When I was first introduced to Charlotte Mason several years ago, I knew there were so many aspects of her teachings that I wanted to incorporate into our homeschool.
I loved the absence of “rushing” that I had grown so tired of over the years. It seemed like every single curriculum we were using was constantly rushing us to move on, leaving us feeling like we were always “behind.”
When my oldest was in middle school, I knew we needed to really work to put the Charlotte Mason ideas into motion. I was feeling burnt out and start dreading our homeschool time.
That summer, I found The Good and the Beautiful curriculum and it lit a fire under me.
I had no idea that schooling could be so beautiful. It was simple and relaxed, a completely different feeling than I’d been having about our other curriculum.
After using The Good and the Beautiful for an entire year, I was torn.
I loved the idea of the curriculum, but I knew it just wasn’t working for us.
I felt like so much of the curriculum was drawn out, taking an hour or more to do just math! The games and hands-on activities were a nice addition but I knew Barrett would not enjoy them at all. He is more of a “let’s get this done!” type of kid.
Math, especially, was going to be a struggle for us.
So I set out to find something similar, that would serve our family better.
After pouring over several different curriculum, I settled on Math Lessons for a Living Education by Master Books.
This post is sponsored by Master Books. We received the product for free and I was compensated for my time.
However, both curriculum are great and all opinions are my own.
All About Math Lessons for a Living Education
Math Lessons for a Living Education instantly drew me in, when I was looking for something that my busy boy would enjoy. The curriculum is created by one of my very favorite homeschool companies, Master Books.
Over the years, I’ve enjoyed so many of their products and have grown to trust them as a pillar in the homeschool curriculum world. While they don’t market themselves as Charlotte Mason, they do tend to lean in that direction.
I’ve found that Master Books is the perfect amount of structure vs. Charlotte Mason for our family.
Math Lessons for a Living Education is an open-and-go curriculum that requires no prep work. That means I can wake up on Monday morning, flip open the book and just start teaching!
The level 6 math has 174 days of lessons. This is the perfect amount for our family, as our state requires 180 days of school each year.
The lessons are quick and to the point, taking only 20-30 minutes each day to complete! Bear doesn’t even have time to get bored: he just sits down and completes his work, instead of staring off into space, like he did with our previous math program.
Math Lessons for a Living Education weaves real-life stories into the lessons, bringing math to life for Bear.
The program includes a Teacher Guide, Teacher Companion and the option to use online videos through Master Books Academy.
It has proven to be the easiest and most effective way to teach Bear without any added stress.
Why I Chose Math Lessons for a Living Education Over Simply Good and Beautiful
Time:
The truth is, I have 3 kids, an online business, mountains of laundry to fold, errands to run, community events to attend, co-op classes to teach and dinners to cook. I simply don’t have time to spend an hour on each subject that each of my kids needs to learn. If I did, I would need at least another 5 hours in each day.
Compared to Simply Good and Beautiful Math, we spend about 35 minutes less each day doing math with Bear when we use Math Lessons for a Living Education. There simply just isn’t as much “fluff” included in the daily lessons.
Effort:
While Bear is mostly doing his work independently at this age, I’ve found that I needed to check in on him more when he is using Simply Good and Beautiful Math. He tends to get distracted by all of the colorful graphics and background scenery. Instead of doing the math problems, I would find him doodling more than I would find him “mathing.”
While many kids love colorful artwork, Bear tends to thrive on “workbook” style math. I’ve found that putting nothing in front of him, other than the math, keeps him focused and moving right along.
(I’ve heard this is a boy thing? Must be, because my daughter’s loved the artwork in The Good and the Beautiful!)
Below is an example of one math lesson in Math Lessons for a Learning Education vs. one lesson in the “free” printable curriculum from Simply Good and Beautiful Math.
Cost:
Over the years, our budget has required a cheap, if not totally free, curriculum. And that’s one of the reasons we loved The Good and the Beautiful. You can download their entire K-8 math lessons, totally free.
But for us, the cost of printing was more than we bargained for. With all of Simply Good and Beautiful’s artwork, it cost us more to use the free PDFs than it would have to just buy the curriculum outright!
To purchase level 6 of Simply Good and Beautiful Math will cost you about $70 + $14 shipping.
For the same level of Master Books, it’ll be about $73 + $11 for shipping.
I find both to be a steal-of-a-deal! For this quality of math curriculum for under $100, you can’t go wrong!
Convenient:
Am I the only mom who waits until the last minute to order her curriculum?
Probably.
But by doing so, I’ve learned that you can purchase several of our favorites on sites with super-fast shipping.
When in a pinch, you can always resort to ordering Math Lessons for a Living Education from Amazon, however, you can’t order Simply Good and Beautiful Math there.
While I always recommend ordering directly for the curriculum’s site, it is super convenient to have your workbooks delivered to your front door within a day or two, when necessary.
Another thing I love is that the pages are perforated and hole punched, making the curriculum easy to use on the go. Simply tear out that day’s page and take it along with you while you run errands or wait around at a sibling’s volleyball practice.
Simplicity:
It doesn’t get any easier to teach math than with Math Lessons for a Living Education! There is a Teacher’s Guide that is a great tool but it’s not something I reach for often. (Plus, it covers Math levels 1-6, so you only need to purchase this once.)
At the end of the week, I go over Bear’s worksheets and make sure he doesn’t have any questions regarding math.
One of the things I appreciate is that it doesn’t include all of the extra activities in the student’s workbook. Those are included in the Teacher Guide. I like that my son doesn’t see these activities coming up and feel overwhelmed.
When learning about fractions, we baked cookies but he didn’t even realize this was something his math curriculum suggested!
Biblical-Based:
One huge reason I decided to move away from The Good and the Beautiful was because the creator of the curriculum is a different religion than I am. At first, I let it slide because I didn’t see any major issues. While it is created by a Mormon, it was still teaching the values and character traits that I found to be so important.
But after a long talk with a friend, I realized that having a Biblical-based curriculum that doesn’t focus solely on the religion I follow isn’t a wise idea.
Do I think it’s a deal-breaker for every family? Absolutely not. But for me, the clarity came at a time when it just made sense to choose a curriculum that aligns with my own religion.
Once I found Master Book’s religious statement on their site, I felt a sense of peace with my choice.
It reassured me that I didn’t have to always be “on-guard” to make sure any Biblical teachings aligned with what I believe.
To be truthful, both Math Lessons for a Living Education and Simply Good and Beautiful Math are great curriculum that have served my family well.
We’ve simply found that Master Books has created a curriculum that serves our family a wee-bit better so that’s the obvious choice for us. I hope that this comparison has helped you decide which curriculum will do the same for you and your family.
