The Good and the Beautiful: An Honest Review and Analysis (2026)

Introduction

Family review videos, including several cited below, debate whether a curriculum that calls itself nondenominational Christian, from a publisher Every Homeschool classifies as LDS, belongs in a given family’s home. On price, the language arts and math courses, kindergarten through Level 8, are posted online as free downloads, per the publisher’s own free-downloads page.

This analysis holds two questions apart. First, what does The Good and the Beautiful document about itself: method, scope, price, worldview. Second, what do families who have actually used it report, both the praise and the frustration. The publisher’s own pages answer the first. A set of widely viewed family reviews, several with tens of thousands of views, answers the second. Every Homeschool maintains a neutral directory page for The Good and the Beautiful alongside this piece.

What The Good and the Beautiful is

The Good and the Beautiful offers courses in language arts, math, science, history, handwriting, and electives, and its About page describes its lessons as open-and-go. The page calls it a “nondenominational Christian curriculum” that is “rich with nature, beautiful art, and literature that supports faith, character building, and strong families,” with a stated goal of making “faith-based homeschooling easy and inexpensive.” Language arts runs from preschool through Level 8 plus high school, per the language arts collection page; math runs kindergarten through a Pre-Algebra level (Math 8), per the math collection page.

The About page says the company focuses “not on one educational philosophy but rather on what works.” A separate page on Charlotte Mason says the curriculum incorporates many of her ideas, including short lessons, living books, nature, and art appreciation. Cathy Duffy Reviews publishes separate reviews of its language arts levels, math, science, history, and handwriting courses.

How it teaches, day to day

According to a comparison review from Heavenly Homeschool, in language arts and math the lesson and the teaching script live in the same book the child writes in. The reviewer holds up the first-grade math book and points out that it is the only textbook for the full year, with the parent’s script and the child’s work in one place and no separate teacher’s guide, Heavenly Homeschool.

The publisher says its lessons are open-and-go and cut busywork and teaching time. Its Level 5 language arts page describes full-color course books “filled with beautiful artwork,” puts average lessons at less than 40 minutes a day, and says the course sets combine phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography in one course. For math, it says hands-on learning, fun activities, and games are woven into the lessons and that no daily prep time is required, per the math collection page. In our assessment, low prep and a gentle start are the features most likely to suit first-year families.

What families praise

Two themes appear in the reviews cited here: it is pleasant to look at, and it is easy to run. A review skeptical of the program on other grounds still grants that it is “probably the most visual pleasing out of all the homeschool curriculum you’ll find today” and provides a thorough education for an affordable, if not free, price, How to Homeschool (61K views as of October 2026). The illustrations get singled out even by a reviewer who leaves. The Heavenly Homeschool year-end review, which ultimately switches away, still calls out the colorful, frequently-changing illustrations and the comprehensive language-arts scope that hits phonics, grammar, spelling, and comprehension, Heavenly Homeschool.

Ease of use is the other theme. In our assessment, the one-book format, the short lessons, and the free downloads lower the barrier for parents who have never taught before. Even a reviewer whose main complaint is the readers describes the curriculum as “simple, efficient, yet thorough,” and praises the per-chapter phonogram practice and decoding strategies in the readers, Madison Hopper Homeschooling (30K views as of October 2026). In our assessment, that low-friction start carries real weight for a family testing whether homeschooling is even workable.

What families criticize, and why some switch

In the reviews cited here, the academic criticism centers on spiral pacing and limited practice and review. In the Heavenly Homeschool year-end review, a parent who taught first grade for six years and fifth grade for a couple of years in public school describes the spiral method as “almost to an extreme” and the lessons as carrying “a lot of what we call fluff,” with stories and buildup before the day’s skill, Heavenly Homeschool. She reports the sequence bouncing between topics, an “-ed” ending one day and digraphs the next, with the “-ed” endings returning maybe three or four weeks later, which left her feeling there was not a lot of practice for her daughter. She calls the kindergarten math “way too easy” and says the fluff is “ten times worse” there than in language arts. In our assessment, families who prefer mastery-style math, where a topic is drilled before the next one begins, may weigh this more heavily. Every Homeschool covers that specific migration in a separate guide on leaving TGTB math.

The literature draws a second, narrower complaint. A reviewer who left the program and later returned says the readers are her “main complaint,” comparing them unfavorably to another publisher’s readers even while praising the phonics mechanics, Madison Hopper Homeschooling. It is worth noting that the Heavenly Homeschool comparison points out that the newer language-arts edition is reportedly stronger than the version her family used, Heavenly Homeschool, so complaints tied to older editions may not describe the current course sets. The same Heavenly Homeschool reviewer ultimately stayed with Christian Light Education for language arts and math; Christian Light says most of its courses are divided into workbooks called LightUnits, per its homeschool page. Every Homeschool tracks the wider set of exit routes in switching from The Good and the Beautiful.

