Sonlight

Can I Brag?

I’m mostly bragging on Turkey and Bunny, here, but if I’m to be honest, I’m also bragging on my teaching skills a bit. Mea culpa.

We’re almost done with first grade–(even though technically, based on age, Bunny should be finishing kindergarten)–just about six weeks left to go, so I thought I’d give Turkey and Bunny a reading assessment. Not comprehension or anything, just a flat-out, ability to read, assessment.

Turkey scored around a fourth grade level, and Bunny at sixth!

I knew they were way ahead of their grade level, because the stuff we’re reading in Language Arts isn’t challenging them anymore–I’ve been giving them extra stuff to read so they don’t get bored. But I didn’t know they’d be this far ahead!

This is huge for me. My number one concern almost two years ago when we started this journey was whether or not I’d be able to teach them to read. I had no idea how that process worked. I’ve never even helped a child read better, much less teach one from the ground up. And here I had two students to teach! I knew that my ability to help them learn to read (and learn to love reading!) would determine whether or not we’d be homeschooling long term, or if it would be just  a one-time thing.

Well, I guess I succeeded (although, to be honest, the credit really goes to by two hard-working students, who just want to learn as much as they can)! And this confidence boost couldn’t have come at a better time, because we’re approaching my number two fear in teaching–learning how to carry numbers when adding. I don’t know if we’ll survive that one!

A Day in Our School

Here’s what a typical school day looks like for us, for those who are interested.

9:00 a.m. We start our school day with our memory verse for the week, calendar and weather.

9:05 a.m. Bible and catechism (on Mondays, we also learn about the different parts of the Divine service, so our morning schedule on Mondays is pushed back 10 minutes).

9:20 a.m. Math

9:50 a.m. Language Arts, including reading, copywork and creative expression.

10:10 a.m. Spelling

10:20 a.m. Handwriting

10:35 a.m. Read-aloud time from our current Little House: The Rose Years book.

We’re usually done for the morning by about 10:50, and we take a break then, which includes lunchtime (and naptime for Bunny and the little ones)–that’s the beauty of homeschooling–the only schedule we have to follow is our own!

2:00 p.m. We start up again for the afternoon with History, Geography, poetry, and our Sonlight read-aloud for the week.

2:30 p.m. Science (on Thursdays, we have science experiment day).

On Wednesday afternoons, we look at a page-spread in First Thousand Words in German, on Fridays we have electives (either art or music appreciation).

P.E. is fit in in a variety of ways, including as part of spelling (you’ll have to trust me on that one), or in our down time after we’re done for the morning. It’s amazing the stuff kids are willing to do, without having any idea that it’s part of their education!

Fridays are also usually half-days for us, as we are only doing math and spelling four days a week at this point, and science is light on Fridays. That will change half-way through our school year, though, and then we’ll probably have the same schedule all five days.

On an average day, we’re done with school around 3:00 p.m. So, we have about three solid hours in the classroom every day (except Friday), which is at least twice as much time as Kindergarten took us. I hope we don’t see that kind of time doubling every year!

Box Day!

Homeschooling families can appreciate what an exciting day this was for us–the day we opened our new boxes of Sonlight materials for the coming year.

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We’ve had the two boxes since last month, but I wanted to wait until Turkey and Bunny were officially done with Kindergarten before we looked at our new stuff. I don’t who was more excited about it–me or them. Turkey found the math stuff right away, and started digging through the manipulatives. He was also very interested in the science books. Bunny just wanted to look at every single book she found–House at Pooh Corner seemed to top out as her favorite, because she kept coming back to it.

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Even though *I* went through the boxes when they arrived, to double-check the order, I was still amazed today at just how many books we’re going to be reading. It’s a daunting, exciting, wonderful task.

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Now I just have to put together my instructor’s guides and get everything organized. And I think I need to get another bookshelf…

Homeschool Review: Sonlight

I figured as long as I’m already reviewing books, I might as well review homeschool products, too.  I’m hoping to branch out a little more here–I’m sure I’ll review a lot of books, but I also plan on reviewing CDs, DVDs, materials, kits, and whole programs.

And what better place to start reviewing than with the product we have used the most–our Sonlight curriculum!

Having survived our first of homeschooling, I feel that I have a pretty good handle on what Sonlight is, what they provide, and what the company is like.  And I have to say, I couldn’t possibly give them enough stars!  Did I like every single item in our curriculum for the year? No. I can think of two things in particular that I didn’t like, one to the point that I abandoned it altogether.  But did I like almost everything?  Yes!  Both the children and I found many, many books that we just loved, and never would have read were it not for Sonlight.

