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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 8:39am | IP Logged
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Does anyone use Sonlight for preschoolers? If so, could you pm me? I have some questions.
Thanks!!
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Becky
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Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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hopalenik
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 8:49am | IP Logged
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I never used it with the lesson plans but I did purchase all but one or two of the books and read them in order.
If it is book related I can answer your question, if it is lesson plan related I can't.
Sincerely,
HOlly
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bfarmmom
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 8:51am | IP Logged
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I would be interested in hearing responses. 
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Peace,
Kirsten
ds13,dd12,dd10,ds7,dd6, dd 4, ds 2
Sonlight Garden
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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Well, maybe I'll just ask here then. I've been trying to decide what to do about my ds who will be 4 next fall. He really wants to do school like the other kids, and giving him a little workbook or color book to work on while the others do their school work doesn't seem to be enough. So, I've looked at about everything out there! I know we will be reading lots of books. We have an established afternoon reading time that I will continue, so that's a given.
My concern is that with a new baby, and my other children I will be teaching, I just want something that says "Day 3 - read 'Caps for Sale', do addition activites with beans, write the letter 'C'" etc. Seems very simple and I should be able to come up with this sort of thing on my own, but ... I guess I'm running out of creative energy.
I would also like to add that I have FIAR, and I think it might be a little too advanced for my 4yo. I've never seen Before FIAR so I don't know if it is comparable or not.
So, to my questions,
a.) If you use Sonlight Pre-K, how do-able is it? I noticed on their web site that it says it takes 1 1/2 hours daily. I assume that includes the cuddle on the couch and read good books time? Otherwise, it would be way too intensive for us.
b.) If you use the lesson plans, are they the ones from Sonlight, or the ones from the Yahoo group? Anybody know which is better? I know one of the sets of lessons on the Yahoo group is based on themes which I find appealing, especially since I would include my 6yo in it.
c.) I was thinking that the books used sound really nice but I'm afraid it would be too expensive. I assume I could purchase the books elsewhere? I would also omit their Bible Study suggestions and insert Catholic alternatives.
d.) If you bought the lessons and books would you say it's worth it?
Thanks so much for your help in all this! I have made so many purchases for educating my children that I have regretted! I don't want to sink a bunch of money into a program that doesn't work.
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Becky
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julia s.
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 10:11am | IP Logged
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Becky,
We use SL pre-K very loosely here. We do not follow the lesson plans although we started out that way. One day when doing the scheduled reading my son was acting wrestless and I was actually angry at him for not listening to the story (It was the farm on maple hill) and then I realized I was out of line because I was more invested in the schedule than he was.
My advice is find out from your son what he means be needing more school. My son doesn't think it's "school" unless there is a workbook involved. All those great stories he's just sort of anxious to finish so he can get to the workbooks which he thinks of as "doing school". So before you plunk down big bucks I'd look into this with him first. Also much of it can be replicated by using the library liberally if you have one near by.
For what it's worth I didn't think their lesson plans either on the yahoo group or through sonlight so remarkable that you couldn't come up with something like it (or perhaps even better so it would be tailored to your little guy). Although I do appreciate all the great effort that those ladies put into it and it was very generous of them to share it with everyone.
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julia
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mary
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i used prek for my boys and will be using it again in the fall for my dd. here are my answers:
a - it is very doable and makes the 4yr old feel like they have 'school' stuff. 1 1/2 hours is prob more time than we spend.
b - i have used sonlights and don't like them. i prefer the theme or janet's list from the yahoo group.
c- you can always purchase the books elsewhere or find most (all?) of them from the library. i will give my personal opinion and tell you that i do not like the compilation books. they have few pictures and my children do not like them at all. i sub in the original books from the library.
d - i have 4 kids and will use prek for each so i feel it has been worth it overall. love the DEL books and the usborne math books. i already gave my opinion of the read alouds.
i always look at other programs and every time, i come back to sonlight. whatever complaints i have about them, i have never seen anything better.
