Sonlight Homeschooling Blog

Oct. 22, 2018

How to Avoid the Crushing Cycle of Exhaustion as a Homeschool Mom

The crushing cycle of exhaustion is easy for any homeschool parent to fall into. Parents work so hard to take care of everyone else, they don't have time to take care of themselves. They get worn out, and then every step gets harder.

This exhaustion creates a cycle where a mom is so tired it takes twice as much effort to do anything. Now she needs more time to take care of herself, but she has less time to do so. The circle can keep spiraling until there's a breakdown of some sort—an angry outburst or stress-induced illness, for example.

When the cycle of exhaustion happens, a parent feels so guilty about it, that she redoubles efforts to take care of others, which leads back into the same cycle once again.

I've been on this cycle of exhaustion. I know how it feels, and I want you to know that you are not alone. There are lots of homeschool moms who feel it, too.

It's okay to ask for time alone. It's okay to be a little "selfish" now, so you have more of yourself to offer to take care of others later. It's not wrong to take care of yourself as much as you take care of your spouse and children.

Just like Jesus, we need time to refresh and rejuvenate, and thankfully we have a Biblical precedence to do so.

Jesus Knew How to Ask For and Receive Help

Jesus directly asked for help at times. For example, he asked the disciples to come to the Garden of Gethsemane and pray with him. Twice he got upset with them for not staying awake and supporting him as he asked. To emphasize: He asked for help and got upset when he did not get it. It's okay to ask our friends and family to help out and to be hurt or upset when they don't come through for us in our time of need.

When help was offered, Jesus graciously accepted help. He allowed the angels to attend to him and accepted the help of Simon to bear his cross. When friends and family ask if they can help us, it’s good to consider the heart of their request and take them up on it from time to time.

Jesus taught his disciples how to do part of his job and then sent them out to do it. In the same way, we can teach our little ones to help us with our work, and—when they are ready, send them out to do it. We don't have to do it alone.

Allowing Others to Help Us Gives Them a Blessing

Reach out to your husband, your family, your children, your friends, and your church when you need help. Don't let pride and embarrassment get in the way of allowing others to be blessed by helping you.

If you need extra funds so you can hire someone to help with the worst of the cleaning, it's okay to ask for it. I know you are thinking that your budget can't handle it. But maybe your husband is willing to give up $20 a week so you can afford an hour of assistance with cleaning or a babysitter to take the children for a couple hours. Hiring help means you get the self-care time you need and the helper is blessed with the job.

Or maybe your husband, mother, or sister is willing to give up and hour or two a week to help with the housekeeping or watch the children. If you don't ask for help, they might never know how badly you really need the help. They might think you're doing okay when really you're on the verge of drowning in the cycle of exhaustion.

We too often expect other people to intuit when we need help instead of directly asking for what we need. Others may realize that things are hard for you, but they don't understand how hard because you are so good at masking the exhaustion.

If our wonderful, amazing, awesome Jesus asked for and graciously received help from his friends and family, how much more should we ask for help from those willing to help us?

Allowing friends and family to help gives them a blessing. Think of how good it feels when you take care of your children (when you aren't in the grips of the cycle of exhaustion). It's rewarding and fulfilling, right? For many people, being able to help a friend or family member feels equally as good! Let them bless you, and they get blessed in turn.

What it Doesn't Mean When You Take a Break

Taking a break doesn’t mean you don’t love your children or that you are failing them.

When you allow yourself space to rest and breathe, you find yourself less annoyed, more caring, and more giving. By allowing yourself even a 5 minute break to sit quietly in your room and pray or meditate, you find that you can reach for the extra bit of patience later on in the day. By taking an hour or two a week to go window shopping or exercise at the gym, you find you have more happiness inside—happiness you share with your children and spouse.

It’s a Phase, But It's Still Very Real

The truth is this cycle of exhaustion is a phase in your life, but that doesn't make it any easier today. One day, you’ll think back on your homeschool years as a memory, and your children will be in a new phase with new problems and new blessings. And a new phase will occur right after that. Life is a series of phases, and they are all at once both wonderful and difficult.

