New Mom: Sonlight and CM?

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  • June 30, 2017 at 9:53 am
    lilamom
    Participant

    Hi wise Mamas!

    I’m getting ready to homeschool my DD for kindergarten and had been considering using Sonlight for history/literature/Bible. However, I’ve been reading some CM materials and really liking it.

    How do you all view Sonlight? Is it compatible with a CM approach?

    Thanks so much!

    June 30, 2017 at 10:14 am
    cdm2kk
    Participant

    I’ve used Sonlight for one year. It was a wonderful and memorable year, however I would describe it as homeschool on steroids. There is so much to do and while they tell you that you are in charge and are able to slim it down to fit your family, I felt like we were missing out. My type A, OCD, personality wouldn’t let me NOT do something. So, we finished the year and every year since then I have been eclectic with a CM feel.

    If I had it to do all over again starting with my kids in Kinder, I would definitely hands down go with SCM.

    William Butler Yeats once said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. Sonlight is filling a pail and SCM is lighting a fire.

    SCM will allow you to enjoy your days and your child and at that age, that is so important. You can lay the foundation of habits that will strength them for when the academics really start.

    Good luck and God Bless.

    June 30, 2017 at 11:06 am
    Sandra Wade
    Participant

    We used Sonlight for one year.  It’s a great program.  However, we were overwhelmed with the amount of reading scheduled.  We have so much enjoyed the gentle feast of SCM.

    June 30, 2017 at 3:53 pm
    alphabetika
    Participant

    I used Sonlight for a couple of years when homeschooling my oldest daughter. I feel like it was allllllmost the opposite of CM.

    June 30, 2017 at 7:02 pm
    Tristan
    Participant

    If you are wanting something similar to SL, meaning a guide that tells you what reading to do each day, that is how Simply Charlotte Mason’s history guides are laid out. The biggest difference between SL history and SCM history is the quantity of reading. SL is a lot of reading. For some kids that is ok. For others it is not. Charlotte Mason was an advocate of slower reading, letting the child take time to live with a book and the characters/time period over weeks and even a couple months. SL pushes the child through books much quicker to fit them all in.

    June 30, 2017 at 8:51 pm
    lilamom
    Participant

    Thank you each of you, so much! That was all so helpful. I think we’ll ditch SL for now! 🙂

    July 1, 2017 at 11:16 pm
    Monica
    Participant

    I don’t use Sonlight but have used it to help make a read aloud list. We read some books slowly CM style but also just read through other books more quickly so it’s nice to have a trustworthy source.

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