Sonlight Core G vs Oak Meadow Seventh Grade

[freeindeed]

My dd12 is currently using SL Core F, and she used Core D+E last year. All the reading is an absolute battle! She is smart and fully capable of doing the reading, but she hates it. Also, she doesn't seem to be retaining much. I had all intentions of sticking with SL for the duration, but now I'm not so sure. BTW, she is a difficult child in general. Chores are also a battle with her. So, should I just forge ahead with SL? Or should we give Oak Meadow a shot? I am considering OM b/c it appears to actually fit her learning style better. Thanks!

[texasmama]

I can't speak to Oak Meadow so someone else will need to chime in about that. We've always used SL. I'm currently using Core G with my two oldest, and we are really enjoying this Core. Core F was not our favorite. I modified it quite a lot. Core G does have quite a lot of independent reading, but if you choose to stay with SL, I will encourage you to schedule some of the readers as read alouds, use a different pace for the schedule or skip some books. My youngest son balks at the amount of reading so I decreased it for him and scheduled more time/fewer books for him to read. His brother is reading the Core pretty much as the schedule assigns. I always add read alouds to our school schedule anyway so it would not be a big deal to schedule some of the independent reading as read alouds...or skip them altogether.

[ccolopy]

First off, I really love both Sonlight and Oak Meadow, so I don't think you can go wrong either way. This year, we're doing Oak Meadow US History/English 5 and using the books left over from when DS went through Sonlight D&E. It's making for a fun year. :)

 

We haven't used Oak Meadow 7 or Sonlight G yet, but I'm in the process of deciding between Oak Meadow 6, Sonlight F and Sonlight G, so I'll be :bigear: for more opinions. We've been very happy with the move from Sonlight C to Oak Meadow.

 

A couple things I'm thinking about now: Oak Meadow 6 begins a two-year history survey, so that might be a better place to start. But, history is combined with English in Oak Meadow in 6th grade. But, Oak Meadow English is great and it's easy to skip the vocab/grammar/spelling sections, or some fo the writing if you want to. But, the books used in Sonlight G (and H) look a lot better than those used in Sonlight F. I probably won't make a decision until the summer, but I'd be interested to hear what you go with!

[freeindeed]

Thanks to both responses. I am still in the process of deciding. I think my biggest question is in whether or not her attitude would change with a different curriculum choice. If a child truly does not like to read, I just wonder how feasible it is to continue with Sonlight.

[Izzy]

Yikes! I have Sonlight Core F that just shipped out today. I hope we like it. I had the hardest time choosing between Oak Meadow and Sonlight. I did notice their history rotation starts in 6th grade so if you do OM you might want to start in 6th. I ended up letting DS look at both and told him OM was a textbook with a few books and SL was all books. He wanted SL but we'll see how he does with the reading. I plan on doing a lot of audio books though.

[freeindeed]

Yikes! I have Sonlight Core F that just shipped out today. I hope we like it. I had the hardest time choosing between Oak Meadow and Sonlight. I did notice their history rotation starts in 6th grade so if you do OM you might want to start in 6th. I ended up letting DS look at both and told him OM was a textbook with a few books and SL was all books. He wanted SL but we'll see how he does with the reading. I plan on doing a lot of audio books though.

 

My best friend's children use SL and they LOVE it. If your son enjoys reading, then he will probably enjoy Core F. I myself am an avid reader, and I adore SL. It's just that my dd12 is not one that enjoys reading a lot. :bored:

[Mom22ns]

We loved Core G, but it was a heavy reading core. We skipped F, but dd did D+E and ds did Core 100 the year before G. If she doesn't like all the reading in the SL cores she has done, I would really consider OM. I haven't used OM to recommend it, but G won't get easier.

[Murrayshire]

My 7th grade dd is using SL Core G this year and she LOVES it!! She just loves the SOTW books, too! Since there is a lot of reading required, I got the SOTW audio books along with the text so she can follow along. I knew there was going to be some historical names that she may have trouble pronouncing and I want her to hear the correct way of saying them. I also purchased the AG so she could have more hands on activities. I let her choose what she wants to do each week and it has really worked out. Along with the mapwork and timeline, my dd keeps a history notebook and puts her summaries and outlines in it. Doing history this way with a mix of SOTW w/AG, SL, UILE, and readers has been enjoyable to my dd. On my blog, there is a SOTW blog that we use that has historical videos for each SOTW chapter. I did not purchase all of the RA and Readers on schedule for SL G. I picked some and we have spread them out to last 2-3 weeks and sometimes more for each book. (She uses Lightning Lit. and that is scheduled reading again, not to mention her free time reading....whew that's a lot of reading) She is reading some of the RA's in place of some readers, too. And you know, you could just buy SOTW and the Encyclopedia of your choice, choose some readers, timeline, mapwork, documentaries/activities, and call it a done deal. I plan on doing that with my 5th and 2nd grader next school year together.....doing 1 SOTW book each year as opposed to SL G with 2 books each year. Well, I've rambled on enough.........hope this has helped and hope you sort it through. Oak Meadow is a very nice program btw......we used it for my middle dc for 2nd grade and enjoyed it but I did add more reading and different math....and then I converted to SL for more reading material.

[freeindeed]

If I chose to go with Oak Meadow 6 for next year, dd will be in seventh grade. How would I work that out, with non-matching grade levels? How would I get in all the years she needs for high school if we're a year behind? Thanks. I am thinking that we probably will go with OM, so I want to get this figured out. Thanks!