DailyDwelling

We are so very close to finishing up our school year. Just a few more math lessons to go and we’re calling ourselves done until we start back again in August!

As we’re finishing up and I’m making final decisions about next year’s curriculum (it’s a never-ending process, isn’t it?) I thought it would be fun to do reviews of what we used this year.

I’m doing this to evaluate what worked and didn’t work this year and as a reference for others who may be searching for next year’s curriculum themselves.

I’m going to make this a series of posts on Thursdays for the next several weeks and we’re going to get started with our core curriculum, Sonlight.

Sonlight is a literature based curriculum that we have used since the beginning. I started my twin girls with Sonlight’s P3/4 curriculum when they were three. It basically just consisted of sitting together and reading books…I loved it!! This was a wonderful way to begin our homeschool journey.

I have continued using Sonlight as our core curriculum every year except last year, when I tried a piecing together a classical curriculum on my own.

I debated again this year whether I would continue using Sonlight and evaluated lots of factors in making my decision.

If there is one thing that I want to give my children through homeschool, it is a love for books and for reading books, especially quality books, like the ones that Sonlight includes in their cores.

I strongly believe that books can open up new worlds for my children and shine a light of understanding of the “old” worlds that I want them to learn as we study history.

With a love of reading, my children can learn anything else that they are interested in…there’s no stopping them!

I love and appreciate the foundation that Sonlight has given my family in this area so, I have decided to continue using Sonlight as our core curriculum.

When I say core curriculum, I am speaking of Bible, History, Literature and Read-alouds. I have chosen to supplement Sonlight’s language arts program quite heavily, and I will be reviewing the materials I use for that in a separate post.

This year my girls, second grade, completed Sonlight’s Core C program, the second year of World History. We covered the time period from the fall of Rome through modern world history. Through the books that we read together this year, we traveled through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and more. We prayed for countries and people groups all around the world. My daughters were just reminiscing last night about how they have enjoyed all the books we read this year.

I started Will, my kindergartener, with Sonlight’s Core A, Intro to the World: Cultures. A few weeks into this year’s school year, it became apparent that he just was not ready to continue on with this core. He is a very typical boy and did not have the maturity to sit, listen, and grasp the concepts that were being taught in this core. So, I decided to focus my time with him this year on learning to read, handwriting and math. I am so glad that I did! He made a ton of progress throughout the year and has learned so much because I stepped back and did what was really best for him at this time.

I was quite perplexed as to what I should do for next year, but after speaking to a Sonlight advisor, I am so confident in the decisions that I have made and {almost} can’t wait to get started again!

If you use Sonlight’s curriculum or are even considering it, but aren’t sure how to make it work with your family, I would strongly encourage you to call a Sonlight advisor. I felt so encouraged and empowered after making that call myself!

If you are looking for a literature based core curriculum, I would highly recommend Sonlight. It has served us well and I know it will continue to do so for many more years to come!