Trying to live like Jesus means taking care of ourselves as much as it means taking care of others. If you don't take time to take care of yourself, you're not giving your spouse and children the best of you. You're giving them what's left of you. And the cycle of exhaustion leaves nothing to offer.

One step towards self-care is a curriculum that does the heavy lifting for you. Go to SmoothCourse to explore your options with Sonlight.

Tagged exhaustion, fatigue, Homeschooling, moms, self-care, Time Management | Leave a comment

Oct. 19, 2018

5 Ways Read-Alouds Foster Mature Oral Communication Skills

By Erika Evans

My whole crew was sick with walking pneumonia and journeyed en masse to the doctor’s office. At the appointment, my six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son collectively informed the nurse that they felt feverish, fatigued, and as if they must gasp for breath. My two-and-half-year-old added that we were miserable.

By way of explanation to the somewhat surprised doctor, I laughed and said, “We read a lot!”

As a Sonlight family, our kids use words that surprise others. Sometimes they even surprise us with their advanced vocabulary and complex grammar! I attribute their beyond-their-years communication skills directly to our habit of reading aloud.

Reading aloud has loads of benefits for speech acquisition and communication in general. Yes, it enables our kids to use an expansive and descriptive vocabulary to wow doctors, mail carriers, and the unsuspecting check-out lady at the grocery store. More importantly though, reading aloud develops language skills that empower our kids to communicate with others and make sense of the world. Here five ways I have witnessed Read-Alouds benefit my children's oral communication skills.

1. Exposure to a Diverse Vocabulary

The bulk of a child’s vocabulary is formed by the words they overhear at home. Thanks to reading aloud our Sonlight books, our kids know and use words that we might not typically use in conversation.

Just yesterday my daughter yelled, “Look, Grandma is emerging from the car.” This is not a sentence I have ever uttered. By reading aloud, she’s been exposed to the word emerging often enough to feel comfortable using it in her own speech.

Great literature makes a great vocabulary doable by providing pronunciation, articulation, and phonetic awareness. Children need to hear words in context multiple times before they can use them themselves. Reading great books to your children makes vocabulary development painless.

2. Using Words in Appropriate Context

Instead of prodding them to recite spelling and vocabulary words, I see my children voluntarily using new words throughout the day. This is especially true in their pretend play. For example, our homeschool study of Greek mythology has sparked weeks of imaginative play. I hear them shouting, “Watch out, Bellerophon! Pegasus is descending from the sky!” This is shouted as my sons encircle my laughing daughter, pretend wings flapping. The kids retell the stories using colorful and wonderful language in an appropriate context—words they gleaned from Read-Alouds.

3. Building a Large General Knowledge Bank

One Sunday we arrived at church to find the entire front field covered in yellow dandelions. My son proclaimed, “It’s a flock of dandelions!” Although the noun flock is typically reserved for animals or humans, you can absolutely derive his meaning. And in my opinion, his use of the word was delightful!

From an early age, kids gather an immense amount of information about the world around them from stories. As they are introduced to new vocabulary or the new application of a familiar word, they pull examples from that general knowledge. Literature fosters an ability to draw parallels and comparisons between the known and unknown.

4. Developing an Ear For Grammar

Ever cringe when someone says something like more better? Me too. More importantly, so do my kids. Someone uttered this nails-on-chalkboard phrase at a recent dinner. My daughter turned to me with a frown line between her brows and a squished up nose. “Mom,” she said, “that just doesn’t sound right.”

Even though we haven’t started any formal grammar study, she knew something was off with the phrase more better. Kids with vast exposure to language will know when something just doesn’t sound the way it should. We’re building amateur proofreaders simply by reading aloud! Kids internalize what they are exposed to and build an inner grammar compass against which to evaluate what they hear, what they say, and eventually what they compose when they begin writing.

5. Inspiring Curiosity and Desire to Use Language Correctly

“Mom, what does it mean to comb the beach?”

