X-post from Sonlight Forums-Choosing Cores for large family including High Schoolers

[busymama7]

I appologize if anyone sees this 2x but I just joined the sonlight forum and it doesnt seem as if it gets as much traffic as these boards.

 

*****

I have 7 children right now, with ages at the beginning of the school year: 15,14,12,10,7,4 and 2. I am also due with a new baby in Nov.

 

We have always done a Charlotte Mason/Ambleside Online style of schooling. I am looking at Sonlight specifically because I want to do history together and I want something more structured for me then I have done previously.

 

Last year we did Ancient History as a family. My oldest 2 took a high school course through a co-op that covered essentially the first have of world history(up to 1490). For many reasons, I do not wish them to take the second half next year.

 

I have spent much time pouring over the catalog and website and mulling over my options for next year. 1st priorities are to inspire a love of history and keep the family in the same basic time period with the ability to continue family read aloud time(even for the oldest, they love it too!)

 

I do not plan to do any Cores with the 7 year old. She will tag along and I have other things for her. I am completely fine with this as there is no way I can do everything :-)

 

My oldest will be in 10th grade and so I have 3 years left with him. He is the main priority of course. He also really wants to do Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings which has to be this year or never. I am open to attempting to squeeze it in, but dont want to overburden him time-wise either. We need a year to play catch up a bit with math for the oldest 2 as well.

 

These are the options as I see them right now:

 

1) Do Core H with middle boys and have the oldest 2 follow the read alouds and some/all of the readers while using the second half of their text book from this year for the spine. This would require more tweaking then I really prefer to do as I would also need to add in some upper level literature for their English credit. BUT, it would allow us to continue from where we left off last year instead of skipping the rest of world history. Then next year my oldest 2 would do core 100, followed by 400 the next year, at least for the oldest. This would not allow my oldest to do 300 at all but the next oldest would have time to. This option makes the most sense in a lot of ways, but is not really what I want to do.(this is probably the only option that would allow for my oldest to do LOTR study also simply due to time constraints)

 

2) Do Core 100 with 2 oldest and D+E with middle boys(10 and 12). I would eliminate the spine for D+E and instead use The Story of US for everyone together(at the rate of Core 100). And then the read-aloud and readers/lit from the individual cores. My oldest ones would probably listen in to the core D+E read alouds with middle boys. This is the option I really want to do, but feel "guilty" about skipping a chunk of history. We would cycle back to it the following year with the 2 older ones doing core 300 and the 2 middle ones doing H. I dont expect to be able to do much combining that year as far as spine/read aloud but probably some. And I know those days have to end at some point. But having us cover somewhat the same time period still makes me happy :-)

 

3) Do Core 300 with 2 older ones next year and core H with middle ones. Then do core 100 and D+E the following year. The good part about this option is that we wouldnt be skipping a section of history but the downside is the kids would do a more advanced core first and then do back to an easier one. I dont really like this plan either because of the need to have time to focus on math next year and I fear the cores would be just enough harder than option 2 that it would make that harder. This one is slightly better than option 1 as it allows my oldest to do core 300 and I dont want him to miss that one.

 

Like I said I really prefer option 2, but I am not sure if I am missing something important that would make it not feasible or some other option to be better. And I need to know if skipping is really that big of a deal... Thank you for any thoughts!

*****

Something I forgot to mention in my post on the SL forum is that we are also dedicated IEW users and I want to continue with that next year using Elegant Essay and possibly Windows to the World. But we can't do it all either!:tongue_smilie:

[Love_to_Read]

We just jumped into Core D without having done ANY prior history. We're new to homeschooling, and the public school mostly did social studies in the younger grades...random things about the community. For us, American history is going well, and I think we'll be able to make connections just fine next time around when we cover earlier history leading up to it.

