May. 4, 2018

4 Reasons to Read Books That Might Make Your Kids (and You) Cry

By MJ Sherwood
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4 Reasons to Read Books That Might Make Your Kids (and You) Cry

If you are a family that spends a lot of time reading aloud, you have probably found at least a few books that caused tears. Book after book we read each afternoon, my kids have learned the sob routine. Nearing the last few chapters, or during an emotional climax in the middle of the story, they start watching me to see if I am crying yet. Usually I am. As the heartbreaking story unfolds, the tears are guaranteed to come, often from my kiddos as well.

Just when I thought I couldn’t cry any harder at a story than the ending of Little Britches, the next afternoon I picked up A Letter To Mrs Roosevelt and was crying within the first chapter. The truth is I am a deep feeler; I cannot help but immerse myself in the mind of a character when I hear a story whether it is for the happy or sad. Many an afternoon I now find myself consoling a child after a tough storyline we’ve just had a good cry over.

The books in our Sonlight curriculum packages have a special way of pulling our heartstrings and evoking strong emotion:

  • hilarious laughs in Happy Times in Noisy Village
  • fear of the mysterious unknown in Red Sails to Capri
  • shame over hurtful gossip in The Hundred Dresses
  • intense sadness in Little Britches
  • building anticipation in The Great Wheel

It is easy to understand why we would read books that make us laugh, but what about the books that make us cry? Here are four reasons to read books that may make your children cry.

1. Encourage Empathy

A truly good story makes everything about it seem completely real, allowing you to fully immerse yourself into the characters, the surroundings, and the storyline. When our kids learn to do this with character in a book, it becomes natural for them to do this in real life, with real people. We begin to wonder what it would really feel like to go through the loss of a family member, have a close friend move away, run out of money to pay for the family home, lose a pet, or have a mother become so sick the kids have to take over her care.

Raising kids who feel empathy towards others is a priority of my homeschool. I am glad we are empowered to learn this skill with books in our hands and hearts.

2. Process Emotions

My 10 year old, Dreaming Daughter, is just becoming a tween, so we have been talking a lot about our feelings lately. Emotions have been running a bit wild in our home! I tell her that there is nothing wrong with feeling emotions, but what we do with emotions is what counts. Emotions are a powerful tool God can use to do His work but only if we seek Him to direct us the way we should go. If we use our emotions only for our own selfish desires, we won’t get ourselves anywhere good.

I want to raise children who are world changers; that is very difficult if we raise kids who are numb to the emotions that the Lord is stirring up in their hearts. God gave us a gift when He created us with emotions. When we feel deeply, we are more likely to act. Sadness can often lead us to reach out to someone in need with true action. Opening our home to someone who is lonely, bringing bibles to those who have none, speaking a word of encouragement to a friend, or passing out food to the vulnerable are all acts inspired first by thinking of those who are hurting.

3. Inspire Gratitude

Have you ever had the same conversation nearly a hundred times with your child about being thankful and felt like you are not seeing any heart change? I have felt stuck as a parent many times especially when it comes to raising kids who are grateful for all they have. We want to raise children who don’t feel entitled, but how do we get them to grasp gratitude deep in their hearts?

One way to inspire gratefulness is to read books about those who are less fortunate. Reading A Letter to Mrs Roosevelt in History/Bible/Literature E has given my kids a perspective on growing up during The Great Depression. I knew something changed when Dreaming Daughter told me she would give us all her allowance if our house were ever in danger of foreclosure.

4. Grant Courage

On the other side of tears are moments of defining courage. Sad times come, but what do the characters in the story do in those hard times? Typically an unlikely hero emerges from terrible circumstances, and we can take heart. If a boy like Ralph Moody from Little Britches, can step in to some of the toughest of circumstances, only to step out a man, what can we gather the courage to do?

As parents we need to prepare our kids to face the world with courage because they have their own hard times to get through. Some of us may be currently homeschooling through a hard time or unanswered prayers. Have confidence that these stories will stick with them through hard times and remind them that after a good cry, we can be brave.

