Sonlight user wanting all my kids on the same level...

[mamawaabangi]

We have a 7 yo, two 5 yo and a 4 yo and a baby in the wings.

I love sonlight and used it last year.

I've always wished it used the same format as Tapestry of grace where you have all the kids learning the same thing, but on individualized levels...

 

Is there a way to do this with SL?

 

If you do, how?

 

Tips... Tricks???

[ByGrace3]

It would take a lot of tweaking. Have you looked at biblioplan? To me it is close to the method (lit based, many of the SL books, spine, readers and read alouds) but all together and the 4 year cycle lke TOG.

[truebluexf]

I probably would have started SL later to combine all those kids, tbh! And even so, I think the nest would have to be on a different level than the rest.

[MerryAtHope]

I've done it with kids 2 years apart. I think 3 years would be trickier. With the 2-year spread, I chose cores that both kids fit into the recommended age range.

 

Some people will cover the same subject matter with vastly different ages...for example, Core G with Core B, Core H with Core C. The timelines don't line up exactly though, so you have to decide you're going to adjust one or the other. Some will choose to consider the upper core as the timeline setter, use Story of the World as a Spine for all, and then fit the Core B & C books in however they fit (or simply not worry about whether they line up exactly).

 

Some have even done core 100 and Cores D & E at the same time, stretching Core 100 over 2 years, or using D+E 1 year option (which I personally wouldn't like--D & E separate are 2 of my favorite years).

 

Many people who have both olders & youngers seem to find it easiest to just run a core for olders & a core for youngers & not worry about the subject matter matching.

 

Just some options to consider. Merry :-)

[SFM]

It would take a lot of tweaking. Have you looked at biblioplan? To me it is close to the method (lit based, many of the SL books, spine, readers and read alouds) but all together and the 4 year cycle lke TOG.

:iagree:

 

I agree, I have ordered and try to use Sonlight and it wasn't working for "combining" my children. Although, they are young it just wasn't working and I knew it probably wouldn't. I LOVE the idea of Sonlight and I also wanted to be teaching the same time period, etc. Insert Biblioplan, I love it. It is perfect for tying things together. We use SOTW for our History, we use Veritas Press timeline cards, we incorporate a lot of the Sonlight readers for literature, it's really a great program, I intend on using it all the way through. FWIW, this is my first year (we started in March) but I love it.

[Incognito]

Well... I think it just depends on what you are expecting your kids to do. I am not familiar with other layouts, but I found that SL core A worked fine for my 5 and 3yo. I expect to repeat it again in 4 or 5 years with the baby, so my older kids will see the same books again then too. I would think you could do the same with your kids - repeat when the youngest is ready. For now just keep them all on the same core, then when the two youngest are ready for really digging in repeat the younger years. You could probably even get it to line up with a later level, but I haven't tried.

 

Also, I wouldn't borrow trouble from tomorrow. You have a nice core you want to do now. If you think your two oldest will get value out of it, I'd just go for it now and see what the years bring. Maybe another program will be better in the future. That's fine. :)

[boscopup]

While combining my kids sounded good in theory, when it came down to it, they are just way too far apart in ability. If I meet DS1's needs, the material will be too far above DS2's head. If I meet DS2's needs, the material will be too far below DS1, and he'll need more meat. So we ended up doing 2 cores, and it really has not been hard at all. We're doing Core D for DS1 (who is advanced) and Core P4/5 for DS2. DS3 kind of sits in on P4/5, but some of the books are a bit over his head or just not appealing to him, since they don't all have pictures. He's a young 3 year old.

 

IF we stay with Sonlight (and I'm not making any predictions at this point), I will likely combine the younger two in Core A, finding something else for DS2's first grade year. DS3 picks things up quickly like DS1 does, so I think he'd handle Core A in K. Ideally, I'd want to get them using Core B at the same time that DS1 does Core G, and we would be on track to do that if I do Core A the year after next. Then we'd be in the same time period. We'll see though. I may decide some other direction works better for us.

