Nakia Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 (edited) can you go check out my question on the "Choosing Sonlight Curriculum" and help me out? It's called, "It's that time of year again!" You can post here; I just didn't want to type it all out again. Link: https://forums.sonlight.com/topic/314262-its-that-time-of-year-again/ I would appreciate your input!! Edited January 7, 2012 by Nakia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Well, next year I'll be using Core F with a 4th and 6th grader. I know my youngest will need some extra help with it, but I don't mind that. This year we're using Core D+E, and he's doing great. I just slow things down a bit when necessary. Also, next year, I will definitely move through Core F at a slower pace than what the IG has scheduled. It's easier for me to "tweak" and combine those two in one core than it would be for me to do two different cores with them...especially considering that I've also got a little one who I have to teach as well.:) I think you could make Core F work, if that's what you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Thank you. I feel like most of the people at the SL board think you should do separate cores for each child, but I just cannot do it. I'm just trying to figure out which kids to combine, lol. I think I can do two cores, but not three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWOB Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 :lurk5: My oldest two are the same ages as your oldest two. I just purchased core D+E for them. Ds8 is a bit advanced, while dd11 is just a really good student. I'm interested to see what you do for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I read the suggestions offered and I like Merry's idea best. Do 2 SL cores and the MFW. I never could combine my kids, too much work for me, so I like each child has their own work. But if you wanted to combine them then the suggestion you had about doing oldest alone and combining the 2 younger for few years then combining middle with older for core F sounds very doable. (I have worked with 10 cores over the years and know the ones you are considering) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Have you considered doing Core G with all of them? You could add in lit for the youngers from the SOTW AG. I've been doing Core G with all my guys, and plan to do Core H as soon as we finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splash Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I used core F with a 7th and 4th grader. I had to modify quite a bit for my 4th grader though, some of the books were just too much for him. I didn't mind though. Really younger could do core F again now he's older and learn a lot because he was pretty young for the material the first time. I tackled the core like each country was a unit in itself and just added books for him that were more appropriate. There are tons of threads on SL to guide you. It worked really well and we had fun. We included the whole family, we'd have a celebration day at end of each country/region and cook foods from that area, listen to music, play games, do art projects, watched a movie. We had a lot of fun. I also pulled in books from kindergarten core that worked with the different areas for younger kids. I will say that was the last year my boys were able to do a core together. My younger one just couldn't keep up with older and needed something more suited to his level and so we moved to doing two cores after that, which was fine, just a little more work. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 :lurk5: My oldest two are the same ages as your oldest two. I just purchased core D+E for them. Ds8 is a bit advanced, while dd11 is just a really good student. I'm interested to see what you do for them. Well, if you think of any good ideas, let me know! :D I read the suggestions offered and I like Merry's idea best. Do 2 SL cores and the MFW. I never could combine my kids, too much work for me, so I like each child has their own work. But if you wanted to combine them then the suggestion you had about doing oldest alone and combining the 2 younger for few years then combining middle with older for core F sounds very doable. (I have worked with 10 cores over the years and know the ones you are considering) How is combining kids more work than doing a separate core for each? I'm not being snarky at all. It just seems so much simpler to combine. We've combined for two years, and it truly has been a breeze. I've just skipped some of the books for my middle and substituted a few for my older. I'd love to hear how you do multiples without pulling your hair out, lol. Have you considered doing Core G with all of them? You could add in lit for the youngers from the SOTW AG. I've been doing Core G with all my guys, and plan to do Core H as soon as we finish. I thought about it but worried that G was too much for the 4th grader and that it would way too hard to figure out how to make it work with her. I thought maybe doing B with her and my youngest, but I'm afraid it would be too easy for the middle one. This is so hard! Courtney, have you done core F? If so, what ages? If not, do you plan to? I'm also interested in what core A is like. I'm glad you mentioned another option! Although I'm still confused, lol. I used core F with a 7th and 4th grader. I had to modify quite a bit for my 4th grader though, some of the books were