Need help regarding Sonlight program.....

[maureen73]

I am getting ready to begin grade K with my eldest in two weeks and started reading my Sonlight Manual. It includes the schedule and appendix but where is the "meat" of the program. Other than reading the books with my child, what else is there? Where are the questions and learning sections about the books? I must be missing something?

[weintz8]

I found this difficult also. I just started making up my own activities, but I do feel that this is something lacking with the program.

[Leah52]

I haven't done K but in the back of the higher cores (1,2) there are sections for History, Read alouds and Readers that has questions, word definitions, map references and other things like that. There isn't a lot of "hands on" stuff except for science where they have worksheets for each lesson and we do one experiment a week.

If you want more hands on stuff try looking up Sonlight "gravy" pages where other moms have put together activities to do for lessons like Roads to Learning.

[o3b]

I've got a K from last year, and I believe it's the exact one you are looking at. The "meat" is in the actual reading from the lesson plans. That is why I like Sonlight - it is more of a "share a book" experience than textbook style. The questions that Leah mentioned are there, but there is a LOT less to cover per book in K than in Cores 1 and up. The Cores get more advanced each year. For example, in Core 4, you would find a lot of cultural background, vocab, and other info that sheds light on the book. Sometimes you will read a whole page just to cover the intro before starting the book.

I didn't know about the "gravy" and I'm going to look that up.

[weintz8]

Thats good to know about there being more "meat" in the higher cores. That makes sense to me I guess that K would just be getting kids used to reading and then it would slowly add in more work. Thanks for posting this question

[maureen73]

Thank goodness I am not alone in my thoughts....I was starting to get very concerned. I really appreciate that you shared the Roads to Learning website. It is exactly what I was searching for to supplement the curriculum.

Any other pointers regarding Sonlight as we start our journey would also be much appreciated.

[TwoInCloth]

It looks like it's not enough, but once you start you may be suprised. The reading sparks a lot of wonderful discussion. The Usborne Encyclopedia has a lot of neat internet links. Living Long Ago has project ideas.
We are supplementing with Singapore Math and Handwriting Without Tears. After HWOT, we will move on to SL LA1. It's kept us very busy! I hope you end up enjoying it as much as we are enjoying it.

[maureen73]

We are going to include Sonlight Science, HWOT and Christian Light Math so all together that should be a good program?

[weintz8]

Originally Posted by maureen73 We are going to include Sonlight Science, HWOT and Christian Light Math so all together that should be a good program?

That sounds good. We are about half way through Sonlight Core K and I added McRuffy Math and Reading/Phonics and HWOT and it feels pretty complete. Although I have been looking at some science programs to add in...

[o3b]

Originally Posted by TwoInCloth It looks like it's not enough, but once you start you may be suprised. The reading sparks a lot of wonderful discussion.

Yes!! This is the case for ALL the Cores we've done so far (1-4, working on K, and starting 5 this fall). I think this discussion is where the learning comes in b/c it is so much more relevant to them when we are having a conversation.