A Review Of "The Good & The Beautiful" Curriculum: Level K Primer Course Set & Level K Primer Supplement

Level K Primer Course Set: 108-112pages & 34 Lessons of once again beautifully illustrated pictures, and some hands on activities woven through out. Along with "My First Reading Book": a collection of 7 stories, and 56 pages. Including the light and friendly 20 "Learning Songs". All Sold at a low cost and full of Christian values. 

This course set is typically recommended for 4-6 year-olds, but as always make sure to check The Good & The Beautiful(TG&TB) assessment page to know if this level is a good fit. For more information on this course set and the assessment checkout TG&TB website. 

Level K Primer Supplement: 50pages of additional practice for use after the Level K Primer.

( Home Printed PDF's of Level K Primer Course Set & Level K Primer Supplement)

Set Up Time: (5min+)

After you receive the Level K Primer and Level K Primer Supplement you'll notice there is very little to set up. Only gathering the basic supplies along with dried beans, buttons, change, cotton balls, a clothespin, and a spoon. Most items are ones you probably have lying around the house.

Though these items are probably hanging around your house, I recommend finding them all before you start. So when the lesson calls for the items you don't have to stop, and go find them. Otherwise you'll give up and use random objects.... or pennies (Pennies are my typical go-to improvising manipulative).

I would also take the time to download the 20 "learning Songs" to your devices (phone, iPad, computer, or iPod) and the "Vowel Song" that is a free download under TG&TB Level K Primer helps from here.

Daily Preparations:

If you already gathered the extra & basic supplies, and keep it on hand for each lesson. You'll find there is no other daily preparation needed.

Where My Kid Started & Finished:

Son#2 started the Level K Primer at 4-3/4 years-old knowing all his letters and their sounds, all the vowels, counting to 10, hit and miss on recognizing all 1-10 numbers. Still learning the alphabet song, and Rhyming was still a hard concept for him to grasp. 

Now at 5years-old he just finished the Level K Primer Supplement. He has mastered all the letters, sounds, vowels, and long & short vowels. He can for the most part count to 20 (but always forgets 13? I don't know why haha), and can count down from ten. He still forgets to sing some of the alphabet ( L,T,U,V). Rhyming he has a better grasp on and can get it most of the time. Knows the sight words (A, I, see, The), can sound out a word, but only 1/3 of the time can say the letters blended together.  

What My Kid Thought Of It:

My Son#2 loved doing the lessons and each one felt just long enough for his attention span. I do think he missed playing as many games as the Pre-K had. At the beginning we would often go back and play the Pre-K games for fun, per his request. Even though the two Primer courses don't have that same playful feel as Pre-K, they make up for it with a lot of cutting and gluing activities. Which my son really enjoyed.

He was over-the-moon to have his own reader the "My First Reading Book". He beamed with pride every time we worked on reading together (even though at the beginning it was painstakingly slow). I recommend laminating the reader as well, especially if you plan to use it with more than one child (my boys are so rough at times).

(Home Printed PDF of "My First Reading Book")

What I Added To Them & Extras:

After he had finished the "Doodles and Pre-Writing" pages, he started the Level K Handwriting Book about halfway threw Level K Primer. Even though they suggest starting the handwriting at Level K, I felt my son was ready to move forwarded in handwriting. He has done well too.

We continued using the music "Learning Songs" and the free "Vowel Song" to reinforce the alphabet and vowels.

I also started my son with Level K Math about halfway in the Level K Primer. He was ready (per TG&TB math assessment), and has really enjoyed both. I recommend this route because, the lessons start out slow and the math concepts slowly build upon each other. In addition it was nice to have him be learning and developing a routine with the Math Level K, after we were already in a grove with Language Arts. 

I once again created a double sided, laminated Review Book from, both Level K Primer course books. It included all the "Trace & Read" pages, the "Match the Letter" pages, and the pages with the sight word activities. I typically would use one page as a warm up for the day. To do by himself while I got school ready. I also used it on our review day to go over some pages from each category. Doing this I feel really help cement all the new skills he was learning.

I especially found it helpful during the Level K Primer Supplement book. I would add a page here or there as needed to help make more of a complete lesson. Since the supplement book is not split into lessons, rather a single 50 pages. I did a couple pages a day and it came out to be about 13 Lessons.

I highly recommend adding in the app "Reading Eggs", it has been a great supplement to the Level K Primer's. While I don't think you have to use it, I think you should highly consider it. The app I felt really helped Son#2 to continue developing and practicing the skills he was learning from the Level K Primers. But he was doing this outside of school time, and in such a fun way he didn't see it a schoolwork rather play. (Clink here for my Review & tips of the "Reading Eggs" App)

What I Would Change:

Not a huge deal but, I think I would have preferred the Level K Supplement to be split into lessons. I didn't like that it was all single pages, and that I had to now create my own additional lessons.

I really wish TG&TB added more manipulative games similar to the Pre-K course. Like maybe a sight word game hide and seek style. Along with a game for the long & short vowels maybe similar to swat the fly, or find their match. I feel like a game in those areas would have kept my young child excited and entertained to really learn that concept. 

Would I Use Them Again:

I defiantly will be using both again, after my next child finishes their Pre-K course book . I felt the Pre-K and Level K Primer flowed very well into each other. And even though my son could have skipped the Level K Supplement, I felt like the extra pages provided him time to really master the concepts. While developing a strong foundation and confidence, before heading into Level K. Which Level K is known to be a bigger jump from Level K Primer's.

Although this was my first kid I've homeschool exclusively from the beginning, during this book I finally felt peace and a calmness . We both were completely comfortable as we went through both Primers since they followed a similar pattern of learning as the Pre-K curriculum we did before.  

One a final note I highly recommend using both Level K Primer's together. And my son and I are both so excited (and maybe if I'm honest a smidge intimated) to slowly start Level K. 

Click here for my recommendations on bridging the gap between K-Primer/Supplement and Level K. 

Check out my review of Level K below 

"A Review Of "The Good & The Beautiful" Curriculum: Level K Set"