 

All of the curricula that combine kids tend to gear the material toward one age group and then pull another age group along. We tried BP year 1 when DS1 was in 1st grade, and that was a bit much for a 1st grader (and we weren't even using half the readers, as they were not available at the library, and they were just retellings of the Bible story anyway, and I'd rather read the actual Bible or at least a children's Bible story book for better accuracy). BP seemed to be geared more toward the middle grades. I can't even imagine DS2 understanding much of it in first grade. Likewise, TOG is geared toward the middle and upper grades, with the LG students tagging along. MFW is also geared somewhere toward the middle range, with the upper level students sometimes not having "enough" and the lower level students struggling to understand the spine. The fact is, if you have material that is truly geared toward all ages, it's going to end up being all separate, even if you're in the same time period. Personally, I don't have a problem keeping up with multiple timelines (afterall, we are studying one thing in church Bible classes, another thing in the Bible at home, and yet another thing in our school history). So if I have to find separate spines and separate readers and read-alouds for each kid's level, I might as well just use separate programs for them.

 

There are certainly a lot of kids that combine well, and in those cases, combining is definitely the way to go. My kids are all 2.5 years apart, but with the oldest being advanced and the middle one being... possibly not neurotypical, combining them just won't work at all in the near future. Perhaps DS2 will soar ahead in comprehension in a few years - I wouldn't put it past him. But for now, there is this wide chasm between the two kids when it comes to ability to understand history, and it would be more work for me to try to combine them than it is to just use two separate Sonlight cores.

[Dinsfamily]

While combining my kids sounded good in theory, when it came down to it, they are just way too far apart in ability. If I meet DS1's needs, the material will be too far above DS2's head. If I meet DS2's needs, the material will be too far below DS1, and he'll need more meat. So we ended up doing 2 cores, and it really has not been hard at all. We're doing Core D for DS1 (who is advanced) and Core P4/5 for DS2. DS3 kind of sits in on P4/5, but some of the books are a bit over his head or just not appealing to him, since they don't all have pictures. He's a young 3 year old.

 

 

This is why I don't combine. I have had similar experiences with all the cores I've done. I do SL to have great discussions with my dc and I can't do that if the dc is too young for the material. For instance, I did Core A when my oldest was 6. My next oldest was 4 and loved listening in, but didn't get the meat of the program. When we read Twenty and Ten, we talked about WWII, the Jewish people living in Europe, the Nazis, Israel, why the Nazis were killing Jewish people, etc. It was such an amazing learning experience for my oldest. The 4yo just didn't get any of that, but he liked the story.

 

Trying to TOG'ize SL would take way too much time and tweaking for the ages of your dc, IMHO. The couple of friends that I have that we're SL'ers and wanted to combine many kids (4-6 dc) switched to TOG. One still takes a break to do Core F every few years because she loves it so much.

[Zoo Keeper]

We have two cores going; one for my oldest two (11 and 9, doing core E), and one for the younger two (7 and 5, doing core A). As so many have said, it just was not feasible to put them all into one core; someone would be left hanging. Yes, I could find extra books to try to fold whomever in, but that kind of defeats the convienence factor of combining.

 

Don't sweat it too much right now; enjoy what you are doing. I tried making a chart showing who would be doing what core and how I could combine for all twelve years (I'm a big picture planner type), but as each year goes by I look at that chart less and less...

[edeemarie]

I have a feeling within the next few years someone will come up with something that is in the style of TOG but uses Sonlight books- too many people are looking for just that very thing! I would love that too, but since it doesn't exist yet I am going to have to do the work myself. I think I am going to use Mystery of History as a spine for my oldest, and maybe something like SOTW or CHOW for my younger kids. They will all be on the same time period. Then I am going to add in book selections that are age appreciate. I just ordered All Through the Ages, which I hope will help me line up books. There are also a number of files on the MOH yahoo groups that line up books from Sonlight, TOG, and other good read alouds (there are also great notebooking pages and timeline figures- lots of good stuff). A Book In Time is another great website that lines up books according to a child's age and a certain historical level. All this to say I don't think you could combine all of your kids into one level of Sonlight, but you could probably create something similar on your own:)

[kolamum]

We too did it with kids 2 years apart. But, next year I separate them. You could try Winter Promise. They have some that separate the levels {Animal Worlds comes to mind as well as a few other cores} in regards to Older students do: xyz Younger STudents do: ABC.

