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ANY/best alternative to sonlight for mainstream protestant?


ktgrok
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I'm Episcopal/Anglican. I am THIS close to buying sonlight for next year (core H), but the THUMB prayer thing and the other issues are making it hard. Also, I can't/won't use some of their bible materials scheduled for Core H because my son's father is a Buddhist and I am not going to upset their relationship that way. So....is there anything? I really want open and go because we have a new baby coming in September, AND I will have a 2 1/2 year old. This is for 7th grade. We have already done ancients and medieval, so I need beyond that.

 

Thanks!

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I'm Episcopal/Anglican. I am THIS close to buying sonlight for next year (core H), but the THUMB prayer thing and the other issues are making it hard. Also, I can't/won't use some of their bible materials scheduled for Core H because my son's father is a Buddhist and I am not going to upset their relationship that way. So....is there anything? I really want open and go because we have a new baby coming in September, AND I will have a 2 1/2 year old. This is for 7th grade. We have already done ancients and medieval, so I need beyond that.

 

Thanks!

 

I just posted in the other thread that I'm Episcopalian and headed to Tapestry of Grace. Of "similar" programs, I feel it's the strongest academically and the most like what I'm looking for. I was concerned about what I'd heard of their Reformed theology, but after a lot of investigating, it appears to me that theyve done a lot of revising so that their Redesigned curriculum can appeal to a much broader range of Chrisitians. At any rate, I'm much more comfortable knowing where they're coming from (they specifically state on the site that they're Reformed but wrote for a larger Christian audience, though most resources will be Protestant in nature as that's what they're familiar with, but they host a board for Catholics and Orthodox Christians on their forums to share resources).

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Have you looked at my father's world?theytakea similar approach butnot sureiftheywould fit with your religious beliefs or not. Gl

 

Lutheran here. MFW is very evangelical and not very easy for a mainline Protestant to use. They are strictly YEC.

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I just posted in the other thread that I'm Episcopalian and headed to Tapestry of Grace. Of "similar" programs, I feel it's the strongest academically and the most like what I'm looking for. I was concerned about what I'd heard of their Reformed theology, but after a lot of investigating, it appears to me that theyve done a lot of revising so that their Redesigned curriculum can appeal to a much broader range of Chrisitians. At any rate, I'm much more comfortable knowing where they're coming from (they specifically state on the site that they're Reformed but wrote for a larger Christian audience, though most resources will be Protestant in nature as that's what they're familiar with, but they host a board for Catholics and Orthodox Christians on their forums to share resources).

 

This is the direction I am heading as well. I looked long and hard at SL and TOG, among others. I specifically chose not go with SL, because it looked like it was trying to rework/reestablish itself into a company I could not support.

 

I am also giving a lot of attention to the CIRCE threads.

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OK, I am trying to catch up on all this SL business and I have seen this term several times, and I have NO idea what it means: THUMB

 

So has not to hijack this thread, I am a LONG time SLer who is glad I can't afford to update my older Cores that are affected by the current kerfuffle. I am also always interested in varying curriculums, so I am listening here.

 

~coffee~

 

EDITED to ask, is it *this*:

 

T.H.U.M.B. (Tribal,

Hindu, Unreligious, Muslim, Buddhist) acronym which

many churches, denominations, and missions organizations

use to help kids remember to pray for missions.

Kids remember to pray when they see their thumbs, or

they assign one people group to each finger on a hand.

 

 

If it is, oh my! Hmm. And how is it integrated into SL, if anyone knows?

 

EDITED again: nvm, better ask originator permission first....(trotting off to SL forum to ask) :)

Edited by CupOCoffee
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Yes, that is it. As my son's father is Buddhist, that is not going to work for our family, to say the least. Not sure how it is integrated, but I want to focus more on our spirituality and less on that of those with a different sprituality.

 

And although Core H won't be changing, and I may use it for that reason, to tide us over for next year, the company isn't exactly what I want to support. I like TOG's business practices more.

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the company isn't exactly what I want to support. I like TOG's business practices more.

 

This is my feeling as well. Many have mentioned that people can just pick and choose, but to me it's more about the company as a whole than just the curriculum. I'd already been planning on picking and choosing, especially with their science. It's more about how I feel they're running the business.

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A SL user has thought of an alternative to the THUMB acronym. She's shared it on several sites so I feel I can add it here:

 

Pray for the

 

Threatened

Hated

Unloved

Miserable

Broken

 

ROFL: that was my second edit in my post! But I wanted to ask her if it was OK first! I saw it on SL boards...

