Winter Promise vs. Sonlight

[mommy24angels]

For those of you who have used these curriculums which do you prefer and why.

 

We are on our 2nd year hsing w/Sonlight at the pre-k level and have been please so far but are still looking around to see what's best for the long term.

 

I greatly appreciate any input and advice.

 

Thanks,

Emily

 

SL P4/5, HWWT, Singapore Earlybird B

 

Edit to say: my siggy is outdated and we're hsing Colton (4.5yo)

Edited September 17, 2009 by mommy24angels
outdated signature ;-)

[Lovedtodeath]

History Pros:

 

Winterpromise is good for visual learners. Most of the books in the programs are less emotionally wrenching. They have a little lighter reading schedule and include activities.

 

Sonlight is good for auditory learners. Their guides are less expensive and from what I can tell include more for the teacher. Sonlight is easy to find used at great prices. They have one year American History courses. I love their reader schedule with the questions and maps. The readers gradually increase in length and complexity. (I have not seen WPs reader schedule.)

 

Science: Winterpromise science uses God's Design books, and other resources which are lovely to look at, in contrast to the Usborne-heavy Sonlight science. Sonlight has worksheets, DVDs and experiment kits with everything that you need.

[HSmom25andRN]

that neither one of them is my favorite.

Sonlight is great if you don't need a lot of activities and you are NOT teaching multiple levels. I think doing 2 cores (at least with my 5) would be very difficult. I loved the reading but would use Sonlight at or below grade level because some of the books can be quite intense by grade 3-4. We used Sonlight K,part of 1,3, and my oldest girls are doing 100 now. It's also not very much fun and I found I never followed the teacher's manual so it was a waste of money.

 

Winter's promise is a great program also but uses very different types of books. Most of them are picture books and are true non-fiction. We are doing the American History one that combines k-6 now with 2 of my children. Personally, I can't stand all of the cutting and pasting in the Time Travelers CD's. I tried lapbooking once and I despised that also so this is a personal thing. I have ended up tweaking it because I wanted to add in more biographies for my 4th grader (mostly the ones listed for Sonlight 3) and I add in different activities because I can't bring myself to cut out one more thing.

 

Just in case you are wondering, I loved Story of the World (I'll be going back to this next year!) and Veritas Press for the younger grades. Both of these are just enough instruction without being confining and they are very easy to tweak for different grade levels. I do have a good library system so that helps. If I needed to buy all of the books, I would definitely consider one of the programs you are considering. Angela

[mommy24angels]

So, what is your favorite? Veritas Press? I've done so much looking around and nothing seem "just right". I'm afraid to piece something together myself and have it be too much work planning out all of our days on top of having six kids. I'm sure you know what I mean :001_smile:

[swellmomma]

You could always do what I am doing this year and that is combine Sl with WP to find the right balance of literature and hands-on for your child.

[meet me in paris]

History Pros:

 

Winterpromise is good for visual learners. Most of the books in the programs are less emotionally wrenching. They have a little lighter reading schedule and include activities.

 

Sonlight is good for auditory learners. Their guides are less expensive and from what I can tell include more for the teacher. Sonlight is easy to find used at great prices. They have one year American History courses. I love their reader schedule with the questions and maps. The readers gradually increase in length and complexity. (I have not seen WPs reader schedule.)

 

Science: Winterpromise science uses God's Design books, and other resources which are lovely to look at, in contrast to the Usborne-heavy Sonlight science. Sonlight has worksheets, DVDs and experiment kits with everything that you need.

:iagree:

We've used both. I liked the books in WP a lot. Their read aloud choices were much more "fun" than Sonlight's, but there aren't nearly as many books throughout the year as with SL.

 

WP was way too many crafts for us... and we skipped most of them. I really had to tweak that schedule to make it work for us (it scheduled 1-2 pages per day over 5 days - dd was frustrated by this and we had to do all of that book for the week in one day).

 

That said, both my kids are switching to Oak Meadow next year. I don't think I would go there before 3rd grade (but that's just me - it's a bit loosey-goosey for my taste) but it does have sort of the best of both worlds and it's open and go.

[....]

I think the sonlight readers and read-alouds are great - and a big percentage of them are in our library.

 

We're in Core 1 BTW... :)

[calandalsmom]

SL is easier to implement. WP has so many resources scheduled in one week that I actually didnt buy them all because it seemed like so much.

 

WP has a lot less of what I love about SL, which is historical fic.

 

SL as a company is better to deal with bc they do fulfill their orders where as WP is ehhh on shipping what you bought.

 

I think WP's science is better thus far- I have hated SL science every time I tried it.

 

For my middle child WP's hands on and non fic is a definite plus and I have stolen ideas from WP to use for him since the first yr I saw it. This yr Im doing Animal Worlds with 2 kids and its going well. I like the "Working on my own" page which gives my ds his own guide for the weeks work rather than me assigning him things.

