The Scoop on Our Switch to Sonlight History
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I’ll admit it: I’m a creature of habit. A bit of a control freak. I like routines. I like the comfort of familiarity, and knowing what to expect.
I don’t like change.
If I’m being honest, sometimes the thought of trying something new in our homeschool can be overwhelming to the point of me not trying it at all, and just sticking to what I know.
For example, there were many days this past fall where our history curriculum got pushed to the backburner. There was nothing wrong with the curriculum, necessarily; we usually enjoyed the topics we were learning, and often had good discussions. We had a textbook we read together and worksheets we completed each day. However, I felt we were missing out in the historical literature department, and I can’t say that completing worksheets was the highlight of my kids’ history education.
In all honesty, textbooks and worksheets were how I grew up learning history…and it quickly became my least favorite subject. Why was I expecting something different for my kids (cue definition of insanity…)?
When I came across the Sonlight history curriculum and saw all of the rich literature included, my first thought was, “That looks like a really engaging curriculum! But I’ve already got my curriculum for the year, and we’re going to plug through and FINISH IT!”
Ridiculous, right? I was breaking one of the golden rules of homeschooling: you have the freedom to fix what’s not working (so do it).
Luckily, I came to my senses, bit the bullet, and we jumped into Sonlight’s History / Bible / Literature E, smack dab at the start of the Civil War where our other curriculum left off.
Here’s what we thought.
Sonlight History Curriculum
Right away, we had some big changes in how we were learning history.
We began reading more living books. My kids loved jumping in with William Wilberforce and the learning about the peaceful end to the slave trade in England – and then contrasting that with how the United States handled slavery as we continued with Across Five Aprils.
We’re reading historical fiction out loud together after dinner (The Great Turkey Walk is starting to get interesting!), and my kids are also reading silently each day.
We’re reading (and memorizing) the Bible more.
We’re NOT doing any worksheets (this was a tough pill for me to swallow, but I’m trying to buy in).
It’s different. But…
We haven’t missed a day of history since we’ve started. And that’s saying something.
Literature-based Christian Homeschooling
You probably noticed above that I mentioned we’re reading quite a bit more. If your kids love to read (or you would like to engage them in more great literature), Sonlight homeschool curriculum might be the perfect choice for you.
Their engaging global-focused, literature-based methods encourage students to learn from multiple perspectives & engage in thought-provoking discussion. Real books and educational materials have been curated to deliver a complete, Christian homeschool program, from preschool through high school.
For over 30 years, Sonlight has guided thousands of families as they homeschool their children with ease and confidence. You can learn more about Sonlight’s educational philosophy here.
What Does Sonlight Offer?
Sonlight offers both individual subjects or complete curriculum packages, which contain everything you need for the year.
The heart of the program is going to be the History / Bible / Literature component, which uses a select history book or series as its “spine”, and then incorporates related biographies, novels, and historical fiction to help you teach history and geography throughout the year. You’ll also be reading and memorizing passages from the Bible with your kids.
So, one option is to begin with your History / Bible / Literature selection, and then pick additional subjects to complete your curriculum. Otherwise, you’d either choose an All-Subjects package, or simply any single subject you’d like.
I have not tried any additional subjects from Sonlight, so I can’t speak to those. But from their website, it looks as though the Science curriculum is also very literature-rich, and they have a great selection of options for the other subjects.
In addition, Sonlight offers a few different unit study options, including Advent and Lent. We completed the Lent unit study this year and really enjoyed it.
What’s Included in Sonlight History / Bible / Literature E?
As I mentioned earlier, we chose HBL E due to the fact that we were about ready to study the Civil War in our current curriculum, and that’s right where this picked up. HBL E is actually year 2 of 2 of Sonlight’s Intro to American History course. You can select a 4 or 5-day school week (for a 36 week curriculum). I chose a 5-day week; in hindsight, I think I would have preferred a 4-day week, just because our schedule is a bit crazy. You get 3 fewer read-aloud books and 3 fewer readers with the 4-day schedule.
Unboxing day is a pretty big deal in the Sonlight community, and I can see why – it’s kind of exciting to open up and dig into the big box of books!
