Homeschool With Tracey

Another complete curriculum that I have used in the past is Sonlight.  I used Sonlight from 2001-2004.  It was wonderful!  What a great curriculum to start out with.  My oldest child, who is now 12, loved for me to read to her.  She could sit and listen to me read forever.  Sonlight is made for children who love to listen to you read.  The books that my daughter and I read together are priceless.  Sonlight really goes all out choosing the books for their curriculum.We stopped using Sonlight after I started homeschooling my 2^nd oldest child, who is now 9.  She isn’t as into reading as my oldest child is, so I had to find a curriculum that better suited her “hands on” needs.  I did teach her (2^nd oldest) to read with Sonlight, and that worked very well for her.  However, Sonlight doesn’t have very many hands on projects, and it would have been difficult for me to combine my children with it (but many people do that!).

The following is taken from The Homeschool Library:

Curriculum: Sonlight

Type: Complete Curriculum

Educational Philosophy: Literature

Worldview: Protestant

Website: http://www.sonlight.com/

Review: Sonlight curriculum is a company that puts together complete curriculum packages for various grade levels. Their “Core” materials are their history packages which are literature based. Each grade level package has Bible, History, Language, and Science Instructors Guides available. The instructor’s guides contain detailed lesson plans for each subject. History, Reading, and Bible are in one IG, the “Core” IG. Language Arts and Science each have their own IG.

Sonlight’s website says:

Quote:

Strengths: Easy planning with thorough Instructors Guides; good high-quality literature; Can be adjusted to suit the needs of each student; Core programs can be combined to suit the needs of different levels. The strength of SL lies in the IGs which are full of notes and comments. These can be invaluable in explaining some of the finer points of the books.

Weaknesses: May be too many books for some students or not enough for others; requires active involvement by the parent, especially in the younger grades; I found adjusting the IG to not be a big problem but it did require some work.

Comments: I think that whether you enjoy SL depends somewhat on whether you and your student enjoy the “spine” of the core you choose. The books are not all that different from what you will see elsewhere in a literature based program. They are mostly Newberry Award winners and other classics. Many of the books SL chooses are sad tales, designed to elicit an emotional response. Not all children are going to enjoy such emotionally charged literature.

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