Pros and Cons?

That is one I have been looking at for a few years. One of my neighbors used it and she absolutely loved it once she started using it.

I think WendyDagny uses Sonlight.

Thanks Heather, I am really tossing around the idea of combining Sonlight with WTM. I am just wondering if I want to start with sonlight prek or k in the fall. Hoping someone has some experience with it.

Not sure how much time I'll have to write this, but I'll give it a go.

With Dagny, I've used SL PK, K, and 1, and we're finishing up 2 now. With Faith I've used PK, and we're finishing up K. (My kids are profoundly gifted, which explains their ages :) ) I did NOT use the PK instructor's guide SL sells, because it just came out last year. Instead I used one made by a woman on the SLPK yahoo group.

Pros:
1) Everything is all scheduled for you, so the only work is to buy your books and TM and go with it.
2) Very little of the content is questionable, even for a very young child.
3) It's a low risk buy, since if you don't like the curriculum, you still have a big pile of great books to read.
4) It gives small children a very high level of information, while at the same time requiring very little busywork type output from them.
5) The LA correlates with the history and readers, if you like things to be integrated.

Cons:
1) Sometimes the schedule breaks things up into too small of pieces, so it's easy to get off schedule by doing too much.
2) Some of the religious books had too much of a missions focus for us.
3) Sometimes the content appears scattered, especially in K and the early sciences.
4) We had to do a lot of supplementation, but that was for gifted kids.

Overall I'd recommend it though.

I'd pick your level based on what kind of books your son can listen to. If he can listen to short chapter books (like the Boxcar Children), he's ready for K. If not, PreK will build up his endurance. If money is no object, I'd get the PreK books without the schedule and let him move through them with you at his own pace, and then start K. The PreK books are lots of fun. You should choose an LA program based on his reading level.

If you're looking to combine with SOTW, you'd have to do SL1 (which is really only slightly more difficult than K). That's when they start their world history cycle. On the SL boards there are lots of people who have worked out a schedule using the two. Initially we planned on it, but we dumped it because it was annoying to read SOTW out of order, and too hard to rearrange SL. We did use many of the activities from the guide though.

That's as much as I can do while nak.

LMK if you have more questions.

Hi, I've never posted here before (I hang out in "sewing"), but my nursling has a cold and I'm reading allllllll of Amity today while I perma-nurse :rolleyes:

We did Sonlight for . . . gosh . . . 5 years? So I've done SL K thru 7, I think. And now we've switched to WTM for the last 2 years.

I agree with Wendy's take on Sonlight's strengths & weaknesses.

I would also say that Sonlight is a very strong candidate for your first years of homeschooling. Here's my rationale: Sonlight is all scheduled out for you, meaning you have space to learn about all of the OTHER teaching stuff, the "how to work school into homelife" stuff, the stuff about that learner, etc, without also needing to come up with scheduling all of the work out yourself, like WTM. There are still so many ways to adapt SL to your/your child's way of learning - I know of families who do all of the science for a few weeks over a couple of days, then move on to all of the history, etc, just because that's how their family likes to learn.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I think I already have :o

Glad to answer any questions tho.

Thanks so much for the reviews. I am really leaning toward using starting with their prek/k in the fall. I am interested to see what they have in the new catalog too.

Robin, I thought of one more thing I wanted to say, re: WTM-

Looks like your dc, like mine, are close together in age. If you plan to do WTM, it will really benefit you to sit down and make up a chart for the next 20 years, LOL :D . Seriously, though, I mean just: 2006 cycle 1 2007 cycle 2, etc, then plug your children onto this chart and see where it makes most sense to start WTM.

My children's birth years are: 1988, '92, '94, '96, '98, 2000, '01. I had to find a way to cycle through so that someone wasn't ending up with some weird educational experience, but everyone was in the same historical time-cycle. I actually did find a cycle that fit extremely well for everyone.

I also don't know if you're planning to homeschool for the long haul, but a distant point to keep in mind: the ancients at the highschool level are the hardest lit. Many dc may benefit by starting highschool on cycle 3, thereby doing the ancients as a junior. Our eldest has done fine starting the traditional way, but he's always been bright/academics come easily.

