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Sonlight Curriculum Regrets

by Momto6
(Maryland)

Visitor Review: If you don't plan on continuing with homeschooling, do not use Sonlight!

I just spent the entire year teaching Sonlight K curriculum to my kindergarten age daughter. I am considering moving her to a Christian Classical school for first grade.

Today, she was tested and I was told she may have to repeat kindergarten if we don't spend the summer getting her caught up. Granted, this school is advanced--they use Saxon Math 2 in 1st grade, but because of (the literature base) all of the time I spent reading to her, she wasn't able to complete the phonics testing.

I am now regretting choosing Sonlight. I wish I would have skipped all of the fantasy stories and spent more time having her read to me and more effort on Phonics and Math. I suppose if you are going to continue homeschooling (for sure), this may work for you, but in my case, it failed miserably.




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Sonlight Curriculum Regrets

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Wish we hadn't used it either
by: Heather

We used Sonlight K, 1, and 2, the whole shebang (core, language arts, and science). My biggest regret is that we stopped using Calvert School and ended up with Sonlight. We're back to Calvert.

My kids failed to learn anything about history (and I used the IG to the letter). They learned how to be very superficial in their answers to questions. They learned not to listen but to drift off into their own worlds.

I feel like we wasted three years of school on Sonlight. It was a hard, hard transition back into real school when we went back to Calvert, but it's been totally worth it. My kids have learned *so* much more in the last year with Calvert than they ever did with three years of Sonlight.

Simply put: Sonlight is thoroughly unchallenging. Definitely look at your reasons for using it and your ultimate goals before choosing it.
1st grade level work?
by: Anonymous

The private school my kids attended in the early years required kids to be reading consonant-vowel-consonant words BEFORE they even went into Kindergarten! I can't think of any program that would provide that, without the parents putting a significant amount of additional effort into phonics. If this school is a full year ahead in math, my guess would be that they are also a full year ahead in reading, as well.

I don't think reading to a child "too much" can possibly make them "behind" in reading, but not putting as much time into teaching phonics aside from the reading as another school does could be a problem.

Many schools don't teach much reading until first grade, and SL's regular readers fall into this camp. However, they do offer the advanced readers, which teaches kids to read much faster. If the private school is doing 1st grade work in kindergarten, a homeschooler would have to do the same, to match them.
A bit confused...
by: Rockytop

What confuses me is didn't you do any phonics/language arts instruction or math with your daughter? Sonlight is more than just the core. In order to have a well-rounded program Sonlight suggests that you add readers, language arts, science, math, handwriting and electives to your Core program.

I don't think Sonlight would ever say to skip reading and math instruction with your K student; but if you didn't do those things I really don't think you can blame Sonlight.

I hope you don't regret the wonderful time you spent with your daughter and the vocabulary enrichment, listening skills and cultural literature she experienced through the Sonlight Core will serve her well in the years to come.

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