 

There are also some good picture books on Columbus, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, etc., that I've been using with my younger kids who aren't old enough for Core D. Some of them have audio recordings available. There's also leveled readers...Step into Reading is one series. I think the other is Ready to Read? Look at the library for them--the easy reader books labeled Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc., all those thin paperbacks you can usually buy with cheesy tv and movie spin offs, like the "Level 1 Cars reader Lightning McQueen Saves the Day!" Well, they also make real history titles in those same series, from 1st-4th grade reading level. So, your 7yo, and possibly your 4yo, might actually listen to those, or even sound them out. Depending on your 10yo and 12yo...if you need oral reading fluency practice, you can even have them read those to the younger ones for you.

 

Here's a couple examples:

http://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Magic-Squares-Step-Into-Reading-Step/dp/0375806210/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259172&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+magic+squares

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ben-Franklin-His-First-Kite/dp/0689849842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259272&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+kite

 

and a regular picture book

http://www.amazon.com/How-Ben-Franklin-Stole-Lightning/dp/0688169937/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259330&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+stole+lightening

 

and this one is scheduled in Core D...a little dry for my youngers honestly, but if you have ones that listen well, there was once a book and cassette version that may be at your library or available used online.

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Big-Idea-Ben-Franklin/dp/0812405811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259556&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+jean+fritz

Edited June 21, 2012 by Love_to_Read

[mumto2]

Double post

Edited June 21, 2012 by sawuk
double

[mumto2]

I would probably go with option C. I think the two would combine well. I almost did them together this year myself. The only reason we didn't is my daughter 14 fell in love with core 200 and the time had to be now. I also thought some of it might be a bit too graphic for her -- we live in the UK and she has seen so much of the history, but she also knows the suvivors. She is self studying core 200 while we all finish the second half of H. I tweaked too much and only made it through half last year. It better for ds12 but dd needs the opportunity to move more quickly.

 

I also think much of the core h can be used as read alouds with the younger ones, maybe 7 and up. We have really enjoyed them -- great stories. The history spines were written for younger so skip the essays and you could potentially do much of it all together.

 

Core 400 is not a favorite on this board--search it and see. Personally I have looked forward to it since i first saw SL. I still plan to order it but dh and I were heavily into American politics in a former life so it will be tweaked greatly I am sure! I love many of the books so i "have" to have it. :lol:With that in mind if your oldest has to miss something that might be a better choice. There are lots of ways to get the American Goverment credit that are quicker. Once again search threads. I like Notgrass too.

 

I am not sure if i managed to help at all but I tried.

[Mom22ns]

We did the Core 100/D+E combo a couple of years ago when my kids were 12 & 10. We used the History of US for both kids, read aloud together. Then each did their own readers and both listened to the RAs from D+E. I would call it our best year of history ever.

 

I would do that first, then do the Core 300/H option. Both of these are significantly more challenging then 100/D+E. We just finished using H with a 12 & 14 yo. and it was fine. D+E was bordering on too easy for my 10 yo.

 

I'll give a strong vote for Option 2. You may decide you don't want to keep trying to combine time periods with SL, but that one is not to be missed!

[LindaOz]

We have always done a Charlotte Mason/Ambleside Online style of schooling. I am looking at Sonlight specifically because I want to do history together and I want something more structured for me then I have done previously.

 

I have spent much time pouring over the catalog and website and mulling over my options for next year. 1st priorities are to inspire a love of history and keep the family in the same basic time period with the ability to continue family read aloud time(even for the oldest, they love it too!)

 

 

 

This is what I am aiming for too - keeping us together in time period, with some family read-alouds and individual readers at own level. I love SL, but everyone was on their own level and I wanted to pull us back together. I have started using Diana Waring's materials which allows us to all study the same topic - to which I will tie in the SL books and notes as we go. The DW books give a variety of assignments and activities which you can choose from and which will blend well with the relevant books from SL.

 

Just a thought....

[busymama7]

We just jumped into Core D without having done ANY prior history. We're new to homeschooling, and the public school mostly did social studies in the younger grades...random things about the community. For us, American history is going well, and I think we'll be able to make connections just fine next time around when we cover earlier history leading up to it.