[lovinmomma]

I LOVE both SL and WP, but the biggest plus that I personally see over SL is that @ WP I can combine ALL of my children and we can study the same topic together.

[siloam]

History Pros:

 

Winterpromise is good for visual learners. Most of the books in the programs are less emotionally wrenching. They have a little lighter reading schedule and include activities.

 

Sonlight is good for auditory learners. Their guides are less expensive and from what I can tell include more for the teacher. Sonlight is easy to find used at great prices. They have one year American History courses. I love their reader schedule with the questions and maps. The readers gradually increase in length and complexity. (I have not seen WPs reader schedule.)

 

Science: Winterpromise science uses God's Design books, and other resources which are lovely to look at, in contrast to the Usborne-heavy Sonlight science. Sonlight has worksheets, DVDs and experiment kits with everything that you need.

 

I agree with Carmen's observations. I would add that WP has full science programs where SL doesn't. I have always felt SL has a little too much focus on history. Your readers (starting with Core 3) are history, your LA is based on history readers, your RA's are history based and you have history. :D

 

Their LA are polar opposites. SL is traditional in phonics with a literature based LA that is relaxed in grammar and has a creative writing focus. WP is a vertical phonics system (not traditional) that means their level 1 readers are about a 3rd grade reading level. Then their writing grammar approach is traditional using different workbooks each year to keep things interesting.

 

All of us here are visual spacial learners. I personally loved SL, and my oldest also did well with it, but my 2nd dd couldn't handle the emotional side of SL RA's. SL does state they choose books to elicit an emotional response. This is because if you have an emotional response you are more likely to remember it. The problem is she is very sensitive, so instead of making a connection it shut her down. She also is a concrete thinker, so she dislikes books like the Wizard of Oz and Dr. Doolittle. They are just to weird to her. Last of all she is very hands on.

 

WP ended up being a much better fit all the way around. My kids love the hands on, enjoyed the WP choice of colorful books and less emotional, more fully RA's. I liked that the schedule is lighter and because I didn't use the readers we were able to peruse reading of our choice. Didn't really have the room for that with SL, unless you are a voracious reader.

 

I will say that the number 1 reason why people who used SL, tried WP and went back to SL state as why is because they didn't like the books chosen. They preferred the more emotional award winners in SL. One gal who used both likened it to caviar, you either like it or you don't. You don't just eat it because it is expensive. There are a lot of books that overlap between the two programs, but if you know or check out Bill Wallace books those are the type in WP that SL users often do not like. They are some of my kids absolute favorites.

 

Feel free to ask more questions. Both really are good programs.

 

Heather

 

Edited September 17, 2009 by siloam

[Annabel Lee]

I agree w/ all that's been said of both so far. I can't answer personally for SL as I haven't used it, but I have seriously researched it. I'm using WP AS 1 & 2 this year and next b/c my sons really wanted American History. I can't stress enough how true the comment about WP's shipping is. I plan to order WP AS 2 for next year (our new year starts late Aug/early Sept.) starting in MARCH, just to make sure we get everything in w/ time for me to look it over before we start.

I really liked SOTW best, and we'll be going back to that after our 2-year rabbit trail. It felt far more open-and-go to me; there was no re-scheduling or having to decide what we have time for from a huge list, etc.; even though there is sometimes a long list to pick from. Somehow the format just made more sense and felt easier. I liked the projects in SOTW. My library never had *everything* from the additional reading lists in it, so we were never able to be overloaded. I did pick up everything available, but only scheduled ONE add'l readaloud per chapter plus I assigned a book to my then 2nd grader to read on his own. I let the boys peruse the other books at their leisure. It has questions in the Activity Guide that lead the child to a summary-style narration, building the ability to pick out important facts from among all the details. I really miss that; it's hard to replicate on my own w/ the WP books. SOTW includes maps, coloring pages, neat hands-on projects, etc.

There's my 2 cents anyhow. :)

[TXMary2]

We are using WP for the first time this year. So far, I prefer WP. There are more activities to choose from and I love the book choices so far. I still love the Sonlight reading list, but I prefer the way WP handles assignments.

[mommy24angels]

Everyone has given so much wonderful information to consider and I really appreciate the time you took to respond. So far, we've enjoyed our SL books but I can see where WP might be a better fit for some subjects. Thanks again!!!:001_smile:

[mommy24angels]

Why you're using TOG History over SOTW? Thanks for your thorough response!

[mumkins]

I used SL last year and I'm waiting (and waiting...order early from WP) for Winter Promise Animal's and thier World's to fully get here. SL didn't have the hands on stuff my lil ones want. Plus I didn't like some of the book choices. I love that I can combine my kids more. A huge plus for me.