After all, your kids are a character in their own story, a story mapped out by our Creator God. We can take whatever sad things come our way and turn it into something that gives God glory as our story unfolds.

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May. 2, 2018

How to See Beauty in Unexpected Places: Lessons from “Cornstalks”

By Gina Munsey
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Lessons We Learned from “Cornstalks: A Bushel of Poems”

I am a lover of poetry. My daughter, on the other hand, is very literal. Her mind is scientific and pragmatic, and while she can—and does—memorize how to properly use idioms, she doesn’t have an intuitive sense for poetic language. When we worked through the (delightful!) Grade 2 Readers, I taught her how to systematically pause after each line break when reading the Surprises poems aloud. Struck by the mathematical cadence present in the rhymed couplets and verses, she declared she loved poetry.

Poetry Doesn’t Need to Rhyme

Surprises won a place of honor on the “books we’ll never sell” shelf, and we finished our Grade 2 Readers far, far ahead of schedule. But when we opened Cornstalks: A Bushel of Poems later (note, this title has been replaced with 104 Poems of Whimsy and Wisdom to Delight Children of All Ages), my daughter exclaimed, “This isn’t poetry! It doesn’t even rhyme!”

As I quickly explained, a poem is not the same as a rhyme. While some poetry does contain rhyming words, a poem is not defined by corresponding ending sounds—or lack thereof. Instead, I told her, poetry helps us see beauty which might not have occurred to us before.

Poetry Teaches Us to See Beauty in Unexpected Places

In the classic book Red Sails to Capri, the local innkeepers’ son Michele leads beauty-seeking artist Lord Derby on a steep hike up to a lookout point high on the Mediterranean island. After waiting for Lord Derby to reveal what he’d painted en plein air on the canvas, Michele gasps.

“There was no sea, no sky, no cliffs.

‘The steps,’ he gasped. ‘You painted a picture of the steps to Anacapri.’

Lord Derby nodded, well pleased with himself. ‘Do you like my picture?’

Michele nodded slowly. ‘Yes. Only—

‘Only what?’

…‘I never thought they were beautiful at all. I thought they were ugly.’

‘Perhaps you have never looked at them before.’

‘Looked at them? I have looked at them a thousand times.’

‘Sometimes we never see the things we look at the most often.’”

Cornstalks is a treasure because it enables us to see—to really see—ordinary things we look at all the time.

Poetry Nudges Us to Notice Small Details

What poet Laureate Billy Collins does for adults in his exquisite poem Litany, James Stevenson does for children in Cornstalks. In Litany—you’ve read this extraordinary work, right?—Billy Collins calls us to turn our eyes toward

  • the bread,
  • the white apron,
  • the boots in the corner, and
  • the “evening paper blowing down an alley”.

In Cornstalks, Stevenson invites us to celebrate

  • the little decorative toothpick in the diner sandwich,
  • the snow-covered used car lot,
  • adhesives,
  • paint, and
  • backpacks.

I’ve heard fellow Sonlighters lament these topics make no sense, but I would argue the brilliance of these topics lies in the very fact they are ordinary. “Most children have probably observed a used car lot as they drive around town”, writes Amy Lykosh in the History / Bible / Literature C Instructor Guide’s introduction to Cornstalks.

As we continued to read through these poems, my daughter’s laughter grew louder and more frequent. She no longer cared which poems rhymed and which did not, and she began to delight Stevenson’s minute details. Teaching kids the worth of everyday situations—not just the vacations and mountain-top experiences—is incredibly powerful.

Poetry Teaches Us About Perspective

Poems, at their very core, allow us to see the world in new ways. You may be familiar with a popular illustration wherein two individuals are seated opposite one another, with a numeral on the table between them. “It’s a six!” one exclaims. “No, it’s a nine!” the other insists. Poet James Stevenson employs this same concept of perspective in many of his poems, demonstrating, in a light and humorous yet thought-provoking way,how the same object can express two very different meanings, depending on which way it’s viewed. These poems made my daughter laugh, but I also noticed she paused her reading, and looked around the room, her eyes thoughtfully resting on various everyday objects.