The worldview question

This question deserves a plain accounting. As a matter of fact, the company’s owner, Jenny Phillips, is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the company states this on a page about the curriculum’s religious content. On that same page, the company’s position is that the curriculum “is not affiliated with or connected to Jenny’s church,” that its writers, reviewers, and editors come from many Christian denominations, among them Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Seventh-day Adventist, that a special team of religious content reviewers takes everything it creates through a review process, and that it teaches basic biblical principles, God’s love, creation, prayer, and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, while leaving specific doctrines to families and their religious leaders.

Families read that arrangement differently, and the reviews show both readings clearly. One reviewer avoids the program on gospel-centered grounds. The How to Homeschool review in this set explains that its author would not use it because, in her words, it is “not gospel centered,” wanting a curriculum where the gospel is “the very fabric,” How to Homeschool. That same reviewer also reports that solid Christians have used the program and found “no overt Mormon teaching,” while noting that a few quotes from LDS leaders do appear in the materials. A Christian reviewer in another video is more comfortable with it. She says she is “a Christian” and “not Mormon,” is “not against using a curriculum made by a Mormon,” and finds the program “pretty non-denominational,” with its literature the one main area where she sees it differently, Madison Hopper Homeschooling. Both experiences are real. In our assessment, a family that wants Scripture woven through every subject will likely want a gospel-centered program; a family comfortable teaching doctrine at home alongside a general Christian curriculum may find no friction here. Every Homeschool classifies the publisher as LDS on its neutral directory page so families can decide with the fact in front of them.

Who it fits, and who it does not

In our assessment, it tends to fit:

• First-year families who want a gentle, visual, inexpensive on-ramp and low daily prep.
• Parents who value nature study, art, and living books and want them built into the core subjects.
• Budget-conscious households; the free language arts and math downloads make a full level testable before any printed set is bought.

In our assessment, it fits less well when a family wants:

• Heavier, mastery-style math practice. Spiral pacing and limited practice and review are among the reasons the reviews above give for switching.
• A gospel-centered framework where Scripture is central to every subject rather than a general Christian backdrop.
• A rigorous, accelerated academic track from the early grades; one reviewer above found the kindergarten math “way too easy” for her daughter.

Cost and value

In our assessment, on price, The Good and the Beautiful is hard to beat. The language arts and math courses for kindergarten through Level 8 are available as free downloads, per the free-downloads page, which has families join its homeschool email list to start the download. The Level 5 language arts download, for example, includes Course Book Parts 1 and 2, the Answer Key, and five books. Families who prefer bound books buy printed sets: the Level 3 Language Arts Course Set, for example, lists at $72.97 and includes the Level 3 Course Book, the Spelling Practice Book, and the four-book Phonics Read-Together Book Set, per the product page (retrieved October 2026).

Printed course sets are priced per level. Language arts sets for Levels K through 7 run from $69.97 to $98.84, per the language arts collection page, and printed math sets run from $49.98 for Math K to $89.95 for Pre-Algebra (Math 8), with intermediate levels in between, per the math collection page (retrieved October 2026). Prices change; re-check the publisher’s pages before budgeting, and compare against the wider market using Every Homeschool’s curriculum finder.

How it compares, and where families go next

In our assessment, the most direct comparison is with Master Books, which says families can open the box and immediately start homeschooling and that a biblical worldview is integral to all its curriculum (About page). Every Homeschool sets the two side by side in Master Books vs The Good and the Beautiful.

In the year-end review cited above, the Heavenly Homeschool reviewer, who found the math too easy, said she planned to move to a mastery-based math program. If the decision is still open, start with the method-neutral framework in how to choose a homeschool curriculum, and if the children are still young, weigh it against other options in the best preschool curriculum guide. The full record for this publisher, including subject coverage and worldview classification, lives on its Every Homeschool directory page.

The bottom line

In our assessment, The Good and the Beautiful is visually appealing and easy to teach, and the free language arts and math downloads let a family try a level before buying printed sets. The reservations in the reviews are just as real: the spiral pacing can frustrate families who want more drill, and, in our assessment, the publisher’s LDS classification can be a deciding factor for gospel-centered households, even as one reviewer cited here reports that solid Christians have used the program without finding overt LDS teaching. None of that makes it a good or bad program in the abstract. It makes it a specific one. Read the publisher’s free samples, teach a week of it, and decide against the two questions this review raises: how you want math taught, and how central you want Scripture to be.