I had to laugh. Reading the story it hadn’t even occurred to me that comb would be a novel word for them. Now, we are combing everything:

the backyard for flowers
their bedrooms for lost items
the refrigerator for a snack

My kids ask what a word means at least once a day. I love it! It’s almost always a word they hear in a Read-Aloud and want to understand and use it correctly. Read-Alouds inspire them to think about language in a way that they likely wouldn't otherwise.

Our family connects with each other over stories. Since our kids are used to us reading aloud, exploring language is relaxed and fun. Our kids are comfortable asking for the meaning of words and using them in their oral communication. Sonlight’s great selection of literature is a blessing for the language development in our homeschool.

Switch to a curriculum that builds communication skills the easy way—by reading aloud. Try three weeks of any Sonlight Instructor's Guide for free. Click here to get one for any level, preschool through twelfth grade.

Tagged books, language arts, oral communication, read-alouds, reading, speaking, speech, vocabulary, wrad | 1 Comment

Oct. 17, 2018

6 Steps to Being Intentional with Your Time as a Homeschooler

By Bethany Weathersby

7 Steps to Being Intentional with Your Time as a Homeschooler

A common frustration of homeschool parents is struggling to get everything done in a day. The juggling act of household tasks, kids’ education, family relationships, and employment can feel overwhelming. There’s no question that your season of homeschooling is a time of demanding responsibilities. Here are six steps to make sure school work gets done in the midst of a busy life.

1. Examine the Details of Your Responsibilities

It’s crucial to take a hard look at the nitty-gritty of your life in this particular season so you can have realistic expectations. Consider and write down these:

commitments outside your home
the ages and stages of your kids
your family’s personal values

Sometimes the simple act of seeing the details in black and white will help you recognize things that are keeping you from what matters most to you right now. Saying yes to one thing—homeschooling in this case—always means saying no to something else. Be willing to cut things out and lower your expectations.

2. Make a Plan for Your Day

Having a plan in place, one based on the realities you just considered, is key to maintaining your sanity. Maybe you’ll have a flexible routine that serves as a guide to your day, while allowing you to have wiggle room for the spontaneity you love. Perhaps you’ll do best with a structured schedule where each block of time has an assigned purpose, providing clear expectations that you appreciate having. Neither approach is better than the other. What’s important is simply that you have a plan that works for your family.

3. Set a Timer and Focus

Now that you’ve considered all the details of your daily life and come up with a realistic plan, it’s time to tackle your day. You want to be intentional about your time. Using timers or alarms can be helpful.

In order to stay focused on whatever you’re dealing with at a particular point in your day, set a timer for however long you want that activity to have your attention. Barring a crisis of some sort, don’t do anything else during that time—nothing at all.

If you tend to be super-focused, a timer will give you a stopping point, reminding you of other responsibilities and keeping you from being consumed by just one. If, on the other hand, you’re easily distracted, knowing you have a set amount of time helps you buckle down and zero in on a particular task.

4. Keep a List of Stray Thoughts and Interruptions

Having a realistic plan for your day and a timer to keep you focused will obviously not prevent inopportune reminders of other things you need to get done. Since stopping one thing to address another is an inefficient use of your time and hoping you remember the thing later is not very responsible, keep a piece of paper handy. When an interruption happens, write yourself a one- or two-word reminder so you can handle it at an appropriate time. Then get immediately back to the task at hand. If possible, keep doing whatever you’re working on and ask another family member to go write the reminder down for you.

5. Establish Boundaries for Your Day

As you choose to focus on one task at a time, you’ll find that the people in your life will either adjust accordingly or appear to sabotage your efforts. If it’s more of the latter, use it as an opportunity to train them in a life skill that will serve them well. Communicate the routine or schedule clearly with the people in your home, tell them concisely and respectfully that you can’t talk to them about ABC right now when they interrupt you doing XYZ, and lead by example as you manage your day in a way that ensures your essential responsibilities are taken care of. When it comes to people outside of your home and your own personal time management, choose not to scroll through social media sites, engage in text or phone conversations, or make commitments with others during times that are dedicated to other responsibilities.