Here’s what came in our box:
- Instructor’s guide
- Markable Map
- 2 books for the Bible portion + a 12-song CD
- 6 books for studying history – this included 2 encyclopedia-type books
- Timeline figures (stickers)
- 15 Read-alouds
- 18 Readers
The Timeline Book was not included, but I highly recommend purchasing it as an add-on.
Sonlight also offers Lapbook kits, which I would also recommend if your kids like that sort of thing.
I loved books and reading growing up, so I was like a kid in a candy shop. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to try to select books to read in our homeschool (especially when my kids don’t always share my same enthusiasm for reading), so I was really excited to have everything at my fingertips.
Comprehensive Teacher Guide = Minimal Lesson Prep!
The first thing I did after taking everything out of the box was set up a binder to organize my teaching materials. I highly recommend doing this; read through the Teacher Guide to see how it’s structured, then figure out what makes the most sense to you, so you can use it effectively.
Essentially I just put the pages in a binder and used tabs to separate the different sections. Not only does the guide include a weekly calendar for instruction, but it also includes notes you might need about the history you’ll be studying, any new vocabulary your kids might encounter, discussion questions with answers, and notes about any topics you might need to be aware of while reading (Sonlight doesn’t shy away from different viewpoints, but rather encourages discussion. I love that they give you a heads up, though, so you aren’t surprised and can make the choices about what you want to cover).
Everything in the manual is broken down very well, showing you exactly what you need to read and cover each day. Any curriculum that has minimal prep gets bonus points in my book!
Our Daily Routine
Each day, I used the Teacher Guide as a checklist for what we needed to accomplish. I actually took time each week to put the student Bible readings, memory work, and silent reading (the parts they needed to do independently) into my kids’ online homeschool planner to help them stay on track. If you have one child, you could simply give them the weekly calendar page, and they can check off the parts they complete as they go.
After my kids completed their independent work and other subjects, we would come together for Sonlight History / Bible / Literature.
Bible
We began with the Bible work, which included reading from the book “Starting Strong”, a short excerpt or chapter from the Bible, and memory work. We already use a Bible curriculum, but this didn’t feel like a lot to add on, and my kids really enjoyed the Starting Strong book (which had stickers and activities they could complete). The Bible passage often led us into some good discussions, and the Teacher Guide gives you notes and talking points to help you out as needed.
I was skeptical about the memory work, because our first passage was Psalm 103 in its entirety! But we found success working on a little bit every week, using LearnScripture.net, and reciting the verses in the car. It was really good for us to work on this discipline…I think we practiced more because it was longer, which helped us hide it in our hearts more.
History / Geography
Next we would move into the history & geography portion. This included reading from one of the “spines”, and then often looking at some pages in the Visual Encyclopedia. Again, the Teacher Guide has each day broken down, and gives discussion questions and possible answers to everything you are reading – so you don’t have to come up with anything on your own.
In addition, you’ll find timeline and geography/map symbols in the Teacher Guide that indicate when you should use these resources.
Readers & Read-alouds
There are discussion questions given for the readers and read-aloud books, too, as well as timeline and map points. I assigned my kids the readers on their own and planned on coming together to discuss, but this ended up proving to be very difficult since my kids read and work at different paces.
For the read-alouds, we actually got into the habit of doing these after dinner. My kids love read-alouds anyway, but they’re that much better when you’re enjoying a bowl of ice cream! Sometimes we used the discussion questions from the guide, but mostly we had our own discussions after we read.
But…no worksheets?
Worksheets just make you feel like you’re getting something accomplished, right? When you really think about it though, do you want your kids to just get the worksheet done? Or actually learn and enjoy learning?
For the most part, the discussion questions Sonlight offers are really comprehension questions. They seemed very similar to me as to what I might have on a worksheet if I were to use one.
But the simple act of not having to write the answers down, I think, really helped the enjoyment factor for my kids. I was also interacting with them more, all of us together, rather than them working independently filling out a worksheet. It was pretty easy to evaluate what they had learned through our discussions. And though the questions were more comprehensive in nature, sometimes they prompted other questions that led us down rabbit trails.
