....inhaling that new book smell :)
Is it ever to early to think about new school books?? Apparently my 12 year old thinks it is LOL. I've been saving my money since last September and early last week I put in my yearly curriculum order with Sonlight. This fall we'll be starting grade 7 and normally when the new catalogue comes out there's always a handful of items that have increased in price so I'm beating them to the punch and buying them now :)
So many good books this year! January and February always seem to be the months when I sort of feel tired with what we're doing and having all these new novels is really going to spur me on to finish up this year by the end of May. Plus I really want to read some Charles Dickens with him. Maybe I'll have to pack some of them along when we go camping this summer *grin*. I just won't tell him they are school related *wink*.
Hugs,
Rosina
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11 comments:
Oh yay, new books!! You must be doing Core 7? It's always good to order while the Canadian dollar is doing well too!
I won't be ordering til July.
I have been looking at putting more structure into our day and see a lot of folks using Sonlight.I dont know anyone here who uses it but was wondering how it would work for a secular family?
Some of those books look brilliant
Our "Box Day" will be coming soon. We're doing the Alt. 7 next year. Can't wait! I was just looking at the books we have left this year and thinking we will not get to all of them. Some I am skipping on purpose,as we've already read them. It's been a great Sonlight year!
That is so great that you were able to get those books before the prices went up. And there is so much goodness in that pile. Happy reading.
...amd thanks for sharing your thoughts on gratitude. There is so much to be grateful for!
:)Lisa
Happy Box Day!
~Luke
That stack of new books made me feel a little woozy!! I love a new book order!
wow you got your books early. We used Sonlight a couple times...that is a great curiculum. Hope all is well. I have often thought of how your dad is doing. hope good. Hugs,Mica
Hi Jessica :) If you are looking for structure then Sonlight can definitely give you that :)
The instructor guide that come with the core program includes: history/geography, read alouds and readers and they break the entire school day down into 4 or 5 day schedules (you choose) and map out exactly what books to read, how many pages, what questions to ask, include answer keys for you, tips, projects... everything. What I totally loved in the first years of our homeschooling journey was that I had to do NO planning. It is completely done for you and you can still supplement additional materials your children are interested in. One thing I would say is that if anything their guides are so full that you may not make it through all of the material in a year and I think that is completely OK. They will still get loads of learning done if you miss a couple of books or lessons and these days I find I do stray from the guide more but it works as a great backbone *grin*.
I love love their history/geography books. They do have a handful every year mixed in with the history and readers that are geared towards a christian perspective which you could easily just skip and not read but on the whole I think most of them are just some really fantastic literature. In the instructor guides they list daily bible readings and verses to use but this again can be completely ignored and for the early grades there are no specific bible study books included in the core program until you reach grade 6.
The science on the other hand is taught from a creationists point of view so you may want to seek some of your science materials from another source BUT get a copy of their catalogue or look online for the science grade you are teaching because they do use a lot of fantastic Usborne books and I can't say enough about their 'TOPS' science books on electricity, magnetism, adhesion/cohesion, plants and more as they are really inexpensive and loaded with great hands on science activities with all the instructions, worksheets and answers included and they are just about the science itself and nothing with a religious slant.
So I would say yes you can definitely teach your history, geography, and language arts easily from a secular point of view and even your science if you pick and choose your books :) The materials are a little pricey to buy brand new but you can find TONS of the books and guides for great used prices on Ebay, Vegsource.com, the Sonlight.com forums where you can buy/sell, and I'm sure there are lots more. Also any of the books you don't want to use if you buy the whole package can be resold easily to as lots of mama's are always working on piecing together the program second hand :)
If you want to have a look at the first 3 weeks of any of the Instructor guides you can go to the Sonlight website here: http://www.sonlight.com/3-week-samples.html
and just check off the boxes and they will email any of the ones you want to check out for free :) Another thing I ran across when I was doing a quick search on secular sonlight for you was that there is a Yahoo Group specifically set up for Secular Sonlight users at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SonlightSecular/
and it looks like it is a very active group and they will be able to give you the whole lowdown on how they modified their materials better than I could ever as we're just using it all :)
I sure hope that has given you a little more information and that checking out the guides and hooking up with the secular yahoo group will answer the rest :)
Hugs
Thankyou Rosina, I ordered a catalog online from them the other day so i could check out what is on offer.But need to wait till the new one is printed.A backbone would be good, we would be taking and leaving things that interest us and dont interest us.
While I am waiting for said catalouge i think i will get a copy of the story of the world.That seems to be a good one:)
Thankyou so much for all the infomation, I think i am going to delve in a bit and get my toes wet, it cannot hurt, esp with one child looking for structure and one determined to make it to uni!
I love it when the book box comes.
My kids and I get so excited when new books arrive. We use Story of the World, too. This week we are finishing vol 2 and all three of my boys can't wait for vol 3 - I love how I can so easily teach the different ages with STOTW.
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