Don't mean to overwhelm you, tho . . . pre-K is the time for relaxed fun learning, and if you do SL for your first few years while you wait for everyone (or your first batch of kiddos) to be ready for the first year of WTM, that strikes me as a good thing.

And ahhhh, yes, the annual stalking-of-the-Sonlight-carrying-mailcarrier :)

I just got my sonlight catalog today and have been looking over it. So many choices in the HS world!

Kim,

Thanks so much for your input, I think that is one of my concerns with WTM is that I would have to schedule it and that is one of the things I like about sonlight. Plus I feel like with Sonlight I could probably do one core with at least 2 of the kids at a time. I am going to start with the pre k this fall because we haven't read most of the books they use, but I am finding that I have most of the books for the core 1 read alouds already and we read them. So I don't know if the pre k will last very long here. Both boys are bright but I think they learn differently. Graham would sit and let me read to him all day long. He likes the personal interaction. If he is drawing or doing a craft he wants me to help him. Eli on the other hand wants to do it himself and while he will let me read to him for a while his attention span for everything is definitely shorter (some of this is age but some is personality).

Anyway I am hoping that I can double up on the core sets either with Graham and Eli or Eli and Josh later on. I think this will help me in scheduling and in keeping my sanity.

OT but do you use some type of planner to schedule things? If so, what?

I am jealous that Casmi got her catalog before I did! I really want to see the new one!

I need to go back and read through more the WTM and the Links where people use Sonlight and WTM together to get a better idea of what I want to do.

I am thinking though that because of the weather that I may plan on doing lots of our science during the spring and summer when we can be outside more and more language arts/history/math during the fall/winter when we are inside more. Although we will do some history in the spring because we like to visit historical sites as a family.

So much to consider... I have to get to bed so that if my catalog comes tomorrow I will be able to review it while the kids nap!

Funny you should mention the timing about WTM! I have been looking at how that all works, and for us, it works PERFECTLY!!!

This year we have studied the Ancients. Austin is actually 2nd grade, Nathan actually Kindergarten. So they are doing 1st grade, basically, in History. Next year they are doing Medieval/early Rennaisance. Then Rennaisance/early modern.... the following year, modern.

Adam and Lauren will start the history when Adam is '2nd grade' and Lauren is 'kindergarten' - which will be when Austin and Nate start their 4 years cycle over again! :-D I couldn't have planned that better if I tried!!!

ok, babbling is done.

Oh, how topical, since the new Sonlight catalog just came out. There are tons of discussion about SL vs. WTM or combined over on the WellTrainedMind.com forums, too.

I think the Sonlight schedule would drive me nuts, as I would get all hyped up if we deviated. So, I think we'll just continue WTM for now.

BUT, I'm in a book-buying mood (some people scarf chocolate when stress, I place huge book orders). So I've already gone through all of K and Core 2/advanced readers and figured out what to buy where. I got the catalog less than 24 hours ago...I think I need a cooling off period.

Hi, sorry, didn't mean to ignore this thread; my ISP went down for awhile in moving their server.

I just do a home-brewed schedule now because I'm pretty much full-time WTM and as 4 of my children are WTM-aged with 2 preschoolers, this is an interesting thing. I haven't found a planner that works for us. I schedule ds #1 separately, as he's now a sophomore in high school. But they're ALL on "medieval", so there's some overlap, even with the 16 y/o, for example, he does Jackdaws with ds #2, who is 11 and "logic aged".

Even though we've switched to WTM, I don't for a second regret the SL years because we still use all of the books (well, most), just dividing them up between WTM historical periods. And from about 3rd grade on up, I often refer to John Holzman's excellent notes in the instructor's guide on many books.

One year I did 3 different SL core years. It was awful. Combining cores is a must! And yeah, it can be hard w/ dc with opposite learning styles (I've got that, too), but it is doable and you'll stay sane.

I got my SL catalog today - interesting that they're incorporating SWB's books! Except . . . I'm wondering about SOTW being put in 6th grade :confused: . My 10-year-old 4th grader is enjoying, although not extremely challenged by, this book. Wasn't it aimed younger than 6th grade?

Kim

Hi Robin :waving:

I used Sonlight in part for 1st grade, totally for 2nd and 3rd with Isabelle.