To really explain how great Sonlight is, I need to delve a little further into the specific things that make me love them, and that make them stand apart from any other companies out there.  So, without further ado, the:

10 Reasons I Love Sonlight

  • Great Customer Service–The few times I’ve had a problem with an order, it has been taken care of immediately, and with no fuss.
  • Similar Values–Because Sonlight is a Christian company, I know that they share my values, and I don’t have to worry about the materials I’ll be using when teaching my children.
  • Honesty–Sonlight gives you a list up-front of reasons you may not want to use their curriculum.  I appreciate their honesty in admitting that Sonlight won’t work for every family.
  • Free Shipping and Discounts–If you purchase a Core from Sonlight, you receive free shipping for a year, which comes in handy when you realize you need more handwriting paper, or you decided to upgrade you Language Arts package before you start the next Core.
  • Book Selection–I love the books Sonlight uses.  It’s the perfect mix of books I loved as a child, books I’ve heard are good but never actually read, and books I’ve never heard of before.  Nice and diverse.
  • Easy to Use–The instructor’s guide plans (almost) everything out for me.  I don’t have to figure out what to do when, or worry that I’m covering all the right things.
  • Online Community–Sonlight has a good set of forums (membership is another perk of purchasing a Core) where you can connect with other parents having the same experiences in their schools.
  • Personal Phone Calls–I received probably two or three phone calls in the last year just to check on our schooling experience and find out if I had any questions or problems.  That helped remind me that I’m not alone in this adventure!
  • Time Saver–Not only does having the curriculum planned out save me time from having to do that on my own, it also frees up time for me to plan special units for use through the school year, which is a fun extra that I really enjoy (but I would never want to have to plan out our entire curriculum!).
  • Internet Presence–In addition to the forums, Sonlight also has a great website that makes ordering super-easy, and several blogs about homeschooling to read.  I’ve even received comments on my blog from Sonlight–talk about customer service!

And, a Bonus Eleventh Reason I Love Sonlight:

  • Tackling the Hard Issues–I love that Sonlight does not shy away from things some Christians would just avoid altogether (from evolution to mythology, and books that just contain secular situations).  I think that my children need to learn about these things, learn why they believe what they do, learn what is appropriate for them and what is not, and I think they should be doing these things at home with my guidance.  Sonlight allows that to happen by including the tough stuff, and a way in which to discuss it and learn from it.

    That’s a lot of Books!

    After a friend asked me yesterday how many books we use in a year of school, I got curious and counted.  I didn’t count this year’s books, because in my opinion, Kindergarten is “lighter” than later grades, so instead I counted the books (and workbooks) we’ll be using for 1st Grade..

    Going through my recent Sonlight order of Core K (it sounds like we’re doing Kindergarten again, but it doesn’t work that way, trust me!),  Readers 2 and Language Arts for Readers 2 (which we won’t be starting on at the beginning of 1st Grade, but I had to count either those or Readers 1; since Readers 2 and Language Arts 2 was in the same shipment, they’re in my tally), Horizons Math 1, Science K, Bible K, Electives K, A Reason for Handwriting Book A, and A Reason for Spelling Book A, I came up with approximately 75 books.

    This total includes eight individual workbooks(2 math, 3 language arts, 1 vocabulary, 1 handwriting, and 1 spelling) that we need two copies each of, but none of the teacher guides or worksheet packs.  It also includes a few resource books that will be used over the course of many years, including a student dictionary, a children’s encyclopedia and Sonlight’s Book of Time.

    Stopping to count our books reminds me what a daunting task homeschooling is, what a great book list Sonlight has put together, and how much I love books and reading.  Whenever I think about it, I’m terrified and elated at the same time. Interesting combination, but so far, it seems to be working for me!

    A Milestone, Sort Of

    We still have a few weeks of Sonlight’s Core P 4/5, so I can’t say we’ve finished (survived?) our first year of homeschooling yet. That will come when we’ve finished the whole core, and I can say Turkey and Bunny have moved on from Kindergarten to First Grade (how did that happen so fast, anyway?).

    But this week we are finishing Language Arts K.  I began realizing about a month ago–maybe six weeks–that Turkey and Bunny were getting bored, that the pacing of L.A. K was getting to be too slow.  So I accelerated the program considerably (one of the many benefits of Sonlight–it’s so easy to adjust the pacing to fit your children), and this week we’ll be done with it, and next week we’ll be moving on to L.A. 1.

    It’s a weird feeling knowing we’ve finished something. I had so many doubts about my abilities to teach them when we started last year–I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be able to teach them to read; that I’d have to admit defeat and send them to the public school.

