Do you use Sonlight?? (Full Version)

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my3boyshomeschool -> Do you use Sonlight?? (4/12/2008 2:37:29 PM)

If you are a Sonlight user, can you please tell me what you love/don't love about it??? I'd like to hear everyone's pros and cons. I am 99% decided on using it when we finish up our current curriculum, but I am curious about other people's experience with it.



SAL67 -> RE: Do you use Sonlight?? (4/12/2008 7:49:18 PM)

I've used it this year for my 6th grader. I love the fact that they do the scheduling for me; I don't have to spend time preparing lessons. I also love the books, and I think they do an excellent job with history. I have had trouble with the writing assignments. I don't think they give enough direction (for the student, or for the parent grading). I am going with Sonlight again next year, but I am adding a writing curriculum from Apologia.

SAL



PnJnKids -> RE: Do you use Sonlight?? (4/12/2008 9:15:32 PM)

I know some people who love Sonlight - it seems to work best for those who are more task-oriented and analytical and like the systematic way things are scheduled. Of course, this is just my impression from talking to Sonlight users in our local support group and online while I was using Sonlight myself.

Short answer: My experience was that I paid retail price for a wonderful box of books with a reading schedule to finish said books in 36 weeks. We did not get enough lasting benefit out of the curriculum itself to make it worth the amount of money.



Longer answer:

Our SL experience:
We used Core 3 - it was overkill on the heavy reading so I tried Core 1. I found that it was the curriculum that was not working rather than the level. It is quite dry and segmented and doesn't flow well. More intellectual than interesting to our family.

I prefer doing something more engaging with elementary kids since God made them to learn best when they are involved in the process in more than one way.
Reading Aloud is Very Important but not the primary way elementary ages learn.

See their "reasons not to buy" and "reasons to buy" lists in the catalog.

They consider it a positive aspect that they don't have projects yet many people on their forums talked about the things they are adding to meet this need for their children. (this was several years ago) Lapbooking, History Pockets, Craft Kits, etc. After spending hundreds of dollars - I still had to add things to complete the curriculum. I decided that Sonlight can say whatever they want, but kids are still created the way they are created.

I think Sonlight would be best suited for jr. high and high school.



misaham -> RE: Do you use Sonlight?? (4/13/2008 6:59:16 PM)

We used Sonlight when DD was in kindergarten, and loved it! We just went to the homeschool convention in Cincinnati, and decided to use it again next year for both kids! I am so excited!
I think we are going to order Core 6 and Core 7, use Core 6 for son (6th grade), and order the Alt 7 teachers manual, and let daughter (8th grade) do it at the one year pace for Core 6 & 7. I would rather do both kids at the same level, but daughter is very anxious to work at a faster pace, so I do not want to hold her back. It is will a little confusing, but I am not sure what else to do.



locomom -> RE: Do you use Sonlight?? (4/17/2008 9:17:46 AM)

We loved getting and reading all those books, but we didn't like the schedule and reading so many books at once. So we did our own schedule, using their assignments.



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