These Sonlight children love to learn!
As I read what Jonelle, Judy and Karla wrote about Sonlight to me, I couldn't help nodding and grinning and thinking, “Yes, but there is so much more!”
Sonlight was a miracle in a box to me. You see, I had been homeschooling my children for seven years using various unsatisfactory methods and styles before I found Sonlight. I KNEW what we liked, but I just couldn't seem to pull it off. We loved books—real books, real people, real stories AND we liked to learn together. One year we did just that.
The year I wrote my own unit studies my children were in 9th, 7th, 5th and 1st grades and my youngest was three years old. We loved it and we learned so much. But it was exhausting for me. I did a lot of research, pulled together a lot of books and spent countless hours figuring out how to coordinate everything. When everyone else was done for the day I was still slaving away at the kitchen table planning for tomorrow and next week and next month. Although I liked the concept of learning together, the joy was sucked right out of it because of all the planning I had to do.
At the end of that year I was burnt out and ready to go back to textbooks, workbooks and boredom. That year, the best part of the day was when I read classic literature to my children, but I found it harder and harder to make time for that. There was just so much “school” to do that we hardly had time for the fun stuff.
Sonlight siblings learning together.
Then I found Sonlight and it was like a miracle in a box. Even though I didn't know anyone who had used it and I had never seen an Instructor’s Guide I ordered a full curriculum for my youngest two children. It was 1997 and we didn't have internet access so I couldn't investigate what I was purchasing, but I knew from perusing the meager catalog that Sonlight was going to be perfect for us.
It was.
When I unpacked the box, lined the books up in the awaiting bookshelf and saw all the next full year of school all planned out and ready to start I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
Sonlight did the work for me. The Instructor’s Guides gave me back my life and more time to spend with my children. Instead of sitting at the kitchen table all by myself planning; my school time was spent teaching and learning alongside my children. No more sad and lonely evenings making plans, reserving books and scanning catalogs for me. From that day forward, for ten years until my youngest child graduated from our Sonlight homeschool, I never looked back.
My daughter-- A Sonlight graduate heading to college.
Sonlight to me is great literature, time together with my children, minimal planning, being able to do the science experiments because I actually have the supplies, peace of mind, quiet mornings reading together and lively discussions following. Sonlight is academically strong and it taught me to teach my kids to critically think and to love to learn.
I am so glad I found it all those years ago. What is Sonlight to you?
Take care,
Jill
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