And isn’t it interesting how the skills of

  • analytical thinking,
  • problem-solving,
  • repurposing,
  • thinking outside the box, and
  • viewing a situation from all angles

are being exercised through poetry, thought Cornstalks is about as far from a STEM subject as you can get?

Poetry Encourages Us to Practice Gratitude

Gratitude, I think, is the most precious of all the lessons we learned from Cornstalks. In our daily lives, it is easy to lament all we do not have, looking with frustration at

  • the old kitchen counters,
  • the faded car upholstery,
  • the chipped mugs,
  • the worn-out jeans,
  • the tired trail worn in the carpeting, and
  • the less than glamorous neighborhood view.

We may wish for more beautiful surroundings, or even a better system for taking out the trash. But poetry—especially poems centered around everyday occurrences—reminds us joy and beauty lies at least partly in our attitude. “[Garbage] bags sit on the sidewalk,” James Stevenson writes, “dressed in black, wearing bow ties, ready for the opera.”

While we can’t walk around with our head in the clouds all the time (life is very much lived in the gritty reality down here on earth), we can absolutely

  • begin to practice the habit of gratitude,
  • look for beauty, and
  • give thanks for what we see.

Expressing thanks for simple objects like bags of trash may seem forced and awkward at first, but the practice of heaven-facing gratitude has the power to transform our entire outlook. When I complain about having to run to the corner store because I forgot an item on my grocery list, Cornstalks reminds me, “When I go to the drugstore and see how many ailments there are, I am grateful to be alive.” Poems like these drive home

  • how much value there is in every last bit of drudgery,
  • how much beauty is hidden in things we take for granted, and
  • how very much I have to be thankful for.

And by the end of the book, my daughter had begun to write her own short poems of gratitude about everyday life. (Redemption lived out, in the everyday!)

‘Your ugly steps,” says Lord Derby in Red Sails to Capri, “if I have made you see a bit of beauty in them, Michele, I am happy.”

We all have ugly steps. Cornstalks helps me see the beauty in mine.

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Apr. 30, 2018

Do It Scared...How I Face My Fears and Homeschool Anyway

By Deana Wood
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Do It Scared...How I Face My Fears and Homeschool Anyway

I remember it well. It was almost seven years ago now, and I was terrified. My husband and I had just made a huge family decision. We had prayed about it for months, and had decided to to homeschool. For our situation, that decision was going to place my child’s education almost entirely in my hands. I can’t say that I felt great about it. On the contrary, I was scared!  There were multiple moments in those first few months where anxiety would raise its ugly head and try to strangle me with doubt, but I clung to one phrase—Do it scared.

I’ve spoken to so many moms who are in the same place I was seven years ago. They want to homeschool, they feel called to homeschool, some are just starting to homeschool, but they are scared to death.

Is this you?

If so, can I give you some encouragement in the form of a phrase to linger in the back of your mind as you begin your journey?

Do it scared.

1. Pray

You probably already know this step. But I can’t give encouragement without mentioning the importance of prayer. We spent months in prayer before making the decision to homeschool. The time we spent praying countered those early moments of doubt that every homeschool parent faces. I believed (and still do) that it was God’s will for my family to homeschool, so that provided a lifeline for me to grasp as often as I needed.

2. Give Yourself Grace

For me, scary life changes equal big emotions that I don’t always even understand. My husband has learned that sometimes, particularly during major life changes, I will bawl my eyes out over seemingly strange things. Many times, I can’t even verbalize why I’m crying. In these situations, it’s best to give myself grace:

  • allow myself to ugly cry
  • allow myself to ask for help
  • remember that it’s okay to be scared

3. Do It Scared

Once you get past the ugly crying, or whatever you do, slap some determination on your face, and walk tall, because you’ve got this! If God called you to homeschool, He will help you through it! You’re going to be just fine! There are only a few things that you’ll need to remember on your way:

  • Remember that some days will stink. Don’t let those days determine how good/bad homeschooling is.
  • Some days will be glorious. You’ll feel like Maria in The Sound of Music. Your children will be in cute matching outfits that you made from some old draperies. They will be perfect angels, and you’ll teach them to harmonize fun family songs. Don’t let those days determine how good/bad homeschooling is either.

