to work for her this year. :( There seemed to be so many WORDS on each page and she was coming to me for help every single day (for the grammar lessons) and I need her to independent! Reading from a worksheet to learn wasn't cutting it for her.....so I switched her over to Essentials in Writing Level 5 (from Masterbooks level 5) b/c they have video lessons that I heard were pretty engaging. My plan all along had been to switch to EIW after she finished the Masterbooks Language Lesson series, so we just ended up skipping MB 5 & 6 and moving on to EIW earlier, which I am totally fine with because I was thinking it was time for her to have more writing instruction anyway. Masterbooks writing seems to focus on the paragraph from levels 3-6 and my daughter is ready for more. She is doing well with EIW. My younger daughter with dyslexia started LLFLE 2 this year and is thriving with it. I am supplementing with some Logic of English Essentials though with her (the free online videos & their reading set). I think she will probably do LLFLE 2-3 and then I will move her to EIW like her sister. Maybe she will do level 4 of MB too. We will see. I really really like MB levels 2&3 and level 4 was fine as well. Level 5 was just different in a bad way for my oldest.
I definitely agree with everything you said about both of these curriculums. I have never used TGTB but I've seen enough flip throughs that I think I can say that I agree with you. :) It all depends on what you want for your students! I am curious.....is your daughter doing well with TGTB 4? I really can't see my daughter doing TGTB which is why I've never even tried. Just too many moving pieces for her, I'm afraid. BUT if art, geography and sentence diagramming, plus included readers (I do love that - especially for my dyslexic child who I have to prod to read still) is your goal, TGTB is an excellent choice!! I just need our LA curriculum grammar, writing, spelling, reading b/c Gather Round covers geography/art, etc. I am interested in TGTB LA for high school though.... Maybe you could do a flip through one day of a high school level!
Thank you so much!!! 😊 So far, I think TGTB is more challenging than Masterbooks for my 6th grader. TGTB says to only work for 45 minutes. But her focus is so………..not there…..unless I stay with her for the entire 45 minutes, she just moves too slowly to accomplish anything. And my goal for her is to start working more independently. So it’s tricky.
BUT
If they focus, 45 minutes is plenty of time to accomplish a lesson.
The Spelling and writing workshop alternates. One day it’s about Spelling practice. The next day about writing. I like that, bc my daughter hates writing. Which makes me SO SAD!!!! The grammar isn’t too bad. She already LOST one of her readers. 🤦♀️ (palm your forehead) I told her if she didn’t find it…guess what she’s getting for Christmas. Lol!)
She loves the art and the geography so far (bc the geography so far has been basically just reading about places in the world -Italy right now. They had pictures of Venice and explained why they use gondolas. The leaning tower of Pisa…..so all of that has been very interesting to her.
Too hard to say if she’s doing well with it at this point. But if I had this, as a child, I would’ve LOVED it!! So much little bits of how to think creatively in it. I think that’s all very fun! I really love all the fun ideas they have for practicing Spelling words.
I’m going to do a comparison of the MB level 1 and TGTB level 1, I think also. Bc there are different things to compare there. But one thing I was pondering today as I was giving my second grader another activity…I think TGTB is a level up on the creative thinking, which will help children who do have an aptitude for writing. And also, they are VERY good at the simple, yet fun and creative ways to reinforce a concept. Like in the Spelling practice. But also….like today, my 2nd graders last assignment was to go to the back yard, choose 10 things in nature, and write the first letter for each thing she found. A simple activity that got her outside exploring, then we taped the items to paper and she wrote the letter and attempted to write the words (the misspellings are adorable right now!) but it’s the little activities like that AND….that the book TOLD me to do that. I didn’t have to plan for it. I didn’t search for extra ideas. I didn’t even have to go to the appendix for additional ideas like Masterbooks has (I never went there when we used it bc honestly, I forgot about it)
Did I answer you, or did I digress into a completely different aspect??? Lol!
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan This answers my question! My daughter would be the same way....it would be a fight every day if she had to focus for 45 mins. haha! I too am working on independence with her & she has made a ton of progress with this with EIW & Gather Round.
I would have liked TGTB as a student myself too. :) If your kids can handle it I definitely think it is a solid LA program that also covers many other subjects well too.
Gather Round provides those little extra meaningful fun activities that don't require extra planning and time from me! I love things like that and so do the kids. That activity you described your younger daughter doing is so cute.
