The Good and the Beautiful History curriculum is being rewritten and redesigned. History Year 1 was released in March of 2025, and History Years 2 through 4 are planned for release every six months after that, so Year 2 should be available in plenty of time to use after Year 1.
These four courses cover both world and U.S. history for students in grades three through eight, with optional activity books that can be used to engage students below third grade. The four-year cycle can be repeated two or three times at a higher level each time.
The courses cover history, geography, and cultures, and each course is presented in four units covering some world history and some U.S. history each year. Topics to be covered each year are:
Year 1:
- Ancient History
- The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
- U.S. history from the French and Indian War through the Revolutionary War
- The Victorian Era, The History of Flight, and The Cold War Era
Year 2:
- Ancient Greece and Ancient Asia
- Vikings, Exploration, and Pre-Columbian America
- Colonial America and The US Constitution
- History of U.S. Education and WWI through the Great Depression
Year 3:
- Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Israel
- Ancient Africa and Native North Americans
- Westward Expansion and Industrialization
- World War II
Year 4:
- Ancient Rome
- The Reformation and the History of the Bible
- Slavery and the Civil War
- The Civil Rights Movement and Post World War II
Lessons are intended to be completed at a rate of only two per week, taking 20 to 30 minutes per lesson below seventh grade and 40 to 55 minutes for seventh and eighth grade. You might want students in the upper grades to spend more time on history, and having them read historical novels and biographies might be a great way to supplement the courses.
Viewpoint
The courses are written from a Christian worldview, but no denominational doctrine is included. Non-Christian religious beliefs and practices are discussed but always within their historical and social contexts rather than as equivalent religious beliefs. The courses address difficult issues such as slavery, women's rights, and the treatment of indigenous peoples, and the course books give parents a heads-up and time to decide whether to cover those topics in Hard & True Facts sections within lessons.
Components
Each year's program can be used with grades three through eight, with younger siblings participating if desired. The program for each year includes a Course Set plus a Student Set for either grades three to six or grades seven and eight and the optional Activity Book for children in kindergarten through second grade. Every student in grades three through eight needs his or her own Student Set.
The Course Set includes the course book, The Big Book of History Stories for that year, a Maps & Images book, and Time Tunnel Review Cards. The same Time Tunnel Review Cards are used for all levels and don't need to be purchased again.
Student Sets include a Student Explorer (for their grade level) and the Time Line Book. Children need a new Student Explorer each year, but the Time Line Book will be used over all four years.
You can purchase printed products or PDFs.
Course Book
The course book for each year briefly explains the components and how to teach the course. It lets you know that you'll need crayons, colored pencils, and regular pencils on hand for all lessons, plus a device for playing audio versions of the stories in the Big Book of History Stories if using that option. A few pages near the beginning list additional supplies needed for each lesson, typically household or school supply items, like tape, paint, scissors, a bowl, pennies, and a measuring tape, and none are required for some lessons.
Parents use the course book to present the main part of each lesson, supported by the Big Book of History Stories, Maps & Images book, the Time Tunnel Review Cards, and the Time Line Book. At the beginning of each lesson are boxes listing any lesson prep (e.g., punching out cards from the Maps & Images book) and items needed (e.g., art supplies, a Bible, or the Time Line Book).
Each lesson is laid out very clearly, so it’s very easy for parents to use. Many sections of the lessons say, “Read to the children.” Readings are sometimes followed by a Let’s Connect question for discussion. The lessons tell when to use other course components, including specific pages in each level of the Student Explorers. At the end of each lesson, the course books assign self-directed activities for seventh and eighth graders that are found in their Student Explorers. Activities for young children are not assigned in the course books, but the History Activity Book identifies which activities go with each lesson. Parents can decide when and how to use them. Occasionally, an optional craft or cooking activity is presented in the course book.
Student Explorer
Student Explorer activities include mapwork, artwork studies, matching images to text, coloring, cut-and-paste pages, drawing, games, puzzles, and crafts. Questions are often presented within the mazes, puzzles, and other activities as well as in a straightforward manner. The Student Explorers for both levels have parallel activities that are often presented in a more challenging way for older students. In the Student Explorer for grades seven and eight, the cut-and-paste and other simple activities have been dropped, and an extension activity for every lesson has a few pages of text followed by questions or an assignment. For instance, the extension for Year 1, Lesson 3 talks about flood myths from several cultures. The assignment asks students to “Compare and contrast the flood myths from the extension with the Bible account.” It adds some prompts for students as starting points for a short essay.
As with other student books from The Good and the Beautiful, the student pages are colorful and interesting, and no two pages are alike. Some activities in Student Explorers can help parents assess the retention of knowledge, but there are no quizzes or tests in the program. Free PDF answer keys for the Student Explorers are available on the publisher's website.
The Big Book of History Stories
The Big Book of History Stories, a different book for each year, adds a read-aloud-story component to the courses. The book for Year 1 has 248 pages with 19 stories, each like a separate children's book with different authors and illustrators. The stories feature full-color illustrations that take up half or more of each page as well as a substantial amount of text. You might read the stories in more than one sitting, especially with younger children. Some Year 1 stories are adaptations of Bible stories; some are about famous people like St. Patrick, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Paul Revere; and others are about topics such as merchants in medieval England, women and children during the American Revolution, the missionary David Livingstone, and the Estonian Singing Revolution (a story of Estonian patriotism and music as the basis for resisting Soviet domination). The assortment of stories is both unexpected and interesting. Audio recordings of the stories are available on The Good and the Beautiful’s app or through their website.
A list of additional suggested books is available for each year. These extra books might be especially important as a way to provide additional content coverage for students in middle school.
History Activity Book
The History Activity Book helps occupy young learners. Activities in the 150-page book for Year 1 feature coloring, matching items, circling correct items, tracing (handwriting training), cut-and-paste pages, pattern identification, mazes, counting, identification of letters, and simple map work. As you can see, the activities cut across the curriculum into language arts, math, handwriting, and other subjects besides history.
Time Tunnel Review Cards
The 85 Time Tunnel Review Cards (more than 20 per year) are color-coded for each year, with an image on the front and information on the back. Some of the cards included for Year 1 feature the Rosetta Stone, the Magna Carta, William the Conqueror, Joan of Arc, and the Scientific Revolution. The course books tell parents when to use the cards for review, and the set of cards comes with an insert with additional suggestions for creative games and activities with the cards.
Time Line Book: Years 1-4
The Time Line Book: Years 1-4 has 20 full-color, coated pages (8.5” by 11”) and 111 colorful stickers at the back of the book. Many historical events are already entered on the timeline, and students will add stickers as directed from the course book. The coating makes it difficult to write in your own entries, but you can create additional stickers of your own if you can find space on the timeline for them. Each student needs his or her own book.
Maps & Images
The Maps & Images book has several pages of reference maps at the beginning, followed by resources for selected lessons. Arranged to correlate with the lessons, the rest of the content includes additional maps along with images of historical events, people, artworks, architecture, and more. About one-third of the book consists of pages of punch-out cards used for matching games and other activities. Groups of these cards summarize selected topics with images and titles on one side and a paragraph of information on the reverse. For instance, Year 1 punch-out cards include a set of six explaining foods used at Passover meals, and a set of nine cards presents highlights from Egyptian history.
Summary
The Good and the Beautiful History Curriculum is relatively easy to use given the wide variety of learning methods involved. Course books clearly show what to do when, making it easy for even new homeschoolers to use. While other publishers use a similar story-based approach for teaching history, the fact that The Good and the Beautiful has worked hard to make it suitable for a broad Christian audience makes it appealing for many families.