    Don’t get me wrong, I have a whole new set of doubts and fears as I look at L.A. 1, and all of the new stuff that will be my responsibility to teach (and don’t even get me started on my fears relating to the Core K that I ordered yesterday!). Now that we’ve been doing this for almost a year, and we’ve actually successfully completed something, I am gaining confidence in myself, in them, and in my choice of curriculum (which was never really in question, but it’s nice to have that kind of confirmation).

    Next stop–saying goodbye to Kindergarten!

    Blast Off!

    I’m working on a “summer school” unit for Turkey and Bunny.  We’re kind of doing year round schooling, but I don’t want to start our regular curriculum earlier and earlier every year (at least not until they’re older), so in addition to the special units I do during the regular school year, I’m tyring to come up with some summer units as well.  Right now, my main focus is on outer space, as it’s something that they’re both interested in, and something that has a lot of available resources, and resources that can go beyond science (history, reading, math, biographies, etc.).

    We already have quite a few books about space, courtesy of Turkey’s interest, so I have a starting point for my lessons.  We have three DK Readers, which will be useful both for reading practice and learning: Rockets and Spaceships; Starry Sky; and Astronaut Living in Space.  We will also re-read one of our favorites–There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System.  Although this is written in the style of Dr. Seuss, and stars the Cat in the Hat, it actually teaches quite a lot about outer space, and is just a fun book to read.

    We also have two encyclopedia-type books: My Book of Space and the DK First Space Encyclopedia.  These books (especially the latter) have to be read with some care, to avoid the topic of the “Big Bang,” which I do not feel is an appropriate subject at this young age.  When Turkey and Bunny are older, we’ll discuss the theory, as well as why it’s incorrect, but for now, until they can process more fully, we are avoiding the subject altogether.

    We’ll also be reading some Magic School Bus titles (The Magic School Bus Takes a Moonwalk and The Magic School Bus: Sees Stars, but not The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System, as that will be a Sonlight book down the road), and I’m hoping to get the Magic School Bus: Secrets of Space science kit, which will provide us with lots of science experiments and projects, including making a telescope (although we’ll be using Turkey’s real telescope in the evenings to hopefully look at some of the things we’re learning about) and  a model of the solar system.secrets-of-space-boxsecrets-of-space-contents

    I want Turkey and Bunny to also learn about a person more in-depth, and after seeing an age-appropriate book about him at Moose’s school’s recent book fair, I decided on Neil Armstrong.  Who is Neil Armstrong? (part of Scholastic’s Who Was…? series) is a child-friendly biography of Neil Armstrong’s life, including his famous journey to the moon.

    I found a cool book at the library recently that I’m also hoping to use (as long as someone else hasn’t checked it out!): the DK/Google e.guide–Space Travel.  I can’t believe I’ve never come across any of these books before, especially since this particular one is almost five years old, but I find them very interesting.  All of these e.guides have Internet links written into the book for further study.  This will be helpful in learning about space, and in learning a little more about using the computer.

    I’m hoping to find The Best Book of Spaceships at the library, as well.  This book was supposed to be a birthday present for Turkey, but it’s “temporarily unavailable.”  I don’t know if it’s going out of print, or maybe is just going through a new printing, but I’m hoping one of the libraries in our system has it. I may also try to find the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Space at the library.  We’ve used several Usborne books in school this year, and I’ve been impressed with them overall, but if this title is too repetitive of what we already have, or focuses too much on the “Big Bang,” I won’t bother checking it out.

    I’ve seen some children’s books out there about individual planets (or pairs of planets), but the titles are escaping me at the moment.  If I can ever remember what they were called, I may try to find those at the library, too.  I’d like to learn about a different planet each day for nine days (yes, I’m still counting Pluto), in addition to the sun, other stars, space travel, and all the other things I have planned, and that would be an easy way to go about it, *if* I can find them.

    I’m sure we’ll also do the puzzle Turkey received as a Christmas present at least once.  It’s a big Melissa and Doug floor puzzle of the solar system, and even though he and Bunny have pretty much memorized it, it’s a helpful tool for remembering the names of the planets, where they’re located in relation to Earth, and what they look like.

    I have a lot of stuff planned for this unit–right now, I’m planning on it lasting two weeks, but I’m sure I could easily turn it into three (maybe even four) weeks of instruction.  It will be something to keep little brains busy in between Sonlight cores this summer, anyway–it’s just too bad they’re not old enough to watch Apollo 13!  Maybe we can sneak an episode of Star Trek in there–even though it’s fiction, it has shaped a lot of the way we view space travel!

    Box Day “Lite”

    We got to have a mini Sonlight “Box Day” this week.  It was, in a lot of ways, even more fun than our first “real” box day last summer, because Turkey and Bunny knew what the box was, knew there would be lots of books in it, and followed me (along with Moose and Ladybug, who were just plain curious), like a parade to the schoolroom.