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monica
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we bought the SL pre-K for my ds and have read the books through and through. i bought the instructors guide because i wanted to some structure, but i tried using it one week and then threw it aside. the schedules on the yahoo group seem much better, but i am in romania, so i couldnt get all the extra books needed. if i had to do it over, and if i lived near a good library, i would just get their schedules and use books from the library. some of the sonlight books are WONDERFUL and i am so glad we have them, but some of them are just OK, and some of them i want to get rid of. it is a LOT of money to spend, and if we had more of a choice, i probably wouldnt have spent it in that way. if you are interested in a sample day from the instructors guide, i can email you . also, my son was very very hungry to be read to, so just reading part of a book or story was not going to satisfy him. hope that helps. pm me if you want me to give you a sample day from the instructors guide.
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Angel
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I ordered the Sonlight Pre-K program a few years ago when I was expecting #3. We did not use the Instructor's Guide (although occasionally I would open it up to see how much of the program we had done in our own way), and I did not use the workbooks, because no one was really interested in those. Some of the Sonlight-produced books, which have an evenagelical bias... I am not so keen so either. However, our copy of the Family-Time Bible has literally fallen apart, and all the other books were wonderful. We've read them over and over again, and likely will in the future, with more little ones coming up.
I do buy the books from Sonlight, mostly because of convenience. Especially with new babies in the house over the years, it's been nice to get them from a single place and have them at home in case we don't make it to the library for a while. And since our library here is really, really small with really, really bad hours, I will probably be ordering more books from Sonlight in the future.
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: March 09 2007 at 5:27pm | IP Logged
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I have it, and my third child is working through the books right now. I prefer the SL schedule to Janet's one for 4 yr old's. I think Janet's schedule is better for people who want to use SL PK with children older than preschool age (the free schedules are also more work than I like to have formally for a 4 yr old). We cut out the Evangelical bias books (the Treasure Box books make a great substitute, btw), and I don't like the Developing the Early Learner or the Usborne workbooks that are included with it. I prefer a regular old pk workbook from Costco if your child really wants something that feels 'schooly.'
I also have B4FIAR. The books are lovely, but I agree, its nice sometimes to just have a schedule to follow without any planning involved. I flip flop between the two and also sometimes include my 4yo in FIAR with my 7 yr old, if its one of the easier-to-understand-books.
I'm trying to program my 4 yo out of the idea that school means paper/workbooks...sigh...my older ones have as little as possible, but its nearly impossible to convince a 4 yr old that reading IS school! 
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Lorri
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I have used Sonlight PreK and love it. I used it before there was even a SL produced schedule, only those available from the yahoo group. You can use the books however you want, by picking and choosing which stories you want to read and how many each day. You don't really need a schedule, or you can write your own very easily. Most of the stories are so rich and wonderful that your older children will enjoy listening to them, too. The big white book,The 20th Century children's Book Treasury, is wonderful. Some people don't like it because it's too big and doesn't have every single picture from some books. I like it because it was cheaper than buying each book individually and it's easier to pack one book than many. It's my 6yo's choice to bring in the car whenever we go somewhere. One book I hated, something about Children's Literature was a ginormous waste of time. It had fairy tales in their original, unedited glory, including Rapunzel and her prince have a child out of wedlock and all the men trying to reach Sleeping Beauty getting impaled on thorns. Plus, it had excerpts from books like Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio and Peter Pan, but the excerpts were from the middle of the books. We had no clue who the characters were, what they were doing and what they were talking about. We didn't read much of that book. (I also didn't care for their Mother Goose book. I substituted the Richard Scary one.) As for the evangelical books, I'm not even sure which ones those were. The ones about missionaries? My children really enjoyed those and realizing that not everyone knows about Jesus. I didn't find anything objectionable in them. But obviously, you can substitute if you'd like.
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Becky Parker
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Thanks everyone for you help with this! As I really look at it, I think I am mainly going to use the books for reading. I had already looked at some of the Kumon workbooks which I planned to use, so I wont need the DEL books SL recommends. I really like the schedule divided by themes and think I will go that route, with a few adjustments for the themes of Christmas and Easter. I'm already set to do the Tomie Depaola books for Advent. Now I'm just wondering about some of the other books. I appreciate your input, Lorri, regarding the 20th Century Children's Treasury and the Treasury of Children's Literature. Could I ask which books you all found to be evangelical? I had already planned to replace the books for Bible study etc. with Catholic books. I really like the idea of using the Catholic Treasure Box books in their place! Any books that you found especially worth the money to buy?
Thanks again for all your help!