6. Above All, Give Yourself Grace

Of course, no matter how responsible you are in setting yourself up for success, there will be days when nothing goes as planned. That’s life. It doesn't mean you failed at being intentional with your time. Roll with it, then get back on track the next day, adjusting the track if need be.

To find out more about Sonlight's structured homeschool programs that tell you exactly what to teach each day, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

7 Ways to Salvage a Homeschool Day That's Headed South... Fast

By Heather Mills Schwarzen

You’ve had that day; we all have. Your kids aren’t feeling the homeschool thing today, and to be honest, you aren’t, either. The to-do list looks long, attitudes are poor, and you’re pretty sure that if you look over at your ten year-old again and he’s still drawing Minecraft castles in his spelling book, you’re going to lose your mind.

What’s a homeschool mom to do? Before you declare a Mental Health Day (which really may be completely warranted), try one of these tried and true tricks to salvage the day and get back on track...fast.

1. Take a Prayer Break

First things first: turn to the source of your strength and joy when you’re in critical need of strength and joy! While stepping away and praying privately might lift your mood and set your day back on track, being vulnerable and inviting your children into your time with the Lord will model the practice for them. Let them add their own needs to the prayer list, too.

More than once, I’ve called for prayer to help fight off the threat of a funk and had a child ask Jesus to help them deal with a frustration I didn’t even know was a problem.

2. Reach for Your Read-Aloud

Yes, it’s math time, but instead of beating your head against the wall of long division, maybe some couch time with Henry Huggins would be more productive. Diffusing the time bomb of a day headed for a slump is often as easy injecting a little levity. Not only will your children benefit from the step back, you will, too. Bonus: you’ll still be checking a box in your Instructor’s Guide, and maybe even getting ahead!

3. Give Your Day a Soundtrack

I have a specific Spotify playlist for when the storm clouds of a really foul day seem to be brewing. A mix of soothing hymns, peppy worship music, and rhythmic classics set the tone for smiles, better attitudes, and positive momentum. Choose a volume just loud enough to be heard or crank it up if need to be. Music really does soothe the savage beast— whether the beast is you or your 8 year-old.

4. Take a Virtual Field Trip

When you just can’t snag a child’s attention, or your audience is somehow less than appreciative, sometimes the key can be spicing things up with a virtual field trip.

Reading about World History with HBL G? Grab a tablet, pull up Google Earth, and point it towards Athens, the Nile, or Martin Luther’s home in Wittenburg.
Discovering early American History with HBL D? Google Arts & Culture has the equivalent of an entire museum waiting for you in their American Democracy section.

A little rabbit trail might be all it takes to draw your family back into the swing of a productive, educational day.

5. Serve a Snack

My younger crew like this, but the truth is, it’s my teenagers who appreciate it the most. When pre-calculus feels too heavy or you’re not sure you’re ever going to remember that chemistry formula, a plate of cookies is exactly the kind of magic that helps you smile rather than snarl. Little learners definitely get a kick out of snacks, too. Edible math manipulatives are a personal favorite of my elementary set. Try it for yourself and see.

6. Invite Stuffed Friends to the Table

When faced with a grouchy kid who has zero desire to learn about Marie Curie or radium, I’m not above motivation by stuffed animal.

Let the furry friend sits on my lap to see the pictures first.
Let children read aloud to an animal.
Let the stuffed animal be the teacher for a half hour or so.

This silly shift is guaranteed to make younger kids find their happy place in homeschooling again.

7. Change the Scenery

Math always happens at the dining room table? Set up shop in the living room. You have a dedicated homeschool room that suddenly feels like a prison? Move to the back porch. The beauty of Sonlight is its ease of use in just about any setting you can imagine. Put that flexibility to work for you.

