SL Core 300 :/

[proudmamma]

Help! I posted earlier about choosing between SL 300 and TOG yr. 4. I decided to go with SL due to ease of planning, etc. Well, this is our second week, and we are both hating it!  The spine books are TERRIBLE, and my son has not liked any of the literature books so far...The Great Brain, The Heart of Darkness, The Road Home, and one other one that I can't think of the name of. So now I just don't know what to do! I was late getting started this year, and now this...

 

Any suggestions?  I am thinking about sending the whole thing back and getting a refund...it is that bad...but I don't know what to do in its place. I could do TOG, but I don't have the books and that will take another week or so unless I could find some at my library to get started with, though I doubt that would happen :/  Help!

[mommyoftwo]

What are you looking for in a history program?  I am using Notgrass with an 8th grader and will definitely consider sticking with it in high school.

 

~Melissa

[proudmamma]

I don't know. I just want my kid to like what he is reading in history so he will learn from it :).  Maybe I should just stick it out, and sub out Heart of Darkness for something else.  I am thinking the Road to Home will get better since he is only on chapter two. Any with the experience of not liking it at first, but then in the end glad they stayed with it...core 300, that is.

[Blueridge]

We haven't used that core but I have heard rave reviews about it from some on the SL forum. Have you gone there for some advice or opinions, too? I imagine the time period will have quite a few dark or more challenging books, because that's unfortunately the tone of much of modern history. Your book discussions can be so rich. While we often love a book from the beginning, sometimes we are halfway before we get into the groove. 99% of the time, it has been worth it. :) I hope things go better for you soon! 

[PeterPan]

Have you thought about Biblioplan?

[Sahamamama]

If for some reason this happened here, I would (1) send back the SL, (2) order the TOG + books, and (3) get "ahead" on some other subjects for a few weeks while waiting for it all to arrive. From what I've heard about TOG, you will probably need some time for planning even once it does arrive. So why not double-up on Science or Math for another month? You will not become hopelessly behind in your entire school year this way. Instead, you might use the extra time at the end of the school year (when Science is finished) to then double-up on History. HTH.

[Upward Journey]

Core 300 is the only SL Core that I sold after we were finished it, the IG and most of the books.  I had absolutely no desire to put another one of my children through it at.all.

[4wildberrys]

We hated the spine too---so I bought the original spine 20th Century Day by Day and my daughter LOVED it!

[Lori D.]

Don't know how to advise you, except to say that I think Core 300 is the most schizophrenic of all the SL cores. There is no solid, single spine and the books swing widely from being far too simplistic (some at a grade 4-6 level), and some way too intense for a 9th grader or sensitive high schooler (e.g., Brave New World, All Quiet on the Western Front). That said, there are some *great* books and really worthwhile classics in SL300 to include as part of a study of modern historyliterature.

 

Road to Home is a tough book because it is covering a brutal event: the Armenian Genocide, sometimes called the "Armenian Holocaust". I thought the book was unflinching, without becoming gratuitously graphic, and is right there at a 14-15yo level in how the subject matter is handled. In contrast, I think The Great Brain is in there to "lighten the load" a little. There are quite a few intense, heavy books, because the topics of the 20th century are intense or depressing:

 

- After the War -- relief! the teen girl survived the Holocaust WW2 concentration camp -- only to discover all her family has NOT survived, and then she goes on into the traumatic struggles of Israel attempting to become a nation

- All Quiet on the Western Front -- brutal, heavy, psychologically intense, ultimately very despairing

- China's Long March -- suffering and deprivation during the long march

- Fallen Angels -- violence of Vietnam War

- To Destroy You is No Loss -- positive ending, but devastating beginning

- Red Scarf Girl -- terrible things done in the name of revolution

- Alas Babylon -- post atomic bomb survival story; ultimately has positive ending, but a scary topic

- Brave New World -- dystopic world that ends with hopeless, despair

- Cry the Beloved Country -- powerful, inspiring, but at a heart-wrenching cost of sacrifice

- The Wave -- frightening topic

- The Great Gatsby -- hopelessness/meaninglessness of life of the post-WW1 "Lost Generation"

- Heart of Darkness -- descent into madness

- The Metamorphosis -- depressing existentialism

- The Old Man and The Sea -- victory, but also a rather existential-type of defeat

- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- brutal soviet concentration camp conditions which seek to dehumanize, but there are shining moments of humanity

- Walk Two Moons -- teen Native American girl journey of self-discovery; people close to her die

 

Amazingly, The Hiding Place, part of which takes place in a brutal WW2 concentration camp, is actually very inspiring.

