Sonlight folks . . .

[Marie in Oh]

Has anyone used Core 3-4. What are your opinions of this? I am thinking of using it next year with my oldest 2- 5th and 4th. Is it meaty enough for 5th grade? Thanks.

[PeterPan]

Are you saying the combined cores or doing 3 and then 4 over two years? If you do the separate cores, it will give you time to add in plenty of fun stuff and your 6 yo will be able to tag along! There are lots of great read alouds for her age (the Jean Fritz books, If You Were..., step readers, etc.). If your dc like to color and paste, you could do things like the history pockets with all of them.

 

(And lest that seem out of the blue, we did american when my dd was in 1st, using a lot of those things, and now I'm planning out how to do it in 4th, considering cores 3 and 4, separate, not combined,, which is why it's on my mind.) :)

[G5052]

Core 3 is recommended for ages 8-11, Core 4 for 9-12, and Core 3+4 (one year) is recommended for 9-12.

 

I'm doing Core 3 now with an 8 y.o. and 10 1/2 y.o., and there's a lot of meat there. The readers are too easy for my older one, but still valuable reading. He has other reading assignments anyway. We do not use Sonlight's language arts.

[Marie in Oh]

I was considering the Combined 3/4 rather than 3 then 4 over the next 2 years becasue Core 3 even with advanced readers seems a bit light for 5th grade, but maybe I am wrong. If he did 3/4 in 5th, 5 in 6th, 6 in 7th and 7 in 8th that would set him up to do 100 in 9th.

 

I would love to include my younger dd who will be in 2nd grade next year. SHe is ready for the grade 3 readers, which I already own. She is extremely bright and capable, but she is already young for her grade as she is an August birthday and only would be in K this year in Public School as the cut off in our district is August 1st. So, I am reluctant to push her. I have Core C which used to be K which I thought I could do with her and her younger sister who will be 5 in September. I will eventually have to run at least 2 cores given the age span we've got here.

 

Does this all make sense?

[PeterPan]

If you do cores 3 and 4 separately, you can add in Hakim readings to bolster it for your 5th grader. I've talked with other people though who used those cores separately in 5th gr and were happy. Like GVA said, the target ages for these cores are actually pretty high. In general, I've noticed on the SL boards the people who do cores 3 and 4 separately seem happy and the people who do 3/4, while liking it, come back often saying they wish they had done the separate cores. So you could think in terms of doing them separately but pumping it up a fuzz for your 5th grader with some Hakim reading, etc. The Boorstin spine is already pretty challenging, and there are also the writing assignments. I don't honestly know if I'll have my dd do the writing assignments in it next year, but they look like they'd be a good fit for a 5th grader.

 

I understand about your 6 yo who's borderline and a good reader. She'd enjoy reading the COFA's for herself and just tagging along as you read aloud. The K5 core books (or now it's C?) are awesome too. We read them early on and my dd enjoys reading them over for herself. I think you could do both with them, reading K core read alouds and letting her tag in on the older kids, if you wanted. Obviously she's not going to get as much from core3 as a 5th grader, but she'd enjoy the readers, the COFA's (did you know there are 220 in the series?), etc.

 

Are you planning to study the states? There's a curriculum I got, I forget the name, where the lady has upper level books and lower elementary, so you could study a state each week and do some activities with it if you wanted. That's something your littles would enjoy tagging along with. There are state by state cookbooks, etc. available.

 

BTW, I own Hakim and like the way it's written, which is why I suggested it. My dd likes Guerber too. I just don't think it's hard to bump it up a notch if you like the basic structure of what you're using.

[Marie in Oh]

You have given me much to think about. We did SL in K and then left it to do SOTW. We have done the whole 4 year cycle, and we are now going back to SL as I just love the books and I love the schedule. It is just getting harder and harder to get it all in with all my guys, so I am hoping that SL's schedule will help me get it in.

[MIch elle]

with my oldest but mostly skipped Landmark History. This year my 5th grader is doing some of SL 3/4 along with SOTW 3. I think SL 3/4 is right on for the average 5th grade reader; some books are easy and some harder but LOTS of reading.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

It has been a while since we did those levels so I looked at the catalogue. I think the 3+4 one year condensed would be fine for a 5th graders. If you wanted to change and or add readers/read alouds you could look at what books from 3 and 4 are left out of the condensed core and add those. They do leave a few great read out.

[Mom2OregonBoys]

I agree with OhElizabeth that adding Hakim with Core 3/4 is an option worth considering. I do Core 3 with my son and use Hakim alongside the Landmark spine. They're both great spines with plenty of content for any grade level.

 

Mrs. Readsalot's point that you might add in some of the great books from Cores 3 and 4 that are left out of the combined 3/4 Core is a good one, too. I would certainly do this for a fifth grader who easily reads meaty books.

 

Other ideas to increase reading challenge and deepen content:

• I sometimes assign books intended as read-alouds to my son as readers.
  
• I get online with our local library and choose supplementary reading every week that supports the Core.
  
• We've done a lapbook on the Revolutionary War form Homeschool in the Woods alongside our Core assignments. Lots of great enrichment here.

One last point . . . even though some of the books may seem "light" in terms of reading skill level, they are chosen for their content and unique perspective on the history period covered in the Core. I'm a history nut, and I've learned plenty from Core 3 readers and read-alouds! In fact, I've learned more about American history from Core 3 than I did in college. No kidding; it's very content-rich.

 

Blessings,