Merry Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 well into a Great Books/ textbook high school program? I love this style for our high school and I'm trying to find a literature based curriculum for the early years that would flow smoothly into high school. I read in one of Sonlight's catalogs that they are not very strong on the Great Books in high school so should I infer from their statement that their lower levels prepare for, let's say, a heavy literature based high school program that does not necessarily have very many Great Books? By Great Books, I mean the Iliad, Aeneid, the Song of Roland, Consolation of Philosophy, and so forth. I've been reusing an old Calvert curriculum with BJUP for reading for my eight year old son that I had used with his much older brothers and sister but after one week of this, we're getting bored already. I do like some parts of it but since I used it last in the 1990's so much good stuff has been published since, including Sonlight. __________________ ~Emily Wife of Bob Mom of Wayne 25, husband and father of two, Brenda 23, Marcus 19, Ben 17, Sam 15, and Danny 7 totally homeschooled except for a few outsourced classes since 1988 Last edited by Merry; Today at 08:46 PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry Posted August 29, 2009 Author Share Posted August 29, 2009 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 :lurk5: Good question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readwithem Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 (edited) I read in one of Sonlight's catalogs that they are not very strong on the Great Books in high school This is true. The founder of SL has scoffed at studying Great Books. :( Having said that, I can only tell you my experience. :) We started with Sonlight in K and used it through 4th grade, I had 5 on the shelf when we started with WTM so we read some of those books (Eastern Hemisphere) over the course of the next few years. I love the path we've taken. I kind of think had we started with WTM in the early years, I would have burned out before we got to high school. We all loved reading the books you mentioned - 9th grade was a fabulous, rich year. I'm not sure I would use Sonlight today, there are so many other great literature based options now. Edited August 30, 2009 by readwithem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 :lurk5:Trying one more time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moira in MA Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I found Sonlight plus Latin to be a great background for Great Books study. We went with Sonlight through core 7 then moved to a Gileskirk/Omnibus for 3 years. This year we're completing the 4 year cycle w/Gileskirk Modernity, for Literature my eldest is doing Senior English w/Scholars Online while my youngest is doing Sonlight 530 w/Bravewriter's new MLA Research Paper class. ~Moira Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I found Sonlight plus Latin to be a great background for Great Books study. We went with Sonlight through core 7 then moved to a Gileskirk/Omnibus for 3 years. This year we're completing the 4 year cycle w/Gileskirk Modernity, for Literature my eldest is doing Senior English w/Scholars Online while my youngest is doing Sonlight 530 w/Bravewriter's new MLA Research Paper class. ~Moira This is interesting, Moira. Thanks for answering. Did you use SL language arts, too, or just the cores? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 No, Sonlight does not use retellings or myths or more than the occasional fairy tale. They focus on historical fiction and excellent literature. Yes, I've noticed the lack of retelling, which is IMO one of the brilliant features of WTM. That said, their book choices are great and tend to make that moment in time quite memorable. :iagree:This is what always lures us back to looking at SL. They do use a timeline book and offer timeline figures. They do cover both world and US history (instead of US history ad nauseum) in the elementary years. Their Cores 6 & 7 use SOTW (2 books/year), altho' they don't schedule the activity pages. Their Cores 100 to 500, with some exceptions for too-easy books, do tend to cover many of the same books as are used in standard high school lit courses - but they don't cover the classical works at all. All good points. Do you think not covering the classical works in the younger years makes it harder if you want to switch from SL to cover them in the high school years? Thanks for discussing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I love the path we've taken. I kind of think had we started with WTM in the early years, I would have burned out before we got to high school. . This is an interesting comment. I have some logic stage kids right now who are not enjoying our WTM literature choices. They want to read the SL books we have around the house. Lately I've just been second guessing our choices. I want them prepared for great books study in high school, so I'm hesitant to let them ditch the WTM lists. On the other hand, I want them to enjoy reading, so I'm drawn to SL again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moira in MA Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 Did you use SL language arts, too, or just the cores? I was pretty eclectic wrt lang arts. I used Draw-Write-Now, Writing Strands and Spelling Power together with aspects of SL's course. I mainly tried to follow Ruth Beechick's approach. The main thing we did was read, read, read. Sorry, I can't be more specific. It's been a while, ~Moira Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I was pretty eclectic wrt lang arts. I used Draw-Write-Now, Writing Strands and Spelling Power together with aspects of SL's course. I mainly tried to follow Ruth Beechick's approach. The main thing we did was read, read, read. Sorry, I can't be more specific. It's been a while, ~Moira Thanks, Moira. That's helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry Posted September 10, 2009 Author Share Posted September 10, 2009 Moira for telling us what you did with your children. So, it seems that as long as I combine Sonlight with Latin and maybe some retellings of the classic literature in the elementary years, then the children should be prepared for the classical education in the high school years. Luann, your experience with your children wanting to read the Sonlight type books is similar to mine and is making me ask my question here. My son seems to really enjoy the historical fiction/fiction stories that Sonlight provides. I'll have to think some more about what I am doing here with him. Thank you other ladies too for sharing your experiences. I agree with Laurel that the Sonlight books make memorable to the reader the times in history they are written about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orthodox6 Posted September 10, 2009 Share Posted September 10, 2009 After trying Sonlight at both elementary and high school levels, I'm comfortable leaving the matter (for our family, I mean) as Sonlight is great for K-8th, but something else is needed for high school. (I don't align with "Great Books" for high school, either.) Once an "eklektiko", always an "eklektiko" . . . ! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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