Sonlight P4/5?

[MeganW]

Any thoughts about Sonlight P4/5?

 

My just-turned 6 year olds are about to start kindergarten. I think I have everything pretty much decided -

- phonics OPGTR, ETC a good bit behind as a review

- handwriting HWOT

- math RS-A, MEP & Miquon for fillers if needed

- Classical Conversations

 

I have Beautiful Feet's Early American History, and I want to try and skim through that with the kiddos this summer, just so that the Classical Conversations history stuff sounds at least vaguely familiar. Doing 1 lesson a day (they look like 10-15 minutes of reading), I will finish that this summer.

 

The fall/winter/spring is what I am thinking about. I have FIAR, but somehow getting it done consistently has been a challenge. I spend SOOOO much time over-planning it & trying to coordinate it with Galloping the Globe. It takes me 10 times as long to plan as it does to do it. I'm sure with experience it gets easier, but I just don't seem to get very far b/c I end up spending ages looking up what other people have done with each book, planning art projects, collecting stuff, etc. I think I might be one of those people who just needs someone else to plan it, at least until I get a little more homeschooling experience under my belt.

 

I am wondering if Sonlight's P4/5 would be a good, open & go, scheduled way to get those good readalouds in?

 

I have purchased the 30 day access to the private Sonlight forums, but the discussions aren't particularly helpful. Those are all pro-Sonlight folks. There are a few complaints about it feeling chopped up, but most of those are old, and I think the instructor guide has been revised since then.

 

So what do you think? For an nervous newbie, is Sonlight P4/5 a good program? What do you think of the books? The program as a whole? Would I be better off trying to work a little harder at FIAR? They accomplish the same thing, right?

Edited May 7, 2011 by MeganW

[VBoulden]

I used Sonlight P4/5 with my daughter for Kindergarten (along with Math U See's Primer, Zanier Bloser's Manuscript K and Abeka's Handbook for Reading.)

 

I liked most of the books in that core. The Big of Science and Nature, Milly Molly Mandy, Family Bible Reader, Year at Maple Hill Farm, People and the little paper back Usborne science books (can't think of their names right now) were some of my favorites.

 

Some of them (like First Thousand Words) were way too juvenile for my six year old, in my opinion. I just didn't even use that book and NOW I use it with my two year old. :001_smile:

 

I didn't like the book about the rabbit (Mr. Wiggly, I think his name was... anyway, I found it REALLY hard to read for some reason.) :confused:

 

But all that said, what I really want you to know is that I thought I needed a schedule and it felt great to check off the boxes at first... it was very reassuring at first.

 

But if I could go back in time and talk some sense into myself, I would tell myself to ditch the schedule Sonlight sends with their cores. I'd just buy all the same books used from Amazon or something so that I could avoid paying for the schedule at all.

 

The reason I ended up hating the schedule: They tell you to read two pages in one book and two pages in another and one page in another... usually stopping in an awkward place where the author didn't mean for you to stop. Doing that every day started to feel very choppy and unnatural. I started to hate the schedule.

 

So, in my opinion, I think you should use all the same books, just consider going through them leisurely, as if you picked them up from the library and as they were meant to be read in the first place.

 

If you read out of Sonlight books for half a hour a day, I think you will work through all the books twice maybe even three times by the end of the year! If you follow the schedule, you waste so much time is closing and opening books. :tongue_smilie:

 

Even if you only read The Big Book of Science and Nature one day and then read Year at Maple Hill Farm the next and then read the first chapter in Milly Molly Mandy the next... I think you will be better off than trying to follow their schedule. This is just my opinion, I submit it to you in humility, of course you can take it or leave it. ;)

 

Oh, and you do have those four skill building workbooks with that core. I loved those workbooks! So did my daughter! The schedule simply said to do one page a day in each, starting with the first and going on through the forth. That's easy enough to do on your own, right?

 

Good luck. I hope I was helpful. :D

[FairProspects]

We did not like P4/5 (and we loved P3/4). Several of the books chosen were very girly and my very active boys simply tuned them out. The others were IMO watered-down versions of fantastic original fairy-tales from other cultures. A better solution for us was to find the best illustrated original versions of the stories.

 

We ended up switching instead to Ambleside Online Year 0 which is an incredible list of books with great language. Another good alternative would be to listen to Jim Weiss audiobooks. The language was just too important to me to spend time reading revised versions by modern authors. My suggestion would be to pick and choose from the Ambleside list. We have also read many of the FIAR books (although not "rowed" them) so I think that would be a good option as well.

 

I agree with the PP that the science books were the best part of the core though. We have kept and re-read many of those books.

[Aurelia]

We didn't use the schedule, but read most of the books on our own and they were thoroughly enjoyed here, especially the science books.

[Ellesmere]

Any thoughts about Sonlight P4/5?

 

My just-turned 6 year olds are about to start kindergarten. I think I have everything pretty much decided -

- phonics OPGTR, ETC a good bit behind as a review

- handwriting HWOT

- math RS-A, MEP & Miquon for fillers if needed

- Classical Conversations

 

I have Beautiful Feet's Early American History, and I want to try and skim through that with the kiddos this summer, just so that the Classical Conversations history stuff sounds at least vaguely familiar. Doing 1 lesson a day (they look like 10-15 minutes of reading), I will finish that this summer.

