Review In A Nutshell: Title: Sonlight Curriculum
Author: Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.
Price: around $325 – $800 plus extras, depending on level and package
Overall Rating (1-10): 6
Value (1-10): 4
Flexibility (1-10): 6
Ages/Grades: PreK-10
Review:
Sonlight Curriculum is a very popular curriculum for homeschooling families. I have heard many comments about the curriculum and have had many requests for reviews so I was eager to take a look, myself.
Sonlight is a Christian curriculum and Christianity is woven throughout the texts. However many secular homeschoolers do not find it difficult to take out the religious references. Sonlight is sold as a “core” curriculum containing the subjects of Bible, Read-Alouds, Readers and History plus the Instructors Guide. Sonlight also has Science and Language Arts add-ons; these are not sold as part of the Core curriculum package. Additionally, Sonlight does not have a math program but sells popular math programs such as Saxon and Singapore Math as well as popular language arts, art and music curriculums. For the “curriculum in a box” user, Sonlight offers a “Comprehensive” curriculum package with the core components plus the language arts, science and some “extracurricular” such as music. Additionally, you can “mix and match” or add on only parts and pieces to the Core package. It’s relatively easy to “one stop shop” for your entire curriculum but be prepared to spend a bundle. My biggest complaint about the Sonlight curriculum is with the price – it is exorbitant and out of reach for many homeschoolers. If money is no object, the one-stop shopping can, indeed, be appealing. There are also not a lot of consumables so curriculum can be passed down, for the most part, to younger siblings.
Sonlight is heavily literature-based. As the parent, you should be prepared to spend a LOT of time reading to your child. If your child loves to be read to, and later, loves to read and learns well this way, he will enjoy Sonlight. However, not all children have a strong auditory learning ability. And of those who do, not all of them absolutely love to read. And since your child will spend the bulk of her time engrossed in literature, one way or another, this is a vital component to the success of Sonlight.
Another frustration I had with Sonlight was the pure length of the day. You can expect your child to devote between 3.5 and 5 hours a day to his studies although this can vary greatly depending on the speed at which your child reads or is read-to. Keep in mind this does not include math instruction or additional instruction. Additionally, parents can expect to spend around three hours directly “teaching” (reading, etc). Many homeschooling families do not wish to spend so much time behind a desk and many children simply do not have the attention span to focus on auditory processing for so many hours. It is possible to scale down the curriculum yourself however it becomes difficult to decide what to skip and what to keep. A common concern is how to combine instruction for multiple children. Sonlight does make it possible to combine Core instruction for multiple children and just diversify math and science instruction for individual children. However if you have many children, as I do, there is no practical way to stretch the curriculum and math needs across so many children in a given day. I would be burned out from homeschooling in no time and the children would be bored stiff. If I continued with Sonlight curriculum, I would definitely need to scale back on the reading and keep it to only an hour or two a day.
Sonlight levels are not equivalent to a public school grade. Most parents find that their children use a level or two behind their given grade. Because they are challenging, Sonlight appeals to gifted homeschoolers. Also those who favor the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling tend to really enjoy Sonlight for its classical literature guidance and focus. I found that laying out the lessons in the way it did is beneficial to the new homeschooler who had no clue how to organize a day or where to begin. It would be near impossible to follow the curriculum, as is, and not come out with an education far surpassing it’s public school equivalent. It’s a rock solid program in terms of content and scope and sequence.
Visit the Sonlight website for more information on all of their curriculum offerings.
Bottom Line: If money is no object and your child is a highly auditory learner and a bookworm, he or she will absolutely love this rock solid curriculum. However if you are on a tight budget, if you have a child who is not a strong auditory learner or reader, if you have limited time with which to homeschool, if you really dislike reading out loud then your money is best spent elsewhere. Experienced homeschoolers I know have said that they purchased Sonlight for the first year of homeschooling, in order to get into the groove of things and find their own pace. After that, they used the book titles from the Sonlight website and their local library in order to construct their own – free – curriculum without any problems at all. An experienced homeschooler probably won’t miss the Instructors Manual enough to justify the price tag.