Considering Sonlight

[lloomis]

Hello all!

 

So we homeschooled this year for the first time. To get the hang of it, we didn't settle in on curriculum or anything...we just plucked ideas out of the sky and ran with it. My oldest is 5 1/2 and is a super strong reader (according to the books he is reading, he is at 2nd grade level I guess although chapter books, even the illustrated ones, he reads and understands... he just prefers other books) and he has a knack for math.(He is doing carry over addition and subtraction already which I don't think I did until 2nd grade.) I am not great at planning ahead or keeping records. Hopefully as we evolve as a homeschool family, I will be able to better customize what the kiddos are learning but for now, I want to have preplanned curriculum until I gain confidence. I was wondering what experience anyone has had with Sonlight. I work from home and we are intensely involved with other activities so I was wondering how much time was involved. My youngest is 4 but I'd like to teach them together as much as possible. My only concern is as far as I can see with Sonlight's 1st grade program, my son is beyond the reading, writing and math portion. I don't mind a good review because we weren't operating systemically when he was first learning those subjects so an overhaul would be a good idea. If we get into 1st grade of Sonlight and then realize some parts of it aren't challanging, is it easy to supplement or should we look at something all together different?

 

Thanks for taking the time to help out this first time homeschooling mama that's nervous and scared!

 

Be well!

Edited February 19, 2016 by lloomis

[featherhead]

With a 4 and 5 year old I would start off with P 4/5. It is a fun core with lots of great books. Then you can choose specific LA/ Reading and math based on your children's abilities. You will likely run out of readers for your older child if he is an eager reader, but if you have a library close by it can be a great help.

[shawthorne44]

Well, you have a 4-year-old so it shouldn't be a problem anything being too young.  Although, many people dislike the LA of Sonlight.  I never tried Sonlight's LA, but I'd already had a plan in place for that.   We've done the Core of both P3/4 and P4/5.  You used to be able to just buy the Core from Sonlight, but now they make you buy everything.  At least they did last time I looked.  I do love the Core. 

 

I didn't buy it from Sonlight.   I bought most of each core as a lot on ebay, then I got all the audiobooks that the library had on the Sonlight lists.   I love audiobooks so I also got all the audiobooks by the same authors.  

[MerryAtHope]

You don't have to purchase a Grade-Level package to do Sonlight. You can purchase a Core package (which right now contains History, Bible, LA, and Reading), and then choose whatever math you want. In the early core levels (A-C), you get to choose what level of readers and LA you want with it. In Cores D and up, the Readers and LA go together with the history.

 

 

Well, you have a 4-year-old so it shouldn't be a problem anything being too young.  Although, many people dislike the LA of Sonlight.  I never tried Sonlight's LA, but I'd already had a plan in place for that.   We've done the Core of both P3/4 and P4/5.  You used to be able to just buy the Core from Sonlight, but now they make you buy everything.  At least they did last time I looked.  I do love the Core. 

 

You actually can buy components now, they just push their "cores" and "grade level packages." (You do get bigger discounts when you do one of the packages--20% off with the grade level one, and 10% off with a core). However, they've announced that they'll be taking the "language arts" out of the cores again (and they are changing the name of the cores, so that the product won't be confused with "common core," which it has nothing to do with! Instead, the packages will now be called "History / Bible / Literature packages." So, then (when they roll out the changes on April 1) people can purchase any level and decide whether they want to add on LA or not. 

[staceyobu]

Agreeing with others... when you have kids that don't match grade level for all subjects (what kid does??) it's usually easiest to pull different things together.

 

If you want to pull your 4 year old in, I would suggest core p4/5. If you are waiting until next school year to order and they will be 6 and 5, you could probably swing core K.

 

Last year my pre-K and 1st grader shared core p4/5.

 

My 1st grader did:

core p4/5

Saxon 1 math

First Lang. Lessons and Writing With Ease 1

Sonlight readers 3 -- I wound up checking the books out of the library and using the sonlight package to get the readers for my younger kid.

 

Sonlight has some flexibility built in where you can order a different math or reader package, so that helps if you are wanting a package discount.

[Julie of KY]

Easy to combine. You can do it at a level anywhere between the younger and older. I've done both.

 

My oldest started with cores equal to grade level and moved all the way up with a brother 2 years younger (and then younger sister as well). I then repeated the cores with an older following with a younger. I'm now on my third time through with core equal to younger child and older listening in.

 

Aim to combine for all read-alouds, history, science. Pick age appropriate readers either a part of the core or not. Do age appropriate LA and math.

[LindaOz]

I'm doing SL core P 4/5 with my 4 and 5 year olds. I love it. You can choose whichever level readers and LA you like without it affecting the Core.

[wintermom]

I really loved SL in the early years, and especially core 4/5. As others have said, it's very easy to add in individual levels of math, writing, and reading.  

 

The only thing I'd think about is for future use, if you like the SL approach, is that it is very parent-intensive, in that there are a lot of read-alouds. This is the part that I loved, and that eventually got too much for me. We were spending so much time on read-alouds and history read-alouds that there wasn't enough time or energy for other things, but this wasn't until I was trying to do 2 different cores when the dc were ages 7 - 13. SL was absolutely lovely in the early years when there was only 1 core on the go at once.

[PentecostalMom]

I have a slew of kiddos and combine freely. We have been SLers for 16 years. I have tried other things over the years, but I have never sold all of my SL and it is what we love and what works for us. I am currently using P3/4 & P4/5 with my 2yo & 4yo, and a mishmash of Core A along with some other things while I'm putting together a Core B+C/Expedition Earth combo to begin in about six weeks for my 6yo and 9yo. My older dc are SL grads.