[LadyAberlin]

I'm using Sonlight. I love the book choices better than Wp's. I do wish there was some more hands on. For this yr when we do core 1 I'm adding in the SOTW activity guide.

[TXMary2]

I used SL last year and I'm waiting (and waiting...order early from WP) for Winter Promise Animal's and thier World's to fully get here. SL didn't have the hands on stuff my lil ones want. Plus I didn't like some of the book choices. I love that I can combine my kids more. A huge plus for me.

 

I forgot to say this is another reason I like WP, it is easier to combine. I am doing Quest for the Middle Ages with my 13 yo ds, but 5.5 yo ds is tagging along and it was easy to find age appropriate books for him that older ds would enjoy as well. We're having a blast!

[Melissa in CA]

I've used both...many SL Cores (six, I think), and one full year of WP...and quite honestly they are both good choices. I think it really depends on your dc and how they learn best. My youngest used SL's Cores 1 and 2 and absolutely loved them...and then we hit Core 3. :001_huh: Core 3 had almost no picture books of any kind, no encyclopedia type book to look at. My son got bored with the history. Began to dread it. I then began to investigate his learning style and found that he is just NOT an auditory learner. He truly needed pictures. I am very much like him, very visual.

 

I searched the library and got as many non-fiction picture history books as I could find to supplement our Core 3. That got us through Core 3. I then found WP and realized that they used many of the books in their AS1 package that I had used to supplement SL's Core 3. So the next year I used WP's American Story 2 instead of SLs Core 4. I already had the SL readers though, so I did a kind of combo. WP history and read-alouds, with SL's readers. My son began to love history again. We loved almost all of the WP history books and read-alouds. There were a couple we could have done without, but we were like that with SL too. The majority were high-interest bring-history-alive books!

 

Now, we use TOG which is the best of both worlds in my mind. TOG has a smattering of picture books alongside regular history selections and great Lit. It's a win-win for us. Plus, TOG schedules in activities for the crafty folks out there. And YOU get to pick what interests you instead of purchasing a whole packet of "crafts' and only using a small portion because there is just TOO MANY (WP).

 

So, all that to say, I don't think you can go wrong with SL or WP. Both are great programs. You just have to decide which is best for YOUR family. ;)

[siloam]

Why you're using TOG History over SOTW? Thanks for your thorough response!

 

Your welcome!

 

I didn't just do just SOTW because I wanted the Biblical perspective. I am a huge MOH fan too and will use it again as a spine when we go back to TOG year 1. Though I do love the SOTW audios and will bring those out to listen to again. I have the activity guide as well, so we will have to play some games out of it and do some activities.

 

For those who are also asking why I didn't stick with WP, while it worked well I still had to modify because my oldest reads a TON and needed more challenge. TOG with its multi layers and extra books allows me to pick and choose material for each child, and substitute if there is something we all would prefer (my kids ADORE Mike Venezia books). I was so used to rewriting things that the extra work to use TOG was normal for me. It just works. :D

 

Heather

 

[Mom22ns]

I have been using SL and love it. My son loves it. He is a SL guy. SL actually doesn't have enough reading for him, but we supplement easily and he thrives.

 

This year my daughter is homeschooling for the first time. She needs more activities. I really considered WP before I started, but SL worked better for us for this year and I just add some activities for her. I think next year I'm going to go TOG where it is all there and I can pick what I need for each child!

 

I don't think it is a matter of one being better than the other. It is just a matter of which one fits your child's learning style and your teaching style too!

[Melissa in CA]

I don't think it is a matter of one being better than the other. It is just a matter of which one fits your child's learning style and your teaching style too!

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[calandalsmom]

While I agree that one isnt better than another I do think SL is easier to use- partially just because its been around so long that all the kinks have been worked out.

 

AW has been around for sometime now too but every year the books change. Its really choppy feeling, and even though tons of activities are listed I dont feel like we are getting many of them done. A lot of them turn out to be paper crafts which arent great for the older group or major projects (bat house?!) which Im not sure I can manage and which dh may not have time to manage with sports and so on.

 

 

I dont think you could go too far wrong with either one.

[lovinmomma]

I have SL and WP, but not TOG. However, I do have their 3 week sample printed out. Do you all think that TOG has the same amount of literature as SL? I've been told it's not really literature rich. Thoughts?

[siloam]

I have SL and WP, but not TOG. However, I do have their 3 week sample printed out. Do you all think that TOG has the same amount of literature as SL? I've been told it's not really literature rich. Thoughts?

 

Yes it does, but it is just different. It doesn't have as much Historical Fiction listed through out all the levels. It is mainly concentrated in the UG and D levels. The R level in particular has a lot more of the classics or original sources (think of having 530 mixed in with the High School cores instead of separate), where SL will focus on making sure the books are interesting to the child so they will stick with a abridged or rewritten versions. I have heard the Greek Myths cited as an example, though maybe not a good one since it is in Core 6 (Jr. High). TOG would also schedule it at a Jr. High level and then have the R level reading out of original translations.