And keep in mind, there are other alternatives if you want your kids to produce something, or if you need an artifact for their homeschool portfolio. The lapbook kit is a great option to go along with this course. We didn’t have the kit, but we did make a lapbook when we got to the Civil War section. My kids also love using Canva, and my daughter enjoyed putting together a flier for one of the readers she loved.
Considerations for Sonlight Homeschool (+ My Bonus Tips)
I hope that so far this gives you a good taste for the curriculum and what it looks like during our homeschool day! Here are a few more things to keep in mind as you consider it:
Have a Plan
I’ve found Sonlight History / Bible / Literature to be very open-and-go, but you’ll definitely want to get organized before jumping in. Get your Teacher Guide and materials set up, and have a plan on how you will structure your day (balancing the independent work and the time you work with your kids).
Using with Multiple Kids?
My son is in 5th grade this year, and my twin daughters are in 4th, so that made this curriculum fairly easy to use together. In fact, you CAN teach multiple kids with just one History / Bible / Literature or All-Subjects package; just know that you may have to make some adjustments.
For example, it took my daughters a bit longer to get through the reading material, which made it hard to discuss the readers together (to that point, I would have preferred to have had a workbook or something! In hindsight, the Not Consumed Reading Journals would have been a beautiful addition).
Anyway, if your kids are within 3 years of each other, it should be okay to use one package for them all. And don’t feel like you have to match your oldest child when picking out your curriculum – know your kids and evaluate the levels based on their personal readiness, not necessarily the age levels Sonlight recommends (those are just that – recommendations).
Don’t Be Afraid to Customize As Needed
In case you hadn’t noticed yet, there are a lot of books in this curriculum. I started to stress a bit because while we kept up with the history portion, we began to fall a bit behind with our read-alouds and readers because there is just a LOT. And not to mention you are reading multiple chapter books at once, which can also be a lot to keep track of.
Try not to worry too much about it, and make adjustments as needed! If the reading takes longer than stated, maybe skip the next book and move on. Save the book to read at a later time. As I mentioned earlier, I think we would have fared better to choose the 4-day option and have that extra day simply for reading or catching up.
Biblical Worldview Integration
My thoughts are that while this is a Christian curriculum, and you are teaching the Bible to your kids, it does feel somewhat separate from/unrelated to the history and literature portion. Now, I don’t mean that this is bad in and of itself (because you are teaching the Bible!). But if you’re looking for a curriculum with explicit Biblical Worldview Integration, which (in my opinion) is very important to helping our kids develop a Christian worldview, I think there are some options that do a better job.
I was hoping that in the discussion questions I would see more examples of kids needing to apply what they know about the Bible to what they were learning about. That there might be more recognition of God and his handiwork throughout history. More comparison of the content to the standard of the Bible. But I think this was lacking.
It’s OK to Switch Things Up
I really loved our semester with Sonlight. I’m encouraged to be more intentional about adding rich-literature to our homeschooling, so this will impact my curriculum choices moving forward I’m sure. We may continue to use Sonlight readers as I’ve loved the book choices so far.
And friends, let me give you permission if you need to hear this: it’s ok to switch it up!! The fact of the matter is, the “right” curriculum for you and your kids might change year to year, maybe even season to season.
Learning should be fun. Engaging. Tailored to your kids’ learning styles. NOT frustrating or unproductive.
If this hits home for you today, I want to encourage you that switching to a new homeschool curriculum doesn’t have to be painful (and you may even find something new you really love in the process).
Final Thoughts About Sonlight History Curriculum + a Giveaway!
I definitely would recommend Sonlight homeschool curriculum to families who love literature-based learning, or simply want to encourage more literature and reading in their homeschooling.
Sonlight occasionally offers discounts and special offers on their sale page. Check there first before you purchase!
Finally, Sonlight is offering readers the chance to win a Hands-on History Kit or a Lapbook Kit of choice! Find all the details here, or enter below:
I’d love to hear from you in the comments: have you used Sonlight homeschool curriculum in the past? What are your thoughts or questions?
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