Are Sonlight's IG's worth the $$?

[shinyhappypeople]

Also, is it really open and go? No prep? Was it easy to incorporate into your homeschool day?

 

I love their book choices. I already have CHOW, but history just has not been getting done. :tongue_smilie:

 

I was looking at buying the SL IG for B&C (world history in 1 year) but I just can't decide. We don't have a lot of extra money, but if it means history will actually get done.... well, that would make it worth it. We'd have to buy the IG and a few of the books. Fortunately, I could get most of the books through our charter or the library, so that brings the cost of doing SL down a lot.

 

But, there's a part of me that feels like it's mostly just a reading schedule and I could (should) be able to figure it out myself.

 

Anyway... I welcome your thoughts and input. Thanks.

[mims]

As a long time Sonlight user I have to say it depends. The IG's in younger grades are really useful for three things: keeping you on schedule and helping you incorporate vocabulary and giving you possible discussion questions. I appreciated the schedule the most at the stage you are talking about. From Core 100 on, I find the schedule and questions invaluable. I assign certain questions to my kids and it is their job to stay on schedule and be prepared to go over the questions once a week. (They have drastically improved the high school IG's).

 

For your stage I would say it depends on how much you need the help to stay on schedule and whether you would really use the questions. Look at the samples because I found the questions very restrictive at that age and didn't use them much. I still found the schedule worth the price for me.

[Candid]

I used Sonlight for a long time and switched to Tapestry about four years ago. For the level you are looking at the IG could be a good deal. But some depends on you. The biggest thing you get is the schedule already done. Then you get some questions for readers and read alouds along with answers.

 

If you can spend the summer (okay, not the whole summer) making your own daily schedule and make up some questions for the read alouds as you read them then you could probably live without the Sonlight IG.

 

And the other problem that you should examine is why history is not getting done. That's where you can be defeated no matter what the problem area.

 

In our school we do Bible first because it should have first priority and we do it together. We then do Spanish because we also do that as a group. After that we do work that we won't do late in the day first. For us that means writing work like math, spelling, grammar. Sonlight was always last in the morning because we would go ahead and do that after lunch if the morning went long, but we enjoyed reading together so that may be different for you and yours.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

It is Open and Go for a SL core only. You still need to figure out math and if you are not using their science or LA then you need to deal with these also.

I have done 9 cores. Of these the only thing I really use the IG for is scheduling books. Buying new is not worth the money for me. I do buy IG used though.

[By Grace]

I think it depends on your personality. For me, I get a kick out of checking things off--crazy, yes, but perfectly suited to SL. :) The IG's keep me on track and hold me accountable to make sure I'm covering all of the things I decided to cover. (I add several of our other subjects to the IG myself, so I keep track of those, too.)

 

On the flip side, I have a friend who just wings it. She uses a couple of booklists and gets books from the library every week, and she does fine with that. She is a lot more likely than I am to get distracted with other things going on (it's not unusual for her to share with me that "school" has fallen by the wayside), but her 9yo reads a lot on her own and is still learning well.

 

SL really is open and go for me. We're using B+C for my 7yo this year after completing it a year ago with my now 9yo. I leave both Cores open to the right page sitting out on my table, with a stack of current RAs for each child. I spend less than 5 min each day putting those stacks in the correct order for the following day and making sure I have my tabs in the right places (I use colored sticky tabs to mark where we are and where we need to read to next) for all of the RAs and readers for both children.

 

However, SL is not a complete program in itself. I like it that way, bc that means I can pick and choose which programs I want to use for other subjects. But managing all of the different things that we do, does take some time.

 

If you're looking for a way to increase your commitment to history and readers/RAs, and you work well with checklists, I can't recommend SL highly enough! Yes, you COULD come up with your own reading schedule, esp once you've used SL for a year or two and you get the idea. But the IG saves me sooo much time, encourages us to read books that I never would have picked up on my own, and adds structure and accountability that I would not necessarily have stuck with on my own.

 

That said, if your only focus is history, B+C incorporates a lot of readers that are NOT tied to the parts of history studied. The readers aren't fully coordinated to the history studies until D, and even then, there are other books included that aren't exactly "history". But the history RA's in B+C are scheduled out *very* well, so that you get the same part of history from 2 or 3 different angles, while also studying about that part of the world in modern times. I like the way it encourages us to build a web of understanding for the subject matter.

 

HTH!

[Whereneverever]

I LOVE Sonlight. Love might be too mild a word. I like how often history gets done, I love the mapping in the IG, and I really like that the questions and vocab parts of the IG let me know what is happening without having to actually read the Readers myself. We wouldn't have such good discussions without that, because I just don't have time to read every book my DD reads, if that makes sense?

[G5052]

Mine are older now and are mostly outsourced, but we loved our seven years with Sonlight. I got more done that way than when I did it myself.

 

Yes, you have to "let go" of how you want to do it at some level, but it was pure relief for me to look and the schedule and get the books ready.

 

Most of my IG's were purchased used, and I had a mixture of old, used, library, and borrowed books.

[MerryAtHope]

For me it has been worth the money, especially because of the high resale value. Some years I bought the guide used & sold it used for basically the same amount--no cost to me. Some years I bought everything new & sold the IG for about half price, still not bad.

 

Also, is it really open and go? No prep? Was it easy to incorporate into your homeschool day?

 

It's open and go in that the guide is all set up for you. I spend about a weekend pre-reading the front matter and appendices, skimming through the study guides and marking things to be aware of etc... It helps me get familiar with the upcoming year.

