Pictured above is our Sonlight package for Kindergarden for this year. I recieved the package a couple of months ago but am just now getting ready to prepare for the coming year. This isn't everything actually, I ordered the Horizon's Math set seperately and Micah wanted to begin using it as soon as it came in so he has done many lessons in it and likes it alot. I also may be adding a Science component before we get started but first I want to determine if we have our hands too full already.
There isn't much to do by way of preparation, the beauty of Sonlight is that the instructor's guide (pictured in the foreground) does all the planning for you. They also make everything adaptable for you. you can omit activities or add more depending on your needs. They also have the option of a four day or five day schedule for each core curriculum. I have ordered the five day curriculum but I may switch to four days since we will be doing Co-op one day a week. I went ahead and ordered the five day because it comes with more storybooks and read-a-louds and I didn't want to miss out, instead of reading them during the year we can use them next summer, or read them as bedtime stories during vacations.
The absolute best thing I love about Sonlight is that the materials are about 90% reusable for the next student and the next and so on. There are very few consumable items. Basically these are the same books we will read with Allie and Noah. Some workbooks will need to be ordered, such as Math and Handwriting, but overall, it's a great investment for us.
As you can see there are many storybooks. There are maps and a Timeline book as well. As the student goes through the stories and the read-a-louds (basically bigger books that we will read a chapter or two of each day) then they will mark significant events in history on their timeline to create a view of history and time that will help them see the big picture. We will be going through Bible stories each week also, and using the Timeline book to mark events from that too. The maps are also utilized often along with the stories to help kids get a better idea of the world and the places that are talked about.
The intructor's guide encourages us to plan several field trips for this year also. I do hope to do that later. We may visit the Firestation and maybe the Newspaper office, a couple of workplaces and maybe a museum. It will be a tricky situation however, since Noah and Allie will be with us. Maybe I can plan those for days when Joey will be home. Or maybe get him involved in taking Micah on field trips.
We just found out my husband will be home one weekday each week according to his new schedule, this will present a special problem since homeschooling while Daddy is home presents distractions. Hopefully we will find a way to make that work for us, not against us.
I'm excited about this year, the thing I am really nervous about actually is the actual teaching of Micah to read. We have begun this already with the book. Teach your child to read in 200 easy lessons' (which many homeschool friends swear by) but I haven't been enthused by it. I need to redouble my efforts though, because he is doing fine with everything else, handwriting, math, etc. I just have to press on and unfortunately, this is the one area that Sonlight seems to lack most in.