just too much for him. I didn't mind though. Really younger could do core F again now he's older and learn a lot because he was pretty young for the material the first time. I tackled the core like each country was a unit in itself and just added books for him that were more appropriate. There are tons of threads on SL to guide you. It worked really well and we had fun. We included the whole family, we'd have a celebration day at end of each country/region and cook foods from that area, listen to music, play games, do art projects, watched a movie. We had a lot of fun. I also pulled in books from kindergarten core that worked with the different areas for younger kids. I will say that was the last year my boys were able to do a core together. My younger one just couldn't keep up with older and needed something more suited to his level and so we moved to doing two cores after that, which was fine, just a little more work. Hope that helps. That does help, yes, thank you. This is proving to be a hard decision. Thankfully I've got plenty of time to confuse myself further before time to purchase curriculum. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I like your idea of doing G-H with the 7th grader and B-C with the younger two. Then doing F with the older two while the younger does D. We have used 3+4, 6, 7, and 100 here, so I can't really comment on F, but I would think you could make it work for 9th and 6th. After that you could do Core 100 with the two olders while the youngest does E. That puts them back on the same basic topic (American), although taking it at a different pace. My oldest did 100 before doing 6 & 7. Your middle could do that too. It did no harm here :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I thought about it but worried that G was too much for the 4th grader and that it would way too hard to figure out how to make it work with her. I thought maybe doing B with her and my youngest, but I'm afraid it would be too easy for the middle one. This is so hard! Courtney, have you done core F? If so, what ages? If not, do you plan to? I'm also interested in what core A is like. I'm glad you mentioned another option! Although I'm still confused, lol. I've got Core F on my shelf, but I haven't done it. I thought about doing it next year with my younger 3 (my older 2 will be doing Omnibus). But then the VP Group Buy came up, and the thought of my younger 3 being able to have history taught by someone else is proving to be too tempting, especially since this will be the first year they all aren't doing the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 How is combining kids more work than doing a separate core for each? I'm not being snarky at all. It just seems so much simpler to combine. We've combined for two years, and it truly has been a breeze. I've just skipped some of the books for my middle and substituted a few for my older. I'd love to hear how you do multiples without pulling your hair out, lol. There is no "magic formula" to having each work their own...some families can work together on school subjects and some cannot...ours could not. For me, having 3 cores working at once was less work then tweaking one. Time was not a problem, when I was working with one the others worked independently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm using Core F with my 4th and 6th grader this year. We've used SL for years and I can't imagine doing 2 cores. Now, I have an older version of the core and EHE (2006), but my 6th grade ds has had no trouble at all with it and my 4th grade dd is doing fine (though it's more of a challenge for her even though she's a very good student). If it had turned out to be too difficult for her, I would have probably just had her do the mapping activities. My Core F has me read out of the World Book Encyclopedia each day as our spine, so I don't really feel she would be missing out if the EHE was too much. The only book I have not used so far with my dd was Mission to Cathay. All the other books have been great for her. Some of the readers have been too easy for my son, but I don't worry about that since there are books scheduled at his lexile level and I also supplement with some higher level books (not necessarily related to the core) when he finishes early with a SL reader. You might want to consider that for your 7th grader. I've supplemented with lots of documentaries and there is a series called A Family from (Country) that is great especially for younger students. I would love to add in a trip to a restaurant or cooking for each country, but my son has so many allergies, that isn't really possible. I plan to continue to combine my kids at least through Core 7, if not Core 100. At that point, I will probably figure out something different for each of them since I'm not thrilled with most of SL's high school cores. Oh, and I'm not using SL's LA if that makes a difference. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegirlwhopaintedtrees Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I'm also interested in what core A is like. I got to borrow Core A for a month to peruse and see if I liked the style of SL. The reading selections I loved and we read a few over that month w/o using the IG. It would work well for your youngest. But I don't know that it would be challenging enough for your middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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