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What does Sonlight 3 look like at your house?


ktwensel
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We are beginning to use Sonlight Core 3 for history next week. We are very excited as we THINK we have finally found what we are looking for! :lol:

 

Just wondering...what does your schedule for SL 3 look like at your house? Do you lapbook, notebook, just read...?

 

Also, do you use their LA program? What do you think of it?

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I just pretty much follow the SL schedule for the SL cores for day to day stuff. (I love that about SL!) As time allowed, I'd often read ahead in a read-aloud (by a few days) to allow for a field-trip or other not-at-home day.

 

For Cores 3 & 4, I added some coloring pages (the presidents! http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/kids/presidentsday/color/ -- not sure why I am not finding one for Obama, but I am sure there is a more current site with one for him, and you have plenty of time to find one!) and I also added states maps for the colonies & states (coloring them as each state became a state - I used Knowledge Quest Am. Hist maps http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Map-Trek-US-Edition.html , but presumably there are some free online somewhere), so we had notebooks for the core, but not much else went into them other than those pages.

 

I tried SL LA for Core 4, but didn't like it. We used Rod & Staff last time we did SL Core 3, but we've switched to MCT for LA now, so I'll use MCT next time around.

 

If you do narration and/or copywork, then you could pick things from the SL books for that and add it to the notebooks.

 

I also added in some crafts here and there. I ordered a few kits from somewhere. We made moccasins, corn husk dolls, and a few other things. I think we dipped some candles, too. I just added the crafts when it seemed to make sense. There are soooo many american history craft ideas around -- books, websites, etc. I am sure you could find gobs free online, or puchase a few kits. We love crafts, so I wanted to have a few things ready-to-go, and the kits helped with that. When I do it next year, I want to have 10 or so craft projects ready to go ahead of time, so I don't have to scramble for materials. I think I'll choose projects in advance from books/websites/kits/etc and put the needed materials all together in labelled zip lock bags.

 

Enjoy!!! Core 3 was our first core and was my favorite so far. I look forward to doing it again next year with my youngest! Great topics! Awesome book!

 

HTH

Edited by StephanieZ
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Not much time just wanted to say - if you think you might like the scheduled lists - don't get too far off track by reading more of one thing than another. Try to follow the schedule. The readers and history line up later. My girl is excited about that aspect of it. Some kids might not but the really great part is that schedule...

 

I tell ya,

that SL schedule is my buddy on Sun night when I'd rather curl up with dh than print schedules for my kids :)

 

I can reply later, but mostly we just read and we are loving that freedom. My girl is learning alot!

We do WWE 2 and FLL 3 with her. I just love her schoolwork. She does too, as much as one can like schoolwork, that is.

 

Enjoy it!

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Well at my house it doesn't look anything like what's in the Instructor's Guide. :D

 

We are not American so instead of doing just American history we have added all those good books into our chronological history study. We always add in lots of extra books too - just because that's what fits for ds.

 

At various times we have done lapbooking and notebooking, but not all the time - we like variety. I have used some of the LA but dropped it because there was too much creative writing for us, though I am sure it would be perfect for other families.

 

I'm sure there are almost as many different ways of using it as there are people using it. It just depends on what suits your family.

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I'm using core 3 with an 8 year old and a 5 year old listening in, and I was hit with the morning sickness stick after the first week of school, so we've fallen way off the schedule. I try to keep the assignments in order (it isn't hard to understand which readers go with which read alouds) but I don't pay attention to page assignments. We just read the books as fast as we can get to them. I use the Story of the USA workbook for my elder child instead of notebooking or another written assignment. We've done a couple of outside crafty-things, which the kids enjoy. It's so easy to find enrichment materials for this subject area; there have been about four great documentaries on PBS since we've gotten started, and craft ideas are everywhere. We generally read the read-alouds to my daughter alone (Walk the World's Rim, for example, was very intense emotionally and quite heavy-going in literary style) and I assign about half of the readers to her for silent reading. Then I read the other half of the readers aloud to both kids. We do map work and crafts together. I was surprised at how much my son was getting from following along, and it seems to be working out pretty well.

 

I don't use SL's language arts package. We tried it for Core 1, but there was too much writing for my academically advanced daughter. We use MCT and a couple of other things for that.

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I tell ya,

that SL schedule is my buddy on Sun night when I'd rather curl up with dh than print schedules for my kids :)

 

 

 

I think this is what is the most exciting, for all of us. Sunday nights are always so frantic here and I NEED to relax!

 

We can't wait to start this. I think it will be so much fun to just read together and enjoy ourselves.

 

I really appreciate everyone's ideas and comments. THANK YOU!

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We've used SL for a number of years now and mostly, we have just read. Occasionally, I'll throw in a dvd that ties in with what we're learning. Last year, when we were almost done with Core 3, I added in one of the Time Travelers lapbooks (Revolutionary War). We started in the spring and have worked on it over the summer and on weekends this fall. We still have a few of the little booklets to make and I just can't wait until it is done. At first, it seemed really neat and I'm sure my kids will enjoy having them as keepsakes, but I can't believe the amount of time it has taken to complete. I bought another one to use when we first started this one, but now I'm thinking I'm going to sell it unless someone begs me to do it.

 

Lisa

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About the documentaries...I'm so lame, I don't even have titles for most of them. One, simply called Voyage of Christopher Columbus, was about a re-enactment of the first voyage. We watched two that were under the series "Lost Treasures of the Ancient World," one of which was about Mayans and Aztec cultures, and I can't recall the other title.

 

The PBS website might be a good place to check for documentary-type stuff.

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