 

TOG not only has a Lit book almost every week, but it also has an alternative. Easily there are 36 recommended lit books pre level in each year, usually quite a few more.

 

What TOG doesn't have much of is the RA's. TOG feels much more like Core 100 and up. It will recommend some, but it doesn't have a steady stream. Some people have used the lit recommendations to come up with RA's though. Here we take turns choosing RA's here from a wide range of books and not just history, so I actually really like not having it all tied together.

 

Heather

 

[Mom22ns]

What TOG doesn't have much of is the RA's. TOG feels much more like Core 100 and up. It will recommend some, but it doesn't have a steady stream. Some people have used the lit recommendations to come up with RA's though. Here we take turns choosing RA's here from a wide range of books and not just history, so I actually really like not having it all tied together.

 

Heather

 

 

Heather,

I hate to Hijack, but a few TOG questions. I've looked at samples and spent a lot of time browsing Tapestry threads lately. My kids would both be Dialectic level next year starting TOG. My DS is doing Core 100 with Lightning Lit thrown in for some extra reading this year. He is still ahead of schedule and reading his own books in his free time. This is not a heavy load for him even as a 7th grader. Would TOG offer enough book suggestions for a kid like him? Do you pick related RAs or just pick whatever you feel like for RAs if there aren't many suggested - or take some of the supplemental reader suggestions as RAs?

 

I love reading your posts about TOG, they are packed with great info and still a good critical eye.

[siloam]

Heather,

I hate to Hijack, but a few TOG questions. I've looked at samples and spent a lot of time browsing Tapestry threads lately. My kids would both be Dialectic level next year starting TOG. My DS is doing Core 100 with Lightning Lit thrown in for some extra reading this year. He is still ahead of schedule and reading his own books in his free time. This is not a heavy load for him even as a 7th grader. Would TOG offer enough book suggestions for a kid like him? Do you pick related RAs or just pick whatever you feel like for RAs if there aren't many suggested - or take some of the supplemental reader suggestions as RAs?

 

I love reading your posts about TOG, they are packed with great info and still a good critical eye.

 

My oldest is that way too. Right now she does all the LG lit, all the UG lit and reads some of the D. :D I also buy series books for her. She loves the Diary history series as well as Childhood of Famous Americans, so I add a lot of those.

 

I added for her with SL, but in generally find I don't have to add as much with TOG, and when I do I find it is easier to figure out what books will go with our history studies. I would think that being totally at a D level (because of the mature topics in year 4 I have held back some of the D level lit, or she would have plenty to read) you would have enough choices to keep him occupied. Especially if he does have a few pet series you can tap into like my dd has.

 

With RA we alternate, I chose one then one of the kids get to choose then I choose again. I generally choose history RA's and I like the Sisters in Time books, so I always choose those. I do throw in a SL title occasionally, but my 2nd dd is very sensitive, so I suspect we will do more of those on our next round of history when she has more maturity (For example Mountain Born from Core 1 she love despite its complex language, but she totally shut down at the end and refused to listen to any more RA's. She was physically in the room but you could tell she wasn't listening, KWIM?). The kids prefer to read books other than history, so when their choice comes up they choose usually something animal based. They love Avi, Wallace, Jean Craig George, ect...some of it is good lit and some of it isn't. None of it is scheduled in TOG.

 

The best thing to do is to download one of the three week samples and see if you think it will work for you. They are exactly what you get with the real thing, just broken up into smaller pieces. There are several areas where TOG might hang you up. For some people it is the book choices, for some it is the amount of choices, for others it is the requirement that you do some planning. If TOG fits your needs it is excellent. If it doesn't it can be the milestone around your neck and given how expensive it is and that you can't resell it now that it is a digital product, you really want to know ahead of time that this is going to work for you.

 

Heather

[Guest Cindie2dds]

While I agree that one isnt better than another I do think SL is easier to use- partially just because its been around so long that all the kinks have been worked out.

 

AW has been around for sometime now too but every year the books change. Its really choppy feeling, and even though tons of activities are listed I dont feel like we are getting many of them done. A lot of them turn out to be paper crafts which arent great for the older group or major projects (bat house?!) which Im not sure I can manage and which dh may not have time to manage with sports and so on.

 

 

I dont think you could go too far wrong with either one.

I agree that both could be great depending on what you are looking for.

 

 

This was my experience with WP also. It drove me crazy. I felt like I was all over the place and it was too choppy. I had to drop the SL guide after a while too. I don't like reading a lot of small snippets from five different books a day, others thrive with this.

 

Now we do our own thing because I know the problem is me! :)