What if you’ve already exhausted every pick-me-up available? Perhaps a Mental Health Day really is in order. Step back and extend grace to your kids, and yourself. His mercies really are new every morning. Maybe that’s the real lesson to be learned from your bad day!

To find out more about Sonlight's flexible curriculum, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

Tagged bad day, Homeschooling, problems, tips, troubleshooting | 2 Comments

Oct. 12, 2018

Homeschool 911–Who to Call When We Need Help

By Bethany Weathersby

Homeschool 911–Who to Call When We Need Homeschool Help

As with every other area of life, there will be times when we hit a wall in our homeschooling and find ourselves in need of a little resuscitation. I've been there many times:

Overwhelmed with juggling responsibilities in multiple areas of life
Frustrated with a child’s poor attitude, behavior, or work ethic
Unhappy with curriculum choices but unsure of what to use instead
Physical, mental, or emotional exhaustion
Not seeing any fruit from my efforts
Struggling with and advocating for a child with learning challenges

When those times come, and rest assured that they will, we need to reach out for help.

Sure, that can feel a little vulnerable, but we all need someone to hold our hand from time to time. So, who do we call on?

Homeschool Help from People Nearby

The people whose paths naturally cross ours or live in the same general area can give us personalized attention when we need help. Whether it’s a hug at church when we’re feeling discouraged, a conversation on social media with recommendations for local resources, or an invitation to come over and check out some curriculum we’ve been considering, the support of people who live close to us can be a huge boost to our homeschooling experience.

Homeschool Help from People Far Away

There are times when the best source of help is people we don’t see on a regular basis, if we even see them at all. The stranger in a homeschool group on Facebook who gives unbiased feedback on an issue may be exactly what we need. Or a family member who gently encourages us to figure things out for ourselves because they’re too far away to rescue us can get us back on track. The people whose daily lives aren’t tangled up in our own often have the ability to see our situation more objectively than we can. Their input is invaluable.

Homeschool Help from The Experts

Maybe what we need to hear is expert advice from someone with more knowledge than we have. Whether we check out a great book from the library, tune in to an encouraging podcast, call an Advisor, or attend a homeschool convention, outside advice from someone with experience and expertise can help use solve big homeschool problems.

Homeschool Help from Amateurs

People who are in the homeschool trenches with us will often be our greatest source of encouragement and admonition. They may not have all the answers, but they have real life, recent experience. The sense of camaraderie that comes from someone else walking the same path at the same time is often all it takes to help us push through whatever we’re facing. Your homeschool peers help you see that you are not alone.

Homeschool Help from People Similar to Us

We all need to have people in our life we can relate to, who understand the circumstances we find ourselves in, share the same values, or have similar personalities. They’re the ones who encourage us when our confidence is slipping, know just what to say or do to help us when everyone else’s good intentions are falling short, and make us feel a little less crazy. They remind us to keep our eyes on our goal and keep moving forward in our homeschool journey.

Homeschool Help from People Different From Us

Sometimes it beneficial to get the perspective of people we don’t have a lot in common with. It’s easy to get so caught up in our homeschool problems that we forget there are other equally valid ways of looking at things. If we’re teachable, a person who approaches life differently than we do can help us think outside the box and find solutions. Even those who are radically different than us in significant ways usually have some nugget of wisdom or practical tip we can apply to our situation.

Return the Favor

If you’re treading water in the pool of homeschooling, struggling to simply stay afloat, then call on some of the people described above to help you catch your breath. Do whatever it takes to find your rhythm again, and don’t worry about anything else.

If, however, you’re in a relatively comfortable season, having been buoyed by others at some point in the past, be one of the aforementioned people to someone else. Take the kindness you received and pay it forward.

Give a word of encouragement.
Offer practical help with homeschooling or household tasks.
Humbly share advice based on personal experience.
Praise what someone is doing well.

We each have seasons of crisis and stability. When our season is smooth, we can offer a hand out to those in need without any pride. When we’re in a rough season, we can call out for help without any shame.

If you are considering a new direction for your children’s education, and could use an empathetic ear, we have experienced homeschooling moms who would love to talk to you. Click here to schedule an appointment.

