This will be our first year HSing our 2nd grader and K. We are considering Sonlight because it seems complete, and easy for the teacher (me). Is it as easy as they say? Do you feel your children have 'loved to learn' as Sonlight promises? I am looking for opinions on Sonlight, the good, the hard, the negatives. It is expensisve, so I want to hear from others before we spend the $$$ Thanks.
We love Sonlight, but love WinterPromise more. Both are very well worth the cost. It actually is not that expensive when you consider the cost is mainly toward books that you can keep forever. The only big negative my son and I have about Sonlight is that we always felt we were trying to play catch-up with the readers and read-alouds. We prefer WinterPromise because he enjoys the hands-on activities. Also we easily get the reading done, actually usually more. I say if you love literature, that approach, and Charlotte Mason's ideas go for it. We have used other types of curricula but the literature based approach is what works best for us. We are both big readers.
If you don't mind a few minutes of work, you can put SL together for the cheap. I just put together Core A for my K and 1st grader with the Level 1 readers and langauge arts (no bible or science) for well under $200 and I have gotten a few doubles of books and a few we won't use that I will sell to recoup some of the money I did spend. After I sell them (and the extra IG I bought ) I will probably be at about $125 to $150 for all of it. I can't say whether it's a hit for us yet, it's my first go at SL. I will be blogging about our journey on my blog
If you can use the library you can do Sonlight for much less. I think it works well for an auditory learner, but isn't as great of a fit for a hands-on or visual learner. I haven't used Winter Promise, but it is similar with hands-on activities added. I used it for one year and it was a great way to start homeschooling. Afterwards I branched into making my own Sonlightish studies with hands-on activities added. The only problem I had with it was that it jumped around a bit too much (i.e. read 2 pages of one book and 5 pages of another book and a chapter in another book). I just changed it slightly so we didn't jump around from book to book so much. I found the LA a bit too scattered for me too so I ended up supplementing there.
Crazymama, Can you share your words of wisdom, how best to find products? Being new to this, I don't know the best sites, groups, etc. I stopped by Winters Promise, and am curious, I will explore it more. I would guess we might skip many of the SL readings as I can bore quickly. I hope some SL respond as to why it is so popular.
This will be our first year using Sonlight also after years and years of hs'ing. We chose it because I have two high schoolers who are less "academic" and traditional as their big brother who is in college after hs'ing all the way. We used the Sonlight catalog many years whenever I "slumped" about what to read. I constructed complex lesson plans and had some pretty good ideas about things to do, but it still never seemed like it was enough. As for cost, we were able to get in on the 9 month payment plan so we went for the whole shebang and will pay it off next January. Ultimately I think it will be worth it. We did My Father's World for my middle son's freshman year and he hated doing it "alone." He is looking forward to learning alongside his younger brother. Sweet.
...me again. I hear so many of the programs are scattered. I loved the idea of MBtP, but many people complain about it being scattered. I don't think I do well w/ scattered. I do think our son is an auditory learner, so the literature based approach should be good, and a little hands-on work added. Ugh, this is so hard. We may just sign up for the online charter school because it seems simple, but I SO want to find a way to go off the grid with a curriculum nicely put together to meet our needs ... yeah, I may be asking for alot!
You can use it without using their language arts program. You can use another language arts program that is more sequential and still use the readers from Sonlight.
we love sonlight but I always use the library for the books or buy used. My boys are 14 and 18 and just last night they were talking about some Sonlight books they read when younger. The read a loud books I was usually able to get in audio format from library When they got older they read most of the read a loud books from previous cores. Now if money was no object I would of bought full cores
I put it together by looking on the welltrainedmind.com forum and also on homeschoolclassifieds. Now for a short time yet, there is a for sale section on the sonlight forums, you can view it for 30 days when you sign up, and I did find a set of books I needed there. I have a few doubles of books I will be getting rid of if you are interested in core A
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291126 Here is a CHEAP core A which is fine for your kids
I have been using Sonlight for the past two years and I can say it is well worth the money. Dd has never really enjoyed reading or writing. She rarely (and I really mean rarely) complains about her writing assignments with their LA program (really she only complains when I have her do a rewrite). When I was planning out school for next year she was looking over my shoulder asking what I was doing. I explained I was looking at the Sonlight for next year. She asked why they had regular and advanced in the catalog. I said the advanced readers read the regular readers plus additional books. Then she asked if that just meant reading another chapter or two each day and I said yes. She then says I want to do the advanced :shock: I told her I was just planning on getting the regular ones but she insisted on getting the advanced readers. That to me makes Sonlight worth every cent. I can also tell she is retaining the History too. Out of nowhere one day while we were driving some place she starts talking about how Queen Elizabeth I is her favorite ruler and how sad it was that she and her sister Mary did not get along. She kept going talking about the rulers and stuff that went on during that time. Now you would think we had just studied about it but it had been months since we read the book on Queen Elizabeth. As for the expense I always think of the resale value. You can buy cores used or piece them together but to me it is too time consuming.
