Hello everyone, it's Jenny Phillips! I have updates and news for you today.
It's May of 2023. It's spring here. We just had the snowiest winter on record in Utah,
and today I'll be sharing several updates with you, including our plans for future high school
curriculum and some brief information about the new history program we are creating.
First, I want to tell you about an incredible place that I just got back from. Here's a hint:
I have a collection here of old books by Johanna Spyri who was the author of the classic book
"Heidi". I just visited the little village in Switzerland called Hirzel where Johanna Spryi grew
up. Look at this picture I took of Hirzel. This area is truly one of God's majestic creations!
In a recent video, I announced that The Good and the Beautiful would be releasing many original
book series. Here is a sneak peek of one that I just finished writing, Badger Hills Farm.
It's written for Level 3 readers, and this is a series of mysteries that are full of suspense,
fun, and good and beautiful writing, and messages that address things like bullying,
overcoming fears, loving nature, and learning skills for dealing with things like anger and
disappointment. In this series, a hidden room is found and in it are some mysterious items. One
thing that children find is a set of old Johanna Spyri books in German that end up having clues in
them. And the final book series takes place in Hirzel, Switzerland, where the family has to go
to solve the final part of the mystery! I wrote much of this book while sitting in the hills of
Hirzel. We hope to release this book series in December or January, and we are excited about
many more book series written by me and other good and beautiful writers that are coming in 2024.
Okay, let's move on to history. We are deep in the creation of a brand new history course. We've been
working on these courses for quite a while, and they will start releasing in the summer of 2024.
We have a large team working on this project, but it takes a long time to create accurate,
powerful, high quality curriculum that is test piloted and effective. We're not answering
questions about future history courses at this time, but we will be sharing more
information in upcoming videos. It's really exciting to watch the project progressing so
well! There are people of different Christian denominations working together on this project
and it is really beautiful to see them working together in unity, building on common ground and
basic biblical principles that apply to all Christians. Working on our history project,
we have those who worship Christ through denominations such as Eastern Orthodox,
Seventh-Day Adventists, Latter-Day Saint, Nondenominational, Lutheran, Presbyterian,
Catholic, and others. We also have a large group of reviewers and editors with diverse religious
ethnic and racial backgrounds. We cannot wait for these courses to be available for you.
Let's switch gears now and talk about high school curriculum. We know how important high
school curriculum is to many of you. Most of the directors at our company have homeschooled high
schoolers, and I do as well, and we want to have Good and Beautiful High School courses as much
as you do. We have decided that we can't release high school curriculum in bits and pieces. Rather,
we are creating an entire high school program with all core subjects and special classes that
will help prepare students to face adulthood and parenthood with faith and character and knowledge
and powerful skills. You might be surprised to know that less than three percent of our
customers homeschool a high schooler. High school curriculum, though, is so much more expensive to
create than K-8 curriculum and it takes so much more time and energy. So really, creating high
school curriculum is not the route to go if we are seeking products with the highest profits.
But our team at The Good and the Beautiful feels strongly that the kind of high school
curriculum we are creating is so needed and will actually make so many more parents feel that they
can homeschool high schoolers and would actually benefit greatly by homeschooling a high schooler.
So, when is it coming? Everything we do at The Good and the Beautiful is very thoughtfully
planned and of high quality. Thus, our high school program will not release until at least
2027. It will be worth the wait! In the meantime, we still have High School Language Arts available.
For those of you waiting for news on our higher level math courses, Math 7 will be releasing in
early 2024 and we just started on math 8, which is pre-algebra, and it will be releasing in early
2025. I am really excited that next month our new Level 3 Language Arts course is releasing.
This has been my life for the past year! The experiences that our pilot families have had make
me think that this will truly be one of the most effective and loved courses we have ever created.
We will also have other new product releases coming, so stay tuned!
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your prayers—for me and for the company.
I feel them. I am so grateful when we get to share in a part of your homeschool journey.
I've said before that I feel like what you're doing in your families is sacred, raising children
in light and truth in our day takes focused, diligent effort. We cannot slumber. as it says
in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not be weary in well doing". I will see you next week with more videos!