Question Sonlight users who used it for HS

[Cheri Warren]

I am still undecided whether to use SL or Notgrass. I don't have full forum access yet at SL so I thought i'd ask it over here

 

For those of you who have used SL for highschool and were successful with it, what did you do as far as Lit analysis? Did you add any in, or was SL enough and you did not worry about it?

 

One of my sons would be using Core Alt7 for 10th grade (he did BJU geography for 9th) up till then we used Abeka and various other things.

 

So for 10th grade he's use Alt7, then move on to 100 and either 300 or 400.

 

Wish we had time for all the upper cores, but we don't. So did you add any lit analysis such as Light LIt or LLATL Gold series. I don't think I could do that, it would be too overwhelming for him

 

I'd appreciate your guidance

[southcarolinamom]

Excellent questions! We use Sonlight for high school like this:

 

for my dd:

 

9th grade Sonlight Core 7 One Year World History

10th grade Winter Promise Quest for the Ancient World (b/c Sonlight doesn't have a high school level Ancient World program)

11th grade Sonlight Core 100 US History

12th grade will be Sonlight 530 Brit Lit Plus Notgrass US Govt/Economics

 

for my ds:

 

9th grade Beautiful Feet Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation History

10th grade Sonlight Core 100 US History

11th grade Sonlight Core 300 20th Century World History

12th grade Sonlight 530 Brit Lit, plus Notgrass US Govt/Economics

 

I switched to Sonlight after using BJUP books for K-8th grade with them. The BJUP books had plenty of literary analysis, almost to the point that it was "sucking the love out of reading." Which was why I switched to Sonlight in the first place!

 

However, after looking at samples of Lightning Lit this summer, I REALLY like their literary analysis method. I'd like to study it further to see if I can incorporate their ideas into some Sonlight stuff. Sonlight's guide books have plenty of questions in the history portion, but not much in the way of literary analysis.

 

I look forward to reading other suggestions from posters.

[Rhonda in TX]

You can purchase a 30-day membership to the SL forums for $5. I think it's well worth it. There's an excellent thread about the literary analysis that's in SL. It actually gives examples from the IG, which is very helpful. If you do choose to get the 30-day membership, you can find the thread here.

[momee]

There are quite a few threads on the SL forums for high school right now that don't make it a pretty choice. MANY negative comments peppered with a few positive ones.

 

I would highly suggest you pay for the forum access and check those out. Not that it will dissuade you from purchasing it, but that it will allow you to enter with eyes wide open.

 

I'm a customer times 3 cores of SL and just getting my hands well into the cores. I wish I'd read some of those comments carefully before purchasing.

HTH.

 

I looked hard at Notgrass and my son would have liked it. I went with SL mainly because we're up to our necks with historical fiction. He's tired of that and SL seemed to have a good mix. I also was very attracted to having all the books on the shelf with a click of an order button!

[Irene Lynn]

Here is what we did: 9th grade - SL300; 10th grade - World History using a college text with source materials and KONOS HOW materials; 11th grade - SL 400 and Notgrass Exploring America; 12th grade - She will be doing SL 530.

 

I have no problem with the level of literary analysis work in these cores for my dd, BUT she is always analyzing literature. She and her 2 close friends write novels each year and look at all sorts of literary devices, character analysis and comparisons, style, etc. These other friends are serious about literature. One will be a junior in college as an English major, planning to be a professor. The other is finalizing one of her novels for small scale publishing. Her current creative writing teacher has requested 20 copies for future classes to read. My dd also took a creative writing class during her 10th grade year. I feel that SL 530 will help put some finishing touches on her literary understanding.

 

If I had chosen to do any core earlier than SL 300, I would have supplemented for historical content and for LA depth for my particular dd. You could add without making it overwhelming. :) How about picking a particularly rich book during the year and do a literature guide with activies with it and drop another book. Just beef up something to add in more thought and literary vocabulary. It doesn't have to be the whole year or an all or nothing approach. Or choose a good book (outside of the curriculum) to read aloud and use a literary guide with it to help you provoke discussion. As you read you could point out what the author is doing to create a mood or how he is coloring your view of a character or how he is weaving his plot together, etc., meanwhile introducing terms. I think it depends upon how intuitive your child is in a given subject. I didn't bother spending much time teaching my dd to spell, because she could spell. I made sure she was familiar with the rules and could apply them, then let it go. If your child just "gets it" as far as literature, then some light discussion can fill in the gaps. If it is not intuitive, then you need some more directed time to introduce and apply concepts. That is one reason some people think a certain curriculum is more than enough and another thinks it is not adequate.

 

I love the Sonlight selections and I feel my dd learned a great deal the years she used Sonlight. I am satisfied.

 

I just talked to dd about her thoughts and comparisons with with Notgrass. She says she learns more through literature, so she probably gets more out of the Sonlight selections than Notgrass. She did think that another learning style might do better with Notgrass, so it depends on the student. I didn't think that the literary analysis was much different as far as depth, but I like John's notes in Sonlight. Those notes help you think about the content and perspective of the author, even if they don't tell so much about the techniques used. When dd did the Sonlight and Notgrass together, she did the literature with Sonlight and only the history with Notgrass. She did see what was required for Notgrass. Anyway, I think the two choices are good, but are not equal. They use two different methods for retention, so one might work a little better than the other for a given student.

[AngieW in Texas]

I did not like SL for high school. Even though I used all the Cores K-7 and loved them (even liked 100 for 7th or 8th grade), I have switched for high school.

 

Windows to the World is an excellent literary analysis program. It actually teaches what it is and how to write it. SL gives assigments to write literary analysis, but doesn't actually teach how to do it.