Sonlight Core 200 for 9th grader... any tips or advice?

[mazakaal]

Dd is going into 9th grade in September and, after I presented her with many options, has chosen Sonlight Core 200. I did their Eastern Hemispheres core years ago with another child, but have no other experience with SL, and EH is not a 'typical' core, so I feel like I am quite new to SL. 

 

Anyone have any advice or tips? Things to skip? Things to make sure that I don't miss out on?

 

She did a Write at Home course for composition this past year, and it was brilliant, so she'll be doing that again next year. So I don't need to worry about the writing assignments within the literature component.

 

But I'm struggling a bit with understanding their IG. I see the weekly schedules that list chapters or pages needing to be read, but then what do we do beyond that? I see that there are some comprehension questions in the study guide sections, which we'll probably just do orally. But there's other info there with no instructions that I can find.

 

For instance, some reading selections have 'vocabulary development' with them, just a phrase with a word in bold print. Is the student supposed to look up those definitions? 

 

For the map assignments, are students just meant to look at the appropriate map and notice the location of each place listed? 

 

Also, I've seen a note in the introduction that the Westminster Shorter Catechism is highly Calvinistic. They recommend finding another catechism if this bothers the parent, but don't give any other suggestions. Does anyone have any ideas of another catechism that is middle-of-the-road, evangelical, non-denominational?

 

Finally, what do you call the course on a transcript? I'd rather not use their title, History of God's Kingdom.

[FriedClams]

We did it last year and dropped the church history portion a few months in. My dd hated it. It was VERY dry. Sorry. We ended up using Notgrass world history for the history parts.

 

My DD liked most of the lit (Til We Have Faces was a fail), and the bible was good. We discussed the catechism (we're more Baptist leaning) but otherwise it was fine. We didn't get through all the catechism (We got bored and did sone other stuff) but overall the bible was good. The other books were very good.

 

I've sold my copy of 200 and we're moving away from Sonlight after many years with them. I, like you, found the high school IG a hassle. There is a separate student guide that directs their daily work. It's actually pretty student driven. I did hate that there were 2 student guides (history, then lit/bible)- and they're //massive//. About every four weeks we'd have to reorganize, move stuff around, etc. to make their weekly notebooks workable. I spent days organizing last summer for a core 100 and core 200 student, and it was still a pain every month.

[Lori D.]

No personal experience to help you, but of all the cores SL has available for high school, Core 200 is the one that I hear most frequently, even from hard-core SL fans, is the one core they absolutely disliked and would never do again, or returned it, or couldn't make it work. :(

 

Just throwing that out there so in case SL200 bombs, or in case you change your mind, that you might research now to have a "plan B" ready to jump on so in case you need it, you can make your switch quickly, having already done your research.

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[mazakaal]

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure to have a plan B.

 

I got a used copy, so it's older and doesn't have the separate guides. I had thought about getting them because they look like they would make things easier to have the questions with the schedule that they go with. But then I realized that the book selection has changed a bit, and I didn't want to buy new books as well as the guides.

 

Thanks.

[mumto2]

This is the Core we started with Dd but she never finished for many somewhat unrelated reasons. Mainly she wasn't loving it and slowly stopped doing it as she started finding other coursework that she enjoyed. The SL just sort of dwindled to nothing. She liked the lit portion and read many of those.

 

Because this Core had a huge amount of paper I made a separate far skinnier notebook for her with the schedule(s) for the weeks the lit book was being read over and all the back up student papers for all the reading. I did the same with an answer file for me. This made it far easier to handle. The problem was the lit was read quickly but the other books were never as compelling for her to finish. She was much happier doing her other courses and tended to focus on those. She was using the EIW for her writing assignments.

 

Not our best course. This is a course that you may very well need to modify as you go.

[Julie of KY]

I do want to say that there are a lot of great books in core 200. Don't be afraid to adjust it to your family's liking.

[mazakaal]

After the comments, I've pulled out all the books. I really do like the literature selections, so we'll stick with those I think. I'll let her drop a couple if there are any that she really dislikes.

 

I can see that the history spine could be pretty dry. I have Church History in Plain Language on my shelf. I'm thinking that I could substitute it for The Story of Christianity.

 

I'm still looking for another catechism book if anyone has any suggestions on that.