mackenziefoust Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Hi all, I'm a new homeschooling mama of 3. DD turned 6 in October (so if she was in PS she would be in K), DS is 4, and second DD is 1. I started homeschooling this year with DD, she has been in private Christian school for the last 3 years (my mom works there and paid for it) but I always knew I wanted to homeschool. Tuition goes up about $5k from pre-K to K and I knew no one in the fam would be able to pay for all 3 and all future children to go to the school so I might as well pull her out now (before she got excited about the cute little uniform :) So when I started researching last year I came upon the Charlotte Mason method and fell in love with it. It seemed exactly what I wanted. Played to all my strengths( I LOVE to read!!!).I decided on Ambleside Online went completely overboard and bought hundreds and hundreds of dollars in books even though the reason I chose AO was because it was free. Well in the end of August, just when we were hitting our stride I found out that my husband had been having an affair with my best friend for the last 3 years (I know that it's TMI but it helps you understand why such a kink was thrown in my plans). Well needless to say everything fell apart! I neglected school because I was having trouble just getting out of bed everyday and making sure the kids were fed. My husband and I are in counseling at our church and our couples small group has rallied around us and I truly believe God can heal our marriage, but part of the fall out of all this was my plan for DD's schooling has been chucked out the window. PS has never been and option for us so I started looking for something that was a little more structured (ie, a plan laid out for me) I finally decided on Sonlight, because it was so easily laid out with fun books and a bunch of friends have used it. After much back and forth I decided on Sonlight 1+2 because I really feel the rigorous books we had been doing in AO put us ahead of the curve. So I have 1+2, but I have also decided to start Classical Conversations in the fall, so I got SOTW to go along with that. They will be on Cycle 3 in the fall so which SOTW should I do now. Should I start SOTW 1 now and then wait and do 3 or 4 in the fall. Can I even squeeze SOTW 1 in before the fall (we school year round). I chose SOTW 1 to go along with Sonlight 1+2. I know we'll have no trouble finishing 1+2 before fall just because the books are very difficult, but I know NOTHING about the difficulty of SOTW. I assume it's more intense. Please share your thoughts! Thanks in advance! Mackenzie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 You've got a complicated situation. Sorry. Well, you've picked 3 different programs that take varying amts of time with the whole of world history--they are not on the same schedule. Sonlight 1/2 will do all of history in one year. SOTW breaks it into 4 years. CC breaks it into 3. Since you've already bought Sonlight, I'd just do that, and use CC as gravy. It will coordinate somewhat as you get to the second part of Sonlight 1/2. I LOVE SOTW, and think it's really great for elementary, but I would just keep it until later in your case, because you are going to be all over the place in history if you try to incorporate it now. So, I'd do Sonlight, think of CC as extra (and it is fun, and it will help with memorization), and save SOTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 You've got a complicated situation. Sorry. Well, you've picked 3 different programs that take varying amts of time with the whole of world history--they are not on the same schedule. Sonlight 1/2 will do all of history in one year. SOTW breaks it into 4 years. CC breaks it into 3. Since you've already bought Sonlight, I'd just do that, and use CC as gravy. It will coordinate somewhat as you get to the second part of Sonlight 1/2. I LOVE SOTW, and think it's really great for elementary, but I would just keep it until later in your case, because you are going to be all over the place in history if you try to incorporate it now. So, I'd do Sonlight, think of CC as extra (and it is fun, and it will help with memorization), and save SOTW. :iagree: If you really, really wanted to throw SOTW in, get the audio cds and just listen to them for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 I think you could easily stretch SL 1+2 over two years since it is a program designed for kids older than your dd, who will be in kindy next year, right? (Sorry I didn't quite follow that part.) Regardless, it can be stretched over two years and you can add in the other things. (I hope this is helpful and not way off base for what you were asking.) And :grouphug: to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyinMD Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 We've looked at CC and they follow a 3 year cycle which would be difficult to match up exactly with a lot of the curriculum choices out there. Since you already have Core 1+2 I'd just go ahead with that. When CC gets to Ancients the next year you'll have already covered it. My twins are a similar age and we haven't gotten started a history cycle yet. They are technically K this year as well and we will do more history in the fall. This year we've been focusing on learning to read and we do occasional FIAR books. I would go lighter on the history until your dd is reading well. I'd probably do just SOTW1 or Core 1+2, not both. Core 1+2 uses CHOW so it already has a spine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackenziefoust Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 Thanks all for your help. DD is officially in K this year so should prob just focus on reading for now. Thanks each of you for your time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat0805 Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Can anyone tell me if they feel SOTW is primarily biblical based? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Can anyone tell me if they feel SOTW is primarily biblical based? No, in fact it is advertised as a secular history. But it does seem to be too Christian for some of us ;) There are a few chapters in the first book, I think give too much emphasis to bible stories, but I still wouldn't call it biblical history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeganW Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 My kids are about 6 months younger than yours, but will be starting kindergarten (at home) in the fall. My plan is to build off CC. We will do American history (maybe with Beautiful Feet's Early American, but maybe just with books from the library that flesh out each week's history sentence). The following year, when CC goes back to Cycle 1, we will start SOTW 1. SOTW 1 is apparently appropriate for all lower elementary grades, so this might work well for you too. ------------------------------------------- Are you familiar with Retrouvaille? It's a marriage counseling weekend for marriages with major issues, put on by the Catholic church for all couples (Christian or not). My best friend dealt with a situation very similar to yours a few years back, and they intended to divorce. They went to Retrouvaille solely so they could tell the kids that they had done everything they could and just were unable to salvage their marriage. Neither she nor her husband really intended to work on the marriage, going was just a show. But it worked. It was an intense weekend, but today, their marriage is as strong as anybody's. They can't recommend it highly enough! It's worth at least checking into! http://www.retrouvaille.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mackenziefoust Posted February 15, 2011 Author Share Posted February 15, 2011 Thank you so much Megan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeganW Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Are you familiar with Retrouvaille? It's a marriage counseling weekend for marriages with major issues, put on by the Catholic church for all couples (Christian or not). My best friend dealt with a situation very similar to yours a few years back, and they intended to divorce. They went to Retrouvaille solely so they could tell the kids that they had done everything they could and just were unable to salvage their marriage. Neither she nor her husband really intended to work on the marriage, going was just a show. But it worked. It was an intense weekend, but today, their marriage is as strong as anybody's. They can't recommend it highly enough! It's worth at least checking into! http://www.retrouvaille.org/ I should have mentioned that my friend and her DH are NOT Christian, and were perfectly comfortable at this program. So it really is appropriate for ALL married couples, Christian or not. My friend went, and although NO sharing is required or even encouraged, discovered that their marriage problems were no worse than anybody else's there. There were people who had had numerous affairs, people who had run up thousands of dollars of debt without the spouse knowing, etc. Major problems. It was really a relief to her to be with other people who could understand. And it was NOT a big blame-session. If you have ANY thoughts whatsoever that you might want to salvage this marriage, I can't recommend Retrouvaille highly enough. It may or may not work, but when you finish the weekend, you will know that you gave it everything you had, which means that you will never look back and wonder if you should have done something different. Regret is a horrible thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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