Have you used Sonlight Core H?

[MamaSheep]

I'm thinking of using it with my high schooler, but I know it's not really a high school level course, and I'm not sure where to put this, so I'm putting it here. I apologize if that was a poor choice, I'm just :001_huh: today.

 

So I'm chasing my tail over what to do for next year, and history is one of my hang-ups. One option I'm considering is to use SOTW 3 and 4 (long story, but although we used and enjoyed 1 & 2, we tried something else for the rest of the cycle last time through and haven't used 3 & 4). Right now I'm feeling really burnt out on pulling stuff together my own self, and would really like to find something decent already pulled together for me with notes and schedules and all that jazz, and one option that floated to the top was Core H in Sonlight. I wouldn't use the Bible (he has a separate religion class for that) or the Language Arts (I prefer other options), but coordinated history and literature would be really nice. With some of the other things we will (maybe) be taking on, having history be fun and a little bit light might be a good thing, so it's ok with me if it's a little below "grade level" as long as it does a decent job covering the broad strokes of world history, and I feel confident that SOTW would do that, at least. I don't know whether we'd do both the readers and the read-alouds, or just pick one or the other so we've only got one "lit" book going at a time. Also, it looks like there might be some books on the list that would be of less interest to us as an LDS family than others (though probably most of these would be in the Bible section). At any rate, I don't think I'd buy the whole core, just the IG, and then a selection of the recommended books.

 

Anyway, I'm just starting to kick ideas around and wondered:

 

1 - Which books from core H are must-reads, not to be missed?

 

2- Which books from core H do you think an LDS family might prefer to skip? (To clarify, I am fine with reading about people of other faiths doing things that people of other faiths do, especially when they have historical value. I'm not all that wild about cheesy, preachy, in-your-face, "you have to believe as I do" books, IYKWIM.)

 

3- If you've used Core H, what did you think of the notes, discussion questions, map activities, etc.?

 

4- What other options should I be seriously considering? (Other options I'm considering are Trisms and Odyssey, though they cover different time periods. One challenge is that ds has some learning disabilities related to writing, especially handwriting. Trisms has a lot of forms to fill out, and I think I might have a rebellion on my hands before the first month was out. Odyssey also has a lot of writing incorporated, though it might work better because he could type it. But I'm not necessarily wild about the spine texts there. And I'd really rather fight my writing battles mostly in language arts so I can be more systematic with it.

 

5- What other questions should I be asking myself?

[bethben]

I'm using Core H with my advanced 5th grader - it seems to be right at his level. I would look into a program that offers a bit more rhetorical questions (sonlight seems to have just comprehension questions) and longer books. My 5th grader can read through the whole day of reading in less than 30 minutes.

 

Beth

[Running the race]

I used Core H with a 9th grader. He had a separate English class, but he used all the history, readers, and read-alouds from Core H. He didn't have a problem fitting them all in. I was happy with the history he learned that year.

[Pixie]

I am currently using core H with my 8th grader. It is sometime a bit light but still does a good job of covering the time period. I am enjoying it (not sure she is, but I am lol).

We homeschool secularly, so we opted to skip the books marked with an X (Christian publisher) in the catalog. Over the years we have included some of those (like the story of St Patrick in core G) but in this core they sounded really "preachy" for lack of a better word so I opted to skip them

[MamaSheep]

Have you looked at Notgrass's World History? It might be what you're looking for. Or another idea might be Beautiful Feet's Modern US and World. From what I'm reading on the other SL post, looks like you might have to buy all the parts of SL core to get the parts you want. That might get rather pricey...

 

Thanks, I'll check those out. :)

 

I wouldn't be buying the whole core package, just the Instructor Guide. I'm pretty sure you can still do that. From the samples it looks like H already has Bible and Language Arts integrated anyway, so I don't know how much it will be changing. While I would prefer to buy just the history and lit parts of the IG separately, it's not really an option, so yes, I'd have to pay for the whole thing. But that doesn't mean I'd have to USE the whole thing. And I think it would still cost less than buying individual study guides for the number of books I'd want to use.

 

I'm using Core H with my advanced 5th grader - it seems to be right at his level. I would look into a program that offers a bit more rhetorical questions (sonlight seems to have just comprehension questions) and longer books. My 5th grader can read through the whole day of reading in less than 30 minutes.

 

Beth

 

I used Core H with a 9th grader. He had a separate English class, but he used all the history, readers, and read-alouds from Core H. He didn't have a problem fitting them all in. I was happy with the history he learned that year.

 

Strangely, both of these make me feel better about it. Developmentally ds is a bit....odd. And changes from moment to moment. Sometimes he's about nine, other times he's more like twenty two, and anywhere in between. It's an interesting dance. On a higher functioning day he'll definitely be able to come up with his own rhetorical questions. Some days it seems like he plagues me with hypothetical metaphysical naggity nagging. On the lower functioning days it would be good just to go through a few comprehension questions and call it enough. So I think we're good there. And with the other courses we'll be doing half an hour a day, give or take, plus a little time for discussion, maps, timeline, etc. with an occasional written assignment is probably about the right amount of work. If we spend too much time on history something else won't get done. Also, that gives us time to add some serious grammar, and a writing program which he needs.

[Live2Ride]

I'm using H next year for a 7/8th grader and a freshman. For my dd I picked up The Human Odyssey . She is doing half this year with Core G and half next year. It's a freshman textbook, but seemed to be more engaging than some others that I've recently seen. I'm sure there are some good ones out there, but we like this one. The text is probably 3 inches thick or more! :tongue_smilie: She will read everything else in the History SL schedule, but not SOTW because she already has covered them. I did drop God's Smuggler and A Heart Strangely Warmed. I found On Wings of Faith instead. I'm also going to add in this book: I Sailed to Zion and a few others by the same author. I am looking for a few other books to add about our Church History and I'm sure I'll find a few. I did pick up a 'Missionary stories' book that covered different areas around the world and I plan to have the kids both read some of those for fun.

 

Other than that, I just mainly plan to add in things to beef it up. It's more sufficient that way. She has other interests that help round it all out. I already have them do a lot of writing and plan to pay a local teacher to grade their larger papers every couple of weeks.

 

That's what I'm doing for now. I had originally planned to do Core 100 and H simultaneously, yet chronologically, but I have a dear friend that doesn't have the money to buy the core 100 outright for her son this year. He has major medical issues which prevent him from attending school regularly. She has been lucky to be able to borrow here and there, but he'll be a freshman next year and needs more. I'll be loaning my core 100 to her instead. I waws very fortunate in that this year I've been able to flesh out both cores for very little money. All I need now is to decide on science, pick up the IG's and get a couple of workbooks. Not bad..

[MamaSheep]

Have you looked at Notgrass's World History? It might be what you're looking for. Or another idea might be Beautiful Feet's Modern US and World. From what I'm reading on the other SL post, looks like you might have to buy all the parts of SL core to get the parts you want. That might get rather pricey...

 

Thanks for the recommendations. :)

 

It looks like Notgrass covers all of world history, which I don't really want to do since we've just spent the last two years doing ancients and medieval. I'm looking for something going forward from there, either until now, or just early modern. I'm fence-sitting as to which, and a good program might just push me off one side or the other. Beautiful feet looks interesting. Have you used it before I'm wondering how it handles religious content.