I continue to dream of the day that I can home school. My husband is still totally against it, so I don't bring up the topic, though I continue to research and pray about it. I'm wondering about Sonlight. Do any of you use it? My question is how much on average do you spend per student per year? I'm waiting to get a catalog in the mail, and then I will have a better idea, but otherwise, I'd love to know your experiences with Sonlight. Thanks so much!
Well, to start off I have to say that my husband wasn't for homeschooling until the Lord sent someone into his life that change his mind. Unfortunately, I couldn't have been the one to do it. But, when the time is right he will change his heart. I wouldn't recommend trying to do it without his approval. I have to say I spent a lot of money on hsing. Probably around $600-$800 a year just on books. I know many people who do it for much less. But, unfortunately my children thrive on BJU, which is extremely expensive. I have tried other things but it doesn't work the same for us. So, I found its actually cheaper for me to stay with what works. Sonlight, I love the idea but it just didn't work for us. The majority of my friends use Sonlight and their children are thriving with it. So, if your children are readers and enjoy it they will do exceptional with Sonlight. Best of Luck to you and your journey!
Thanks, Christine! Don't worry, I'm definitely not going to do it without my husband being on board. That's why I continue to just pray about it and research our options. Some friends of ours just started homeschooling this year, and the husband had previously not wanted to do it. So I do see hope that one day my husband will give it some serious consideration.
I wanted to share with you that I misunderstood my husband when he seemed against homeschooling- as I was a teacher. It was more he felt insecure and nervous about saying goodbye to half our income and he worried if he would be a 'good enough' provider for the family. Once I finally understood what he was really feeling and thinking I could begin to work with that- and we made goals to make this a reality; anyways just wanted to share that- I totally couldn't figure out why he was against it before (and he really didn't want me to know the 'real reason'). Okay, I use SL only for history and we love it. My kids are excited about it and want to do it, for my 3rd grade son I think this is important- he's never been a 'strong' student. I opted not to do the Lang. Arts, since I had tons of material and access for my daughter and for my son I felt it would not be a good fit, science too at the levels I looked at I felt it jumped around too much. But I know several people who do it all with SL and love it; just keep researching and see if it would be a good fit. Also I am in Alaska and I go through the state home school program- and I get a stipend for each kid and so I am fortunate in this way. Here I had several options- on my own, district or a couple state options, and I chose the one that would allow us to do what we want and the most flexibility. Good luck!
Welcome! My husband wasn't on board at first either, but he did agree to letting me pull them out in November one year and finish the school year. Period. He wanted them to be able to go back the next year. When we got to about March, he realized the benefits and we continued the next year...and the next....and the next...with no guarantee on how long will continue and that's fine. We use Sonlight for history only too. We don't do LA because my kids are excellent writers, horrible spellers, and pretty average in grammar. That made it hard, so we use different programs for each of those "sub-subjects." When they were younger, we pretty much stayed on schedule with the SL instructor guide. Now that they are in Core 100, we move a little faster because they are so strong in reading and writing. As far as how much I spend...when they were younger, I didn't spend much at all. Now, with high schoolers, I am spending more because we are buying more curriculum rather than me making my own or using the library as a resource for unit studies. Our small town library doesn't have alot of the resources I need/want for them at a high school level, so I end up buying them, using them and then I usually resell. There are alot of places to buy used. (I like www.homeschoolclassifieds.com, but make sure you know what you want before you visit there so you can use the "search" button. It's overwhelming to browse, IMO.) Also, they are involved in more extra-curricular activities that require $ from me either for lessons or supplies. (I don't count this in my homeschool cost, because they'd do them if they were in ps - but some people do count it.) Best wishes! PS. Sea, I love Alaska! My grandparents lived there for about 10 years.
I use Sonlight for History, LA and Science. We love it. I only have one child at home and we spend around $600-650 for just the Sonlight portion. It is well worth the money. I know some folks that piece it together but that is just too much work for me. The nice thing about Sonlight is that it is all laid out for you. It might be a good way to reassure your husband that it really is school. You can go online and request a sample of a particular core and they will send you the first three weeks so you can see how it is laid out and what is involved. If I might ask what is your dh's concern about homeschooling? Most times I find that people who are against it are really just not knowledgable about the whole thing.
Thanks mschickie I think with my kids ages, they may be able to share some things, but not totally sure on that. It could potentially save us some money. I think my DH has a couple main concerns about homeschooling. First of all, he's still convinced that home schooled children are not "socialized". I give up on trying to talk him out of that! Secondly, the only home schoolers he's ever known were "weird" and socially awkward. That doesn't play well in my favor. I think his biggest concern is honestly for me though. I get overwhelmed and discouraged very easily, and I think he believes that it will be so much better for me to have the kids away for school. Less stress, etc.
I used Sonlight P3/4 when my daughter was 2 and 3 years old and loved the books - I was still working part time then and it worked great just to read to her in the afternoons. Since I stopped working though it has become too expensive for us to use Sonlight - especially since the shipping costs are so very expensive for us (I'm not in America) however I do use their book lists a lot and try to get as many of them as I can and then piece together the rest of the curriculum. I think it would be well over $1000 per year even for my 4 year old to bring in a full years curriculum. On top of that in the year she has been off Sonlight her LA and Math have advanced too far for me to stay on the same grade level for everything which would mean I would have to order subjects separately now and would probably only use Sonlight for history and possibly science.
Are there any hs groups in your area? Maybe you could find out what type of opportunities there are in your area to show him how the kids would make friends. You might also meet with someone who has kids around the same age which might reassure him.
Yes, there are groups. My sister will be home schooling her oldest starting next year (she's actually on this board too) and has her in a homeschool choir. We also have some good friends from church who just started home schooling. I'm hoping that he will see how good it is going for them and have a chance of heart.
I love Sonlight, but becuase I like pulling my own things together and because Sonlight is a little more expensive than I'd like, I only used it one year. It's worth the price; it's excellent, but my husband stresses about finances so I try to limit my spending to less than $500 per year per child that includes co-op fees, outside class fees, materials and curriculum. The year I used Sonlight, I checked my library for the books I'd need and only ordered the ones I could not get at my library. That reduced the price considerably. I just had to stay on-top of the book list. I can request a book from any library in the county and have it delivered to the one closest to my house, so I had to remember to work a week ahead and get my requests in. Stay on here and you'll get enough material to scoot your husband's way to help him see the benefits of homeschooling. There are always things shared here that remind us of why we're doing this!
My husband was not on board at first, but now he brags on us all the time. If you can get your husband to agree to a trial period, I bet you'll win him over. Kids are usually about as weird as their parents are anyway. I would ask him what specific things he's worried about. Make him list them out and have him back it up. Ex. : I want them to be able to stand in lines. Public school will teach them this skill because they will stand in lines all day. Silly example of course, but don't concede the point. Make him put his beliefs into statements and back them up. Then you can address the concerns and he'll be left without an argument. We revisit the decision each year. You don't need to commit to homeschooling all the way through.
That might be a good idea ChelC. Though at this point I don't really want to bring it up for a while. I don't want him to get annoyed with me The more I think and pray about it, the more I am convinced that I CAN do it, and that it would be good for our family. My son has been home from school all week because he's sick. So I've had practice with having them all here constantly (and we even did a bit of "school" work) and I'm OK! I just have to get out a bit in the evening, and it seems to do the trick.
