How to Get Started Homeschooling

Written By: The Good and the Beautiful Published On:

Wondering how to get started homeschooling?

You’re in the right place. This guide walks you through what you need, how to begin, and how to confidently teach your children at home. 

You can homeschool! It's easy to get started with award-winning curriculum you can download for free. Keep reading to find answers to your biggest questions, discover how to teach multiple children, or get time-tested planning tips from seasoned homeschool educators.

All of our full-year grades K–8 language arts and math courses are available as FREE downloads! Find these and more at https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/free/.

Steps to Start Homeschooling with The Good and the Beautiful

  1. Read this blog.

    This blog post walks you through what you need to get started and how to begin homeschooling with confidence.

  2. Administer the Placement Tests.

    Placement tests help you choose the best level for your child.

  3. Print the Shopping Guide and Checklist.

    This helpful tool walks you through choosing courses for your family.

  4. Shop by Grade or by Subject.

    Find and choose the courses you need using either search option on our website.

  5. Download Free Curriculum and Resources.

    Find complete K–8 Language Arts and Math Courses, along with our Marine Biology science unit, plus free sample lessons, videos, apps, and other free resources we offer.

  6. Go to our Start Your Courses page.

    Learn more about how to prepare each course.

  • A collage of pages from the homeschool curriculum Shopping Checklist | The Good and the Beautiful

    Printable Shopping Guide

    • A guide to choosing courses,
    • Grade-level course recommendations,
    • Checklists for individual & family-style courses, 
    • Checklists for electives & extras, and
    • Bookshop wish list.
  • Collage of pages from the placement tests | The Good and the Beautiful

    Take the Placement Tests

    Complete the Placement Tests for language arts, math, spelling, and reading to help you place your child at the correct language arts or math level.

    Detailed instructions for administering the tests are found in the downloads.

Teach Individual Students or Multiple Ages at the Same Time

Reduce teaching time while encouraging strong academics when you choose family-style science and history. Whether you're teaching one child or many, you'll keep everyone engaged, interested, and eager to learn.

Family doing History Unit Study together | The Good and the Beautiful

Science and history are both designed to be taught family-style. Teaching these subjects together as a family is a beautiful experience. It allows for interaction, discussion, activities, and games. It also shortens the time that homeschool parents have to teach each week.

Science for Grades 3–8

Our grades 3–8 science program includes unit studies covering 19 science topics. (Our updated science units are designed for children in grades 3–8. Many young children enjoy science and may begin when they are kindergarten age.

Two school-aged kids sitting at the table with their mom while they write in workbooks | The Good and the Beautiful

We suggest teaching science twice a week, and most families will go through three to five science units a year. To get started, simply choose whichever units you want, which can be taught in any order. You will only need one course book for your entire family. Each child will need their own age-appropriate science journal. Each of the lessons takes about 20–30 minutes to complete.

Our science units also feature lesson extensions for grades 7–8, which will take an additional 10–15 minutes for older students. Our family-style science units also offer optional Science Activity Books for children in second grade and younger.

A young boy and his dad kneeling by a table while looking at The Big Book of Science Stories Nests & Burrows | The Good and the Beautiful

Science for Younger Children

If you have only younger children, you may be interested in our Science for Little Hearts and Hands courses, which were created to inspire a sense of wonder in young children. These courses are meant to spark their curiosity in the world around them and to introduce science to children in preschool through 2nd grade. Choose from five fascinating courses.

Two high school students sitting at a table mixing cups of colorful water together with High School Biology Workbooks | The Good and the Beautiful

High School Science

Discover the wonders of biology in our highly anticipated High School Biology course! Students in grades 9–12 are captivated by in-depth investigations into the simplest to the most sophisticated life forms. Engaging lessons bring awe and excitement to the study of the magnificence of God’s creations.

Once you receive your science units, we recommend that you visit our Start Science page to help you prepare for teaching the course. After organizing and prepping your unit and gathering  supplies, the science lessons are completely open-and-go; you don’t need any scientific knowledge or expertise. You’ll learn right along with your children! Our science units have videos for our experiments for times that you’re unable (or don’t want) to gather supplies. Also, our units feature amazing, original videos created by The Good and the Beautiful.

History for Grades 3–8

Our grades 3–8 history curriculum is divided into four separate years. We suggest starting with History Year 1 when your oldest child is in third grade. You will need just one copy of the History Year 1 Family Set and one set of the Time Tunnel Review Cards for your entire family. Each child will also need an age-appropriate Student Explorer and Time Line Book. Each day, just open the course book and follow the instructions.


Family doing History 1 Unit | The Good and the Beautiful

Items Needed to Teach History Year 1

One Family Set per family which includes the following:

  • Full-color Course Book
  • The Big Book of History Stories
  • Maps & Images book

One per student:

  • History Time Line Book and one of the following workbooks:
    • Grades 3–6 Student Explorer
    • Grades 7–8 Student Explorer
    • Optional Grades K–2 History Activity Book

No lesson planning is needed. We suggest doing a history lesson two days a week to complete the course in a school year. Lessons take about 20–30 minutes each.

Individual Courses

Now let’s look at subjects that are taught on individual levels: math, language arts, and handwriting.

