Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 11 months ago by Roan Johnson.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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May 19, 2017 at 5:24 pm
Roan Johnson
Participant
Hello!
I have been homeschooling for 16 years. I have graduated 3 of my children from my homeschool, and I now have 2 children left at home. They will be in the 6th and 8th grades beginning in August. I used KONOS for my first 8 years of homeschooling, then I switched to Sonlight. My 11yo and 13yo have used Sonlight from the very beginning of their homeschool. For high school for my oldest three I used a combination of Sonlight (American history and literature) and Notgrass (American history, world history, government, and economics). I have always used IEW for all 5 children, and I taught an English class to my 3rd child and 5 other homeschoolers for his 11th and 12th grade English credits.
Now I am considering trying something new for the remaining years of my 11yo and 13yo’s homeschool. The 13yo has 5 years left of school, and I see that the SCM history/geography/Bible guides have 6 modules. Where would I begin? Where would I fit in American Government and Economics? For my older 3 children, we followed this schedule:
9th grade: State history and geography (1/2 credit each)
10th grade: world history (1 credit)
11th grade: American history (1 credit)
12th grade: American government and economics (1/2 credit each)
I want to just jump and in buy all the SCM curriculum! But I also have thousands of dollars invested in Sonlight books and IGs. How can I use the SCM modules for the remaining years I have with my kids? How could I incorporate my favorite Sonlight books with the CM materials? Should I even do a complete switch?
Thank you for any advice you may have!
May 20, 2017 at 7:54 am
Melanie32
Participant
Hi and welcome Roan! 🙂
First, I have to ask why are you thinking of making the change? Have you been dissatisfied with Sonlight? If you are happy with what you are using, I wouldn’t change. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke….
If you are really feeling a pull to a more CM philosophy, you can definitely use your favorite Sonlight books as part of your CM homeschool. Have you looked at the free curriculum guide here on SCM? It will walk you through what they recommend for all the subjects (except state history) and grades you mentioned above.
If I were you, and I were happy with many of the Sonlight choices, I would study Charlotte Mason’s philosophy more for myself, so that I could apply her principles and put together my own curriculum plan. In fact, that is exactly what I’ve done for most of my homeschooling years (minus the Sonlight part).
If you are the type who loves having everything planned our for you, then I would definitely go with the SCM guides to help you pull everything together.
Here’s what we are doing for my daughter’s CM high school social studies:
James Stobaugh’s history texts are our spines for American, World, and British history. Then I add in whatever living books I want to. My daughter reads one lesson from the text and 20 minutes from a living book 3 days a week.
We use SCM’s Visits To geography series along with reading from a living geography book once a week.
On the 5th day of the week, my daughter chooses an essay question from the Stobaugh books and writes an essay on it. She then reads from a living history book for 10 minutes.
We will add in Government and Economics at some point. We have already covered some of this using Uncle Eric books, a book on the election process, and videos from Prager University.
We aren’t required to do state history here in Florida but if we were, I would use living books for that as well.
I pull our living book choices from Simply Charlotte Mason, Ambleside Online, and many other resources.
Hope you find the perfect fit for your family! 🙂

May 20, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Stillwater Charlotte
Participant
I just wanted to add what our high school schedule looks like. One of the things I love about the CM approach is that it gives you (the educator) control over what you cover and how. You can put together your materials and subject plan according to what fits your needs and the needs of your children, rather than following a generic system.
My high schoolers have done:
9th: World History, Physical Science
10th: Early US History & State History, Biology
11th: Modern History, Personal Finance & Chemistry
12th: US Government, Economics, Christian Worldview & Physics
I have used SCM as a resource for book recommendations, and then added to that what I felt was necessary. If you are very comfortable with the Sonlight accountability system, then that may be a bit of a transition for you. But it is totally possible to use your Sonlight resources, along with other living books, and transitioning to CM methods of instruction and evaluation. I really like how Melanie has planned their work schedule!

May 24, 2017 at 9:09 am
Roan Johnson
Participant
Thank you! Both of you!
I am considering a change because of several reasons…..
1. Since I don’t have any “younger children” at home, I can totally focus on my remaining two children here with me. I feel like I can devote more time to read alouds to them as they grow older, because I don’t have another set of children that I am reading aloud to.
2. I feel the need for a “fresh start”, because my 22 yo and 19yo daughters are getting married this summer, 7 weeks apart. They are moving far, far away….one 8 hours away, and one to another country in Europe to do mission work. My 18yo son will be leaving for college 12 hours away in August. In order to help with this transition, I want my homeschool time with L and S to be delightful! 🙂
3. While I have loved Sonlight for the most part, I feel like we are flying through books instead of reading them slowly and savoring them. I like the idea of reducing the volume of reading, but increasing the quality of our discussing and pondering the books. The upper cores in Sonlight have so much reading. My two older girls are voracious readers, and thrived with Sonlight. I cut back the number of books for my son, but he still read from 8-20 books a year, in addition to his history spine books.
4. I like the idea of keeping L and S together for history and geography. We are all going to be lonely with the older three gone, and so I think as much together time we can have, the better!

Again, thank you for our advice. I will reply to each of your posts with specific questions. 🙂
May 24, 2017 at 9:17 am
Roan Johnson
Participant
Stillwater Charlotte,
What did you use each year for your planning and spine books? How did you fit World History into one year? Have you used the modules sold on this site? What did you use for Government and Economics? I would love for you to share the details of what you used each year….not necessarily your complete book lists, but what your main spine books were. I know I can pull my Sonlight and other living books, I just need a master plan for each year.
Melanie,
I have looked at the free curriculum guide. I am still reading through it all, and I have downloaded many samples! I really wish I could just start with Module 1 and go through all 6. But I have only 5 years left with my oldest child. Where should I begin?
I don’t need the accountability of Sonlight. I was not a slave to the IG, however, I am a master planner! I like to have my school year all planned out each summer (which was necessary when I had 4 and 5 kids to homeschool). I don’t mind pulling resources and making my own plan. But, my time will be limited this summer with the weddings. The first wedding is 10 days away, and I really do not even need to be online thinking about school right now! LOL.