Sonlight history curriculum ONLY

[Calizzy]

Dd will be in 8th grade next year. This year we have been using beautiful feet and she loves it. She loves reading and loves learning history through literature. We are interested in the Sonlight middle school program on the Eastern Hemisphere for next year. The only thing is that even the “History Only” kit still has a lot of other stuff in it- Bible, read alouds, etc. I am interested in getting the spine text plus journal, and then 20 books or so- instead of the 51 included in the kit 😳 I also don’t want to get the instructors guide as it’s $130. Do you know is Sonlight will work with me on paring down the kit this way? I’d imagine they want to sell the whole thing. Has anyone ever hand selected Sonlight books making it a more manageable program? How do you know which to choose? Thanks,

 

[caffeineandbooks]

Have you looked at the "What's Included" tab for the package you're interested in?  Instead of adding the whole package, you can add individual items to your cart one by one from there.  You will lose the package discount, but if you want less than half of the books you should save money overall.  As to what to choose, it sounds like you know what your daughter likes, so that will be one guide.  If you like their spine text, I'd also look through the table of contents for that and try to choose a good spread of books that align with it (don't get ten books related to chapter one and then nothing else until chapter 15, for instance).  I would think about whether there's anything the spine leaves out that you think is super important - you can add books from elsewhere as well as taking out ones that aren't a good fit for you.  And in a non-pandemic year, I would also suggest checking what your local library holdings are - even if they don't have the exact same title, there is often more than one book that could go with a particular topic and you can save a ton if you can reliably place them on hold and borrow.  Not sure how your area is at the moment though.

[Gobblygook]

You could also look at the same package on Bookshark’s site - that would exclude the Bible portion, but it would also exclude the missionary biographies and perhaps that’s something you want?

Another idea is to purchase the instructor’s guide used, purchase/check out the books that interest you, and disregard whatever portions you wish. 

[AnneGG]

They have a “just books” section. 
https://www.sonlight.com/homeschool/subjects/just-great-books/book-collections/

ETA: they have the history books, the Bible books, and the read aloud books in separate categories if you keep scrolling. 

Edited February 11, 2021 by AnneGG