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Becky
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Bookswithtea
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Do you know if you like treasury type books? I dislike mine (in fact, I'd be willing to sell it used if you decide you want it! lol) because I like having full sized pictures. Are you reading to a boy or a girl? The fairy tale treasury does have beautiful illustrations and some of the stories aren't too gruesome. I have three little girls who love to look at the pictures at night. We like Right Choices (from the bible program) a lot. The stories are a bit moralistic but not too bad, and my 4 yr olds love to count the ladybugs on each page.
The heavily evangelical titles are The Gods Must Be Angry, Stories from Africa, and New Toes for Tia.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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monica
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we LOVE LOVE LOVE the Lion Bedtime storyteller by Bob Hartman. it is a collection of stories from around the world (great geography tie in) and each one has a moral that is really uplifing and instructive. We love this book so much we are going to get it for our nieces and nephews for christmas. it is a collection, but not stories from many different books, just stories one author gathered from different countries. i noticed there are other Lion collections by him, does anyone have those?
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: March 11 2007 at 1:12pm | IP Logged
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Books,
When you say fairy tale treasury do you mean the Treasury of Children's Literature?
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Becky
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Becky Parker
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Monica,
Thanks for the recommendation regarding the Lion Bedtime Storyteller. I was wondering about it as the Sonlight list is the first I've heard of it. Thanks also for the offer of a free sample of the SL plans. They do have one at their website that I have seen. It looks nice, but I just really like the idea of doing it in themes because I am hoping to tie in some science for my 6yo too and the themes make that easy to do.
Thanks for your help!
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Becky
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Becky Parker
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Books,
In answer to your question, I've been trying to decide it I like treasury type books! Normally, I would say no because I have always loved picture books, and I feel like they lose something when they are bound all together into a treasury. BUT, on the other hand, I was just making a list of all the picture books I would need to follow the plan for SL and the cost is way beyond reach!  So for those of us who have a limited selection at the library, (and a limited budget) maybe the treasury books just make it more do-able. KWIM? I was looking through all our books and actually found quite a few that are included in the 20th Century Children's Book Treasury. What kills me is that in order to buy the 5 or 6 (or more) that we don't have it would cost more money than buying the treasury itself! I'm in a bit of a quandry about what to do. For that particular treasury, I might just pass the opportunity to buy it, and fill in the gaps with some books that we do have, or possibly, on a good day, find them at the library.
There's also the Family Treasury of Golden Books. I know I have a couple of those around here. My MIL gave me some that were actually my dh's when he was little, but I certainly don't have them all. I might have to buy that one. The Lion Storyteller one sounds good too.
Decisions, decisions! And I thought going with a program like SL was going to make my life easier!! LOL]
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Becky
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Bookswithtea
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Becky Parker wrote:
Books,
When you say fairy tale treasury do you mean the Treasury of Children's Literature? |
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Yes. Its the other treasury that is not the 20th Century one.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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I would just fill in with other books and skip the treasury since you have many of the stories. When I first bought it, I didn't have a lot of picture books so it was a help. I've made a huge investment in FIAR books since then so I rarely even pull the treasury off the shelf now.
The Lion Storyteller and Golden Books treasuries are nice, I like them better than the 20th C. one. Now that I think about it, though, you are giving me reason to consider what I actually use. I can't remember the last time I picked up either of those books.
Hmmmmmmmmm...this spring maybe I'll do an overhaul of my shelves and get rid of what I'm not using!
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Becky Parker
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Could I ask just one more question? What do you think of "The Child's Book of Art"? I had originally planned to continue with picture study as we normally do or possibly use the "Come Look With Me" books. But, if this one is really good, maybe I would go with that instead. It's just hard to know what is actually in the book from the Sonlight web site as there are few pictures and a very short explanation.
Thanks again. You've all been so helpful!
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Becky
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Bookswithtea
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Becky Parker wrote:
Could I ask just one more question? What do you think of "The Child's Book of Art"? I had originally planned to continue with picture study as we normally do or possibly use the "Come Look With Me" books. But, if this one is really good, maybe I would go with that instead. It's just hard to know what is actually in the book from the Sonlight web site as there are few pictures and a very short explanation.
Thanks again. You've all been so helpful!
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I like it a lot. Its oversized and beautiful, but if you are used to picture study already, its certainly not necessary. I'm a bit challenged when it comes to picture study so its good for me! lol
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Blessings,
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Sonlight PreK