 

There are also some good picture books on Columbus, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, etc., that I've been using with my younger kids who aren't old enough for Core D. Some of them have audio recordings available. There's also leveled readers...Step into Reading is one series. I think the other is Ready to Read? Look at the library for them--the easy reader books labeled Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc., all those thin paperbacks you can usually buy with cheesy tv and movie spin offs, like the "Level 1 Cars reader Lightning McQueen Saves the Day!" Well, they also make real history titles in those same series, from 1st-4th grade reading level. So, your 7yo, and possibly your 4yo, might actually listen to those, or even sound them out. Depending on your 10yo and 12yo...if you need oral reading fluency practice, you can even have them read those to the younger ones for you.

 

Here's a couple examples:

http://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Magic-Squares-Step-Into-Reading-Step/dp/0375806210/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259172&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+magic+squares

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ben-Franklin-His-First-Kite/dp/0689849842/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259272&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+kite

 

and a regular picture book

http://www.amazon.com/How-Ben-Franklin-Stole-Lightning/dp/0688169937/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259330&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+stole+lightening

 

and this one is scheduled in Core D...a little dry for my youngers honestly, but if you have ones that listen well, there was once a book and cassette version that may be at your library or available used online.

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Big-Idea-Ben-Franklin/dp/0812405811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340259556&sr=1-1&keywords=ben+franklin+jean+fritz

 

 

These readers look really good! Thanks for the recommendation. Do you know if they sell them in sets anywhere? That would be perfect.

[SuperDad]

Umm Have you ever considered TOG? I enjoyed Sonlight in the early grades. I switched to TOG in the later grades because I wanted to have something meatier for my older ones and I didn't want to do multiple cores. I can't imagine juggling multiple cores. I like how my children could all stay studying history with TOG. You would do the rhetoric level with your 15 adn 14 year olds. Probably dialectic with your 12 and 10 year old if your 10yo is a pretty strong reader. You could modify it so that that child could read but maybe not write down the answers for the dialectic questions or just some of them. For your 7yo you can just pick one book from the lower grammar list and read it aloud to him/her.

 

I think you would be somewhere in Year 2.

 

Just a thought.

 

Christine

 

This was my first thought as well. TOG would allow you to keep everyone on the same history rotation while working at their own skill level. Depending on which TOG year/unit you choose to start with (if you do end up going with TOG), it would allow your 10th grader to not miss out on a section of history.

[busymama7]

Umm Have you ever considered TOG? I enjoyed Sonlight in the early grades. I switched to TOG in the later grades because I wanted to have something meatier for my older ones and I didn't want to do multiple cores. I can't imagine juggling multiple cores. I like how my children could all stay studying history with TOG. You would do the rhetoric level with your 15 adn 14 year olds. Probably dialectic with your 12 and 10 year old if your 10yo is a pretty strong reader. You could modify it so that that child could read but maybe not write down the answers for the dialectic questions or just some of them. For your 7yo you can just pick one book from the lower grammar list and read it aloud to him/her.

 

I think you would be somewhere in Year 2.

 

Just a thought.

 

Christine

 

I have. I had decided against it for various reasons but went back this am and looked more closely at the website. :001_smile: It is on the table I guess but it doesnt excite ME as much as Sonlight. There seems to be less reading for one(# of books, not necessarily length of time spent) and I dont like the idea of using an anthology for Lit. BUT, the huge plus is that it has it laid out for everyone together. I really, really, really like that:001_smile: and many of the books in year 2 I already own from AO(dialectic level) which makes me realise my oldest 2 have really done this time period just not in the organized fashion I am looking for. I also like that you can buy a unit at a time. Seems a safe way to try it out.

 

The other thing that pulls me to sonlight is the fact that the bible lessons are seperate and can be easily eliminated. We are Christian, but have our own ways of doing religious studies that we will continue. Would TOG allow for the same easily?

 

Thank you for your thoughts!