mschickie, Thanks for the encouraging reply. I would love to see this change in my son who really does not love learning. I want to find something that excites him. How do you find the work load to be for you? Thanks for the links to WTM and HS Classifieds - I love it (and had not stumbled across them before!) Very exciting - like finding a great sale.
I do not use it. But have always been attracted. Have you read the "27 reasons why NOT to use Sonlight" on their website. My friend - who is an AVID Sonlighter - recommends that ALL people who consider Sonlight to read that document. And if there is anything that causes pause, then Sonlight is NOT for you. Last year we did My Father's World - which is also very "Sonlight-esque". And I was told by many former Sonlighters that it was a gentler approach. STILL...as much as I love content, I could not stick with the schedule. That being said - Sonlight CAN be done without using Sonlight (huh, you say???). The concept is wrapping everything you possibly can around History - that's what they do. All the copywork, narration, etc. It's all wrapped around the readers which are historical fiction. Two years ago - and we're returning to it this year - we picked a history text and used Sonlight to find readers that went along with that period of history. We LOVED it - kids said it was their favorite year. And Hence, we're returning. Sonlight's own Document is what keeps me from using Sonlight - even though I LOVE the look of it. I LOVE their readers, and do try to use their suggestions for reading aloud. If you do go with Sonlight - another good place to find books is www.paperbackswap.com - you can list stuff you want to get rid of and get stuff you want/need. I've been able to find a lot of Sonlight reading books there. Also, if you have a Good Will or Salvation Army store that has a book section - I've found a lot that way, too. Good luck on your new journey - whatever you decide to do, you'll enjoy being with your kids. I will say - for all my friends who use Sonlight and love it - LOOOOOOVE IT, and say it is well worth the investment. Okay, stepping out now....hope this was helpful!!!
I haven't used it, but I wish I had. The thing is-my son is older and he doesn't necessarily like to read a lot. I know that a lot of kids do like to read if they read interesting stuff and maybe he would... I just couldn't take that chance. I would probably jump at the chance if I could start all over. They have a wonderful return policy. So I figure if you want to give it a shot-go for it. If it doesn't work for your family you have ample time to decide and they even let you return the stuff that is written in. I believe you can do up to 18 weeks worth of work-that is a great policy.
The only issues I have are on days when I have a sore throat :lol:. I love the fact that I can just pull the binder off the shelf and I know what I need to do. I have another plan sheet where I plan out the non Sonlight work (Math, Bible, Latin, Art, Music....) so I have both open in front of me in the morning. There is alot of reading involved in Sonlight but it does not take a really long. I love the fact that we do not have to sit at the table to do alot of it too. Some days we go and read on my bed or on the couch, just depends on our mood. Our Sonlight work (read alouds, History, Science, LA, Reading) usually takes about 2-2 1/2 hours at the most. Along with that dd has done Math, Latin, Art, Music and Bible which takes about another 1 1/2-2 hrs depending on how long Math takes. She does most of those subjects on her own. On the average day we were done shortly after lunch if not right before. Sonlight has really taken alot of the stress off of me when it comes to school.
This was my first year of homeschooling and we used Sonlight for literature, geography and history. SL was the biggest hit of our year. My 8 year old son loved the books and always wanted to start with those, but he's an auditory learner. Our library has very, very few of the SL books so it was worth it for me to just buy the Core. My dh was extremely happy with how much he learned and we will continue with SL.
So I wanted to come along and update my thoughts on SL a bit. We still haven't used it but I have here an IG (Instructors guide) from '03. It isn't the one I will be using (I bought an 09 later that I'm waiting on yet), but I'm very impressed with it. Now one of the IGs I will be using is here, I found the '07 LA IG to go with the level 1 readers (we were already working our way through these!) I am so impressed!! There is just enough there for my K and 1st graders, but not too much. Looking at the first few weeks, I don't think I will feel the need to tweek at all. I can't wait until the 09 core IG gets here!!