I did Logic of English Foundations with my dyslexic daughter (LOVED it) and tried LLFLE 1 with her last summer. I didn't really like it. There is NO WAY she could have learned how to read with that course, but it was okay for a summer review I suppose. I thought the intro to grammar was done well, but grammar is what I like best about the Masterbooks LA. I think MB does well introducing sentence writing in level 2 and then paragraph writing in level 3 but I definitely think the writing in levels 4 and above could beef up, which is why I wasn't all that sad to go ahead and move away from MB with my oldest. And, yes, I rarely go to the appendix for MB extra activities - I forget it is there too! I do wish the spelling was integrated into all five days of MB lessons. I know that's what they say the extra activities are for, but like we said....I forget about them!
Keep me posted on TBTB with N this year! And I hope she finds her reader. I was laughing at that. I can see her face on Christmas morning already when she opens that present. hahahaha! These kids are too funny!
New to homeschooling. My son who will be going into 5th grade. What level do I buy of tgatb? Ive heard masterbooks i would buy level 6 due to a year behind. But I keep hearing tgatb is different levels
TGTB might be a little more advanced but not much. They have free samples online. I’d download them and take a look to decide. I think it depends on the child. I chose level 5 for my 7th grader bc I liked the new format better than the old and bc she struggles with writing. But I also supplemented with another writing program. So it really just depends on what you want. 😉
This was sooooo helpful!! Thank you a million!
I’m glad and you’re welcome!!
We tried TGTB, and we found it to be way too scattered. Too much switching gears in one lesson. As much as I wanted to love it because it truly is beautiful, it just did not work for my daughter who needs things streamlined. Masterbooks was just the right fit.
Beautiful curriculum but we had the same issues.
@@DK-tq3fy Yep. And that's ok. That's the point of homeschool. Finding the right fit for your kids.
This is hard. Bc I love them both. So I kinda use them both 🤪
I felt the same. Infact, as I was editing this, I was thinking, I said Bible integration wasn’t the highest priority when I choose SOME curriculum, but I did enjoy the stories and the integration in the Masterbooks curriculum. It’s also what I love about “A Reason for Spelling.” But ultimately, the style, and the variety and how it’s taught is my first priority. If there were two identical curriculums in that way, I’d choose the one that had even more Bible in it. I wish I had made that point more clear.
is there ANY hint of Mormon doctrine or quotes from Mormons in any that you've used?
I’ve never seen anything that I didn’t agree with. I did find some thing on their website that lists out any thing from Mormons and which curriculum it’s from….to be transparent. There wasn’t much. And quoting a Mormon is different that teaching Mormon doctrine. I mean, we might quote Mitt Romney when speaking about current history. Doesn’t mean doctrine is being taught.
The only thing “Mormon” I see is the teaching and emphasis on good character. But that’s also a Christian desire. (The curriculum doesn’t touch salvation, honestly. I’ve never seen it. So the “Christian” aspect is basically “good character” and God created the earth and everything in it. And honestly….seriously…. The Christian aspect is not really a priority for this curriculum. It’s sprinkled in. But it’s not like every lesson even has a Bible verse. It doesn’t. It’s just a “good” and “beautiful” curriculum. That’s all.
@@OurHOMEschoolPlan thanks!
I know this is older but one problem is the pdf photos sometimes don’t work I have an Apple computer and more than half didn’t print
You have to print them as an image not just straight pages. It is frustrating, I know. And I think it’s only an Apple issue.
Yes their books fall apart. They use to use high quality but then they changed so they could cut cost
We’ll see how long my 6th graders book lasts. If you noticed in the thumbnail, the middle TGTB book…a little wrinkled? Yeah…that’s the kind of child she is!! 😂 my son is so neat and careful and his still fell off the spine. She’s not careful or neat……oh boy! 😜
The maps are missing countries! Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana and Suriname are 12 total …. Mmmm I think missing information
Hmmm…I know Ecuador is talked about in the curriculum. Maybe there’s an explanation but since this is a couple years ago, I don’t remember. 🤷♀️
What spelling curriculum do you use for your daughter that has ADHD?
I’m so sorry I missed your comment!!
We’ve used A reason for Spelling in the past. It worked well bc it gives 5 days of practices for the word list she was on. And most of the weeks had variation. There were some exercises that were always the same. But then they gave ideas for how to practice creatively also. I do have a video explaining what a week of lessons is like. (I just rearranged all of my playlists….but I think you can find it in my 4th -6th grade curriculum playlist. It’s also in the “ Do school with us” playlist. 😉
What spiral binding do you use?
I take it to Office Depot! 😉
Ha. Still in the middle but yes to the book falling apart. Love tgtb, but get that fixed please people.
They are fixing it as they make updates! So that’s good!