Any Sonlighters out there that have used Alt 6?

[SS in MD]

Hi!

I'm considering using Alt 6 (One year World History) for my 12 yo 7th grader next year. We've never used SL before, so I'm wondering you liked or disliked the Alt 6 program. Can dd do most of it independently, since I am teaching 3 other siblings... Just wondering on average how much time should dd expect to spend on SL daily (4 day program)?

 

Any other insights to SL would be great! TIA!

[Annie Laurie]

We did Core 6 this year, but not Alt 6, so no insights on that. I think your dc could do SL mostly independently- mine does all the history reading, timeline book, and readers himself, but I read him the read aloud. Sometimes he wants to read the read aloud himself, but for the most part, we enjoy the bonding time together.

[SS in MD]

bump

[Melissa in CA]

Well Alt 6 is now called Alt 7 in the new Sonlight catalog. :D

 

Personally I would not consider using Alt 7 for a 12 yo mainly because it uses CHOW (Childs History of the World) instead of SOTW for the history spine (see necessary resources). We used a combo of SOTW and CHOW when we did Core 1 and even in Core 1, I felt CHOW was a bit on the young side. My son definitely liked SOTW better.

 

I just could not imagine using CHOW for a 7th grader :confused:...but that is me.

[SS in MD]

Melissa,

 

Thanks for your thoughts. I was sort of thinking the same thing about CHOW. Dd has already read SOTW books, so I was looking for something different. I'm on the fence trying to decide if we should use TOG year 1 (redesign) for all dc (12 yo, 10 yo, 7 yo, 4 yo). Or since oldest dd will be in 7th next year, let her do a 1 year study of World History (Alt 7) and One Year of American in 8th (perhaps using SL Core 100?). Then in 9th she could start Great Books study. One the one hand I like the idea of all dc learning the same time period, yet with her age/grade it also might be good for her to round out m.s with an over view of W.history & American before starting h.s?? Sorry to ramble, but if you have any thoughts on this that would be great! Help! Wish I wasn't so confuse... I need a guidance counselor!! LOL!!!

 

Blessings!

[Heather in VA]

Well Alt 6 is now called Alt 7 in the new Sonlight catalog. :D

 

 

 

This is a totally unrelated whine - but WAHHH I want my catalog!!

 

And I agree about CHOW. But I could see a 12 year old handling Alt6 - just reading SOTW at the 1 per quarter pace.

[paula j]

I think a 12 yo could do alt 6 on her own, my dd did most of it over one summer on her own when she was 13. I also don't think you need to worry about the lightness of CHOW with some of the heavier histor books thrown in there like Augustus Caesars World. I say go for it. Besides, sonlight has an awesome guarantee and if you see it isn't working, just send it back:-)

 

Blessings

Paula

[SS in MD]

Thank you all for your help! Time to start figuring things out! LOL!

[Melissa in CA]

I think a 12 yo could do alt 6 on her own, my dd did most of it over one summer on her own when she was 13. I also don't think you need to worry about the lightness of CHOW with some of the heavier histor books thrown in there like Augustus Caesars World. I say go for it. Besides, sonlight has an awesome guarantee and if you see it isn't working, just send it back:-)

 

Blessings

Paula

 

Yes, I agree with Paula. If what you are looking for is a history your dd could do independently of you, then Alt 7 :D would probably be fine. She will have meatier books to read like Augustus Caesar's World and The World of Columbus and Sons, including George Washington's World if you go the 5-day route. She will get an overload of Foster books to be sure, which may, or may not, be a good fit. Some love them, some dislike them. My boys were in the dislike group and found them somewhat hard to follow. I have heard of others who have had to keep a chart so they can follow the characters. I did not personally read them, so I can't offer comments. If you have access to the SL boards you might want to ask others' opinions; there used to be several threads.

 

One thing I noticed while my boys were doing Core 6 and I was teaching my youngest Core 1, was that yes my boys did Core 6 independent of me, but we also did not get any discussion in that year. I did read the read-alouds, and we enjoyed that time together, but I really had nothing to offer them in terms of history discussion. With Core 100 we had wonderful discussions due to my actually reading the history with them. SL is not set up like TOG with teacher's notes that basically teach you everything your child will be learning that week. With SL if you're not reading the history with them, you are really at a loss. :confused: I am not trying to talk you out of SL....SL is great! Truly! But this is one reason I am choosing to do TOG over the Core 6 I already own. I want my son to be more independent, yet have the tools for discussion without reading all his history books with him. After a year of TOG I may come running back to SL...;)...but for now I really like what I see. TOG has all the things I felt were missing with SL: Fantastic Teacher's Notes, Student Activity Pages with accountability questions, discussion questions, bible questions, literature questions, an Evaluations disc with tests, plus easy to follow and do mapping, etc. You will not get those independent type things with SL. TOG is more scheduling intensive, though at that age your dd would be scheduling her own TOG weeks, and SL more teacher intensive. :D Apples & oranges.

 

Having said all that, SL would work great if you feel your dd is needing a complete one-year world history. TOG can't give you that. :)