This was our ninth year of homeschool. During that time, my budget has ranged anywhere from $500 to $2300. It really just depends on what publishers we use and if we buy new. My most expensive years were when I was purchasing new Sonlight cores for both kids. This year, for both kids including my highschooler, my total came to about $800 for just curriculum. I plan on spending about another $100-$150 on supplementary stuff like a robotics kit for ds, some DVD's etc... I don't buy a lot used because of my allergies. On occasion I will risk it, but generally it isn't worth the risk in my case.

We can no longer afford it. I had everything in my shopping cart for next year. For one elementary student and one highschool student, it totalled more than $2000. However, using literature based methods and different companies, I was able to purchase every subject for next year (both students!) for $800.

This happened to us too. I took the sink plumbing apart and there was a lot of gunk built up. I cleaned some parts and replaced others and now there is no smell. The trouble with ours is that one pipe is not quite at the right angle to drain all the way, so a bit of water sits in there. in time, I will have to clean it out again unless I can figure out how to change the angle of the pipe.

Page 113 talks about Saxon K-12 but doesn't list specifics. Dive is listed just below that.

Well, aside from all this...number 4 on the "27 Reasons" list is why I won't be using Sonlight. I simply can't afford it, and I am not willing to finance our homeschooling on a credit card or by using Sonlight's credit. My plan was to use the literature and composition from Core 100, but the price tag is a whopping $300. I cannot justify that for English I. I can get dd's literature based history from Beautiful Feet PLUS all of her literature and composition by using LLATL and keep it under $300. 2 subjects for the price of one SL subject...can't beat that.' edited to add: We used cores P3/4 through F. All but F were purchased new from SL. In these later and more expensive highschool years, I can't justify the cost anymore especially knowing that my ds won't be using the materials a second time around...he just isn't a SL kind of kid. :001_smile:

I've not used Core G, but we have used P 3/4 through F. There are many folks who loved Core F (according to the forums) but we thought it was awful. Ugh...World Book. :thumbdown: We dropped it after only 6 or 8 weeks. Hopefully someone who has used G will pipe in. Opinions about what is boring and what is fabulous will vary so much. My suggestion is to go ahead with your plans and see for yourself.

Now I am thinking I need a laminator... In the last two minutes, I have found about 5 things I could use it for. :laugh:

Please, can you post Sarita's letter? The brown forums...I vaguely remember that but I thought it was for LLL and CE no-holds-barred forums...I didn't think it had anything to do with belief systems? Someone, please enlighten me. If you would rather do so in a PM, I would appreciate that as well.

According to the thread linked here, Inquisicorp puts out the Apologia schedules. But here is a cut and paste from the 2013 catalog. A course from Apologia Educational Ministries: learn to think scientifically. Includes experiments and a unique Sonlight schedule Edited to add: sorry about the small font...I left it as-is when I pasted it.

Thank you. From the FB post, this seems to be a school district issue regarding use of funds, not a Sonlight issue.

Do you have a link with ACLU info? I can't find anything.

I don't see how Sonlight is discriminating and judging anyone. To the OP, I understand how this could be upsetting. To remove religious content from their IG's is kind of shocking to hear. But I don't think they are doing anything wrong. I guess I liken it to when I volunteered several years ago in the public school to help a few students who were struggling and needed one on one time. I went with good intentions to help students...I didn't bring my Bible and relationship with the Lord into our conversations--but He was certainly with me. : ) So did I leave my Christianity at the door? No. I am a Christian and can't leave that anywhere. It is who I am to my core. Caring about all people (public school students included) is part of being a Christian. : ) Someone in the public school realm sees that Sonlight has something good going and wants public school students get in on it. But they cannot use public funds for it. Honestly, I think this is great and hope that this helps public school students.

Thank you. I am considering using Master Books for some of our highschool science. They look very interesting and I think my dd would enjoy them.

Ebay for the history core and library for the readers would save you quite a bit.

My daughter had severe sleep disturbances and sleep walking issues with Singulair. We had to put alarms on the doors and windows becauase we were afraid she would get outside at night. She has never had an issue with Claritin.

There have been no advertised changes to any of the lower level cores with the exception of the Landmark edit and Core W update. Core W is getting the same update that went into affect for cores A-H last year. I don't anticipate them separating the LA and Bible from the lower cores any time soon (if ever) because it was such a recent overhaul. As for Core 500 World History...another poster mentioned that it won't be in the catalog as it is still in the works. They are hoping to have it ready by late summer I believe.

I believe the new catalog will be available as a PDF on March 15th. And the big mailout is supposed to happen shortly thereafter. They are expected to be in mailboxes by the last week of the month. There are changes to some of the other cores too...Core W IG got a makeover and several book changes were made. CHOW is still the spine to the best of my knowledge. Core D is getting a revised Landmark book. This will affect Core E next year. The new book has photos added.