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I am going with a hybrid of TOG and my own stuff for Moderns next year for dd's 7th grade. I'll be using k12's Mod spine (History Odyssey, I think it's called).

 

I think it's pretty easy to weed out the stuff TOG says that I disagree with. A lot of it is in the philosophy segment, so it's not used by D students. I also don't like some of the lit, so I made my own list to incorporate.

 

Would you like it? It's for 20th cent, basically. I posted it somewhere a while ago--I think on the curriculum board. My goal isn't to do a whole lot of analysis of the historical fiction, so I don't worry about having a ton of discussion questions to go with. We will do some of the TOG questions. I did pick some of the SOTW 4 AG activities (originally it was for 6th grade, but dd likes hands-on, so we'll probably stick with it) and found lit at TOG, WP, SOTW 4 AG and Veritas.

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  • 2 months later...
Lutheran here. MFW is very evangelical and not very easy for a mainline Protestant to use. They are strictly YEC.

 

Feeling silly. What is YEC?

 

 

Also, we have used SL for the past couple of years. I am planning to switch and considering MFW, TQ, and/or BF, but I would like to know what is being referred to by some of you who are not pleased with SL as a company. I am not asking in a defensive or argumentative way at all. I really want to know. I'm feeling a bit irresponsible for not knowing more about what is going on!

 

PS-I also don't want to hijack this thread, so anyone who wants to pm me can feel free to do so! Thanks! :)

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Feeling silly. What is YEC?

 

 

Also, we have used SL for the past couple of years. I am planning to switch and considering MFW, TQ, and/or BF, but I would like to know what is being referred to by some of you who are not pleased with SL as a company. I am not asking in a defensive or argumentative way at all. I really want to know. I'm feeling a bit irresponsible for not knowing more about what is going on!

 

PS-I also don't want to hijack this thread, so anyone who wants to pm me can feel free to do so! Thanks! :)

 

There were several threads going on here (Curriculum and General boards) around the same time as this one. If you search for Sonlight and go back to March posts, you'll find them.

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It's quite possible to use SL and omit ALL the religious books and lessons - there is a yahoo list sonlightsecular that is a big help for those doing so.

 

I'm Muslim and we use SL, but I only buy older used IG {I like those from 1999 or so} and buy all the rest of the books either used or through Amazon. SL as a company gets none of my $$$ because I don't support the direction they are going with their new IG's. I feel their new IG's are very condescending to minority groups and faiths, and in places quite discriminatory.

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I'm Episcopal/Anglican. I am THIS close to buying sonlight for next year (core H), but the THUMB prayer thing and the other issues are making it hard. Also, I can't/won't use some of their bible materials scheduled for Core H because my son's father is a Buddhist and I am not going to upset their relationship that way. So....is there anything? I really want open and go because we have a new baby coming in September, AND I will have a 2 1/2 year old. This is for 7th grade. We have already done ancients and medieval, so I need beyond that.

 

Thanks!

 

Let me ask this--do you not want to buy SL on principle (because of the THUMB prayer issue) or is it because you are concerned that that will be woven into the curriculum?

 

If it's the latter, I really don't think you'll find commentary like that woven into the IG, and the books are awesome! To be honest, until core 100, I really only used the IG for the schedule and a few of the appendices, occasionally some notes. The questions in them were not overly helpful, and I found that I just taught from the books--we discussed what interested us, talked about new vocabulary words if they didn't know a word, and so on. It's easy to make a SL core (whether you purchase as a "core" or just pick & choose, which I've done severaly years) fit your family's needs. People even use SL secularly by omitting Bible--they still use 90% of the books. So, it's really flexible.

 

If it's the former--you don't want to buy from SL on principle--then you could certainly use the booklist and just put them in order yourself without purchasing their IG. I've subbed out the main spine for cores G & H, and have ordered the books myself for the last couple of years, it's not at all hard to figure out when you have the books in hand. I make up my own 1-page guide of what week I think we'll start each book (something that SL puts in front of their guides, and is the thing I use the most when I do get a Sonlight guide in the younger levels). You can take a weekend over the summer and come up with a good plan and be pretty much set.

 

If you are wanting to use Story of the World 3 & 4 with other lit--have you looked on Paula's Archives? www.paulasarchives.com. She has a chronological listing of lit by era broken down by age groups on there. I think there are also comparison charts of SOTW with other resources. Maybe that will fit the bill for you?

 

Anyway, just a thought. We've used SL Pre-K through some of 200 now, and have thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the books.

 

I hope you find a good fit for you! Merry :-)

Edited by MerryAtHope
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