Tagged advice, advisors, conflict, help, Homeschooling, problems, struggles | Leave a comment

Oct. 10, 2018

Why Sonlight Studies Both Western and Eastern Hemispheres

By Sarita

Why Sonlight Studies the Western and Eastern Hemisphere

Sonlight devotes much more time to studying cultures outside of Europe and North America than most curricula do. Why?

Well, I believe we should study those for whom God cares most deeply. Which turns out to be the whole world!

God doesn't value me any more than a remote tribeswoman in Papua New Guinea or a successful businessman in Shanghai. He doesn't love my country more than Angola or Afghanistan. Not that he loves me less; he instead loves every individual and people group with unbounded, infinite love.

That's why Sonlight students spend so much time studying the whole world. All in all, Sonlight students get four amazingly rich years of U.S. History study (since we are a U.S. company and most of our users are in the U.S.) and eight years of captivating study of the rest of the world. See all history programs here and a full scope and sequence here.

Academic Reasons to Study Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and More

My husband John makes a great point in reason #8 of the article 27 Reasons NOT to Buy Sonlight:

In a standard American history/social studies curriculum, students begin with study of "my community," then move outward to "my state," "my country" and so on. They devote 10 of 12 years—over 80% of their homeschool time—to study of the history and culture of a nation that has existed for less than 10% of recorded history and encompasses fewer than 5% of all the people in the world!

We didn't want such an imbalanced education for our own children. So we balanced study of our own nation's history with study of the rest of the world. Since we want our children to feel at home in and succeed in our increasingly globalized world, they need to know about their neighbors on the other side of the planet. They need to see them as real people.

The Spiritual Rationale for a Global Focus

At the end of the day, our focus on world history and world cultures comes back to the fact that God loves all people, including those who are different than we are. If God loves them, we should to. And if we want to love them, we should probably know a thing or two about their personal stories and their cultural heritage, history and geography.

I take great comfort in the fact that the Bible says one day God will gather some to Himself from every tribe, language, people and nation (Revelation 5:9-10 and 7:9). And to think – God wants to use us to help bring others to Himself!

I hope that Sonlight's programs help you raise children with a heart for the world—children who realize the world is bigger than their own town, country or language. This is why you'll read so many stories woven into your curriculum that take place in other parts of the world. Your children get to know characters who live in cultures drastically different than their own. And in doing so, children realize that people who look different, talk differently or believe differently are still actual people who need to know Christ's love just as much as we do.

Sonlight Curriculum Delves into Both Eastern and Western Hemispheres

For one, our World History courses are more than Western Civilization courses. They're Western and Eastern Civilization courses (though we do focus a bit more on the Western cultures in these programs).

We also devote an entire year to the study of the Eastern Hemisphere in HBL F. I don't know of any other homeschool program that does this. HBL F: Eastern Hemisphere program takes you on an exciting tour of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the South Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand).

Sonlight also includes many missionary biographies—stories of people who went to other lands to share the Good News of Christ. Since we think God is going to save some from every people group, we want to highlight people who go and serve in other countries.

We also encourage families to pray for people all around the world. Many of our programs include prayer guides that encourage your kids to pray with you for these people groups.

Our overarching goal at Sonlight is to help you raise up your kids to have a heart for the world and equip them to do whatever God calls them to. I believe learning about the whole world is an absolutely essential part of that.

P.S. I started thinking about some of my favorite books that highlight people of other lands. You won't want to miss out on treasures like

Rickshaw Girl (India)
And the Word Came with Power (the Philippines)
The Bronze Bow (Israel)
The Breadwinner (Afghanistan)
Cry, the Beloved Country (South Africa)
… and the list goes on.

What is your favorite Sonlight book from another land?

Tagged biographies, curriculum, education, HBL F, history, international, missions, Sonlight, world | 1 Comment

Oct. 8, 2018

4 Reasons I Pre-read My Children's Books

By Veronica Soto

Teaching Sonlight with a large family takes a delicate balance of the time I spend teaching, grading, and keeping track of assignments, with my need to work, clean, and cook. Finding the time to stay one step ahead of my children's school work can be hard.