[busymama7]

I would probably go with option C. I think the two would combine well. I almost did them together this year myself. The only reason we didn't is my daughter 14 fell in love with core 200 and the time had to be now. I also thought some of it might be a bit too graphic for her -- we live in the UK and she has seen so much of the history, but she also knows the suvivors. She is self studying core 200 while we all finish the second half of H. I tweaked too much and only made it through half last year. It better for ds12 but dd needs the opportunity to move more quickly.

 

I also think much of the core h can be used as read alouds with the younger ones, maybe 7 and up. We have really enjoyed them -- great stories. The history spines were written for younger so skip the essays and you could potentially do much of it all together.

 

Core 400 is not a favorite on this board--search it and see. Personally I have looked forward to it since i first saw SL. I still plan to order it but dh and I were heavily into American politics in a former life so it will be tweaked greatly I am sure! I love many of the books so i "have" to have it. :lol:With that in mind if your oldest has to miss something that might be a better choice. There are lots of ways to get the American Goverment credit that are quicker. Once again search threads. I like Notgrass too.

 

I am not sure if i managed to help at all but I tried.

 

Thank you for your thoughts! I have heard about core 400 not being great, but I figure by senior year there is a very high chance of doing dual enrollment and/or we could use a different source for gov/econ. I am really wanting him to do 100 and 300 and am leaning towards doing them in that order. but Im glad to know that 300 and H combine well because thats what I would do the year after:) When you say history spines you mean SOTW? What essays are you refering to skipping?

[busymama7]

We did the Core 100/D+E combo a couple of years ago when my kids were 12 & 10. We used the History of US for both kids, read aloud together. Then each did their own readers and both listened to the RAs from D+E. I would call it our best year of history ever.

 

I would do that first, then do the Core 300/H option. Both of these are significantly more challenging then 100/D+E. We just finished using H with a 12 & 14 yo. and it was fine. D+E was bordering on too easy for my 10 yo.

 

I'll give a strong vote for Option 2. You may decide you don't want to keep trying to combine time periods with SL, but that one is not to be missed!

 

Thank you! It reinforced what I was thinking about doing them in order due to difficulty and I am really glad to hear that it was very enjoyable to your family. I am looking for enjoyable and simple due to the fact of adding a newborn next year and needing history to not take over our life so we can focus on math as much as needed.

 

Thank you!

[busymama7]

This is what I am aiming for too - keeping us together in time period, with some family read-alouds and individual readers at own level. I love SL, but everyone was on their own level and I wanted to pull us back together. I have started using Diana Waring's materials which allows us to all study the same topic - to which I will tie in the SL books and notes as we go. The DW books give a variety of assignments and activities which you can choose from and which will blend well with the relevant books from SL.

 

Just a thought....

 

 

AHHHHH! Not another option:tongue_smilie:

 

Just kidding. I spent some time looking around her website and like what I saw. Thanks for the recomendation. I will look at it closely. I really want to decide soon because we go back in August and I want to have time to really plan.

 

Thanks!

[busymama7]

This was my first thought as well. TOG would allow you to keep everyone on the same history rotation while working at their own skill level. Depending on which TOG year/unit you choose to start with (if you do end up going with TOG), it would allow your 10th grader to not miss out on a section of history.

 

 

Does TOG has the nice charts/tables that SL has with each day planned out? That is a HUGE pull for me as I have always had to plan it all out myself(# of chapters per day etc) and I am really hoping to avoid that this time. Plus I LOVE charts. They make me happy:lol: Just seeing them in SL samples makes me giddy.

 

And if I do SL, he wont miss out on a section. He has had it before for one thing and we would go back to it the next year. It just wouldnt be Chronological...

 

Thanks!

[busymama7]

I just went and played with TOG shopping cart and for year 2, all levels and all subjects it came to $2,600 AFTER I removed all the books we already have(which was a considerable amount). I may be able to get away with not doing the upper grammer and just lower/dia/rhe which might save me a little but holy cow! And I could get some books used through amazon Im sure but I just went through the whole SL core 100 list with amazon and it didnt save me very much to get what I could used. Still not decided, but my husband will faint if I tell him I need almost $3000 for one year of history.

