Math Lessons For a Living Education vs Simply Good & Beautiful Math
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Over the years of homeschooling my three children, I have tried several different homeschool math curriculums.
Today I’m going to share with you a comparison between two popular curriculums that we’ve used in our home.
*this is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
Let’s take a look at Math Lessons for a Living Education vs Simply Good & Beautiful Math.
(Pssst…scroll to the end of the post for a fantastic curriculum giveaway!)
Math Lessons for a Living Education vs Simply Good & Beautiful Math
I want to give you a clear comparison between these two math curriculums, and I will add my personal experience with using them both.
However, I also want to note that I’m not going to be comparing with the mindset of showing you which is best.
I can give you the information, but it’s up to you to decide which is the right choice for your child based on their unique needs and interests.
About the Companies
As a homeschool mom, I always like to know a bit about the curriculum companies that I’m purchasing from.
Masterbooks is the company that produces Math Lessons for a Living Education. They are an unabashedly Christian company and that is heavily reflected in the curriculum content.
You’ll find their resources to be eclectic in teaching style as well as very open-and-go.
The Good & The Beautiful produces Simply Good & Beautiful Math. It claims to be a non-denominational Christian curriculum.
You will find that there is a lot of chatter about The Good & The Beautiful’s claim of being a Christian curriculum. I will provide a little bit of context as well as my own personal experience.
Jenny Phillips is the company founder and she is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The curriculum has been developed with a team made up of various faith viewpoints, so it is not an LDS homeschool curriculum.
I used their math levels K-2 and found there to be little to no mention of anything faith-based in the math curriculum.
If you want a homeschool curriculum where Biblical Christianity is deeply woven throughout, then Math Lessons for a Living Education fits that bill.
Simply Good & Beautiful Math is not secular, but it is pretty neutral regarding any kind of faith stance. There’s little to no faith talk in it at all.
As a born-again Bible-believing Christian, I did not see LDS doctrine in their math curriculum. However, I always encourage every parent to do their own research and to follow what they believe is the right choice for their family.
Grade Level In This Review
The grade level I’ll be reviewing here is kindergarten. Both curriculums are labelled as Level K.
I will note that it is important to always look through the scope and sequence of each course before deciding which level your child should be placed in.
If there are available placement guides, definitely take a look at those.
You can find the placement guide for Math Lessons for a Living Education here.
From my personal experience, I found that Math Lessons for a Living Education Level K was a good fit for my children in their preschool year. In contrast, Simply Good & Beautiful Math was appropriate for kindergarten or first grade.
As we all have different children with unique skills and abilities, you may find the levels are suited differently for you.
Pricing & Available Formats
Both of these homeschool math curriculums are available in print and PDF format. As someone who lives at the bottom of the globe, I am always grateful to have a PDF option. It saves us hundreds of dollars in shipping costs.
Simply Good & Beautiful Math comes in a set with a workbook and a manipulatives box. If you decide to get the PDF, you’ll have to purchase the manipulatives box separately.
Math Lessons for a Living Education does not come with a manipulatives kit. You will gather some basic supplies to use as manipulatives. There is a clear supply list in the workbook so you know what you’ll need. Basically all the supplies are items you’ll have around the house.
For Math Lessons for a Living Education you’ll get a single workbook.
You can also purchase the Teaching Companion which has a lot of helpful information and teaching guidance. It gives you the ‘why’ behind the method, includes math games, and also a bunch of recipes which are incorporated into the lessons.
It is a one-off purchase and covers all 6 levels of Math Lessons for a Living Education.
Here are the prices for each curriculum:
- Simply Good & Beautiful Math Set – $49.98
- Simply Good & Beautiful Math PDF – FREE
- Simply Good & Beautiful Math Manipulatives Box – $19.99
- Math Lessons for a Living Education Print – $39.19
- Math Lessons for a Living Education PDF – $34.29
Scheduling & Size
It is very normal for there to be a huge range in schedules within the homeschool community. It is therefore very important to consider the suggested schedule for each homeschool math curriculum.
Math Lessons for a Living Education
Lessons in this curriculum are short and sweet. They’re curated to be gentle and engaging. The suggested schedule in the workbook is set up for a 5-day week with 36 weeks in total.
Each lesson is 1-2 pages in length.
Simply Good & Beautiful Math
Simply Good & Beautiful Math also has short lessons. They do not have a strict suggested schedule, but do give you a guide at the beginning which says that if you do 4 lessons per week you’ll complete the course within a typical school year.
There are 120 lessons total. Most lessons are 1-2 pages in length.
Methods of Teaching
While neither of these math curriculums is Charlotte Mason in the purist sense, they both draw from Charlotte Mason teaching principles.
One of those principles is short lessons. These curriculums are set up to be completed in under 20 minutes per lesson.
Math Lessons for a Living Education
This curriculum is made to be a gentle introduction to math. Each week students will get to hear a story about a set of twins and the adventures they get up to.
The stories are designed to show the connection between math and everyday life.
The lessons are a fun combination of workbook-style activities as well as hands-on activities.
This math curriculum takes a mastery approach and all instruction is included within the lesson itself.
The pages are colorful and engaging without being cluttered with irrelevant illustrations or copious amounts of text. If you are going to print the curriculum at home, the pages are fairly good for that due to the simple illustration.
This is a great option for children who are easily distracted or overwhelmed.
Simply Good & Beautiful Math
While Math Lessons for a Living Education takes a mastery approach, Simply Good & Beautiful Math is very much a spiral math curriculum.
Concepts are introduced and then constantly reviewed. Knowing how your child learns best is going to be a great determiner of which curriculum you decide is right for them.
The lessons begin with a review box and then a new concept is taught. There is also more review built into the lesson after that.
The pages have beautiful and engaging illustrations with stories built into the lessons. The lessons are scripted so you can simply read straight from the page while you sit alongside your child.
Which Homeschool Math Curriculum is Right for You?
Here’s the thing – I’m never going to tell you which curriculum to choose for your child. I’m also unlikely to say that one curriculum is better than another.
The nature of homeschooling means that every situation is unique. I can make recommendations but it’s ultimately up to you to do your research and then make a choice based on what you know your child needs.
However, we can draw some conclusions simply from our knowledge about each curriculum.
For instance, if you need a math curriculum that is simple and gentle, Math Lessons for a Living Education is a great pick.
It’s also worth considering if you have a very keen preschooler who is dying to do some math. I would consider it for a child who is still working on developing a strong number sense. You can do math without putting a ton of pressure on them.
It’s also a great pick for families who wish to have the Christian faith woven into their homeschool curriculum.
If you have a child who loves stories and colorful pictures, Simply Good & Beautiful Math may be a great choice.
The lessons are fun and engaging with a great attempt at catering to a child’s sense of imagination.
It does move fairly quickly as far as the pace of the curriculum, so I would recommend it for a child who already has a good number sense.
It is also worth considering if you’re on a budget and have access to cheap printing. Due to the PDF being free, it really does make it a great option for many families.
Final Thoughts
As I’ve already said, I’ve used both of these curriculums. They both served us well at different periods of time.
A curriculum should be seen as a tool in your homeschooling toolbox. You’re never going to find one that is 100% perfect, but you can use it in a way that is 100% perfect for your child.
Spiral, mastery, simple, in-depth – you know your child and what they need best. I hope that this comparison between the two curriculums has given you a bit more insight into what each one provides.
Giveaway!