    It’s a decent amount of books, even though all I ordered was the next levels of Language Arts and Readers, which we’ll begin using in a few weeks.  Nothing like a full box day, with all the subjects, but Turkey and Bunny entertained themselves for quite a while looking through the books, picking out which ones they’ve read before (some of the Dr. Seuss), guessing what others were about, and wondering if they would *really* be able to read some of them on their own before too long.  It was kind of a nice break to the regular routine of school.

    I had a moment of panic, however, as I looked through the teacher’s guide.  We started our homeschooling journey, what, seven, eight months ago?  And I had forgotten in just that short amount of time how daunting a task it is to hold that new teacher’s guide in my hands and realize that my children’s education is falling solely on my shoulders.

    I remembered (rather quickly) having that same feeling as I looked at our first core purchase–I didn’t know how I’d be able to do it!  Would they really be able to read the whole Fun Tales set by the time the year was over?  (The answer is a resounding yes!)  Would I be able to teach the things they need to know?  Would I find a way to schedule my days to make the most of all of our time?

    But as we settled into a routine, and I saw how eager they were to learn, most of those questions and concerns vanished.  So here I am, back to square one, wondering how I’m going to be able to teach them to read longer words, to use proper grammar, to write on their own.  I’m guessing that these concerns will also fade as we get started (I hope!).

    I wonder if I will feel this way every year, as I see the difficulty levels of their materials increasing?

    A New Plan

    I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me earlier. To be honest, and to my shame, it wasn’t even my idea–it was Ryan who came up with it.

    When we started kindergarten last year, we began with Sonlight’s P 4/5 Core, but added Core K’s Language Arts and Readers.  The 4/5 stuff was just too easy–learning letters and their sounds and such, which Turkey and Bunny already knew.  Core K LA was a good fit, because it reviews letter sounds, and starts with reading simple, three letter words. And that was great for us when we started, because, even though they knew all the letter sounds, it took them some time to figure out how to turn that into words.

    But for a few months now, Turkey and Bunny have been reading three letter words with ease, and have been venturing out into five and six letter words when they can.  So, in planning my curriculum for next year, I realized that the Core 1 LA and Readers may not provide enough of a challenge for them to last the whole year, but, they’re not something I can really skip, either.

    So, Ryan had a great plan.  I’m going to order the LA and Readers from Core 1 next week, and in the meantime, I’m going to finish the Core K stuff by doing two letters a week instead of one.  This way, we’ll start the Core 1 stuff before we’re done with our kindergarten year, and if we accelerate the pace of that, too, we’ll finish them early into 1st grade, and be able to start on (and hopefully finish) the Core 2 LA and Readers by the end of 1st grade.

    It seems like such an easy plan, now–if only I had thought of it before, we’d be well into the Core 1 readers by now!

    Thank You, Mr. Postman!

    I got my much anticipated Sonlight catalog today!  I have to hand it to the good people at Sonlight–they sure know how to build anticipation.  The forums have just been crazy with little hints and sneak peeks, and even though I don’t post over there, I’ve been reading everything with excitement.  For the last month, I’ve been beside myself knowing it was almost time, and ever since word went out that they were in the mail, I’ve been feverishly checking the mail box.  Well, today was my day, and I’ve already flipped through it several times!

    I’m excited about the changes I’m seeing to the science curriculum.  Granted, other than the P 4/5, I’ve never used Sonlight’s science (which really means that I haven’t had a “real” science curriculum, complete with instructor’s guide and experiments), so I don’t know anything about the books that were axed, but the new ones that were added, especially for our grade next year, look really interesting and appropriate.

    The only thing I’m a little disappointed with is the fact that Hero Tales is no longer part of the history curriculum in Core K.  I’ve never read it, but it sounded interesting.  I’m sure that the new book with which it was replaced is equally good, but I’m thinking I may pick up Hero Tales anyway.

    The best part? The prices on some of the stuff went up, but it looks like a few things actually went down, so I don’t think that overall, it will cost me much more than it would have if I had purchased it before the new prices went into effect.

    I love that Sonlight puts together such good reading lists for me–many of the books I remember from my own childhood, some I’ve heard of, but never had a chance to read, and some are complete unknowns to me, which is good in it’s own way.  The fact that I don’t have to piece together a curriculum really frees up my time for other things  (like planting our new nectarine tree…science lesson, anyone?).

    I had no idea the effect that homeschooling (and Sonlight) would have on our whole family.  Never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate getting this excited over a catalog (well, aside from the good old Sears Wish Book when I was a kid!)–just imagine what box day is going to be like!