"It used to be easy to select a Sonlight program." Sarita's eyes twinkle with the punchline, "...before we let people customize."
It's easy when you have one choice: Do you want it or not?
In an effort to better serve you, we have made Sonlight incredibly customizable. That's fantastic because you can get exactly what your family needs while still enjoying all the benefits of purchasing a complete Sonlight program. The downside? Now you have to figure out which of the nine options is right for you.
This conflict is the difference between pants and spaghetti sauce. You likely don't have 40 minutes to spend on videos right now. Let me summarize: You will be less happy with your purchase if you have too many options, even if you find the "perfect" pants. But only offering one spaghetti sauce leaves huge swaths of the market unsatisfied. So, the balance is finding the right number of options and presenting them in a way that makes sense.
That's really hard to do.
Dave and I spent a solid three hours today beating our heads against Sonlight's choosing process. If all goes well, you should be able to almost effortlessly find the homeschool curriculum program that matches your family. But to make something feel effortless, we have to do the work before hand.
Mock-ups for Choosing a Choosing Option
We will succeed? Time is running out, but we're working hard.
The good news: Even before we improve the choosing process, you can get some excellent help with selecting your homeschool curriculum right now. Sonlight's homeschool Advisors are available to answer your questions and help you pick the right materials for your family. Sonia is always available to help you figure out which items you need. And the Choosing Forum is still an excellent place to get feedback from Sonlighters who have used the programs you are considering.
As always when I post something like this: We appreciate your prayers as we seek to figure out how to best serve you. I continue to step into areas far beyond my experience and wisdom. We want to give you the best of both worlds: Really easy to customize homeschool programs that match your family.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester
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