Sonlight

[RainbowSprinkles]

I'm just now starting out with Sonlight Core 3. I plan on continuing with Core 4 if it works for us. Looking ahead I noticed that after Core 4, World History doesn't come until Core 6. If you've used Core 5, can you tell me how you liked it? Or did you skip it? If you did it, would you do it again? Or would you just go to Core 6?

[calandalsmom]

Core 5 was a brilliant wonderful year of exploration. We had to completely rewrite core 5 into a secular world tour but even with all that work it was well worth it. We really tried to experience world culture and it was just a remarkable opportunity. Because you are investigating a region other than the western world your history studies are based in eastern history. it was great. Offered a whole new perspective.

 

So sonlight core 5 as written would get a D from me (only because there are way too many ethnocentric missionary oriented books) but the idea of concentrating on the eastern world for a year gets an A+++.

[AmyTompkins]

I have used several years of SL with different ages. Core 5 is really, really excellent, but IMHO, even your eldest will not be of an age to really get the most out of that Core next year. I suggest waiting until the student is around 12, regardless of their maturity or ability to handle rigorous academics.

[Mom22ns]

But I wouldn't recommend a 10 yo as the oldest in Core 6 either, it is supposed to be for 11-13 yo. You could do a blend of Core 1 and 6 to try to catch all your kids when you finish 4 next year.

[RainbowSprinkles]

I have used several years of SL with different ages. Core 5 is really, really excellent, but IMHO, even your eldest will not be of an age to really get the most out of that Core next year. I suggest waiting until the student is around 12, regardless of their maturity or ability to handle rigorous academics.

 

Oh we still have Core 3 and 4 to do, so she would be around 11 and a half when the time comes for Core 5.

[RainbowSprinkles]

:)

[melmichigan]

We own it, but we skipped it, many of the books fit in other places and we skip the missionary ones. My DD9 started with Core 6 instead. We went through week 24 last year for fifth grade because I tend to tweak and add in, a lot. :D It might not be for every child or family, but it worked fine for us. I had planned on (and own) Core 6, 7, and 100 for our run through middle school with lots of extras, instead, for now I am integrating SL literature and RA's with TOG Y2 U1 to see if it will save me any time versus doing 3 cores. We shall see where we go from there, TOG is very appealing.

 

I would skip it again with the other kids.

Edited August 7, 2010 by melmichigan

[meet me in paris]

We did 3, 4, skipped to a 6/1 combo, then went to 5. Core 5 has lots of written work - more than any other non-HS core, I think. I wanted my older one to be ready for the EHE and all the writing involved, so we took an extra year between 4 & 5, and I'm glad we did.

 

I have 3 years in between my 2 also, and my younger is about to turn 9... she can't really do the full core, but she can hang with it and do notebooking pages for each country. We just started, but it's tons of fun, and I think not to be missed (but to be tweaked, definitely).

[OnACloudyDay]

We loved Core 5! My boys did it when they were in 6th & 3rd grades (11 & 8 years old). I made some adaptations for my younger since the writing was really quite intense for him but otherwise, we pretty much used it as written. Eastern Hemisphere Explorer is a real gem, IMO. It requires a lot of writing but I allowed my boys to do it in "note taking" fashion. In fact, I used it as a tool to teach them how to abbreviate, use bullet points, etc. We really loved almost all the books and enjoyed using the encyclopedia. In fact, that year their ITBS scores in maps and diagrams, and reference materials jumped considerably, and I contribute that to all the research and map work they did in the EHE. Fortunately that seemed to stick with them because they had similarly high scores in those areas again this year. :)