Any Sonlight users here?

[athomemom]

I have used SL for lower cores and I am probably going back to SL (from MFW) for high school next year. If you've used several SL cores for high school, how did you like it? Was it much different from the lower cores? Also, there seems to be much controversy over core 100. I like the looks of it, but I'd love your opinion and thoughts. My boys love SL and our best school memories are using it.

 

We will most likely use their Physical Science 150 as well with Apologia.

 

Any thing specific I should know?

[Sisyphus]

Well, after a foray into Calvert for middle school, my DD desperately wanted to go back to sl. We loved it in 2-5 grades, cores 3,4,6 and 7. She is doing us history, so I got core 100.

 

It's virtually unusable.

 

The books are ridiculously low reading level, mostly. The commentary in the IGs is just...just...bizarre. A worldview that I do NOT agree with is very evident, and we used sl before with no problems.:confused:

 

I don't know what the heck happened to sl (been totally out of the loop overseas for 4 years) but it's not good.

 

I have had to totally scrap core 100 except for the history of us books, they are ok as a spine along with some other textbooks we have.

 

I'm very sad about this, as is DD, so if anyone knows a literature based history for high school (prefer secular but Christian is ok, just not dominionist oriented) I would appreciate it!

[Emma]

I've used it exclusively for my dc (with the exception of 1 yr. we strayed and used MFW). My dd is an 11th grader now. I love it. We used Core 100 and found it great. My dd learned so much that yr. I used the History of Us videos that I got for free, after someone here posted a link to ordering them. We discussed the books and the events. Having used SL for so long, she already had a great American history background, so everything we discussed was just more in depth than previous years. I don't think every. single. book. they read needs to be college level reading and every question needs to be super analyzed. We enjoyed it. Now, Core 200.... that was tough material, and definitely not our favorite. She just didn't enjoy the books as much. So far, this yr. Core 300 is well liked.

I just love SL. I love how my kids make connections from something they read 3 years ago to something they're reading now. You could always try it. They have a 6? wk. money back guarantee. HTH~!

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

My oldest used core 100. He felt the History of US books were interesting without being textbooky, said he learned a lot from them. The books were great picks, yes they were easy, but I knew we would be covering more higher level books for american literature in 12th grade. I also wanted him to concentrate on his writing (core 100 actually had good writing assignments) and with the easier reads it worked.

He also did core 200, not as good as core 100 like pp said, but I think it was the history spines not the readers.

We did use the readers from the other cores but did not use SL as our curriculum for the last two years of hs with this ds.

[LindaOz]

My 10th grader is using SL and doing well with it. She has done Cores 7 (now called H I think), 100, and is almost finished 200. She will be starting 300 soon. She also does the writing assignments which I think are good. We deviated for awhile and tried some other bits and pieces, but SL is working well so we are back. My kids learn/have learned so much through SL.

 

The upper cores are different to the lower in that they are written more to the student. My dd reads the notes for herself and keeps a history journal where she writes summaries, answers questions etc. She did Core 100 last year and, although we are Australian, she enjoyed the core and got a lot out of it. The IG notes would sometimes provide an interesting 'other perspective' too.

 

HTH

Edited October 24, 2012 by LindaOz

[athomemom]

Thanks so much for all the different perspectives on SL. You all have me wondering about core 200. How necessary is this core to high school? How is this labeled on a transcript?

[speedmom4]

My dd did Core 100 and it was not a hit here. We had used many SL Cores in the past. She also did two years of MFW for high school and didn't really enjoy those. She is now doing Core 300 and she LOVES it. The books are so interesting and challenging.

 

Elise in NC

[mims]

We loved, loved 200. I called it History of Western Civilization. It is of course following that history through the path of the church more than political but it has both. My older two had so many connect-the-dot moments throughout the whole year. It answers so many questions they didn't even know they had about church history and about how different countries came about and governed differently etc. With Core 200 you absolutely need to have at least a weekly meeting to discuss the questions. I didn't require all of them but they had to write quick notes on the questions so we could have a good discussion.

 

One note on the other cores, you must either require the writing assignments or use them as discussion starters if you want literature analysis. All the literature analysis is centered in their writing. Some years I required the writing and sometimes we just used it for discussion.

 

The only Core we haven't done totally is Core 400. The philosophical depth of government is more than most kids could deal with! We did the literature and chose a semester each of gov't and economics from another place.

 

And as usual, nobody can beat the literature. There is a fair bit of discussion about Core 100 being easy as pp mentioned. The level is fairly easy but the amount my kids learned was very impressive and they enjoyed it. In my books it was a winner but others may disagree.