Despite the challenges of time management, with a few exceptions, I’ve always read the books I assign to my children before they read them.

Yes, we use Sonlight.
And, yes, the Readers scheduled for my children are without question top-notch books.
Yes, I trust Sonlight's choices.

But I still have strongly held reasons for pre-reading my children's books.

Stay Ahead of the Oldest Child

Since I have seven students doing multiple levels, there’s no way I could read through that many History / Bible / Literature programs (HBLs) in a single year. But I do try to keep ahead of the oldest child so I’m at least familiar with the books when the second or third child comes along.

This commitment means that I am often reading during my downtime at work or listening to audio books on my trip to and from work. I also read Sonlight books all year long, spreading out the workload. It is manageable to do, even with a busy lifestyle. And here's why I invest in pre-reading my children's Sonlight Readers.

1. Sonlight Teaches About Real Life

Sonlight doesn’t use textbooks to teach. Instead Sonlight's curriculum is filled with historical fiction, which simply means the author tells a story using the correct historical background. For example, in Johnny Tremain in HBL D, Johnny is a fictional boy set in the very real backdrop of the Revolutionary War. Details about the war are sprinkled throughout the book as Johnny goes about his life. Just as in real life, hard things happen to Johnny. He’s an orphan working as an apprentice. He meets people who are fighting for liberty, and as a result of that fight, people die.

It’s very hard to write an accurate book about war and history while keeping everything sunny and cheerful. Sonlight books don’t sugarcoat history. They do try to choose books that stay away from the harshest violence or the greatest atrocities (until later high school), but you will find, on occasion, people starving, suffering, or even dying. Reading a quick summary of a book or reading through the discussion questions in the Instructor's Guide (IG) doesn’t always give you the full feeling of the book.

Because difficult content does appear from time to time in Sonlight books, it’s a good idea to pre-read to see what’s coming. If any content is a bit too sensitive for your child, you can skip that portion. We normally choose to read those sections instead of skipping them, but I make an effort to talk through the hard parts.

2. I Want to Model My Expectations

If I’m not willing to take the time and effort, why should my children? If a brief summary and discussion question answers in the Instructor's Guide are good enough for me, why aren’t they good enough for my children?

By reading the books in full, I show my children that reading is important to me and the knowledge I can gain from reading the books is important as well.

3. If I Don’t Read It, I Might Not Know the Answers

Sometimes when I ask my children a discussion question about a book, they give me an answer that isn’t listed in the IG. If I haven’t read the book myself, I might assume their answer was wrong when it's actually an acceptable answer.

At other times, my children didn’t know the answer to a question. Without having read the book myself, I would be at a loss to help them identify the correct passage in the book to locate the answer.

Pre-reading can clear up a lot of these issues with right or wrong answers. I might still have to look over a chapter to clarify an answer, but I can figure out most answers based on my memory of the book. And as a bonus, we get to have meaningful discussions about the titles instead of a dry Q & A session over the IG.

4. Sonlight Books are Just That Good

The biggest reason I pre-read my children's books is because Sonlight chooses such excellent novels, biographies, and non-fiction! I would be sad to miss out on these books!

I find myself crying for the main characters.
My heart breaks for the hardships the missionaries are undergoing.
I often close a book with a sigh of satisfaction for a good read.

Sonlight books are books I would choose for myself if I had hundreds of hours to weed through books to find the good ones. It’s actually quite rare that I find a Sonlight book that I didn’t love or learn from in some way.

So while it's something of a sacrifice of time, it's also a pleasurable task to pre-read my children's Sonlight Readers.

To find out more about Sonlight's unmatched Read-Alouds, Readers, and our complete book-based homeschool programs, order a complimentary copy of your catalog today.

Tagged books, planning, pre-reading, reading, Sonlight | Leave a comment