amitymamaThe Attachment Parenting Community

milkmaid · 07-07-2004, 09:33 AM

We're going to start homeschooling my three kids--5th grade, 3rd grade, Kindergarten (who was homeschooled last year in Preschool). I'm thinking of using Sonlight and was planning to use Sonlight 3 for all of them for the core curriculum, with grade-appropriate work for language arts, spelling, writing, and math.

I'm looking for some bt/dt stories, good or bad. My son is advanced in math but behind in his writing skills, my middle daughter struggles in math but is okay in writing skills, my younger daughter is interested in it all and can't wait to start reading. AND we have a 2 1/2 yr old who will be around, I'm sure, and might need something to keep her happy.

Thanks in advance--I'm a lurker on this board but frequent the sewing and market boards.

librarymama · 07-07-2004, 09:11 PM

Have you been reading the Sonlight forums at www.sonlight.com? Lots of people there have been there done that...there's a whole section devoted to choosing Sonlight, plus there's a section for Cores 3 and 4. Also sections on math and language arts. Even if you go with Sonlight the math isn't necessarily Sonlight specific, which is to say you can do any math program you choose, whether Sonlight sells it or not. And plenty of people do a Sonlight Core with a different language arts program.

I haven't done Core 3 yet (strongly considering for next year). My take-away from what I've read there is that Core 3 is best done with older kids...your 5th grader would be okay, your 3rd grader may be marginal. It's a matter of the subject matter itself, apparently, which can get quite heavy at times. One possiblity would be to stretch it out over 2 years (the Core stuff, not the math, science and non-Sonlight language arts).

We're doing Core K right now. I can say for a fact that a lot of it flies right over 4yo dd's head, while 8yo is very intrigued. This is a 4yo who can follow books better than most kids, by the way. We do other, non-Sonlight stuff for phonics, grammar, writing, science, math, etc. Actually, the Core K stuff is more for the 4yo -- 8yo does Story of the World.

Tap dancin mama · 07-08-2004, 01:49 AM

Have you ordered a catalog yet? It's way easier for newbies to figure out than the web site. The forum section is really good for asking lots and lots of questions.

Your 5th grader and 3rd grader would be ok with core 3, but it would be far over your kindergardners head. Have you thought about core 1 instead?

Softiemommy · 07-08-2004, 12:28 PM

Laura - My children are close to yours in age and we use Sonlight. This is our first year, though, so I'm a rookie.

My oldest daughter is 11 and started Core 5 in May. It's the Non-Western Cultures core. She uses Abeka for Math and Science because it's what we've used in the past and it suits her well. My younger children are listening in on the read alouds and I'm sure will enjoy some of the activities, such as the China Treasure Chest.

My 5 year old started Core K in April. I'm finding that it is also working well with my 8 year old - he really gets a lot from the read alouds. Jacob reads well and especially loves math. He is doing the Veritas Press 1st grade reading program and Singapore Math 1A - will start 1B soon. We're also doing Sonlight Science K, skipping around the curriculum to suit our interests and the time of the year. Everyone is enjoying that.

My 8 year old is doing Singapore Math as well, 3A at the moment.

So we're doing 2 of the Cores - from all the reading I've done, especially on the Sonlight forums, it seems that 3 Cores at once would be overwhelming and probably no one would enjoy that scenario very much! 2 Cores at once is working well for us. I also recommend spending some time on the Sonlight Forums. The people there are very helpful and can help you decide what to do. Like Kelly said, the Sonlight website can be very confusing for newcomers trying decide what to get. It made me batty. The catalog was much more help.

Mamaheart7 · 07-09-2004, 02:26 AM

A couple of things I'd consider. One is how much you think your 3rd grader can handle. I *have* successfully done SL3 with actual 3rd grade aged children, but I can see where people might call it too challenging. There are a couple of books that are . . . uhmmmm, . . . slow. _All Sail Set_ springs to mind, but I know there are others.

The other is: where did your children just end up in school in their history studies? I mean, did they just study the civil war, did they just study "ancient history"? This helped us when we did our first SL year. We were homeschoolers already, but it became obvious which year to start with by focussing on where eldest was in history. Remember, SL is a curriculum that revolves around history, so bear that in mind.

I've done this before, and I'm doing it this year, SL 3 and 7 and doing K but not everything from K. (My eldest is only in homeschool for history and Latin, and we do highschool Well-Trained Mind with him). That gives me not-really-3 cores which is pretty workable, but I wouldn't have wanted to do that my first homeschoolin' year. This is for my 6 school-aged children, the 2-year-old still lives in total-fun-land.

I'm babbling, sorry

I think SL3 and K-lite is an excellent plan, as long as your 3rd grader is pretty solid and they haven't *just* done this time period last year or something, that would be agonizing.