Finally, you may have the bulk of the homeschooling responsibilities, but you are never alone. You are surrounded by a small army of families who are doing the same thing. And do you know something? They are doing it scared, too. Just. Like. You.

Making the decision to homeschool? If you’ve prayed and ugly cried, and all that’s standing in your way is fear, then there’s just one thing left for you to do: DO IT SCARED.

4. Link Arms with Others

Two years ago, after much prayer, I decided to start a homeschool co-op. To say that I was scared was an understatement. My family and friends came out of the woodwork to help me completely remodel an older house on our property where we would meet. I can vividly remember standing in the yard, looking at this old house and all the sweat going into making it new again, and it happened...I started ugly crying right there in front of my mother, my mother-in-law, and everyone traveling on the major highway that ran in front of the little house. I was scared, and my fear was threatening to shut down a dream that God had planted in my heart years before.

I think back on that moment often now. I was so close to calling it quits that day. I was way too close to saying, “No” to a calling that God had placed on my heart. My sweet mother and mother-in-law gave me words of encouragement that day that were just what I needed to get me to the next step.

Their words boiled down to one simple principle: Do it scared.

There would never be a time in my life where I would be less scared or even better equipped for the job. Looking back, if I had listened to my worries, I would have missed out on the greatest blessings of my life. The best things I’ve done in my life, I’ve done at least a little bit scared. That uneasiness keeps me leaning on God for wisdom and guidance, and I think it probably keeps me humble, too. So take it from me, if you’ve prayed, and you’ve ugly cried, and all that’s standing in your way is fear, then there’s just one thing left to say....do it scared, Mama.

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.

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Apr. 27, 2018

5 Ways Sonlight Helps Military Families During a Move

By Jennifer Hamrick
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5 Ways Sonlight Helps Military Families During a Move

Twenty-three luggage tags. That’s a lot of luggage tags no matter who you are. Sure, we probably qualify for large family status at seven members, but, still, keeping up with 23 pieces of luggage is a difficult task for anyone. Our flight was no average trip for a family vacation. No. This flight was taking us on a three-year adventure to Germany—our second such adventure during our time as an Army family.

One of those twenty-three luggage tags was specifically dedicated to our Sonlight curriculum. In preparation for this move, I spent an afternoon figuring out which books my kids were going to need while we were in transition. I kept with us about six weeks of material per kid as well as the Student and Instructor's Guides for those weeks. I then mailed the rest of the year’s school work to a friend who already lived in Germany. We were going to be in a hotel for weeks, if not months, and I didn’t want us to miss too much school work. The movers drove away with our couch, most of our clothes, our photo albums, and our beds, but we had our Sonlight books with us.

1. Homeschooling Eases the Transitions

Research shows that moving is one of the top five most stressful life experiences. It doesn’t matter whether the move is to a new house or to a new country… moving is very stressful. Military kids move often and ours were facing an overseas move.  It was my job as mom to make things as smooth as possible. I love that homeschooling my children brings them consistency that they couldn’t get otherwise.

Because we homeschool:

  • They didn’t have to face going to a new school.
  • They were able to dive into their familiar books, which, as you know, can be like friends in and of themselves.
  • They were able to continue the work they started earlier in the year with no break in their scope and sequence.
  • They had sense of home even while we were between homes.

Reading aloud to my second grader and watching my teens enjoy their Readers gave me peace. Moving is difficult for anyone, and having this one bit of stability during a move makes things much more tolerable.

