I'm pretty sure if we dumped out a set of pattern blocks in a roomful of adults, everyone would start building and making cool designs with them...haha!
I read an explanation of Charlotte Mason "spreading the feast" and it made a lot of sense to me applying it to Sonlight's approach of reading a little bit from different books. I had also read that it helps develop their imagination to leave cliff-hangers. Maybe I even read it in a Sonlight blog post. Maybe you had even written about it. Having access to lots of picture books is so great for that age. We're staying with my parents now and my mom is having trouble with our homeschool book piles everywhere, ha!
I do think that leaving off on a cliff-hanger can be very strategic--both for the authors themselves and those who write curriculum...but as someone who has also continued to read "one more chapter!" to find out what happens next...I understand the frustration with only getting to read a little bit. I do see benefit in reading a book slowly over time...I feel like such books can become more memorable because you spent more time with them. What cracks me up is that the book that they complain the most about only getting to read a few pages in is that Berenstain Bears science book...it's not like there's any cliffhangers or urgency in reading book full of nature facts and science info...but they always want more. lol!
@@emhull Sonia Shaffer from Simply Charlotte Mason talks about this! It is SUCH a struggle for me and my ADHD’ers. None of us have the impulse control to stop. 😂
Haha, yes! I include my twins in our Sonlight read aloud time and they are pretty much done by the time we finish all the things - so my big kids don’t often ask for more because it is too crazy 🤣
Now that's one way to solve the problem! Pre-K age twins. :P Attention spans are definitely limited with littles--mine for sure wouldn't be sitting through chapter-book read alouds, but P and T are right at their level.
I love seeing the genuine delight and joy on your face as you speak of these precious days with your sons. I also love all the literature based homeschool curriculum. I’m pretty eclectic in my curriculum picks and definitely not married to any one particular curriculum company, however, I find myself gravitating to literature based learning. My kids are book nerds. What can I say?! They love learning through books and I love teaching through books. Do you have any long term Sonlight plans with the boys?
I probably should preface this with a *spoiler alert* but we're really enjoying all the Sonlight Pre-K and Preschool books, I'm not planning to continue with Sonlight for the next couple years...Sonlight K leaps into chapter books that I don't think they'll be ready for yet, and the first few elementary years of Sonlight aren't my favorite--I think the programs are stronger from upper elementary through high school. I believe we will be coming back to Sonlight at some point, but for now, for our literature feast, I'm planning on going "around the world" for our kindergarten year with Beautiful Feet Books (and very excited about that, my oldest loves maps and is constantly asking about different countries). Then, I have Sequence 1 from Gentle + Classical penciled in for our 1st grade year for history/bible/lit.
@@SevenInAll I have a lot of the preschool Sonlight book titles and I’m reading through them (without the schedule) with my boys. Such rich books! I will be very curious how you like Beautiful Feet Books! Have a wonderful Thursday😀
I already grabbed it for next year...haha...always a risky move to buy the next year math curriculum early, but I was pretty sure it was going to be awesome.
I feel like Sonlight was missing something and I decided to use their books as suggestions. We have gone down the bunny hole and found similar books/same authors to use in our homeschool. My problem with Sonlight is I don’t have all of the room in the world for these books. We are now starting to end our second grade/kindergarten school year and I just let them pick books to read before bed. They still get read to but not necessarily using Sonlight at this point in life.
Rachel... I need to pick your brain... My soon to be four year old is about done 8 lesson shy from All about reading Level 1. My thoughts is since she is so young I want to focus on comprehension and literature based for another 6 months before we go back to all about reading level 2. Do you think Sonlight level A would be a good fit? What do you recommend or do you recommend anything else? Your my homeschool go to guru/momma.. 🤣
1) On the point of stopping reading instruction due to her age--if you don't want to progress into AAR 2 for now, that's fine, but I would not stop reading practice all together--maintain a habit of having her read from early readers to you for a few minutes everyday to keep the habit up. If she moved through AAR 1 that fast and that early, there is also a risk that she may just keep on learning how to read and picking it up on her own even if your plan is to take a break. ;) 2) I love literature-based learning with a strong focus on comprehension. The current Sonlight Level A is not really designed for children below elementary age--it focuses on early US History, and I tend to prefer NOT introducing real history studies in preschool and kindergarten, instead focusing on good stories and learning about the world through story. My own curriculum, The Curious Kinder, might be a good fit for a bright and eager 4 year old (it's aimed at a typical 5 year old learning level but it sounds like she leans toward the advanced side). I haven't released the full program yet but a free sample of the first two weeks is available now: www.wheredyoulearnthat.com/freebies/p/the-curious-kinder-sample And I will be making videos about the full curriculum soon.
When my daughter asks for more, I usually do at least one more for something, but then I might hold off on something from that day until the next day and then she’ll ask for two of that. So we sort of work horizontally and vertically on the schedule until we get the whole week finished. 🤔 I’ve been completely unmotivated to do any of it right now. We’ve been sick for two weeks and I get very unmotivated around the holidays too. I think we’re cutting back to bare bones until January. 🤷🏻♀️
Yes, there's definitely some element of just reading all the pages in a book for the week on one day, and then not pulling that book out again for the rest of the week. So sorry you all have been sick! That makes all of the work of life harder. Hope you all feel better soon and enjoy the last few weeks of the year!
I'm not sure that Ambleside Online is all that much deeper than Sonlight at the preschool level...I think many of the stories and books recommended for year 0 are the same. My mom already owned Sonlight Preschool and PreK which made it a rather affordable choice for me, as someone who doesn't live in a place with good library access. ;)
This is my first year homeschooling my kindergartener and she asks for "just one more" story of Bible as well 😀. Also, whenever we do any of the read alouds, science books, or history books it's the same, except her 3 year old sisters join her in begging for another chapter. It warms my heart, but I've definitely started saying, "No," more often.😅
The "just one more" with Bible stories kind of surprised me...I don't usually think of it as a very suspenseful book...but I love that they want more. But yes, I have to say no, no more stories, sometimes these days...they have to learn to experience a little bit of suspense...haha!
Pattern blocks can be purchased anywhere, but the curriculum I am using that has assignments for using pattern blocks is Kindergarten Math with Confidence.
Hi Rachel! I really enjoy many of your videos! If I can ask you a favor and it is able, is it possible for your recordings to be less echoey? I think you may have a home with high ceiling and the wall and floor that bounce off the sound in a big room. Is the sound adjustable with your microphone? I have no problem when I sit and pay attention to watch your videos but when I often listen while doing chores or cooking , it is hard to keep up. Thank you for considering!
I know there's an echo/sound problem, and I'm sorry about that...I keep experimenting with different set ups to see what helps because I don't have an ideal sound situation: my house has tile floors, plaster walls, high ceilings...and not much soft furniture to muffle sound. There just aren't a lot of cozy/soft fabrics in the typical home in our part of the world, ha! Thanks for the feedback, and I'll keep working on it, sometimes I think I find a set up that improves the sound...but... I may have to buy a separate mic.
My son LOVED What do People do all day! Pretty sure that book is his favorite thing I’ve brought into the house this year 😂 I made him wait for that one, but others I don’t. He insisted I read all of George and Martha in one sitting (so I obliged), and he has been re-reading it to himself since then! We just do the weeks worth of poetry all in one day, then he’ll pick one for me to write on our board and he’ll reread over and over for the week and he usually memorized that one. I actually cried like a baby all three times that I read nana upstairs and nana downstairs. I keep thinking I won’t “this time”, but I definitely do. We are doing parts of gentle classical preschool too. There are few other things about Sonlight that aren’t my favorite, but the books alone have been worth it. I’m probably going to have to do something else between the Sonlight pk and Sonlight K based on what I’ve heard about the K content.
We've owned "What Do People Do All Day?" probably since my oldest was 1, he's spent hours paging through it on his own, and I've read it multiple times before this...and he STILL wants to hear multiple stories each day. haha! I cannot read Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs without crying. I can't. Interestingly, that's my husband's favorite picture book to read. And yes...in general I would NOT recommend jumping straight from Sonlight PK to K...when I saw the K booklist I was like...yes, we are definitely not doing that this year. I love the Preschool and Pre-K booklists but the early elementary Sonlight years are not my favorite, overall. I think they start getting better in upper elementary and they have very strong middle and high school programs.
Charlotte Mason says readings should be kept short and you should always stop while they still want more. I you do, they will think about the reading and look forward to the rest. If you wait until they have "had enough" they will eventually become bored with reading. Also I find at the young ages re-reading is very age appropriate. We would read the daily mother goose and then re read a few favorites each day.
Yes, I know this is the philosophy that some stick to faithfully. I have not found it to be the case in my own life journey that excessive reading leads to boredom...for me it just leads to more reading... :)
I love when kids want to learn and it takes longer!!! So patten blocks sounds like they worked awesomely!!! Bedtime songs are awesome in the early years!!! We live in the ocean and use a lot of ocean books with my youngest and I’ve found some ocean readers for her!!! We don’t have a equal bilingual approach in our family and my big kids mainly just speak to family in German. They have learning games on their phones but idk how much they play them!!! We just read extra of sonlight!!! We don’t do all the activities as my sister in law looks thru them!!! They don’t do science but they now like history!!! I get the issue with sonlight!!! I’m glad that my sister in law wanted to do it as my nephew and twins!!! My teenager loves it as well!!! He’s looking at different courses on the website that aligns with his future!!! Thanksgiving went well and my friends from the states are still here and planning to leave after Aussie day in January!!! Their son is finishing his homeschool this year!!! His son came with him and he’s getting on with my teenage son!!!
Yes, our bedtime songs tradition is precious--I know that they won't always ask for songs at bedtime so I cherish these days! Glad you guys had a great month of homeschool in November!
I looked at samples of Sonlight, and that's why we decided to not go with it. That would drive me insane to read a little of a lot of books everyday. Every family is different, and I think Sonlight is fabulous, but I'm with your kids...let's read more! ;)
Having used Sonlight in high school...I think the "not enough" problem is noticeable most in the very early years, not so much in their advanced programs. We're not planning to use Sonlight for the next few years, but I do love the books we're reading now, even if we end up reading a more than the schedule tells us to--it's not very satisfying to just read a page, sometimes. haha!
@@SevenInAll fair enough. My kiddos are still very little, so I've only looked at the younger guides. Thanks for the info...I'll revisit using it when my kiddos are bigger!!!
@@SevenInAll question: Is there more to the guides than just the schedule? I thought about just following their reading list at my own pace, but the guides are expensive, and I felt disappointed that it was $80 for a guide that I wasn't going to use. Do they have other things in them to justify the cost?
Also, we are also Asian expats (originally from the US). So the shipping is annoying (vs a digital version that I can just print from this side of the world). How do you guys source books? Do you just go back to the US every so often and bring them with you? We did this this year, but books are so stinking heavy, and it ate up all of our baggage allowance
And also, our time in the US was short, so I didn't preview the books and was disappointed when many were good, but not age appropriate for my littles. We planned to use Tapestry of Grace this year, but ended up just putting the age appropriate books out to read as the kiddos desire. My plan is try Biblioplan next year?
So many things I want to comment on! I will have to let some slide (like, rebozo means shall?! I never knew! I always thought that was a specialized word from how I had heard it used in the natural birth community!) We had exactly that same problem with Book Shark! (I am very picky about my religious books, so I didn't want to buy Sonlight and then hate the religious books) Over the summer we bought it at the same time as TGATB preschool, and my little boys got really frustrated with switching between books (even if I did keep going on some). So for months now, we have just had the books available for read alouds, and they pick what they want during our free reading, or bedtime reading. I thought we would *definitely * prefer a book led program, but now I am glad we also had a more workbook style thing. Maybe when they are older?
Yes, a rebozo is a traditional shawl from Mexico--I have some vague memories from when I was pregnant of hearing about it being used in labor...but I didn't even remember that until you mentioned it. I think fun, well-designed workbooks can definitely have a very useful role in the homeschool...literature-based learning and workbook learning can end up being quite complementary!
@@SevenInAll I knew I hadn't spelled that right! Ah, well, looks like you figured it out anyways! 😅 I should also say explicitly, I enjoyed the chat! Here's to a happy December too!
I ended up just reading ahead in different books, doing it book by book for the weeks assignments instead of day by day. The jumping around was hard for us. We ended up taking a break from Sonlight pre k around week 17, I felt like I’d given it a good trial run and needed to take a break to reevaluate.
There's definitely been a fair number of times when I just go ahead and read the rest of the pages for the week in a particular book...and then I just don't pull that book out again until the next week. We are really liking the books...they just don't always find it satisfying to just read two pages, or whatever the assignment is. There are times when it makes the most sense to take a break to evaluate how things are going and what's worth continuing and what's not.
I have a few reviews of TGATB resources on my channel (math and LA) - I wouldn't say I'm their biggest fan, but they do have some pros: 1) PDF availability, which can be very helpful for families overseas. 2) Some genuinely fun and creative learning activities, and integration of random topics that may not otherwise get covered in more straightforward curriculums. A few cons I've noticed are: 1) With the many topics interwoven, straightforward, cumulative teaching can sometimes get lost in the mixture of it all. I think it might be a hard curriculum to achieve mastery with if your kids thrive with straightforward teaching and cumulative practice that builds in a very systematic way. Depends on the needs of the kid.
How do you usually respond when your kids ask for "another chapter" or another story?
