Adding Sonlight to SCM History Modules

I don’t use Sonlight, but enjoy looking at their lists. 😉

I have found in the last few years that adding things in is easier if I choose one book (like the SCM guide) to be my “spine” or main book we use. Then, using the lesson titles and subject matter, I simply pencil in books/dvds that fit that lesson or topic.

It makes it easy to remind myself of the books we have and when to use them.

I use SL’s lists to add in where I want them.  Many of the books become our family read-aloud which is separate from the family history, etc. of CM for us.  I also add in a book here or there for history, re-arranging the reading schedule slightly at times or simply adding in a bit of additional reading depending upon the book and the child.  I also add in “readers” which are different from the history reading they do on their own.  The additional reading, in our home, often involves books that I will use to for graduation requirements like Brit Lit., English Lit., etc. as well as/ or adding more to their history studies.

Does that help?

While I personally haven’t run across a book that we disliked enough not to use from SCM – we love most of them, I will be honest about what you are talking about in your last post.

If you already like and have the Sonlight selections, don’t complicate your life trying to do two spines. It adds unnecessary stress to your homeschool life. Charlotte’s methods are not resticted to one set of books. If you have living books that you like, simply create your list to read and use the methods to make it work and be enjoyable for you. Trying to cram two complete programs together is going to suck the joy of school (and potentially out of studying history) for your family.

There are two ways that I have done it:

1. Make a list of all available books, try to keep them in chronological order.

OR

2. Simply make a list of the Table of Content (chapter titles) in a computer document.

• Gather all pertinent books, art, movies, etc. that could be used to enhance our studies.
• With the TOC document open, I take one additional resource and type in where and how to use it based on the subject of the chapters. I will continue until I have listed all the resources that would make a good study for each chapter in the spine. This is when I discover what is a good resource and what isn’t going to work as well as I thought. Those become extra books. Also, some spine chapters will not have additional stuff. That’s okay, too. 
• I will save and print the document. Each time we do the subject, I will pull it out and refresh my mind of the resources I have. Sometimes I use them all, sometimes I only pull one thing from my list – but I know that I am not missing something I really wanted to share.

My youngest set of kids are 5 and 6 yo. I could do the first suggestion with them easily and they would learn a lot.

My older set of kids are 12 and 13.  I could do either suggestion with CM methods.

However, for me, while the second suggestion is a little more time consuming, it is so helpful to use with my older kids because all my reources are lined up in a row to be used in interest-led questions, for additional clarification, or to help them realise that history is neat, real, important, and relavent to us today. Plus, I can re-use it for my younger set, lol.