 

The fall/winter/spring is what I am thinking about. I have FIAR, but somehow getting it done consistently has been a challenge. I spend SOOOO much time over-planning it & trying to coordinate it with Galloping the Globe. It takes me 10 times as long to plan as it does to do it. I'm sure with experience it gets easier, but I just don't seem to get very far b/c I end up spending ages looking up what other people have done with each book, planning art projects, collecting stuff, etc. I think I might be one of those people who just needs someone else to plan it, at least until I get a little more homeschooling experience under my belt.

 

I am wondering if Sonlight's P4/5 would be a good, open & go, scheduled way to get those good readalouds in?

 

I have purchased the 30 day access to the private Sonlight forums, but the discussions aren't particularly helpful. Those are all pro-Sonlight folks. There are a few complaints about it feeling chopped up, but most of those are old, and I think the instructor guide has been revised since then.

 

So what do you think? For an nervous newbie, is Sonlight P4/5 a good program? What do you think of the books? The program as a whole? Would I be better off trying to work a little harder at FIAR? They accomplish the same thing, right?

 

nm

Edited August 25, 2014 by CaladwenEleniel
clarification

[lorrainejmc]

I bought the SL IG and planned to get the books as needed. We never got past the first few weeks. Again, it's the choppiness. Every time I had to change books (after perhaps reading one 4 line rhyme), they both jumped out of their seat. I ended up reading the science for the week all in one day, then repeating it a few times. Most of the books did not engage my boys at all.

 

I have also used FIAR. I think it's easy to run into difficulty with it if you try to do too much. I burnt myself out trying to make it work for my dd. I am currently combining it with GTG for my boys. My focus for them ATM is the 3r's, so I only choose one activity a day, including art, cooking, geography/social studies/history or science. I don't look at blogs, and I don't search for anything outside of the FIAR manual and the GTG manual/cd rom. That's where I slipped up first time round.:tongue_smilie:

[kristinannie]

:bigear:

[krismoose]

I tried P 4/5 with my ds, and I, too, did not like reading 1 page a day of 4-5 different books according to their schedule. I also did not care for their workbooks. That being said, I bought a used newer-edition schedule for my dd and am turning it on it's side and considering it a "weekly suggestion" for the order (and sometimes amount) to read each week. I didn't care for a few of the books the first time around, so we got rid of those and it's nice to try the new additions to their list. The science books were definitely favorites and the Berenstain Berars one has never really been out of use for the past 2 years :) (and we do not care for any of the other B. Bears books, but these ones are okay :) )

[Mommy22alyns]

We used P 4/5 for Sylvia's K year (along with HWOT K, Readers 1, and Horizons K math). I really enjoyed it. I did hate Uncle Wiggily, but she loved him. It was just a nice, light, easy K. Now that said, I didn't care for Core 1 (now B) for Becca and we're going with MFW in the fall.

[MeganW]

Thank you all for replying!

[Dinsfamily]

We loved P4/5 for my oldest's K year. It was the perfect complement to SWR and Singapore math for us. My only complaint is that there weren't enough science books. The ones they include are so good that we could have used twice as many. Ds7 has been rereading a lot of the books on his own this year and we are all excited to start it again for ds5's K year next month. We didn't use the P4/5 LA since we used SWR. I agree that it would be too immature for most K'ers. My 2yo loves those books, though. I ordered P4/5 with K LA originally (didn't use it) but bought 1000 First Words later for the littles.

[MeganW]

I agree that it would be too immature for most K'ers. My 2yo loves those books, though.

 

Hmmm. My kiddos would be 6 1/2 when starting it, though starting their kindergarten year. That makes me think twice.

[Dinsfamily]

Hmmm. My kiddos would be 6 1/2 when starting it, though starting their kindergarten year. That makes me think twice.

I was only referring to the LA that comes with it if you don't choose LA K. The rest would be great for a 6.5yo. My 7yo is planning on sitting in on it this comong year even though he's already done the core once and reread all of the books on his own at least once. The P4/5 LA only consists of 2 books, anyway.

[SnMomof7]

We really enjoy SL's book selections. It is really hard to go wrong with them. Something that we have done with the schedule to reduce the 'choppiness' when my children are really into a book, is to read one book ACROSS the week each day. So on Day 1, we'll read half of or all of the assignments for first book for the first week - right across all the days. And check them off. The next day we'll do the next book. It has worked well for us!

[MeganW]

OK, I think I'll order P4/5 without the readers, and read across. THANKS!!!

[3peasinapod]

We really enjoy SL's book selections. It is really hard to go wrong with them. Something that we have done with the schedule to reduce the 'choppiness' when my children are really into a book, is to read one book ACROSS the week each day. So on Day 1, we'll read half of or all of the assignments for first book for the first week - right across all the days. And check them off. The next day we'll do the next book. It has worked well for us!

 

It seems you've decided, but I wanted to say we read across also. I didn't find the books mentioned to be juvenile for our K'er. I will say, I did add a lot of science and, of course, the appropriate LA. We also added many of the Ambleside Online Year 0 books too.

 

I am a compulsive tweaker. :tongue_smilie: But Sonlight seems to have the book base that I like, and I use them all. I don't know if this helps, but thought I'd give my 2 cents. ;)