Math

Whether your child struggles with math, is on track for their current grade level, or is excelling at a faster pace, our math courses provide the perfect balance of confidence and skill development.

Our math course levels match public school levels, although our programs exceed public school standards. Start your child on their grade level, or take our Math Placement Test if you feel your child might be behind or ahead of their level. Simply Good and Beautiful Math is like no other math curriculum. Our rigorous process of reviewing and piloting by math experts, professional educators, and actual children and homeschool parents makes sure that our math is academically solid while using auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learning to connect math to meaning and God and beauty.

Teaching math to multiple children likely seems overwhelming, especially if you’re a busy parent and math just isn’t your strong point. We’ve got you covered. Watch our video How to Homeschool K–8 Math. We’ve designed our math courses so you can teach three different levels completely and thoroughly in just 60 minutes. We suggest completing four math lessons a week in order to finish an entire math course in one school year. Our math course sets have everything you need to get started. Like all of our courses, you don’t need to read the math lesson ahead of time. Just open and go, learning along with your child.

Mother and son doing Math K | The Good and the Beautiful

Items Needed to Teach Math

One per student:

Optional Math Extras:

Language Arts

Our language arts courses are the heart and soul of The Good and the Beautiful and have been described as life-changing. These all-in-one courses thoroughly cover and beautifully connect phonics, reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, literature, spelling, vocabulary, art instruction, art history, and even geography. 

To get started, administer the Language Arts Course Level Placement Test on our website to determine your child’s level. Our preschool through level 3 courses are mainly parent directed, but also contain independent practice sections. You’ll need to spend 20–35 minutes per day with each child on levels preschool through 3. Levels 4 and above are mainly self-directed by the child. You’ll only need to spend 5–10 minutes with your children on Levels 4–8. We suggest completing four lessons a week to finish a course in one school year. Lessons are 100 percent open-and-go and 100 percent beautiful and enjoyable.

A school-aged boy and his mom holding the Reading Booster C book open and laughing with each other | The Good and the Beautiful

Free Language Arts and Math

All of our award-winning, full-year grades K–8 language arts and math courses are available as FREE downloads! Find these and more at goodandbeautiful.com/free.

Two children sitting at a table writing in their handwriting notebooks with pencils | The Good and the Beautiful

Handwriting

The Good and the Beautiful handwriting courses match public school grade levels. Make sure to add them to your order to help your child learn and improve correct letter formation for both print and cursive. Our handwriting courses also include drawing instruction and activities, which are a lot of fun and help develop fine motor skills.

A collage of elective course covers | The Good and the Beautiful

Electives

The Good and the Beautiful Electives program is designed to open up a world of wonder, exploration, and new skills for children of all ages. 

Each physical elective course we offer comes with a sticker badge on the last page. As your child completes each course, they can place their sticker badge into their My Electives Badge Book.

As your children collect badges over the years, this book becomes a record of their explorations and the knowledge and skills they have gained—a precious keepsake that they will love flipping through!

All subjects curriculum cover images | The Good and the Beautiful

To get started with The Good and the Beautiful, you will need:

  • 2–5 science units of your choice
  • Year 1 History course
  • Math course set for each child
  • Language arts course set for each child
  • Handwriting workbook for each child
  • Typing for grades 3 and above
  • 1–2 Electives for each child grades 3 and up

Two Ways to Shop

  • A collage of math and language arts curriculum along displayed on a white and blue watercolor background and the text "Shop by Grade" | The Good and the Beautiful
  • A collage of curriculum of various subjects displayed on a blue and white watercolor background with the text "Shop by Subject" | The Good and the Beautiful

These are all the items you need for a beautiful and effective homeschool year.

Getting started with homeschooling can feel overwhelming at first, but it doesn’t have to be. Many families approach homeschooling in different ways, depending on their children and their season of life. Some subjects can be taught together, while others are taught at each child’s individual level. Lessons from The Good and the Beautiful are designed to be open and go, require little preparation, and fit naturally into daily family life. With clear placement tools, free resources, and step-by-step guidance, parents can move forward with confidence and clarity.

To round out your homeschool year, we also recommend books from The Good and the Beautiful Bookshop or Book List. Reading powerful, wholesome literature is one of the best ways to improve the hearts and minds of your children.

We’re Here to Help!

The Good and the Beautiful is unique. We believe there are too many children in today’s world that are losing a love for what is truly good and beautiful in literature and in learning. We invite you to join us in lifting up the hearts and minds of children to see beauty, meaning, and God’s hand in their education. We hope this video has helped you see how easy it is to get started on your own good and beautiful homeschool journey.

You may also like . . .

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1 comment

Tasha Miles

I have 2 girls that I’m trying to get enrolled in homeschooling 6th and 7th grade.How do I go by enrolling them,is this a free course or is there a payment
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The Good and the Beautiful replied:
Hello Tasha! We are so glad you found us! We are a curriculum company and not a school. Instead of an enrollment, our customers purchase the curriculum and utilize it in their homes or as part of a school within their state. All of our products and pricing are available on our website, including FREE PDFs for Language Arts and Math (Levels K-8) and Marine Biology. You can learn more about how to get started and what is available, here: https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/pages/switch-to-homeschool

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