 

 

Not at all trying to sway you one way or another -- but just to give you a "heads up" of what's coming so you can decide if you want to stick with SL300 or switch. 

 

One idea might be to skim/preview books as you are approaching them, and substitute from a list of more appealing (for your DS) alternatives. We did do many of the books in the SL300 -- but not all in one year. Some we had done previously; some we did the year we focused on American History/American Lit. A few of the heavier/more intense books we saved for the senior year. So we spread out the heaviness and darkness of SL300. Here are some ideas for more uplifting substitutions:

Alternatives to the doom and gloom classics

Suggestions for meaty but not depressing classics for teenagers

High literature which is encouraging

High school literature suggestions that aren't so dark and depressing

 

And while many of the book and movie selections in this thread: OK guys, help me refine a Modern Era reading list for a [advanced] 6th grader -- are middle school level, there are some that work well for high school, AND, in my post in that thread (here) I listed more uplifting and positive 20th century events you could choose to explore, and downplay the emphasis on the World Wars, Vietnam, Holocaust, etc.

 

What about using something like The Complete Idiot's Guide to the 20th Century, or A History of the 20th Century by Martin Gilbert, or Paul Johnson's Modern Times (Christian) for a replacement spine? Or go with documentaries on different key topics as your spine?

 

And don't forget movies set in the time period of different big events:

Movies for Modern History

Movies instead of Literature to go with History study?

What are your top 5 reading choices [and movies/documentaries] for Modern time period

 

And honestly, if you're only 2 weeks into it, this is the time to return SL, wing it for 2 weeks while you scramble to get your TOG (or other alternative) manual and first book or two, and "wing it" for a few weeks as Sahamamama suggested. By doubling up on your math and science, you'd finish them early, which would leave you a month at the end of the school year to catch up/finish TOG (or other alternative). Not too difficult to manage at all! :)

 

BEST of luck in deciding what to do with your 20th century History/Literature study! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

[Juliegmom]

I'm sorry you are struggling. I feel your pain with Core 300. I'm totally regretting not sticking with my original plan which was to use to use Notgrass. We have already ditched SL's history guide (even tried using Day by Day) and are doing our own thing using Blainey's A Short History of the 20th Century. After reading the above comments about the literature I'm not encouraged. This is our first year with Sonlight and it will be our last. I hope you receive some helpful feedback and find something that works well for you. I wish I had advice to offer, but I'm new at this myself as this is our first year homeschooling high school. Best Wishes!

[Lori D.]

After reading the above comments about the literature I'm not encouraged. This is our first year with Sonlight and it will be our last.

 

Sorry! Did NOT mean to discourage you! There are a number of great classics on this list that are important and bring forth very worthwhile discussion. (For example, Cry the Beloved Country is wrenching, but it is so affirmingly Christian. All Quiet on the Western Front makes you look squarely at the horror of mechanized war and see violence for what it is, compared to our violence-numbed video game/movie culture. Etc.) And, there are some positive endings and inspiring biographies/missionary books in there, too.

 

It's just that SL300 is a *tough* core to tackle for your first year of high school! I am looking at the SL website, and it looks like they now recommend it for grade 11, or ages 15+, so they have recognized it as being pretty heavy, too.

 

Just to reassure you -- I DO think that SL200 and SL300 are the "odd" and difficult to use cores. The younger cores up through SL100 are fine. And the Literature-only core 530 (Survey of British Lit) is a SUPER list of books!

 

Perhaps some of the suggested links in my post above might help you make some "tweaks" to your year to make it go more smoothly, too?! Or, do you HAVE to keep going with SL? Best of luck! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[flyingiguana]

Or you could try the Ambleside lists:

http://amblesideonline.org/curriculum.shtml

A lot of their readings are online, so you'd have them available.

 

Maybe the WTM lists would work.

 

Or the Tanglewood lists: http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/grade8.htm

It says grade 8, but it might work for 9th.  Not sure what grade you're looking for.  Although looking through the literature section of Tanglewood, I think there is enough meat there to keep even a 12th grader thinking.

[PeterPan]

I'm with Julie.  It didn't take us long using the Day by Day book to realize that was not flying.  She likes it, but it was taking way too long.  The other spine she doesn't even like, and the books she had either read or wasn't interested in.  For the moment I'm back to letting her plow through the later chapters in the BJU US and World texts.  She's not in love, but it's a little something to do.  I'm probably going to have to let her just do her own thing, which in her case would be fine.  Another friend who seldom posts here went over to Biblioplan year 4 and found it satisfactory, which is why I suggested it.  But yeah, just in general I'll join the "I expected it to work better than it did" camp for the SL300 stuff.  Guess the lack of posts on their hs forum for that core should have been my clue.