 

Sometimes I did alter things a bit--I might choose to read a whole book rather than follow the schedule exactly (some of the early cores read bits of several books instead of larger chunks of fewer books at a time, and I just altered that part to suit us, but basically followed the introduction of books in the order they suggested. Other times I followed the schedule exactly).

 

I also prefer to have a 1-page schedule of ALL my kids' work--both of them--in ALL subjects. To accomplish this, I make up my own form in MS Word, using the table format. But I only spend about 15 minutes per weekend updating this form for the next week (often I do several weeks at a time, or I handwrite things in as we do them). Sonlight makes making up this schedule for the SL books EASY. But this is prep that *I* choose to do--not that's mandated. It's something I've done even when not using SL.

 

I was looking at buying the SL IG for B&C (world history in 1 year) but I just can't decide. We don't have a lot of extra money, but if it means history will actually get done.... well, that would make it worth it. We'd have to buy the IG and a few of the books. Fortunately, I could get most of the books through our charter or the library, so that brings the cost of doing SL down a lot.

 

But, there's a part of me that feels like it's mostly just a reading schedule and I could (should) be able to figure it out myself.

 

Yes, you can come up with it yourself. Do you have that time, and is the time it takes away from your family worth the cost of a new or used IG? I've done it both ways, and while I *can* come up with my own schedule and choose my own books, it's much, much easier to have it planned for me and just "tweak" an existing plan rather than start from scratch.

 

Some years I really only used the 1-page guide at the front of the SL guide telling me the order that the books are used & what week they are introduced. I like that even better than the daily guide (so much that when I am making up my own "guide," I choose to make a similar 1-page document of when we'll try to get to certain books).

 

Some years I have felt it was worth it to come up with my own, some years I've been relieved to have the SL guide do all that for me!

 

I can tell you that the core 100 guide I am using almost in its entirety--the notes are great and spark great discussions. The notes were not that way for me in the A-F (K-5) guides (and I haven't used the IG's for G-H/6-7). That guide is well worth the $$$, and I suspect the other HS level ones will be too.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[Mrs. Lilac]

If you go to their website, you can download a 3-week sample of ANY of their IGs.....that should definitely help you!

[shinyhappypeople]

I used Sonlight for a long time and switched to Tapestry about four years ago. For the level you are looking at the IG could be a good deal. But some depends on you. The biggest thing you get is the schedule already done. Then you get some questions for readers and read alouds along with answers.

 

If you can spend the summer (okay, not the whole summer) making your own daily schedule and make up some questions for the read alouds as you read them then you could probably live without the Sonlight IG.

 

And the other problem that you should examine is why history is not getting done. That's where you can be defeated no matter what the problem area.

 

 

I've been thinking about that (bolded) since you wrote it. Here's what I think is going on:

 

(1) History is overwhelming. There's just so much that could/should be covered.

 

(2) I don't make time to plan, partially because of (1) above.

 

(3) This year the focus has been on shoring up the reading, writing and math skills of older DD. There just doesn't seem to be time.

[Alyeska]

Since you mention not feeling like you have time for history, then I wouldn't recommend using a combined core (B+C). Combined cores do take more time per day than a standard core.

 

The age of your child wasn't listed, but by your list of materials it appears you have a fairly young child (1st grade?)... This year is the first year my son has done any 'real' history and he is in 2nd grade and even now it is much lighter than SL cores...we are using MFW Adventures. Before that, we would read historical books on occasion, picture books, etc...but nothing formal. History is important, but in my opinion, working on getting reading down and basic math should take priority. So I don't think that not doing history this year is going to hurt your child's education.

 

The SL guide won't get history done for you...I think they are certainly worth the money. But next year, you should have more time to fit history in because (I assume) the level of phonics instruction for your student will decrease. Remember too that SL has a great money back guarantee.

 

I agree with you that history is totally overwhelming. There is SO much!! But when I start stressing about not learning this or that...I try and remember that it is all about exposure. If my children love to learn about history, know how to use resources to find information, and get a good overview of world history, then I consider my history mission accomplished. :)

[shinyhappypeople]

My DDs are 8 yo and (almost) 7 yo. MFW is another option I should consider. (Oh, great. Another option! :tongue_smilie::001_smile:)

 

How long does a typical MFW history lesson take?

[MissKNG]

Personally, I like the schedule and that's what I use. I haven't once used the discussion questions or stuff beyond the schedule pages.

[leeannpal]

oops, wrong place

[Alyeska]

My DDs are 8 yo and (almost) 7 yo. MFW is another option I should consider. (Oh, great. Another option! :tongue_smilie::001_smile:)

 

How long does a typical MFW history lesson take?

 

The thing about MFW is that it can be an all inclusive program (with science, lit, music, art etc...), or you can just use it for Bible and history. MFW interweaves biblical history with world history and it gives a big, full picture. It is wonderful for us. I don't know what your beliefs are, but wanted to let you know that MFW uses the Bible as the main history text in Creation to the Greeks, and uses it quite often in Rome to the Reformation history.

 

The Adventures history portions are short. ...maybe 15 minutes a day? And then I add extras on top of it. It is perfect because on some days, I add in History Pockets or lots of books from the book basket. There are hands on projects included, but generally we don't do them. My kids have made butter before, and I don't feel the need to make a tricorn hat, kwim? :)

 

CtG and RtR take more time...probably about 1 hour including the read aloud. That includes Bible, any work in the notebook, history reading, and read aloud.

 

FWIW, we have enjoyed MFW. But because we jumped into the history cycle a year late, we will be switching back to SL next year (dd's 8th grade) to finish out our world history study. ...haven't figured out highschool yet, but will probably use SL. All the other lit based highschool programs have something I don't like about them, except for SL's.