# Homeschooling with Sonlight?



## Puritan Sailor (Jul 11, 2008)

Anyone used the Sonlight curriculum for homeschooling their children? Any strengths or weaknesses? We're trying to decide on one for our children this year and this program seemed to be pretty good. Any input would be helpful.

How would it compare to Veritas?


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## toddpedlar (Jul 11, 2008)

We don't use it - looked at it, and have friends who use it. It's certainly far below Veritas in terms of rigor, and one of the things we really didn't like at all was the fact that they combine instruction in reading and literature skills with history... the attempt is made to get "two for one" in some sense, and we didn't like the fact that our girls would never really be doing much literature study apart from the reading done for history. We're going rather eclectic - Veritas-influenced, but also pulling from several other sources.


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## Leslie (Jul 12, 2008)

Sonlight is absolutely great in my opinion. The literature selections are superb and all the subjects tie into each other to the extent possible. It's expensive but brilliantly-conceived. What I really like is that it's world-focused, so kids end up being world Christians, not America-only Christians. Yet it does not neglect American history. It's quite feasible to get a grade level between the ages of two kids and adapt the curriculum to be more or less challenging. I used it to educate an Ethiopian boy that we adopted and ended up buying a lot of their other books. It was where I was first introduced to Rushdoony (but they are not theonomists-only people). Any time I go to a library, it's with their catalog in hand.


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## kvanlaan (Jul 12, 2008)

I would second Mary's notion. We've used it for all our children for 8 years now and love the system. While it may appear a 2-for-1 approach at first glance, in practice you will likely see something much different emerge. Because the history is often in the form of literature (but not always) we have children who actually see history as a living thing, interesting, and have a deep desire to learn more about it. They also read like there's no tomorrow (our big readers are 10, 9, and 8 years old - the weekly library trip is an incredible highlight.) We've found it to be absolutely wonderful for our children and rigorous enough to keep it challenging for even our brightest ones.

If you want to know more, please feel free to PM me - my wife is the real expert on it and would be happy to fill you in on the details.


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## Mindaboo (Jul 12, 2008)

I used Sonlight with my kids for about 4 years and we loved it. We didn't find one read aloud or reader that my children didn't like. As a matter of fact we are reading through some of them again and my older two spend a lot of time rereading the books. I liked the fact that we learned a lot about missionaries and the world. I didn't care for the Bible curriculum, I quit it every year that we started it. I found the Language Arts great, it was very thorough. The only problem I had with Sonlight was at times it overwhelmed me. There is a lot to get through. A lot of people take two years and complete a one year cycle. My family learned a lot. They have forums that you can go to to ask questions and I found that helpful. I still use the read aloud list to give me ideas for reading to my kids.

I don't know about Veritas. I have never been brave enough or had enough money to purchase it. I do have one friend who uses it and absolutely loves it. I do have the timeline cards and we use those to memorize dates and they are great. I do know Veritas and Sonlight use a lot of the same literature. 

I don't think you would go wrong with either one of these programs. If you don't have Sonlight's catalog, get it. I found that very helpful when I was trying to decide what to do.


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## Kevin (Jul 12, 2008)

We use it, with some other things thrown in the mix as well, and we really like it.


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## kvanlaan (Jul 12, 2008)

We would have to say ditto on the Bible curriculum. We used "Leading Little Ones to God" but I would think for most folks on the PB, their own family devotions are a good deal more rigorous than the Bible curriculum presented in Sonlight. We have stuck with Scripture memory and do a good deal of Bible reading during class, but not in step with the layout in the curriculum.


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## Puritan Sailor (Jul 12, 2008)

Thanks for the feedback so far. Any more would be appreciated. 

What is it about the bible curriculum that you find deficient?


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## Mindaboo (Jul 12, 2008)

Personally, I didn't feel like it was reformed enough. There was one book in particular that talked a lot about praying the return of Jesus as though we were not bringing it back quickly enough and that we had some power over Jesus' return. Most of it also seemed like busy work without any depth. I felt like we were covering the stories of David and Goliath and all of the other stories that generally get covered in Sunday School. I like reading scripture to my kids and having them memorize, which Sonlight also recommends. We worked through Susan Hunt's books like Discovering Jesus in Genesis and Big Truths for Little Kids based on the WSC. We are now working on Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade also based on the WSC. 

We haven't done Sonlight for a couple of years so the Bible may have changed. Aside from the Bible, we loved the curriculum and if we ever leave our Classical Conversations group we will return to it.

Just a side note, I always purchased the Bible portion, because it was cheaper to just buy it with the program. I tried it every year that we used it and always gave up in frustration.


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## kvanlaan (Jul 17, 2008)

to what Mindy said.

I also felt that the program wasn't very reformed. There are little glimpses of Arminianism in there (nothing blatant, just little hints here and there) and that was the portion that we were more rigorous with anyway.


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## Leslie (Jul 18, 2008)

I should add that if you are going with Sonlight, don't make the mistake that I did and order a level higher than you should, especially with a foreign-adopted child. It's MUCH easier to upgrade from a lower level than to downgrade from a higher level. That being said, their fifth grade curriculum is an absolutely superb introduction to various cultures and world history. If we were still doing this, I would start with the fifth grade for any child from fifth grade through eighth.


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