Wednesday 19 November 2008

Piggie Pics & Sonlight!

Today we have been to our home ed meeting at the library, which had a great turnout today. We went off into town to check the Works for any cheapy books and got a few bits. There was a huge truancy sweep which coincided with our HE meeting day, but they were nice enough to those HE'rs they stopped, although the girls and I zig zagged up the high street and deftly avoided them:0) This afternoon I went off to work for a few hours and the girls went to nan & grandads. Piggies are thriving and re-named.



This is Ginny Weasley

And this is no longer Ruby, or Mrs Squeak (her 2nd name) but is now Hermione Granger!

As for Sonlight, after a comment left here I feel I should explain a bit further. The things I love about SL is it comes in one big box and the book titles are great, both fiction and non-fiction. The whole curriculum is well laid out, easy to organise and above all you can just pick it up off the shelf and carry on from where you left off. The language arts programmes was good and the girls got on well with it, and we love the timeline book and geography mapwork. Issy loves the bible reading and I wouldn't send anything back.

My problem with it is a) it is an awful lot of reading, and then more reading. We didn't find we had much actual 'doing'. b) When we added more 'doing' ie a lapbook or project we got behind with the reading. c) I didn't like the science curriculum.

Having said that I think Issy will come back to it, as I think she will be able to work through it better next year and as she begins to work more independently. So I would recommend it with reservations that you need to be quite dedicated to keep up with it all and it is mainly an American curriculum not a British one.

I hasten to add this is only my humble opinion and I know many UK HE'rs who love using SL!!!

4 comments:

Shirl said...

Awwww, cute little piggy-wigs!

Luke Holzmann said...

Ginny Weasley [laughing]. Love it. Our rat is named Nevil (yes, after Longbottom).

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you'll add it to the forums as well! I've heard several people say they weren't into the Sonlight science, so any feedback you can give there would be fantastic.

As for the first two issues: Sonlight acknowledges those issues exist, but considers them assets (reasons 1 and 3). Even so, that doesn't always work for people.

I am glad to hear that you have found the titles to be enjoyable and the curriculum useful. Thank you for the feedback and may you find the perfect fit for you and your family whether you end up with Sonlight or not.

Thanks again!

~Luke

Emma said...

I have felt the same about the Sonlight reading so have ditched their schedule and just carried on with our own but we never got the whole core anyway and I'm not sure whether we will go with Core 2 next year or not. I really like the British History program on the Sonlight UK forum and intend on doing that in a year or so. We are taking a break though at the min as all our stuff is still in suitcases so we are just using library books.

The guinea pigs are gorgeous. Great choice of names by the way. I think we may look into some once we have moved and it sounds like a great idea to do a lapbook on them before getting them so they know the care involved.

Glad you are blogging again as I enjoyed reading your blog.

Ruth said...

We have Sonlight, as you know, to Level 6. I can't part with it despite the fact it is now in the shed. The books are not in the shed but the schedules are. Some of it they loved and some of it not. It seemed to be loved more by the older ones. S ( 14)is doing 3/4 now and loves it. We didn't like the science either.