hsschool
- Reviewed on Thursday, July 30, 2009
- Grades Used: 3+4, 100,200,300
- Dates used: 2007-2009
The thing that I liked about Sonlight is it is possible to teach several levels of children from one core. Sonlight is a complicated program to learn to use when beginning to homeschool. You need to add Science, math, and other enrichment to their program. The teacher manual has to be put together by the parent.
You also need to read the books before letting your children read them as some cover topics that you do not want to cover with your child.
I ended up pulling the core program books from the 3+4 core because they were not what I wanted to teach my child about American History. I felt the books were very biased in how it left out many thing that I felt should be in American History. For example Jamestown was briefly mentioned as was Yorktown. I felt the focus was too much on religion and not enough on history.
Yet the other books in the 3+4 core were wonderful. Which we ended up using as a supplement to Calvert's program.
If you want a large selection of readers then choose Sonlight.
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mommyof41/2
- Reviewed on Saturday, July 04, 2009
- Grades Used: k and 1st
- Dates used: 2008
I am personally not a fan of sonlight at all. This was our first year of homeschooling and I quickly relized that although I had paid over 800 for my sons curriculum I had to supplement it a great deal so he did lose many basic skills he already knew. On the plus side I returned the level K curriculum and they quickly refunded my money. Also, I would love to know if anyone looked to see which scripture they assigned to a 1st grader. One assigned scripture was the story of Lot and how his daughter tricked him into sleeping with them, totally unacceptable to read to a 7 year old. Luckily, I reconized where the story was going before I had to do any explaining. We will be using primarily Horizons next year, this is what i supplemented the sonlight with and am very pleased with.
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kandbzmom
- Reviewed on Monday, June 15, 2009
- Grades Used: K
- Dates used: 2008-2009
I have really mixed feelings about Sonlight. I bought this curriculum because it was my first year to hs and I wanted something all ready laid out for me. Like other reviewers, I was really excited about it when the box came. I couldn't wait to read the read aloud books to my son. Then I discovered there were definitely pros and cons to this:
Pros:
1. The read alouds are excellent. My son still raves about "The Apple and the Arrow" and "Dr. Doolittle." Our whole family loved this portion.
2. The Bible stories were great. The internet link that allowed me to download pictures from the stories we were reading helped my son remember the stories.
3. We all ready use HWT so it was nice this was included as a handwriting aid.
4. The reading books were great as my son learned to read.
5. I liked the Usborne books.
Cons:
1. We hated the science. It started off okay, but my son got bored with it quickly. For a large portion of it, the experiments had nothing to do with what we read the rest of the time. We eventually just watched the experiment video and chucked the books. It was a shame since my son has a love for science.
2. History was disjointed. For a week or two we'd read about people who were missionaries, then we'd switch to learning about living in the jungle, then go to the types of clothes people have worn through the years. My son got bored very quickly.
3. The readers are great for really new readers, but once he progressed from one syllable and short vowel sound words, I had to go to the library and get him readers.
4. Some of the read aloud questions were tough for my son to answer since he didn't understand them. I had to do a lot of explaining so he'd understand the question. Eventually, I just picked the questions I thought might spark discussion.
We did not use their reading program (I used a Janet Wise Bauer program) or their math (we used Math-U-See).
Overall, I was disappointed in the program. I won't be using it next year. I am leaning toward Winter Promise or My Father's World.
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cathyirene
- Reviewed on Monday, May 11, 2009
- Grades Used: K
- Dates used: 2008-2009
I love using the Sonlight History and Read-alouds!
My son has loved the read-alouds, James Herriot, Apple and the Arrow, My Father's Dragon, etc. And we often use these as bedtime stories. (We did leave out Ten and Twenty- for my sake).
I love the history and geography, and that is my son's favorite subject.
I use the guide as just that, a suggestion. We may do 2 or 3 days of work in one day and then not do anything for the next few days. I just check it off as we do it, and stay close so I know we are not getting behind.
I used only these portions of the curriculum, as I wanted to secularize it and didn't use the Bible, and I didn't like the LA or science curriculum.
For science, I prefer Noeo, another lit-based program.
LA- Explode the Code and HOP
Math- Horizons, though switching to Rightstart for next year.
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