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The Good and the Beautiful History Year 1 Course Book
216 pages, Spiral-bound
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About the author
Jenny Phillips
133 books80 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
As a Christian songwriter and music producer, Jenny Phillips has released over 27 albums and has shared her love of music across the world, speaking at over 1,100 events in 23 countries and selling over a million CDs. In order to reduce the stress and time commitments that naturally come with a music label, and so she could focus more on her young family, Jenny left her music label in 2011. She now offers her music for free on www.hislightmusic.com.
When Jenny's children began going to school, she turned toward another one of her passions—education. Jenny began homeschooling in an effort to provide a faith-based, high-academic education focused on building noble character. Not wholly satisfied with any curriculum she could find and deeply concerned about the loss of good literature in our world, she founded The Good and the Beautiful.
Jenny lives in Utah with her husband and five children. In addition to music, motherhood, and good literature, Jenny loves family history, gardening, traveling, and exercising. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she enjoys working with people of many faiths as she shares her multi-denominational curriculum, rejoicing in the common good that all Christians share.
(from https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/about/)
As a Christian songwriter and music producer, Jenny Phillips has released over 27 albums and has shared her love of music across the world, speaking at over 1,100 events in 23 countries and selling over a million CDs. In order to reduce the stress and time commitments that naturally come with a music label, and so she could focus more on her young family, Jenny left her music label in 2011. She now offers her music for free on www.hislightmusic.com.
When Jenny's children began going to school, she turned toward another one of her passions—education. Jenny began homeschooling in an effort to provide a faith-based, high-academic education focused on building noble character. Not wholly satisfied with any curriculum she could find and deeply concerned about the loss of good literature in our world, she founded The Good and the Beautiful.
Jenny lives in Utah with her husband and five children. In addition to music, motherhood, and good literature, Jenny loves family history, gardening, traveling, and exercising. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she enjoys working with people of many faiths as she shares her multi-denominational curriculum, rejoicing in the common good that all Christians share.
(from https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/about/)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 1, 2025
This was my second time through this course. Both times, history became my children's favorite subject. Some lessons are longer than others, so we took our time getting through this course book. We also paused some lessons to spend more time in whatever the companion read-aloud was for the unit, as those brought each time period and setting to life more vividly. The course comes with top notch recommendations for those additions.
September 29, 2025
update for the 2025 release:
I absolutely LOVE the changes made. My kids are little, so i appreciate that the information focuses on goodness and positive influences during hard times. However, I equally appreciate that Rhett acknowledged poor choices and wrong doings since my oldest is able to understand that her heroes aren't perfect people. They also made an effort to include multiple perspectives, which is an important part of understanding historical narratives.
I love the diversity added to the book, the sticker timeline, the review cards (much better than memorizing random information), and the activity books. As a mom of three girls, i love that they made a strong effort to include more women (particularly women of diverse backgrounds) and celebrated their triumphs. They clearly took customer feedback very seriously.
I absolutely love the colonial/revolutionary Era lessons. Even though I've read a lot about American history, this was the first time I felt in awe of George Washington and his wise (and clever) leadership, the determination and faith of those who followed him into battle despite all odds, and God's hand in the creation of our country. It restored some patriotic pride I'd lost over the last few years.
Even though we could have easily finished out our old curriculum and been just fine, I'm glad we updated because I'm very pleased to have this history curriculum in my bookshelf for future use.
my review is for the older version, not the 2025 release
I tried several history books before landing on this one. I love the open-and-go layout that made it easy for me start a lesson without much effort. My kids loved the audio (I personally didn't, but I can't complain about anything that keeps my kids' interest). I love the accompanying storybook.
I did not love:
-the lack of diversity
-very dry text
-black and white pictures
-the memory game (we used it twice)
-lack of activities relating to the time period
However! I love that the company listened to feedback from users, and we're VERY happy with the updated version that addresses these problems.
I still think this deserves 4 stars because I tried several history books that had worse problems or were very prep-heavy. Even Scholastic left me disappointed. I was able to compensate because we lived in an area with ample museums and historians we could talk to, but a solid history curriculum is extremely important in our current location due to the lack of resources and museums in our area.
I absolutely LOVE the changes made. My kids are little, so i appreciate that the information focuses on goodness and positive influences during hard times. However, I equally appreciate that Rhett acknowledged poor choices and wrong doings since my oldest is able to understand that her heroes aren't perfect people. They also made an effort to include multiple perspectives, which is an important part of understanding historical narratives.
I love the diversity added to the book, the sticker timeline, the review cards (much better than memorizing random information), and the activity books. As a mom of three girls, i love that they made a strong effort to include more women (particularly women of diverse backgrounds) and celebrated their triumphs. They clearly took customer feedback very seriously.
I absolutely love the colonial/revolutionary Era lessons. Even though I've read a lot about American history, this was the first time I felt in awe of George Washington and his wise (and clever) leadership, the determination and faith of those who followed him into battle despite all odds, and God's hand in the creation of our country. It restored some patriotic pride I'd lost over the last few years.
Even though we could have easily finished out our old curriculum and been just fine, I'm glad we updated because I'm very pleased to have this history curriculum in my bookshelf for future use.
my review is for the older version, not the 2025 release
I tried several history books before landing on this one. I love the open-and-go layout that made it easy for me start a lesson without much effort. My kids loved the audio (I personally didn't, but I can't complain about anything that keeps my kids' interest). I love the accompanying storybook.
I did not love:
-the lack of diversity
-very dry text
-black and white pictures
-the memory game (we used it twice)
-lack of activities relating to the time period
However! I love that the company listened to feedback from users, and we're VERY happy with the updated version that addresses these problems.
I still think this deserves 4 stars because I tried several history books that had worse problems or were very prep-heavy. Even Scholastic left me disappointed. I was able to compensate because we lived in an area with ample museums and historians we could talk to, but a solid history curriculum is extremely important in our current location due to the lack of resources and museums in our area.
January 2, 2021
Absolutely beautiful history book! We happen to study the history of the declaration of independence exactly on the days before July the 4th and it really made the day more real for my 10 year old. It brought fresh new meaning to what independence meant. Things we know and we should never forget. Many times I couldn't get through the lesson of the day without tearing up as it shared true stories of our past heros. Stories never heard before. Stories like a little girl who with a broken heart gave up her pet duck for the soldiers who were lacking food and fighting for our independence could have a meal and she wanted to do her part in helping. So many from the youngest to the oldest who had a role in our history. I love how it doesn't shy away from showing the faith that George Washington had and the miracles that God did for them. I highly recommend for ages 8 and up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews