Difference between Sonlight & BFIAR

[babygemma]

Aren't they both literature-based? I'm planning to use either one for my soon-to-be 4 yo ds, who is currently semi reluctant to work on his letters and sounds. For SL, is it better to go with 4/5 or 3/4. Does it include a daily plan as a guide for me? I just saw a bunch of books and not sure how everything fits in and the same is true what I saw of BFIAR. Do any of these programs include phonics or math?

 

How do most people afford SL? It's so expensive:(

 

Thanks for your suggestions.

[G5052]

I've used both with that age of child. BFAIR was a bomb with my oldest because he strangely enough never liked reading the same book twice at that age. He also didn't like the hands-on work, preferring to make his own creations with crayons, colored paper, etc. on his own topics. We switched to what was called Sonlight PK at the time, and he like that. He liked being read to and enjoyed their choices of books.

 

He also had zero interest in letters at that age, and I kept it very light in very short spurts. He ended up being a fairly late reader (easy chapter books at age 8), and struggled with learning to read virtually the whole way. We took a lot of breaks and reviewed a lot. He's in 6th grade now and reads at an adult level, so I have no regrets about taking it easy.

 

We've now done what was Core PK, K, 1, 2, and are in 3 now, doing only the history/lit portion. I've never bought a full core, and have only bought two new Instructor Guides from Sonlight. The others were used, and I've always used as many library books and books borrowed from friends as I could get. The rest are generally bought used or as I've been able to afford them.

 

HTH!

[Free Indeed]

I heard an analogy once that fits really well. I read a lot of Sonlight books, but I use FIAR as my main curriculum for the younger years. Five in a row is all about savoring a book, Sonlight is a way to devour books! :D Both are great, it just depends on what you and your son are wanting to do. OH, FIAR has applied math- one day a week. You have to use a separate math and phonics program. We use Reading Made Easy and Singapore for math.

[orangearrow]

My ds is finishing up Pre-K and we just started BFIAR with him about 4-6 weeks ago. We're going to use both FIAR and BFIAR for kindy.

 

Strangely enough, I'd looked at it when my girls were younger and I didn't "get" what exactly I was supposed to do. It looked like I would have to do a lot of the footwork and I wasn't up for that. lol This time, though, something clicked, and it's clear as a bell what I'm supposed to do and putting the lessons together has been SO easy. We are loving it so far. I enjoy the booklist tremendously. I've gathered up my lesson plans, etc, for the next couple of months and am really excited about this. :)

 

We make notebooking pages - I read the story to ds the first time or two, then my girls take turns reading the rest of the week. My son, though, is one who will have you read his favorite book til the thing falls apart, so reading a story 5 times a week is nothing new to him, and actually the way he prefers it. :) (my girls would only want to hear a story once, so FIAR might not have been as successful with them...)

 

Now, I don't know for sure - but I think Sonlight has you read just certain pages per day. My own kids would go batty if it were a "children's" book - they like reading from beginning to end if at all possible, and stopping on page 6 just wouldn't fly around here, lol. (and maybe Sonlight does have you read all of the Pre-K and K-aged books in one sitting - I consider Sonlight each year, but just can't ever really figure it out, so I haven't ever ordered it, lol)

 

You have to supplement BFIAR or FIAR with math and phonics. We're using Abeka math and Abeka phonics for ds next year for kindy. :)

 

hths a little bit! :)

[Laura W.]

I've used and loved both SL and B4FIAR.

 

Yes, they are both literature-based, but they are quite different.

 

B4FIAR will have you reading the same picture book several times and doing gentle learning activities that go along with the books. There is no phonics and only occasional math activities are included, so you would have to add your those in if you want your 4 yo to have an introduction to those things.

One activity for each book is a go-along Bible verse/thought.

 

SL will have you reading wonderful children's books - and quite a variety of them. They have a meatier Bible component. Some books will focus on literature, others on history/culture, and still others on science. SL has a much more international/missionary focus, even in preschool, since they want children to begin to grasp God's view of the world. Again, you have to add separate phonics and math programs to an SL core.

 

There is benefit to the repetition of FIAR, and allowing children to dig deeply into good literature (giving them memory "hooks" for information they learn). There's also benefit to being exposed to a wide variety of rich literature, as SL does. With my family, I have used both SL and FIAR. Sometimes SL has been the spine and I've done FIAR units that go along with the SL schedule. Sometimes FIAR has been the spine and I've added in SL books that fit.

 

For SL materials, I bought as much as I could used, then ordered the rest from SL. Doing it like that, I pieced together Core K for about half the price of what it would have cost new. The library wasn't a good option for me; if it had been, I could have done SL even more cheaply.

 

For your little one, I would really recommend Core 3/4 if you go with SL. I tried an older version of Core 4/5 (old core pre-K) when I had a 5 and 4 yo. It was way beyond what my 4 yo was ready for, and even my 5 yo had difficulty with a good bit of it. On the other hand, my oldest was ready for core pre-K when she was about 4 1/2.

 

If you choose B4FIAR, that's also a good choice. Most of my children have thrived with B4 at age 4 (though again, my oldest was ready for more when she was only 3 1/2).

 

Because of my experience, I'd recommend you check out a sampling of both SL and B4FIAR books from your library, and see which seems to be a better fit. Try out a HSS (Homeschool Share) unit study for a young child - it will be very similar to B4FIAR and give you a feel if unit studies will work for you.

 

Blessings as you decide what to do.

 

Laura