 

I also realise I could use the library,but the reality is I dont get there consistently and then school suffers. Plus ours isnt very good and the books they would for sure have I already own. yikes.:tongue_smilie:

[Love_to_Read]

Does your library do interlibrary loan? Can it be done online?

 

That's how I work around needing specific books...I go online and place holds on all the specific titles, and the neighboring libraries ship them to mine, and then we go pick them up about once a week. It has been a big shift from the years where it was easier to read what we owned, but not quite as hard as I expected once we set a specific night to go every week, and it helps a ton to do most of it on the computer instead of with the kids in tow during the browsing/searching.

 

No idea if they sell sets for the titles I posted. Good question. Maybe google the publishers?

[busymama7]

Does your library do interlibrary loan? Can it be done online?

 

That's how I work around needing specific books...I go online and place holds on all the specific titles, and the neighboring libraries ship them to mine, and then we go pick them up about once a week. It has been a big shift from the years where it was easier to read what we owned, but not quite as hard as I expected once we set a specific night to go every week, and it helps a ton to do most of it on the computer instead of with the kids in tow during the browsing/searching.

 

No idea if they sell sets for the titles I posted. Good question. Maybe google the publishers?

 

 

Yes and I have done this. But at some point during the year I have a crazy week or two(sick kids, attend a birth, whatever) and it means the whole next week of school is messed up. I have just learned that if its not in my house I wont keep up. I would have to be really convinced it was a superior program to go through the stress/effort of finding library books all year. And maybe it would be worth it. But it is much less likely I would be consistant and get completed with the program:tongue_smilie:

Edited June 21, 2012 by busymama7

[Love_to_Read]

totally understand

[ktgrok]

I like the Core 100 option, but would advise you check out Biblioplan as well. It has books for all the levels, and you could start on year 3, so not skipping anything.

[ktgrok]

I just went and played with TOG shopping cart and for year 2, all levels and all subjects it came to $2,600 AFTER I removed all the books we already have(which was a considerable amount). I may be able to get away with not doing the upper grammer and just lower/dia/rhe which might save me a little but holy cow! And I could get some books used through amazon Im sure but I just went through the whole SL core 100 list with amazon and it didnt save me very much to get what I could used. Still not decided, but my husband will faint if I tell him I need almost $3000 for one year of history.

 

I also realise I could use the library,but the reality is I dont get there consistently and then school suffers. Plus ours isnt very good and the books they would for sure have I already own. yikes.:tongue_smilie:

 

lol, I had the same reaction. Check out Biblioplan. Similar in that it has all 3 levels doing the same section of history at the same time, but less intense than TOG and more planned out for you.

[mumto2]

Thank you for your thoughts! I have heard about core 400 not being great, but I figure by senior year there is a very high chance of doing dual enrollment and/or we could use a different source for gov/econ. I am really wanting him to do 100 and 300 and am leaning towards doing them in that order. but Im glad to know that 300 and H combine well because thats what I would do the year after:) When you say history spines you mean SOTW? What essays are you refering to skipping?

 

I consider the history spines to be SOTW and George Washington's World/Abraham Lincoln's World. When combined they are great at putting history in complete context. My son who dislikes history even gets what is happening in different parts of the world and the connections between the events--this is fabulous.

 

Each week an essay is assigned in the main instructor's guide. They usually involve the read aloud but can be other things. We don't normally follow the LA assignments (Wordly wise etc.) but we do many of the essays. A research paper is also assigned. We haven't tackled that yet.:lol:

 

I had to laugh, after saying that the read alouds were fine for your 7 yr old, we read our first questionable passage in todays work! Nothing really bad, Napoleon's mistress crawled in bed with him. The female main character watches and is upset. Thats it. No details. So overall pretty clean.

 

I use SL because it makes my planning so much easier. I have always found depending on the library to be stressful and other programs gave me so many choices I was never confident that I had the best books.