Sonlight users...If you don't like A History of US...

[Katiebug_1976]

Hello, I am planning on using Sonlight core 100 next year with my will be dd15 (10th grade) & dd14 (9th grade). This will be our first year with Sonlight and we are very excited! Anyway, I have heard that some do not like A History of US. Sonlight even offers the option to buy the core w/o those books but there is no substitute offered. So I'm wondering, if you don't use A History of US, what do you use? Any thoughts or experiences you would share with me would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks so much

[EKS]

Not a Sonlight user, but we are using K12's The American Odyssey this year for American history and it's really quite good. I was able to get the book without signing up for the class.

[mims]

Actually Sonlight expects you to have these books but some buy it as an addition to Core 3 and 4 so don't need to re-buy it for Core 100. A lot of the spines in Sonlight can be replaced easily but this is one core I feel you need this spine. It is used consistently throughout and there are a lot of notes that are based on this reading. I've had two use this and although we frequently disagree with Hakim the notes have rounded it out and they have learned a ton about American history and critical thinking.

[Julie in MN]

Actually Sonlight expects you to have these books but some buy it as an addition to Core 3 and 4 so don't need to re-buy it for Core 100. A lot of the spines in Sonlight can be replaced easily but this is one core I feel you need this spine. It is used consistently throughout and there are a lot of notes that are based on this reading. I've had two use this and although we frequently disagree with Hakim the notes have rounded it out and they have learned a ton about American history and critical thinking.

 

:iagree:

 

Hakim basically *is* SL100, in my opinion.

 

And the SL notes... "a lot" is an understatement. There were hundreds of pages of notes on Hakim. A lot of them centered on the theme of whether the south was really worse than the north, or something to that effect.

 

I had some issues with Hakim, but if you want straight info on American history, my dd learned more that year than any of my other kids have. She's the type to remember it all.

 

Julie

[Katiebug_1976]

Thank you, I'm not sure what my opinion of the Hakim books are yet since I have not seen them. I was just curious because there seem to be quite a few that don't care for them. So I wondered what was used instead. I would like to have a plan "B" sort of in place just in case the Hakim books don't work out.

[Mom22ns]

Have you tried your local library to see the Hakim books? We did Core 100 last year and checked out the History of US series from the library as we needed them. We really enjoyed them. They are not conservative at all - if that is an issue for you. There were things that I totally disagreed with, but those just brought out good conversations. We all enjoyed their readability.

[mom31257]

We are using SL Core 100 this year, and this is our first and last year using it. Dd is in 8th grade. She did not like the Hakim series at all, and I switched her to BJU's 8th grade textbook for a spine.

 

She said the author included so much commentary and thoughts/opinions, it was difficult to get to the facts of what actually happened, which is, IMO, what a spine is for.

 

I don't know the reading level of your children, but most of the books have been very easy reading for my dd. I was hoping for challenging reading for her last year of middle school, but this hasn't been at all.

 

I'm sorry to be so negative about it, but I think you should here all sides. I do not really consider most of this to be high school level work. You should know, also, that there is no real writing instruction, just weekly assignments. I do think many of those assignments are good and have been the highlight of the program.

[Robin in DFW]

nt

Edited December 20, 2010 by Robin in DFW

[Brenda in MA]

I split Core 100 over 2 years and then added in Critical Thinking in US History and lots of additional readers/literature to make it a 2-year course. In fact, when I look at what we're doing this year, it doesn't resemble Core 100 except for a very few of the readers.

 

We used the first half of the Hakim books last year and then decided to change to a textbook for this year. We liked the high-interest nature of the Hakim books, but both my son and I were bothered by the fact that the chapters seem to skip around a bit on their focus, and it was hard for us to formulate the big picture of what was going on during some time periods.

 

The text we are using is called The American Journey (Pearson), and it was recommended by someone here. The text is much better on giving the big picture and showing how certain events influenced other events. It is a bit dry, though, and there is a lot of reading to get through it compared with Hakim. Politically, this text seems fairly balanced, but a tiny bit of left leaning comes through when it is talking about the treatment of some Americans.

