Blessed with seven Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Okay... If you were not really wanting an "all in one" program but would love a program that SCHEDULED in the reading of great books for kids in Grades 1-6 or something like that...which would you use? I am not sure I can do an all in one like HOD but really want my kids reading lots of great books and with seven children I feel I have books for some, not for others, I have so many on different reading levels. I need beginning books and books for a 1st, 3rd, 5th. I would love a program that schedules these in w/ daily schedules to check off, that would be one less thing I worry about ...ha! I need to keep lots of books going so they do not get bored. Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Laurie Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I would choose Sonlight, but, full disclosure, I've never used HOD and have used many SL cores. I would pick a core for my 3rd and 5th grader, like Core 3 perhaps, and then just let the 1st grader tag along but not require it. The 1st grader could have a set of readers at his/her level, they are not related to the history at that level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna T. Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I truly love HOD, so it's hard to say but it sounds like SL might be what you are looking for. Another good option is Biblioplan. It uses spine books that you read outloud to all the children and then has four (including High School) levels of readers that are scheduled for you. While it's mostly history books there are also many classics and other good literature mixed in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I'm a long-time SL user, so that's the direction I'd take. I think you could use Core 3 with your 3rd and 5th grader and then let the 1st grader follow along as much as he wanted. I would probably add in some read-alouds just for the 1st grader though. Many of the read-alouds from the younger cores could be added in for fun reading at any time -- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, My Father's Dragon, The Boxcar Children, etc. You could order a stack of books like that and read a chapter a day out of one of them at the beginning of your read-aloud time. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 We are using SL and are very happy :). Nothing beats their reader progression to build fluency and joy of learning in my opinion! I can't wait to dig into our B+C with the children this fall! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Have you seen this - http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com/literature.htm It's free by a member here and might work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 It would depend on a lot of factors.. Are you just wanting to read good literature or are you wanting the good literature that you read to be incorporated into your daily schooling? As in, your lessons would come from those books. Are you hoping to keep the majority of your children together for whatever they do? These were some of the questions I posed to myself when making the great search. We ended up going with SL read alouds but a different boxed curriculum. ;) I went with the other {WP} because it had more hands on stuff and we wanted that. Another factor with it was I could buy one core and keep my kids together in it. Due to the age/grade difference I wasn't as convinced I could do that with Sonlight. It does NOT mean I couldn't, it's just how I felt led at the time. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom@shiloh Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 :iagree: It would depend on a lot of factors.. Are you just wanting to read good literature or are you wanting the good literature that you read to be incorporated into your daily schooling? As in, your lessons would come from those books. Are you hoping to keep the majority of your children together for whatever they do? These were some of the questions I posed to myself when making the great search. We ended up going with SL read alouds but a different boxed curriculum. ;) I went with the other {WP} because it had more hands on stuff and we wanted that. Another factor with it was I could buy one core and keep my kids together in it. Due to the age/grade difference I wasn't as convinced I could do that with Sonlight. It does NOT mean I couldn't, it's just how I felt led at the time. :) :iagree::iagree::iagree: We loved SL and did Cores K-5. We're switching to TOG this year because I like keeping all my kids together and I struggled to do that with SL. We'll still use them for the book lists though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessed with seven Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 (edited) Thank you for all the posts... Well...I figure I could do 2 Cores w/ Sonlight. I am not doing Sonlight LA, will probably just do Sonlight LA for the younger ones. I figured core B or A, can't remember what is the same as Core K and then a Core for the Older kids. I do not like having everyone together in one history time period, it just doesn't work here. I want great literature w/ maybe some map work, keeping a timeline book but NOTHING that is horribly time consuming as we also have math etc... Right now everything feels so time consuming w/ several in the process of reading and younger ones that need help w/ math but my two in 3rd and 5th I want to make sure they have a good supply of great books and a schedule that will help me make sure they are getting them read, questions to ask to make sure they are comprehending AND VOCABULARY..forgot about that!! My one that is in 5th grade really has never developed a love of learning to read so I would really like to get a good supply of books for him, to hold his interest a bit, even if he doesn't jump for joy, I at least would like for it to be bearable! :) Kim Edited May 13, 2011 by Blessed with seven Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsfamily Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Thank you for all the posts... Well...I figure I could do 2 Cores w/ Sonlight. I am not doing Sonlight LA, will probably just do Sonlight LA for the younger ones. I figured core B or A, can't remember what is the same as Core K and then a Core for the Older kids. I do not like having everyone together in one history time period, it just doesn't work here. I want great literature w/ maybe some map work, keeping a timeline book but NOTHING that is horribly time consuming as we also have math etc... Right now everything feels so time consuming w/ several in the process of reading and younger ones that need help w/ math but my two in 3rd and 5th I want to make sure they have a good supply of great books and a schedule that will help me make sure they are getting them read, questions to ask to make sure they are comprehending AND VOCABULARY..forgot about that!! Kim It does sound like SL would help you with this. Using Core A (old K) would be great for your 1st grader because you could read the books at your own pace and still feel like your getting a lot of value out of it but not feel overwhelmed. I'll be adding my 2nd core next month but won't really count myself as doing two full cores until we get to Core B (old 1) and Core E (old 4). Even then, most of the RAs are not connected to history in Core 1 so we could drop a few the second time around and not miss anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandra in va Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I think SL sounds like what you are looking for...I would focus on the core for the olders and add in books for the youngers as you are able. You could still get the Core A schedule, but I would be careful not to