ITA with the pros and cons already listed.

To traslate their guide into a daily schedule for us I used printable forms from http://www.donnayoung.org I made a weekly grid. I'd X off each box as it was completed and called it a log. :)

We are no longer using it. I love Sonlight...Isabelle doesn't so much. She's a voracious reader and balked at having her reading scheduled. So we tossed out the schedule and she read the sonlight books that interested her when they interested her.

I found their language arts to be a bit disjointed. The workbooks they suggest are great (love Explode the Code) but the stuff in the teacher's manual was not usable for us. If I were to do it again I'd just get the workbooks and skip the TM. And add in some cheapie grammar workbook from the bookstore when that level is reached.

I preferred Horizons Math (Alpha Omega) to their offerings.

I agree that the bible stuff was perhaps overly missions based. Didn't disagree with any of it but opted to use our own devotional material instead.

I'm also not a big fan of Usborne books (ducking for cover...lol). My daughter loves them but they make my head spin with the pictures and paragraphs scattered all over the page. Sonlight uses a lot for science and some for history.

And the reason we are no longer using it: It's awfully expensive if you're not using a good portion of it and supplementing with a lot of other material. It's WONDERFUL for getting your feet wet...for learning how to schedule a school day and a school year. But when we really hit our groove with it I was only using about half of the material. So I now buy a curriculum that is just short of what I'm looking for (and about 1/3 the price of sonlight) and add to it where needed.

I didn't use their preK, K, or 1 or I'd lend it to you!

Aha! I forgot about Donna Young's site! Thanks, Danielle!

Are you using Oak Meadow now?

I just took the plunge yesterday, and ordered a boatload of the readers from AllDirect...with what we already own and what the library has, I spent about $125 for K and Core 2 (I ordered some stuff the library has, just because I know the kids will like it -- we've read many of the K books already). Also, we want to keep our own history (SOTW2), so I didn't worry about those books too much.

From what I've read, I think we'd dislike the language program. Dd says she wants to stay with R&S English, believe it or not (this was a surprising announcement, given how she hates diagramming sentences). And I much prefer RightStart Math to anything they sell.

I think I *will* order the full Sonlight science package. It sounds like they have lots of experiments and activity pages, which my kids love.

Ok this brings up an interesting subject, using Sonlights books but not the schedule. So many choices so few children.:D

I still haven't gotten my catalog so I am stalking out mailperson.

yes, this year we've use Oak Meadow. I had to add to their readers (dd read all they sent in a little over a month) and I had to add something more blunt for grammar (their grammar instruction was much like Sonlight's...too much at once in the beginning). Their math has worked fine but I like Horizons better. It's heavy on art and we haven't done all they have in the Teacher's Manual.

Not sure we'll stick with it for next year. I'm also considering Switched on Schoolhouse (dd loves computer games and I'm thinking it might be nice to get the academic stuff out of the way so we can expand on her interests the rest of the day) or Enki (which I'd have to put together myself...they only have an in depth outline to use as a guide for 5th grade)

Robin, I have the new sonlight catalog :p

Originally posted by Dannielle
. I had to add to their readers (dd read all they sent in a little over a month)


I know what you mean -- in the time it took me to figure out and order the Sonlight books Renee read all of Harry Potter vol.1. So I'm wondering how many weeks/days it will take her to zoom through all the stuff I just ordered.

So I should be looking for new curriculum, oh, about June...LMK what you think about Enki's outline. How indepth does it get? I want someone else to put most of the stuff together for me so I can spend on other stuff (knitting, gardening, making fairies, etc. -- please note that I am totally willing to give up all time spent on housecleaning :p )

Gail

So Dannielle when are we having another playdate so I can come over and look at your catalog????

Gwen and Tara are im'img right now about Wednesday :)

LEt me know about Wednesday, I think we are free and would love to come play!

we're just getting together at my house anytime after 11 til whenever. I think we're putting together a preschool curriculum for a year. That's the plan, anyway. And Gwen has plans to dip into my wool stash. LOL! LMK if you need directions again. :)

That sounds great can you pm or email directions again.

Can I bring something for lunch or for snacks? LMK