2. Characters in Books are Friends We Take With Us Anywhere We Go

My second grader and I started Detectives in Togas while in the hotel in Germany and we finished it last week sitting on our own couch. The day after we finished it Parker (8) said, “I can’t wait to see what happens next in Detectives in Togas!  Oh, man! We finished it. I’m sad we finished it.” I love that Parker was so invested that he missed the characters when the last page was turned. Sonlight’s selection of books introduces us to characters we really connect with. It’s like having friends who can travel with us, bringing a sense of consistency and familiarity to our new home.

According to the National Military Family Association, “Military children will say good-bye to more significant people by age eighteen than the average person will in their lifetime.” Because of these constant goodbyes, having familiar characters in the books we read provides a comfort to children of all ages.

3. The Sonlight IG Provides Consistent Structure to Our Days

Kids flourish with structure and predictability. Being an Army family means our lives are unpredictable, but Sonlight provides us with much needed structure. Within the Instructor Guide, each day’s work is easy to see and that makes getting the materials ready each day a breeze. If I hadn’t had that structure prepared for me, we would have gotten much less done during our season of major transition. It would have been incredibly difficult for me to pull together what each child needed to work on while preparing for the move; therefore, I would have been tempted put school on the back burner. Thanks to the Instructor Guides, we were able to have structured homeschool days even when the rest of our world felt completely unstructured.

4. Sonlight Takes Care of School So I Can Focus on the Logistics of Life

Because Sonlight has done all the work for me, I can focus on the logistics of moving our family when the Army gives us new orders. The kids know each day what is expected of them and can keep up with their work with very little direction from me. In the older kids’ History / Bible / Literature programs, the Student Guide has notes written to the student explaining why each particular book was included in the year’s reading. The kids can see their vocabulary words and answer questions for the chapters they read even if I’m preoccupied with unpacking boxes and hanging pictures.

5. The Missions-focus of Sonlight Helps Us Focus on Others

We are a patriotic family, as you may imagine. We love America, and yet we struggle with the temptation to feel it is the center of the world. Through the missionary biographies in every History / Bible / Literature program, we have read about and prayed for many other cultures. We have learned how God loves all people and that many countries live in very poor conditions compared to our own.

And being an Army family stationed overseas, we are able to feel firsthand what it is like to live in a place that is not our home. Sonlight’s missions-focus reminds us of our calling to spread His Gospel to the ends of the earth. Our difficult transitions seem mild when compared to the challenges faced by missionaries like Bruce Olson and Mary Slessor. Sonlight has taught us to be others-focused by pointing our hearts toward Christ and His people who live all over the world.

We move often, and it’s not up to us where or when. I am so thankful for Sonlight and its amazing selection of books, clearly organized and with all the preparation done for me in the Instructor Guides. I’m grateful that the missions-focus helps us recognize that our challenges aren’t really all that bad. Sonlight allows me to focus on the emotional, spiritual, and logistical needs of my family, all while knowing that their educational needs are being met in the meantime.

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Apr. 26, 2018

Since Sonlight Books Are So Good, Why Are They Ever Replaced?

By Sonlight
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Since Sonlight Books Are So Good, Why Are They Ever Replaced?

Ever wonder why Sonlight books are so good? It's because Sarita and her team review new releases year-round, a massive undertaking. You can’t just go to the library and pull random books off the shelf and end up with an amazing program. Sonlight books are so phenomenal because the team has reviewed tens of thousands of titles over the last several decades.

Since the books Sonlight chooses are so wonderful, why then does the Sonlight lineup ever change? Why do we replace books with other titles?

  • Because books go out of print.
  • Because a better book comes into print.
  • Because Sarita sees a need and produces a product to fill that need.

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the exciting changes to the books this year. These five new additions to the Sonlight line up do not include complete new programs or new hands-on products. This article outlines only book replacements to Sonlight programs for 2018.

Even if you’ve already gone through these programs, you might buy these books. There's so much goodness here!