feel too obliged to follow it to the letter. It can get overwhelming! There is not a lot of map work in SL. I bought a Knowledge Quest map book of American history to supplement core D+E for next year. I love that SL has reading comp questions for all the readers and read alouds - so I don't have to pre-read everything to know if they are doing the reading. There are some vocab words, too, for the books. Also, my kids love SL books - I think it may really help your 5th grader to enjoy reading. I found that with juggling many kids at different levels, it helps sooo much to have the SL IG. I know exactly what pages to read each day. However, as I stated before - it helps to be flexible. If we're behind, I may just give the RA and history books to the kids to read. I give myself permission to skip books. There is so much in the IG - it is hard to do it all, especially in a bigger family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessed with seven Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Sandra, Oh my goodnes...I just typed out a long post and clicked something and it is gone. Thank you for your post! Okay...this is what the plan "might" be, if you all would see what you think. For my younger ones, 5 and 7, I was going to do the Sonlight LA (or IEW's PAL Writing), although we already own and are doing ETC and sonlight would schedule that along w/ the reading of readers, which is what I need...THE SCHEDULE!! Then mainly just use the Core Guide for doing some read a loud and Bible stuff.... For my older two do the Core for History/Geography and Bible. I do not think we could do the LA for that core as we don't ever do formal grammar or anything so I don't think they would be able to do the LA. Maybe Grammar Ace? My son is writing phobic, he does NOT like to so he needs some help. My daughter, 3rd grade, writes a lot more as she writes letters to grandma etc... So..not sure what to do for LA for them. I would also like to use the Core Readers. Would that work if I don't use the LA Guide? Thanks again for helping me work through this!! Kim (homeschooling mom of 7) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Thank you for all the posts... Well...I figure I could do 2 Cores w/ Sonlight. I am not doing Sonlight LA, will probably just do Sonlight LA for the younger ones. I figured core B or A, can't remember what is the same as Core K and then a Core for the Older kids. I do not like having everyone together in one history time period, it just doesn't work here. I want great literature w/ maybe some map work, keeping a timeline book but NOTHING that is horribly time consuming as we also have math etc... Right now everything feels so time consuming w/ several in the process of reading and younger ones that need help w/ math but my two in 3rd and 5th I want to make sure they have a good supply of great books and a schedule that will help me make sure they are getting them read, questions to ask to make sure they are comprehending AND VOCABULARY..forgot about that!! My one that is in 5th grade really has never developed a love of learning to read so I would really like to get a good supply of books for him, to hold his interest a bit, even if he doesn't jump for joy, I at least would like for it to be bearable! :) Kim Well, if you feel you can manage 2 cores, then it should be perfect for you. I can say Core 3 took me about an hour a day to read. The lower Cores K and 1 only took about 30 minutes. That includes the science. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandra in va Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Sandra, Oh my goodnes...I just typed out a long post and clicked something and it is gone. Thank you for your post! Okay...this is what the plan "might" be, if you all would see what you think. For my younger ones, 5 and 7, I was going to do the Sonlight LA (or IEW's PAL Writing), although we already own and are doing ETC and sonlight would schedule that along w/ the reading of readers, which is what I need...THE SCHEDULE!! Then mainly just use the Core Guide for doing some read a loud and Bible stuff.... For my older two do the Core for History/Geography and Bible. I do not think we could do the LA for that core as we don't ever do formal grammar or anything so I don't think they would be able to do the LA. Maybe Grammar Ace? My son is writing phobic, he does NOT like to so he needs some help. My daughter, 3rd grade, writes a lot more as she writes letters to grandma etc... So..not sure what to do for LA for them. I would also like to use the Core Readers. Would that work if I don't use the LA Guide? Thanks again for helping me work through this!! Kim (homeschooling mom of 7) I agree with LisaTheresa - sounds like a good plan! Just be aware that the questions for the readers in the early grades comes in a separate schedule from the LA. I made the mistake the first year and just got the LA. They separate the readers so that you can pick the right level for your child. (in the older cores, 3 and up, the reader questions are included in the main IG) For your olders, have you considered IEW? I know you have some of the younger kids' materials, but their older theme-based writing courses are really good, easy to implement and perfect for writing-hesitant kids b/c it gives them the source material from which to base their writing. If you are doing core 3 (D) US history - then the US hist. theme-based vol. 1 would go very well. Or you could pick something their "All Things Fun and Fascinating" and do it with both your 3rd and 5th graders. I think 5th grade is perfect for starting a formal grammar, too. I'm not familiar with grammar ace - we use Rod and Staff English. Jr. Analytical Grammar might be a good fit for your 5th grader... http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/junior-analytical-grammar (This is just one idea, - there are so many grammar options to choose from!) I think the SL core readers, some type of writing/grammar from above, spelling and handwriting would make a complete LA program. Hope this helps! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessed with seven Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Sandra, That helps a LOT.....I have TWSS, it is sitting, ha! I need the lesson plans and had thought about All Things Fun....or whatever it is called so that may just be the way to go. I had also thought of Jr AG so I appreciate it very much.... THANK YOU!! Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandra in va Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Great! So glad to be of help. Sounds like a good year!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessed with seven Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Hey... Can I ask one more thing..ha~! Okay...should I do Sonlight LA for the youngers or IEW Pal writing etc.. I like the idea of the Sonlight Guides and readers but.....have not heard such great things about the LA. What I have heard is that it is too easy on grammar, not a problem with me. I would like to do more of a CM type learning but I need more structure for myself or stuff doesn't get done that needs to. Kim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandra in va Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Kim, PAL is pretty new, so I'm not that familiar with it. I think SL sounds like what you are looking for...you could start with that and try PAL if it doesn't meet your needs. I also take grammar/writing light in 1st and 2nd grades. Sorry I couldn't be more help. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessed with seven Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 You have been very helpful, thank you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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