 

Because my kids separate next year I'll have one doing a gap year or two with WP. The reason I'm choosing to separate is that my eldest will be in "middle school" next year & I don't want the primary level student at that level because it means he'd be doing highschool work early too.

[Tess in the Burbs]

We have a 7 yo, two 5 yo and a 4 yo and a baby in the wings.

I love sonlight and used it last year.

I've always wished it used the same format as Tapestry of grace where you have all the kids learning the same thing, but on individualized levels...

 

Is there a way to do this with SL?

 

If you do, how?

 

Tips... Tricks???

 

SL says that more than 3 grades apart can't be done. You could try the 7 and 5 y/o together and have 4 y/o in different core in the future. Or keep 5 and 4 y/os together and have 7 y/o doing own thing. You could pick a core for younger set and add in books for older child. That might be easiest but if you really want them all on the same topic another program would work better.

[Heart_Mom]

I want to combine a wide age range, and I'm considering KONOS. All your children from Kindergarten to grade 8 can be combined, although KONOS is not open-and-go like Sonlight.

[MicheleinMN]

Pick the SL guide you like for your older children and then use http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/scmguide/ - especially the history and literature selections to find books for your younger child. Not perfect or easy, but a more affordable option.

 

HTH

[mumto2]

I think it all depends on your dc personalities now. Core A was our favorite. We did it when ds was 5 and dd 7. They considered it to be sit on the edge of your seat exciting. Dd would have enjoyed it when she was 4, ds never could have sat still for a single chapter of it. If everyone wants to cooperate it can be wonderful and work. For my 7 year old understanding was deep. She did a lot of other reading on her own. We bought the ancients from Veratus Press for her so she could do more written work. That was her need. She adored school and busy work--still does.:lol: For my ds alot happened that year he learned to sit still and listen because he wanted to hear the story. He learned to read.

 

With that age range it will not be everything for everyone but everyone can learn from it. I would start there and see what they need. It may be plenty for everyone.

 

Eventually I think you will need to split SL into 2 levels but not this year.

[Momma_Bear]

I think it could work depending on your kids. I have a 6 year old in Core C this year and she is doing fine, actually loves it! From Core D and up you could use the readers as read-alouds for the younger kids if need be. Actually that would probably work your 1yo will be about 5 when doing Core D and that would be a great age for them as read-alouds. :)

 

I really wouldn't worry about it right now, do core A and see how much your kids get out of it and go from there. :001_smile:

[mamawaabangi]

Those are good ideas... I particularly like the one that stated to choose the Core to our oldest and then fill in with more age appropriate literature for our youngers... That is a good idea! Thanks so much!

We did Core A last year and are finishing it up.

I thought about changing to TOG, but there are a few things I don't like about it... thanks!

[lea_lpz]

You could do it FIAR and later MFW with their 5 year cycle.

[OnACloudyDay]

Those are good ideas... I particularly like the one that stated to choose the Core to our oldest and then fill in with more age appropriate literature for our youngers... That is a good idea!

 

This is pretty much how we've managed to use SL with 3 kids who are each 3 grades apart. The two years that were the easiest were the world history years. My oldest did Core G while we used Core B with the younger kids. My middle son did some of the readers from G but not all of them like his older brother did. My daughter did none of the harder readers. We did the same things with Core H/Core C. Also, for those two years, I read SOTW to all 3 kids and skipped the Core B/C history spine. The supplemental history books for those cores (Usborne, etc) were done separately so the kids got info on their own level.

 

I think combining multi-age kids in a core is pretty easy when they are in elementary. Once they get a bit older (past core G/H) it is harder. But at that point they're much more independent so it works out fairly well to have the oldest working on their own.

 

I think one of the strengths of SL is that you're able to adapt it to your needs. Don't feel you have to do every single activity or book. Try using all the books with your oldest and pick just some for the youngest. Give the youngest more time to work through a book while the older reads a couple. Generally, there are at least 2 books that cover each general topic/era of history so it isn't too hard to eliminate one of them.

 

We don't use SL science or LA so I can't really speak to adapting those.