switched to Sonlight for 2014-2015 school year, how it is going

Trying out Sonlight for this school year 2014-2015.


How is it going? Hmmm... Well, here is what we started off with using:

Core 430 Gov. & Economics for the 11th grader who is also doing 12th grade (his choice)
Core 100 Full Core - both the 11th grader and the 9th grader
Core A for the 6 year old "1st grader" (more about that later) and the sweet tag-along 4 year old.

So far we have only dropped one thing from Gov. and Economics - the Thinkwell.  My son HATED it!  A friend recommended Penny Candy.  Not sure what he thinks of that though.

Core 100 - Only the 11th grader is now using it.  I had also purchased D+E (a nightmare of a thing, not the core, but receiving the core - bought it used).  Although my 9th grader is 14 and a little "old" for D+E, when I had looked at the books when I was first searching and praying.. I thought "wow, this looks like she would really enjoy these books."  She is for the most part.  Some are easy, but she does a LOT of her own reading at her level. She is NOT a history fan, so the easier reads make it less painful for her.  AHHH.. the beauty of homeschooling.  :)   We are using a separate grammar, which I have to get on her about using!!  It is high school level. I also have some creative writing things I found on currclick I need to purchasing.  She is really into creative writing.  I also am thinking about a writing curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer.  For other types of writing.

The oldest is also doing a Movies as Literature, not part of Sonlight.  A friend had told me about it.  I thought it would be fun.  I've gotten many complaints about the old movies though. I think they are pretty good.  We are currently working on getting the oldest to use one of those talk to text things so he doesn't have to do any writing.  He hates writing and we have had some major problems with him not doing it.

Core A... I think it's a pretty good core.  I really like the Read Alouds.. but my littles don't sit still for most of them.  They have no interest right now.  Working on changing some things around here.  I have to admit though, I was not thrilled with the way they seem to really jump around from country to country with the Core A.  I realize it is just an introduction, but it just seems to jump too much for my liking.  I am currently praying about whether to just get rid of it or try again once mr. 6 year old is 7.  I'm trying to get the two young ones back into listening to chapter books. NOT EASY!!  So, for now core A is on a shelf.  Instead we are just doing out own thing for history/geography.  At the present time we are learning about knights and castles and throwing in a little princess stuff for the 4 year old.  We started off by making a princess and a knight puppet that stand on their own.  They really enjoyed this.  I also downloaded a lapbook from homeschoolshare.com.  It's a knights and castles one listed for preschool, but when you open it up it starts with that level and goes up.  It's actually a little unit study too.  I am doing on little book or two each day.  We also have a book "100 Things to know about knights and castles".  It's a great book and keeps the interest of the 6 year old. e only read two topics each lesson.  I also purchased three additional books on the knights and castles theme.  One is more informational about knights.  The other two are just fictional stories. 

 The kiddos really like the Core A science video.  I think the worksheets are definitely for someone who is 7.. or older.  So, we are also doing our own thing for science now. Currently we are working through animal habitats.  I purchased something from Teachers Pay Teachers that has several habitats.  They did not have grasslands so I found a free download on some lapbook pieces.  I also purchased something from TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers) on grasslands.  We used these together.  I also own a book on grasslands that ended up being a perfect book when we learned about a few grasslands animals.  The lapbook pieces I got for free were meant to go with the Apologia Zoology books by Jeannie Fulbright, which I thought we had.  We have 1 and 2, but not 3 and that is the one we needed.  I just used the purchase I made and then the book we had.  It was just enough.

I have the grade K and grade 1 language arts.  I opted for the K, but we are only using parts of it.  I thought the parts of it we are using were important to teach.  We are also using the little readers along with another program.  I found a Ready To Read on a blog: moffattgirls.BlogSpot.com.   The woman who created is a former elementary teacher who is homeschooling her children.  It is great because it has a lot of fun hands on activities.  It also teachers sight words and word family words.  There are many levels.  We are using the first level. There is a lot of writing in the grade 1 Sonlight language arts, too much for right now.  I do like the readers though.  I hope to start using them some time in the fall.  I'll see about the writing. I will most likely "tweak" that to fit what I think he can handle. 

We are expecting child number 5 at the end of August, so I plan - if it is the Lords will - to school through July, then break for August and September.  We will pick up sometime in October.  It will be interesting!!

So that is how things are going right now.  I am contemplating going back to My Father's World with the younger ones.  I will of course be praying about it.  I like parts of both curriculums. I may see about combining the two.  We shall see.  :)