Does anyone combine Sonlight and Veritas?

[lisa in ohio]

I would love to combine both! We are using the history cards and Melody lane from VP and we also read the K level of SL over the last 2 years. It would be hard to give up SL 1 next year and on the same note VP choices are excellant also. My boys are learnig so much with the History cards from VP and also loved the SL K books. Can we do it all? I did not see the two combined on Paulas archives.

 

lisa:confused:

[PeterPan]

Hi Lisa, Are you the Lisa I met at the CHEO convention? :) You should fill out your sig so we can tell what all you're up to!

 

Well here's my two cents, as one who's been in the same boat. At some point you have to decide what is driving your schedule. If you like the VP cards, you're NOT going to be happy going to just core 1 history. It doesn't flesh it out with nearly as much detail as the VP cards. I actually got SL1+2 last year at a point when we were really burnt out and needed a change. It was WONDERFUL for a while, and there were certain things I loved. I loved the discussion questions, reading together in the evenings, how memorable the books are when you flesh them out with discussion. Those are happy memories! But I kept wanting that more persnickity history coverage that you get with VP. Finally I realized you have to let something drive and something recede. I guess that's really vague, lol.

 

Yes, you could do the next SL books as read alouds. Some of them might complement your history nicely, though not many as the lower cores tend to be less about history. VP wants you to read CHOW too, so it's not like you're missing that doing VP instead of SL. If you want to let SL drive, then you could sing the VP songs and read SOTW along with it, of which there are many schedules available to combine.

 

I know it's a catch 22 liking everything! Heather was just getting on me because EVERY TIME I buy something else or try something else, wanting it prescheduled, wanting a break, I end up coming back to VP as my spine, the thing driving us. It's almost uncanny! What year of the cards are you on? I can say I really haven't enjoyed the MARR cards this year, largely because she's really too young to interact with the sophisticated topics in a meaningful way. I've tried or looked at so many different things, and still the Middle Ages continues to flop for us. She's doing stuff and reading, but I don't like that her understanding is so vague. I don't know diddley about the Middle Ages to connect or make it meaningful, and after I read the cards I STILL don't know diddley about the Middle Ages! You know, I'm thinking my problem this year is a sincere lack of a spine text. Our NTGR time worked out well because she was getting weekly doses of Roman history via FMOR in her LC1 class. By the time she came home and I read it to her in CHOW or on the VP card, she already knew it. OTAE we had a lot of fun with, and I think it was the most clear and decipherable of the years for me. In the Middle Ages though, I haven't had the benefit of someone teaching her FMMA on the side, hehe, and things just haven't come together for us. That was just a bunch of rambling to say if you're getting to MARR too early with your kids, like if you started the cards in K5 and will be getting there soon, you might want to do some serious thinking about how you'll cover it and what will drive.

 

Was that only confusing? I hate change, and I hate when things aren't going well for us. Remember when we talked at the convention (and nevermind if you're not the one I talked with, hehe) how I was trying to figure out that balance with RS and needing more written, visually appealing math? Well I went through some things and finally landed on BJU. It was SO nasty to have to make a change, mainly because *I* don't like change. I stick with the problem I know rather than jumping, even if my gut is saying to jump. It took a while to get our groove, rebuild some skills (I took her quickly through the entire gr 3 book, which was insane but highly effective), but now we're getting so happy. So I guess that's a bunch of nothing to say I'm having this hyper-reflective moment, realizing my reluctance to STICK with any other history could be that I hate change, not so much that what I'm doing works for me, as it clearly only works about 1/2 the time (the time when I'm spunky, motivated, or not nauseous with morning sickness). Did you know I'm prego? Surprise! Needless to say I won't be repping or working conventions for a long, long time! I'm going to the Cincy convention at the end of the month. Are you?

 

PS. If you want to continue with VP straight, just get the SL books and put them in a pile to use as read-alouds. My dd adores the SL books and often goes back to them later to read herself. Nuts, when I start to read one of them to her and I fall asleep, she picks it up and finishes. She's also started reading the YWAM biographies for herself, which I had previously done as read-alouds with her and would fall asleep during, hehe. I love that she's reading them for herself! I forget the age of your oldest boy, but that might be something to check into for him.

[siloam]

I would love to combine both! We are using the history cards and Melody lane from VP and we also read the K level of SL over the last 2 years. It would be hard to give up SL 1 next year and on the same note VP choices are excellant also. My boys are learnig so much with the History cards from VP and also loved the SL K books. Can we do it all? I did not see the two combined on Paulas archives.

 

lisa:confused:

 

Lisa,

 

There are several people who use the cards with SL history. They may be using more, but the cards come up a lot. If you post over on SL they will show up.

 

Heather