TWTM vs Sonlight

[mbrady]

I have been struggling over what to do next year with my 8th grader. I also have a 6th grader, 4th grader, 3 yr. old and 1yr. old.

 

We have always pretty much followed the WTM, with a few changes depending on the year. I'm thinking about the big picture of high school and would love to follow the WTM, but I'm not sure that I have the time and the intelligence to help my daughter do it well. I'm mainly thinking the great books and history part.

 

So lately I've been considering using Sonlight through high school for history and literature, starting with core 100 in 8th grade. As I have read things here and there about Sonlight, I don't feel great about the leadership, however nothing has been a deal breaker. The literature seems easier with Sonlight than with WTM, but maybe that's ok. Many of the high school Sonlight books seem to me to be more on a junior high level. However, I afraid that I wouldn't have time to read all the great books that WTM suggests and have intelligent discussions about them with my daughter. The Sonlight discussion questions are very appealing, as is the schedule. The Sonlight history doesn't seem as complete WTM, but I wish I knew more church history and in depth 20th century history.

 

I guess I would love to hear any thoughts on these two programs and what your experiences have been. Mainly, I adore SWB and would choose her over anyone to create my child's curriculum, but I feel like I need more help through high school.

[Candid]

If your main reason to consider switching to Sonlight from WTM is your own concerns about yourself then let me encourage you not to. We've had several recent threads on how to lead a Socratic discussion of a work and if you will add to your library SWB's other book The Well Educated Mind you will have some advice from her about many works.

 

As many will point out there are resources galore for high school the Learning Company's lectures are one invaluable resource. Can you do better than Elizabeth Vandiver on the ancient classics? No! and the good news if you wait for a sale an audio down load for her classes is pretty darn cheap. But suppose you can't afford her. Try using the online Spark Notes or even just reading the entry at Wikipedia. You will learn enough to help you.

 

As for not being able to do everything, I think you should assume that is going to happen. There are too many great works out there for anybody to cover in a four year time period with a teenager. Further a power of home schooling is to pick your own books and both avoid books that your child would struggle with while at the same time challenging them to come to the highest level possible.

 

I don't think the solution to this is to switch to a program that you yourself have correctly identified as being more at a middle school level than a high school level (at least if you have been using the WTM all along).

[Sisyphus]

We used sl way back when, in 4th-5th grade for my oldest, 1-2 for my youngest. They adored it, I adored it. Older Ds wanted to so sl high school us history core this year, remembering fondly the elementary version from long ago.

 

It was basically a waste of money. I used it to schedule the Story of US books (light for a spine, but Ds loves them). He read all the core books, but most I did not include as part of his studies, I had to add because they were far too light for high school. The discussions in the ig were also not at ALL how I remember sl being, and it seems there had been a leadership shift I was unaware of. A small example- the Civil War is referred to as the Great War. Take from that what you will.

 

We ended up using hippocampus ap us history writing assignments and lessons, lots of good stuff from the National Endowment for the Humanities for AP US, and online book guides I found via Penguin classics and others for discussions of the literature I added in (The Jungle, Great Gatsby, Scarlet Letter, etc). It worked fine! I need some hand holding in the form of guided discussion, but it is out there online if you search around for most (all?) of the great books that would fit history lessons.

[PeterPan]

For an alternate experience, you might look at sonlight posts by merylvdm. Her dd did core 100 + lit 430 as an 11th grader, added in some things, and got a 5 on the AP. She's getting ready to share a syllabus. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/471293-need-guidance-on-ap-us-history/page__hl__+merylvdm#entry4991675

 

I didn't realize you could mix and match the lit and history like that. Might help you resolve the issue with the level of books, at least for a couple years.

[mbrady]

Thanks so much for all of your responses. I was not aware of the Great Courses, I'm definitely going to look into those. And yes I have noticed merylvdm and I look forward to seeing her syllabus.

[mumto2]

 

We ended up using hippocampus ap us history writing assignments and lessons, lots of good stuff from the National Endowment for the Humanities for AP US, and online book guides I found via Penguin classics and others for discussions of the literature I added in (The Jungle, Great Gatsby, Scarlet Letter, etc). It worked fine! I need some hand holding in the form of guided discussion, but it is out there online if you search around for most (all?) of the great books that would fit history lessons.

 

I have been following this thread and just googled the National Endowment for Humanities. There are so many great things there. It is going to take hours :) my plans incorporating this material. Really good ideas! Thank you!