Kidlit Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I purchased Sonlight Core D and have attempted to get started with it, but I'm honestly just not feeling the love. :glare: I don't exactly regret it (I already had a bunch of the books and my girls are avid readers, so it's no biggie), but I'm still struggling with how to pull it off. What I really need is a nonfiction spine, and I realize this is a very common complaint/want/desire. I do have the first several of the Maestro books--American Story series--and am currently planning to use those and then use the Sonlight books for the girls' reading assignments and our read-alouds. What I need now is a rough schedule of HOW to use the Maestro books so as to NOT drag this study out forever, which is what will happen if I don't follow a plan. Anyone know of one out there before I reinvent the wheel? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I am confused also. I personally think Landmark is a far better spine than the Maestro books, especially for your girls' ages. It will last longer too. I thought the Maestro books were fine, if bland, but they don't move you very far down the timeline and I think they are very basic, better for K-2ish kids. Many people like The Complete Book of US History, if you truly find the Landmark volumes unusable. I didn't love it, but it seems to be pretty popular here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Amy, I used the Maestro books the year before last (when my oldest was 3rd grade...back when I was actually blogging, so you might be able to find some posts on my blog about it). Here's my spreadsheet of our units, which I loosely based around 1 Maestro book per unit. We actually spent less time on several units than what I budgeted on the first page of the spreadsheet, so we studied the Civil War at the end of that year (though I never added that to my spreadsheet). I'll agree with the others that I am not sure the books make as good of a spine for a 5th grader as they did for a 3rd grader. On the other hand, if you are adding in a lot of other nonfiction and just using the Maestro books as a nice overview of each time period that could work. I think your older DD would still enjoy them (If she is anything like mine, and reads almost every picture book in her younger brothers' library basket in addition to all her other reading). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 I'm doing Am. History this year with my 2nd and 4th/5th grader. I checked out this thread because I just bought the first 2 Maestro books as a good lead into the topic with my 2nd grader. Looking at them I don't think there is enough depth there for my oldest, who is just a few months younger than your oldest, although I imagine he'll follow along a bit because he still enjoys picture books. Color me a bit confused as well. Do you not like the Landmark book or are you feeling overwhelmed with the schedule? If it is the later I would just ditch it and read through the books as you pleased. I believe we are doing the concise version of OUP's Story of the US for our spine for ds. I'm not really certain though if we will use it or not or if we will just read the books I have on various topics and eras in chronological order. I got the concise versions for pretty cheap used so it was easy enough to try out. I looked at the Complete Book of US History mentioned earlier as it is mentioned a lot on here as a spine that many use, it didn't look like one we would enjoy though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 I've been away from the boards and have just now come back to check our my thread. Thank you all for your responses. The reason I haven't jumped on board the Landmark book is because after my first cursory perusal I thought it was a little too "providential" for my taste. Now I see that maybe I need to reconsider. Another thing that makes Sonlight so difficult is that my girls read a lot and read fast, so the daily schedule is crazy-making for them and me. I think I'll ditch it and just let 'em read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 Okay, I feel really, really dumb. Somehow, in all our book buying, I failed to purchase the Landmark book. The book I'm referring to as providential is the Peter Marshall book. Maybe if I but the Landmark book, all my problems will be solved. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEGway Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 If I'm thinking of the right book, it's by Daniel Boorstin. He comes from a Jewish background (as opposed to providential Protestantism) and probably won't sound much like Peter Marshall at all. (Which is a plus in my estimation. :) ) He's the author of _The Discoverers_, _The Creators_, and others. hth, Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 Y'all are making me question my hastily made decision to go with Sonlight. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JubilantNest Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 We are using Core D and I pitched the guide completely. I think the IG is crazy. I tried scheduling a few different ways and so far my favorite has been to have my daughter read a spine (we bought others in addition) and put all the dates in her timeline book. After the spine (or volume, if there are multiples) she gets to chose one of the read-alouds/readers to read (to herself). She puts the fictional books' titles in the appropriate year (the time described, not the year written) of her timeline book, under the actual line and clearly marked as fiction. (Having those titles in there is a good memory jog for period details.) After the fictional book is finished, she reads another spine book... Lather, rinse, repeat. :) The books in our extra-spine pile include A History of US, This Country of Ours, and (not yet purchased) A Child's First Book of American History. I too would skip the Peter Marshall books. Do you have the (spine) American History Encyclopedia that comes with the Core? My daughter likes that book. I hope that gives you some ideas :patriot: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 Calandalsmom, We're already big, big reader-alouders (like my new word?), and my girls read a lot, too. It's almost painful for them to break their reading up so much. I'm still trying to figure out how to make that crazy (in my opinion) schedule work for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidlit Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 We are using Core D and I pitched the guide completely. I think the IG is crazy. I tried scheduling a few different ways and so far my favorite has been to have my daughter read a spine (we bought others in addition) and put all the dates in her timeline book. After the spine (or volume, if there are multiples) she gets to chose one of the read-alouds/readers to read (to herself). She puts the fictional books' titles in the appropriate year (the time described, not the year written) of her timeline book, under the actual line and clearly marked as fiction. (Having those titles in there is a good memory jog for period details.) After the fictional book is finished, she reads another spine book... Lather, rinse, repeat. :) The books in our extra-spine pile include A History of US, This Country of Ours, and (not yet purchased) A Child's First Book of American History. I too would skip the Peter Marshal books. Do you have the (spine) American History Encyclopedia that comes with the Core? My daughter likes that book. I hope that gives you some ideas :patriot: Thanks for the nitty-gritty details, JubilantNest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JubilantNest Posted September 2, 2014 Share Posted September 2, 2014 While I think this is an interesting idea, the concept of SL is to spend a lot of couch time reading to the kids and I would never ever want to have missed those years we spent reading together. I look back on those years and they were a treasure. I have heard others say they don't like reading a chapter here, a chapter there, but I think it has its merits. I agree that reading time is special, we just do it with things other than Sonlight. I read our poetry, devotional, Bible, and bedtime stories aloud. Also, throughout the day, I read picture books and board books to The Littles, so handing off the Sonlight doesn't necessarily mean that we are not spending some nice reading time together. Though, if all the extra reading wasn't being done, Sonlight would be a great way to squeeze in some quality time. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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