New Titles in Preschool

New since the 2017 catalog, two books replace the out-of-print Twentieth Century Children’s Book Treasury in Preschool:

  1. Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry
    A perennial favorite, enjoyed by Sarita’s children (both boys and girls!) and grandchildren. Find Gold Bug on every page, follow Officer Flossy as she chases naughty Dingo Dog, and go with the Pig Family on an all-day excursion.
  2. George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends by James Marshall
    Thirty-five fun short stories of two hippopotami. A book to savor again and again. If you haven’t met them yet, you should. They take dance lessons, they prank each other, they try new things (or not, in the case of the hot air balloon). An absolute delight.

New Title in History / Bible / Literature E

The former title about Wilberforce in History / Bible / Literature E has been swapped with a brand new release—One Voice: The Story of William Wilberforce by Amy Lykosh.

As Sarita’s 9-year-old granddaughter said, “This new book gets the emotion of the story,” and when Sonlight’s General Manager first reviewed it, he told Sarita, “We need to get this into the hands of everyone on the planet!”

A biography in verse, it emphasizes the power and persistence of the small man with the big voice. See below for an excerpt.

New Titles in History / Bible / Literature F

A change since the 2018 catalog went to press: The House of Sixty Fathers, a Sonlight title in Eastern Hemisphere from the beginning, went out of print.

To replace this Reader, enjoy two new titles:

  1. The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
    Laugh-out-loud funny, this sweet story of an American girl of Taiwanese heritage includes cultural customs, friendship, and figuring out one’s place in the world.
  2. Sweet and Sour: Tales from China by Carol Kendall and Yao-Wen Li
    Twenty-four tales taken from many periods in China’s history, this collection by the beloved author of The Gammage Cup and co-author Yao-Wen Li includes only tales that the author’s liked, and they found some unusual and charming ones. Come enjoy a wide sample platter from the most populous country on earth.

Sonlight is committed to continue to bring you the best of the best. These five books are just a small taste of all the goodness that is Sonlight. Get your copy of the Sonlight catalog today to see all we have for you and your children.

One Voice excerpt

“A Different Outcome”

Civil War
War Between the States
War of Northern Aggression
Whatever you call it,
Three quarters of a million Americans
Dead.
More than
World War I
World War II
The Korean War
Vietnam
Iraq
Afghanistan
Combined.
True—
Four million enslaved Africans
Freed
But the racial tension continues
Today
Festering
Boiling over
Weakening
Destroying
Where was America’s William Wilberforce?

Curious to see what this type of education might look like for your family? Go to SmoothCourse to explore your options.

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Apr. 23, 2018

How to Handle Feeling Overwhelmed on Box Day

By Sonlight
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How to Handle Feeling Overwhelmed on Box Day

Box Day is amazing! You get an enormous box of educational goodies that you will love and enjoy for the next year. Yet Box Day can be overwhelming, too.

If you're having feelings of stress on Box Day, please know that it's not uncommon. But we have suggestions for how to cope so that the overwhelming emotions pass as quickly as possible, and you can celebrate with a bar of dark chocolate or a bubble bath.

When talking to moms who feel overwhelmed on Box Day, there seem to be three different causes of the drowning feeling:

  • the sheer quantity of physical stuff
  • the general stress of anything new
  • the magnitude of the task of homeschooling

So let's look at each and strategies for easing the anxiety in each particular case.

1. If You Are Overwhelmed on Box Day by the Quantity of the Physical Stuff

Just like Christmas and baby showers and any other time you suddenly find yourself with the pleasure and stress of a bunch of new possessions, Box Day involves at least one large box that requires some materials handling.

Ideally, you’ll have a spare shelf for the books since most Sonlight programs will fit on a single good-sized shelf. But if not, consider any flat surface as a possibility, such as on top of a dresser or a table. Many families keep most of the books on a reasonably handy shelf, but keep the books used for the week in a basket by the couch. On Box Day, you probably don’t need to figure that out. Find a place to stack these beautiful books, and be at peace.

The Instructor’s Guide, in its binder, is enormous. Most Sonlighters separate out some portion of the pages into a working binder. If you have a one-inch binder around the house, you can fit several weeks’ worth of notes in it, and keep that with your books. (Bonus: this method gives you a feeling of forward progress, as you swap out completed weeks!)