I don't know if I am supposed to cut and paste forum stuff from over there, and it isn't on the public forums. So I can summarize. : ) The highschool cores are being separated. There will be History/Bible with a separate IG and Literature and Language arts with a separated IG. This will allow us to mix and match different portions of the cores. There will now be a core 500--World History. Also, Core 400 was changed. There will be an 18 week American Government/Civics and an 18 week Economics. The 400 literature will be its own 36 week course.

There are a few folks here who have used it for a long time. I am not one of them...we used it for a couple of years and it was excellent. But I am not sure how to answer your question. Maybe some of my rambling will help you? I never combined my 2 kids because they are 5 years apart and the younger one didn't speak English until he was 3. Many people with kids 5 years apart do combine with MFW, but our situation was different and my little guy needed to work at his own pace. We used Creation to the Greeks with our eldest, and Adventures with the youngest during the same year. It worked out fine! I had to figure out a schedule, but once we did it worked. But you will need to consider the older years...when the kids are older, you will probably want to combine them just for workload sake. I would've been overwhelmed if I had tried to do two heavier cores (and MFW does not recommend doing 2). So, that is where I have no advice for you. If it helps any, Adventures is a light and fun intro to American History. I personally don't think a child would miss out on a whole lot if they were to skip it. It is a fun introduction to history and learning, but retention at that age really isn't 'there' if you know what I mean. : ) My ds loved doing his Adventures every day. It was his favorite part of school! But honestly, he really doesn't remember much. That is okay with me because my goal is to instill a love of learning that will continue. That can happen with the other cores as well because the same level of work wouldn't be expected of the younger one. So for example, if you were using Exploring Countries and Cultures, the younger one would participate where he could, having fun and enjoying all the great reading. Anyway, I don't know if any of this is helpful. And I wanted to suggest that you could post over on the MFW forums too! There are lots of great veterans over there who can help you figure out what to do.

We have ordered a few things but not much. I have spring fever and if I order everything now, I will want to start now. lol! Mostly I am waiting for Sonlight to announce core updates, which apparently is due to happen March 15. Price changes going into effect April 1, as well as any updates, will affect whether I order by the end of March or wait until June (I need the summer to preread dd's books...).

My dd has seasonal allergies every single season of the year (over 60 allergens tested positive) as well as mold. And she has never fussed with her nose at all even though the inside of her nose was red and irritated looking. So that may be an indicator, but not always. To the original poster, you said you only drink almond milk but have all other dairy sources been cut out? At this point, if he is already dairy free, then vitamin deficiency would be my next guess. My dd gets no dairy because of an allergy, and has tree nut allergies. She is also a picky eater. She was so low on her B-1 that she was feeling very ill and the turnaround in her once we started pumping her with vitamins was remarkable. Daily vitamin supplements are a must with a restricted diet.

Dairy intolerance. When I stopped giving my dd dairy, her dark circles almost completely went away. BTW, she tested negative for a dairy allergy. : ) And she does not have lactose issues. We went the lactose free direction, but it did no good. Elimination of all dairy was the only thing that cleared up all of her symptoms.

Yes, I ran into this issue personally. I mentioned it upthread. I do believe when I ordered that the return policy was 30 days, but it could have been six weeks. In the end it didn't really matter. It took five weeks to ship a small part of my order AFTER my credit card had already been charged. Four months and an incomplete order later, I had to argue for a refund. To their credit, they did refund me minus the shipping. I honestly hope the best for them. But at this point, I think that marketing to new customers would be their best option. Trying to win over old customers who had bad experiences would be a really tough sell.

I agree with the thyroid check. My dd is 5'5" and weighs 88 pounds. She is long legged and lean. And now that she has a full mouth of braces, she has a hard time getting in enough calories. I have her eat coconut butter and peanut butter daily. I know it is difficult and worrisome...can you buy her daily vitamins to take? Because her diet isn't very well rounded, she should at least do that. My dd gets a b-1, b-12, daily vitamin, and calcium daily. She noticed a marked difference in how she felt once I started pumping the B vits into her. ((((hugs)))) If you buy fruit cups or other healthy on the go foodstuff, do you think she will eat them?

Well, without rehashing the issues I had with WP a couple years ago, I do want to issue a warning. If you decide to return, return what you have already received within the return period. I waited too long to file with my credit card company and had to pitch an absolute fit to get a refund from WP when I didn't have my order after 4 full months (I was overly patient...). It took me 6 or 8 weeks more (don't remember which) to get my refund. So leave yourself some leeway when dealing with WP. Know the return policy. Now it is a six week return from the day you place your order.