I've never looked at this curriculum until recently, because the price just didn't fit our budget. Now that my husband has seen the light after realizing at a recent family gathering what our public schooled nieces and nephews pay for supplies and registration here, and having a sick day where he could really see what we do, he suddenly doesn't mind almost tripling our budget - woohoo!!! So now I've been heavily researching Sonlight, but I want to hear from people who've used it. How long did the read aloud time take? Are the Instructor's Guides really valuable and worth the price? Did you use Core only, or other subjects? I've heard mixed reviews about the LA, and reports that it's improved - where does it stand now, and is it hard to use with two children at different levels? I like the idea of using the texts they are already reading, but not if it's a lousy program. We already have curriculum plans for this coming year, so this would be for the following year (yes, I'm a very anal planner!) when I have one 8/9 and one 6. Which core would be best for those ages? My older child is right at grade level, my younger is advanced if that helps. Thanks for any feedback.
How exciting! It depends on the grade level, and also on our level of interest. In kindy and grade 1 - it could be as little as half an hour. Unless we decided to look really carefully at the pictures and have a conversation about what we were reading. Chapter books took longer to read - maybe an hour, or an hour and a half. I have bad eyes so reading aloud can tire me out sometimes. When that happened I'd have one of my children take over reading aloud for a little bit. For me, yes! The Instructor's Guides helped me organize my time, and they kept us on track throughout the school year. The comprehension questions were hit-and-miss. Sometimes they sparked really good conversations. Sometimes the kids were rolling their eyes at me. On the other hand, they were a GREAT way of checking whether the children were actually listening, and I found that reassuring. Except for those times when I discovered the kids weren't listening, after all. I ended up not finishing several books in Grade 4, because as soon as I started reading my son's eyes would glaze over and he wouldn't take in anything I was saying. I was wasting my time. Still, I was glad the comprehension questions alerted me to the problem so we could take a different direction. (Not a criticism of Sonlight - my son has "borderline" hearing and some auditory comprehension issues, so I'm impressed we got as far as we did!) Core, Science, Math, LA... I think we did the whole thing. I can't help here! We haven't used the new-and-improved LA. Grade 1 would not be too easy for your 8/9 year old at all. The World History topics are inherently interesting, and you can go more in depth with your older child. (A library card is a wonderful thing!) You'll probably want to buy LA and Math separately, so that they match up with your children's individual levels. Have fun! :love:
I only used their science for 6 & 7 grade. My ds really enjoyed it. Sonlight then uses apologia but with their manuals, if I'm remembering correctly. We chose just to go directly to apologia. I didn't use it in the younger grades but have looked at it and it looks really good.
I would also say core one or core 1&2 and just coose the choose the readers 2 that fit their reading level. So now I've been heavily researching Sonlight, but I want to hear from people who've used it. How long did the read aloud time take? We are doing core 1 right now with my 7year old. We start at 9 am and are usually finished by 12. There is the occassional day where she needs to do handwritting after lunch. Also we sometimes do logic sheets, Spanish, or Music after lunch. We also got a book by Handle on the Arts that provides some great project to go along with the core. Are the Instructor's Guides really valuable and worth the price? YES!!!! They have everything scheduled and they give great background information as well as teaching tips. We also do not always do the comprehension quesitons per say. I look at them and then after we are done reading we talk about the books. As the kids get older most people I know use the questions more but at this age (and for me only having 1 student doing it) I just do the general ideas of the questions, Did you use Core only, or other subjects? We do Core 1, LA 2 with Regular Readers, Bible, and Science 1. I love them all. I was skeptical about the LA program but I have seen such an improvement in dd and a budding love of writting that I do not question the approach now. We also use A Reason for Handwritting, Horizons Math and then Horizons Phonics (next year I am switching to the ones Sonlight has). I really think Sonlight is worth the money, especially for the cores. It is so well organized and the stories are wonderful. Yesterday dd did her reading for the entire week in one sitting because she liked the book so much. She wants to do Sonlight next year too!