Do you have a spot in the kitchen for your Science supply kit? Maybe a slightly-empty cupboard or shelf? Many experiments are easiest done in the kitchen, so consider finding a storage spot in an out-of-the-way but still readily accessible spot.

If you don’t have a spot to hang your Markable Map (and many of us don’t), you might find it easiest to keep it folded up with the books on a shelf or in the basket.

Fortunately there are not many days of the year when you have to take in, process, and store this many new items. So if you’re overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the physical stuff . . . that’s okay. You'll be past this organization phase quickly.

2. If You Are Overwhelmed on Box Day by the Stress That Comes with Something New

The thing about homeschooling is that it’s always changing. As is life in general. So if you’ve never homeschooled before, there’s some overwhelm because it’s all new!

And if you have homeschooled before, that’s maybe a little comforting, but you’ve never homeschooled this child or these children, using these materials, at this stage in your life.

You have to navigate shifting relationships, shifting roles around the house, and shifting responsibilities. Oh, and manage the rest of life that you were already living, too.

Guess what?

It’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed because of that.

But just like everything else you’ve had to begin—high school, a job, marriage, parenting—you might feel a little overwhelmed and discombobulated at first. But you keep moving forward, and eventually you might even think was high school really that difficult?

In this case, homeschooling is not the overwhelm. Newness is the overwhelm. And nothing is new forever.

3. If You Are Overwhelmed on Box Day by the Magnitude of the Task

If you have a teaching degree, you know that all your training in classroom management won’t translate very well to the different challenges of homeschooling. And if you don’t have a teaching degree, you might feel even more overwhelmed, not even sure where to start—especially when you’re facing a pile of books and goodies.

This is where your Sonlight Instructor’s Guide comes in.

It’s not just fancy marketing to say that the Guides allow your homeschool day to be just open-and-go. It’s literally true. All the books you just organized are pre-scheduled for you. You won’t need to guess about assignments, or when to read one book instead of the other.

So although the stack looks overwhelming, it’s broken into 144 or 180 parts (either 4-Day or 5-Day). That’s a tremendous amount of days, and you’ll have a manageable amount to deal with each day.

You’ve got this. You can read to your children. Your children can listen and either learn to read or read for themselves. You’re going to have a most excellent year. You’ll learn a lot. You’ll laugh and maybe cry.

And when you look back on Box Day, you’ll see that it was the start of an adventure, and you wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

If you are feeling overwhelmed on Box Day, we have experienced homeschooling moms who would love to walk you through your decisions. Click here to schedule an appointment.

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Apr. 20, 2018

5 Reasons Children Need to Read Books with Flawed Characters

By Gina Munsey
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There is much focus in the homeschool culture on wholesome reading material, particularly titles which feature boys and girls of exemplary virtue. In these books, the main characters consistently—if not inexplicably—model correct choices and praiseworthy attitudes.

Such flawless characters, the argument goes, show our children how to live by presenting ideal behavior in an ideal world. In these wholesome stories, conflicts are often presented with clear and obvious distinctions between good and evil, and with plain lines between heroes and villains.

As charming as it might sound, idyllic literature doesn’t always send a positive message.

I’m a second-generation homeschooler who married a second-generation homeschooler, and between us, we have a whole lot of adult siblings who were educated at home, too. When I talk with my siblings and my homeschooled peers, one topic which comes up over and over again is the impact rewritten (as opposed to real world) stories had on our faith as adults.  At first read, these stories of idealistic boys and girls sound harmless enough. After all, the main characters exude all fruits of the spirit and then some, and never seem to struggle with bad attitudes or poor choices. These are the heroes we want our children to model, right?

The problem, though, is that such idealistic tales take place in a vacuum very unlike the real world. The choices—and people!—our children meet in real life are rarely so black and white. Sending the message it’ll always be easy to spot what’s right and who’s right is dangerous and confusing. While there is a place for solidly moral tales, greater learning and growth comes from sharing authentic stories of flawed, human characters. It’s far more impactful to discuss with your kids how a complex character overcame in a broken world, than how a faultless character succeeded in a perfect world.

