I just have to say that I do LOVE Sonlight. I have not tried out any other curriculum, but I never have felt the need to. Well, that's not entirely true. In the area of Language Arts, I definitely have been trying out different curricula.
I'm going to start by listing what I love about Sonlight.
The literature - hands down, this is my favorite part about Sonlight!! I love reading the books, and my kids (for the most part) love listening to the books. If your kids don't like listening to you read a lot...then Sonlight is not for you.
The integrated subjects/books - Handwriting Without Tears, Explode the Code, All About Spelling, Teaching Textbooks & Horizons are just a few of my favorites that Sonlight includes in their curricula.
Scheduling - Sonlight schedules for you and gives you tips and notes along the way. A huge help! (more so of a help when teaching only one grade, when I got to multiple grades at the same time, I used their schedules as a guide, but ended up making my own.)
Forums - If you buy a core or are an heirloom member (buying 4 cores or more), you get access to their forums. A great help if you have any questions about how to teach something. Buying a core gets you 1 year free access; heirloom is lifetime membership.
History - Sonlight pushes world history in the first few years (K-2). I loved this because we learned so much about other countries, cultures, beliefs, etc. It was a great learning opportunity for my kids. (& me!!)
Bible - The last (but definitely not least) of my favorite things about Sonlight. Memory verses are listed every week. They have scheduled daily Bible readings. It's a great reminder to keep my kiddos memorizing and reading.
Now onto what I don't like so much. I think this is the reason why I put this post on hold for so long. I love this company and truly don't want to say anything 'bad' about it...But my thoughts and opinions are what they are, and I just want to share them.
Grade Levels - I don't like that they call Core A, Kindergarten; Core B, 1st Grade, etc. Especially since the age spread for Core A is 5,6,7. Then you have Core B at 6,7,8. Core C is 7,8,9 . And then at Core D it is 8,9,10,11. I believe the ages for each core refer to the maturity level in regards to their history books and activity sheets. I don't know this as fact, but that's what I tend to believe. And that is where my trouble started. Two of my kids began Kindergarten at the ages of 4 & 5. (During the same year. I did this for ease and because my four year old was advanced). So, in 1st grade (Core B) I had a 5 & 6 year old. In 2nd grade I had a 6 & 7 year old. Everything was running fine. Books seemed to be age appropriate for the most part. Although, my kids would have preferred more pictures. Keep in mind, my one child was an age below the recommended, but was doing well. The real trouble started with Core D (3rd grade). My oldest was at the bottom of Core D's age bracket. Still in the age range. But some of the material that we were reading was more for 11 or 12 year-olds. We were learning about the Aztecs, Incas & Mayans. Let's just say, we didn't make it far before we had to quit the core. The books got quite grotesque. Personally I don't even think an eight or nine year-old should be listening to the stuff we were reading. Yet my oldest's age was included in the Core. Why didn't I start them in a Pre K core you ask??? Well, back when I ordered from them the name of Core A was Kindergarten and since my son was starting Kindergarten, that's the core I purchased. So all this to say, if you do start with Sonlight's cores, I highly recommend starting with a Pre K core for Kindergarten (History), but use all the non-Sonlight subjects that were intended for Sonlight's Kindergarten. (ie Handwriting, Math)
Confused yet? or are you ready for more?? ;)
Activity Sheets (Language Arts & Science) - This kind of coincides with the whole core issue. Since the cores are made for multiple ages, the activity sheets are made for the highest age for that core. I have just gotten to the point where I ask the questions and don't expect them to write essays for every answer. This is more of an issue in LA than it is for Science, but we'll get to that next. Science has some questions that are 'younger age for core' friendly. So the kids find it fun sometimes.
Language Arts - Oh boy. Sonlight's Language Arts. I have to say that this part of Sonlight is absolutely lacking. They take the mindset of natural learning, but I find it to be 'no learning'. In Kindergarten, it's workable. After that. Pointless. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about natural learning. The kids ask what a word means in a story, I'll re-read the sentence and ask them what they think it means. If they still can't figure it out, they go to a dictionary. (Ooooo, that reminds me. I LOVE the American Heritage Student Dictionary! Very kid friendly & real dictionary-like!!) From 1st grade on, they found the LA extremely frustrating. There was crying...by them...by me. We also found Sonlight's spelling miserable. We tried it for three years. My kids did not know how to spell. It was only after All About Spelling that they did better. Sonlight includes optional workbooks that are excellent (Explode the Code, Wordly Wise) though. But watch out for Wordly Wise & MCP Phonics! Sometimes Sonlight has a grade doing too high of a level for those workbooks in a particular grade. Do your research. Try to look it up on Amazon and see a sample or go to a local bookstore to get a hands on view before buying. But again, with Sonlight's LA program, Core A (Kindergarten) is workable.
Okay, those are my thoughts, experiences, and what-not. We are going to do Core D next year (with a 5th & 4th grader, minus the book about Aztecs, Incas & Myans) I don't really know what I would suggest to Sonlight regarding the Cores and ages, but I do know I don't like the way it is done. I have been thinking about this for years and haven't come up with a solution yet. So I thought the best thing to do, was to make people aware that when ordering from Sonlight, definitely pay attention to the ages and not the grade of the Core. My suggestion would be to go with the higher ages on the Core. But that's just me.
As a side note: My good friend suggested for me to try "First Language Lessons" for Language Arts. From what I have seen of it, it looks really good. I'm interested to see how that goes next year. Sonlight does not sell First Language Lessons.
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