 

Now that we're at the halfway point in the year, it's hard for me to say which method we prefer. I think we're going to stick out the rest of the year with the textbook & Critical Thinking in US History.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Katiebug_1976]

Thank you all for your replies. I checked with my library, and they do have the Hakim books (YEAH!). So I am going to go check a few out and look through them.

So, I've heard from people that think core 100 is enough for highschool, and from just as many who think it is not. I was planning on using this core with my dd15 (10th grade) & dd14 (9th grade). If you don't feel it is worthy of highschool credits, what did you do to beef it up? Or is there another program that you used for highschool American history? I don't mind a good textbook, but we really prefer to read living books. We like to "read the whole story" instead of just getting the highlights & facts to memorize. That is why Sonlight looks so appealing to me.

I've also been wondering if there is a way to seriously beef up cores 3 & 4 since I will be using them over the next 2 years with my younger dc. If there is such a divided opinion on core 100, but everyone seems to LOVE cores 3 & 4, could I add in a bunch of upper level stuff and just use that for my highschoolers along w/ my younger kids? Or am I creating a huge headache for myself? One of the big reasons I'm drawn to Sonlight is the open & go / readiness of it. I don't have a lot of time to plan & schedule etc. So I find that a lot of the time, we don't get things done. Sorry this got so long, but I want to do my research & find the right program for my kids now before next year gets here & I'm stressed out again. Thank you for any suggestions you can offer.

[Kareni]

The text we are using is called The American Journey (Pearson), and it was recommended by someone here. The text is much better on giving the big picture and showing how certain events influenced other events. It is a bit dry, though, and there is a lot of reading to get through it compared with Hakim. Politically, this text seems fairly balanced, but a tiny bit of left leaning comes through when it is talking about the treatment of some Americans.

 

 

 

The book was recommended by Eliana in this very meaty thread: Trying to put together a year of US History....

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mims]

I really think it depends on what you want out of the course. It is worth far more than 1 credit of American History and one literary credit at a highschool level. I don't think anyone will argue that it is far more than a public school would even approach. That is of course if you do all the reading and discussion. My kids have learned and retained a ton and really enjoyed the process and all the great books. Literary analysis really only happens if you do the writing assignments (for some reason that is where the kids dig and respond to the literary analysis). I think you could add in a literary analysis credit or at least half credit if you did all the writing. But on the other hand it really doesn't teach a lot of writing skills so to count it for writing credits I really would want more instruction on that. All of this gets a little sticky if you are going to a college that really examines what level of books you have in your courses (my opinion is that very few do) because Hakim's and some of the reading books aren't highschool level. By sheer volume of books and amount of material my kids learned and retained I have no problem personally counting it for highschool level. I add in writing and discuss the literary analysis stuff rather than have that for writing.

 

My personal summary:

-one credit for American History

-one credit for Literature

-I add writing so that combined with discussing literature analysis from their writing assignments listed is easily one English credit

[Mom22ns]

I did core 3+4 with my dd at the same time I did core 100 with my ds. We skipped the spines in 3+4 and read Hakim aloud for both. It was a great combination.

 

In my opinion, you are much closer to a high school level core with 100. They combine wonderfully (we did the 3+4 read alouds all together). Hakim is a little light but it is a high school level text. I think if you want to beef up core 100, just pull some of the easy readers and replace them with something more challenging. There are a few places in 100 where there are a couple of easy readers back to back. It would be easy to pull two and put in something higher level that would take a bit more time.

 

We loved core 100, but my kids were young when they did it. It was ds's 7th grade year. I don't want to touch "if it is enough". That is debated often enough. If you don't feel its enough, I think it is an easy fix with some reader changes though.

[Kindred Hearts]

We're using the Hakim books (as scheduled by Biblioplan) and we REALLY like them. Most libraries have them; I would go check one out and read through it to see what you think of it.