1. Flawed Characters Model the Power of Redemption

This is why I love Sonlight’s real-world approach to choosing books. Read the first qualifier on Sarita's seven-part test for a Sonlight book:

“Heroes should not be flawless. Anti-heroes ought not to be thoroughly detestable. They need to be nuanced and complex–the way real people are.”

As Christians, this is so important. God has made it a point to show us, over and over again throughout the Bible, His tremendous power to transform the flawed and the broken through the power of His grace. Jesus’ very lineage is traced through men and women undoubtedly flawed, yet fully redeemed. We aren’t meant to focus on a goal of perfect behaviour outside of Jesus; we’re meant to focus on Jesus.

In fact, many of my homeschooled peers and I would go so far as to argue that feeding our children a steady diet of unrealistically perfect literary characters, to the exclusion of other books, actually has the potential to harm our children’s faith. You see, when children are presented with a constant stream of flawless literary characters who do no wrong and face no struggles—or who overcome overly-simplistic struggles in a formulaic manner—several things are bound to occur.

2. Flawed Characters Define Goodness in the Light of Grace, but Flawless Characters Define Goodness as the Sum of Actions

First, when we focus on idealized characters, we risk sending the message that a child’s goodness is defined as the sum of their virtues and actions.  While we all want our children to make right choices, we don’t want to accidentally perpetuate the false idea that worth—or salvation!—is measured by the the quantity of virtuous choices a person has made.

Worth is inherent as a being created by God; salvation is not merit-based. Flawed heroes live out the gospel, right on the pages of the books we hold in our hands. And it’s flawed heroes who show us it is in our imperfections Christ’s power can shine through. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

3. Flawed Characters Steer Us Away from the Trap of Perfectionism, but Flawless Characters Hold up Perfection as the Standard

Second, when we idolize faultless characters, we risk teaching our children to equate perfection with goodness. After all, in one-dimensional books, it is only the villains who struggle, and only the bad guys who make errors in judgement. The main characters remain unflappable and flawless, constantly making correct choices and modeling ideal behavior. These perpetual examples of unachievable perfection can lead to great discouragement in a child.

“I consistently tell [my children],” said Molly P., a fellow Sonlighter, “that there will never be a time when they do everything right. If they did everything right, they would be Jesus. ...To expect perfection of ourselves is just plain wrong.”

4. Flawed Characters Point to Jesus, but Flawless Characters Point to Our Own Efforts

Third, when we push unrealistic characters, we risk sending a confusing message about Jesus. Hannah M. was homeschooled and raised on a wide variety of books, and she doesn’t mince words about this. “Preachy books devalue Jesus by presenting the possibility we can be perfect on our own.” she says. “‘Try harder to do better,’ these books say. If you want your children to learn to condemn themselves for every tiny flaw they have—and eventually give up on Jesus, because they can never measure up to him— read books with perfect characters. But God is not about perfectionism. He is about grace, and about lending His power to our weakness. God loves us as we are; he doesn’t wait to love us until we are perfect.”

5. Flawed Characters are Actually Normal

We’re all imperfect, every last one of us! Books with flawed main characters accurately reflect not only the human experience, but also the reality of what it means to be redeemed, forgiven, and made whole.

Sonlighter Petrina K. points out that in The Light at Tern Rock from History / Bible / Literature A,  little Ronnie “struggles with unforgiveness and anger,” yet we also are privileged to watch the miraculous work of redemption and grace unfold. We’d do our children a great disservice if we skipped this book because we didn’t want to read about Ronnie’s bad attitude when he faced betrayal.

“If you are concerned they will mimic the bad behavior”, says Hannah M., “My advice to parents is to read books to your kids with flawed—normal!—characters anyway, and then discuss what you read.”

If you ask me, that sounds an awful lot like the whole foundation of a Sonlight education: real parents, reading real books to real children, and living out redemption in the everyday.

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

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