Is there a usually for me? It is so dependant on time and energy available! 😅
I just say, “we have more books to read, so let’s get to the other books!”
I read more or have my oldest read more. But, I am not doing "Sonlight" .
The joy on your face over teaching and being with your boys is so delightful!
Spending my days learning with them is such a gift--truly something I never take for granted!
I'm almost old enough to homeschool my own and STILL love pattern blocks!
I'm pretty sure if we dumped out a set of pattern blocks in a roomful of adults, everyone would start building and making cool designs with them...haha!
I read an explanation of Charlotte Mason "spreading the feast" and it made a lot of sense to me applying it to Sonlight's approach of reading a little bit from different books. I had also read that it helps develop their imagination to leave cliff-hangers. Maybe I even read it in a Sonlight blog post. Maybe you had even written about it. Having access to lots of picture books is so great for that age. We're staying with my parents now and my mom is having trouble with our homeschool book piles everywhere, ha!
I do think that leaving off on a cliff-hanger can be very strategic--both for the authors themselves and those who write curriculum...but as someone who has also continued to read "one more chapter!" to find out what happens next...I understand the frustration with only getting to read a little bit. I do see benefit in reading a book slowly over time...I feel like such books can become more memorable because you spent more time with them. What cracks me up is that the book that they complain the most about only getting to read a few pages in is that Berenstain Bears science book...it's not like there's any cliffhangers or urgency in reading book full of nature facts and science info...but they always want more. lol!
@Seven In All ha ha! That's great to see their enthusiasm.
@@emhull Sonia Shaffer from Simply Charlotte Mason talks about this! It is SUCH a struggle for me and my ADHD’ers. None of us have the impulse control to stop. 😂
@@LMPM0909 Yeah, that happens...but I think lingering on an interesting topic counts as feasting! :)
Haha, yes! I include my twins in our Sonlight read aloud time and they are pretty much done by the time we finish all the things - so my big kids don’t often ask for more because it is too crazy 🤣
Now that's one way to solve the problem! Pre-K age twins. :P Attention spans are definitely limited with littles--mine for sure wouldn't be sitting through chapter-book read alouds, but P and T are right at their level.
We did the fish lesson today in KMWC. My son loved it.
Isn't it awesome? That's was not an easy puzzle but I just loved his pride and sense of accomplishment as he worked on it and figured it out.
I'm (almost) old enough to homeschool my own (another second-generation here) and I STILL love pattern blocks!
I love seeing the genuine delight and joy on your face as you speak of these precious days with your sons. I also love all the literature based homeschool curriculum. I’m pretty eclectic in my curriculum picks and definitely not married to any one particular curriculum company, however, I find myself gravitating to literature based learning. My kids are book nerds. What can I say?! They love learning through books and I love teaching through books. Do you have any long term Sonlight plans with the boys?
I probably should preface this with a *spoiler alert* but we're really enjoying all the Sonlight Pre-K and Preschool books, I'm not planning to continue with Sonlight for the next couple years...Sonlight K leaps into chapter books that I don't think they'll be ready for yet, and the first few elementary years of Sonlight aren't my favorite--I think the programs are stronger from upper elementary through high school. I believe we will be coming back to Sonlight at some point, but for now, for our literature feast, I'm planning on going "around the world" for our kindergarten year with Beautiful Feet Books (and very excited about that, my oldest loves maps and is constantly asking about different countries). Then, I have Sequence 1 from Gentle + Classical penciled in for our 1st grade year for history/bible/lit.
@@SevenInAll I have a lot of the preschool Sonlight book titles and I’m reading through them (without the schedule) with my boys. Such rich books! I will be very curious how you like Beautiful Feet Books!
Have a wonderful Thursday😀
I’m going to be doing sonlight Pre-k with my 6 and 4 yr olds for next school year, so it’s fun to see how it’s going for you!
Oh, awesome! The stories have been so engaging!
We love kindergarten Math with confidence! I need to grab the 1st grade one.
I already grabbed it for next year...haha...always a risky move to buy the next year math curriculum early, but I was pretty sure it was going to be awesome.
I feel like Sonlight was missing something and I decided to use their books as suggestions. We have gone down the bunny hole and found similar books/same authors to use in our homeschool. My problem with Sonlight is I don’t have all of the room in the world for these books. We are now starting to end our second grade/kindergarten school year and I just let them pick books to read before bed. They still get read to but not necessarily using Sonlight at this point in life.
Sounds like you've found a great strategy to make the most of those good books for this season of life!
What about ebooks and audio books from the public library ?
Rachel... I need to pick your brain... My soon to be four year old is about done 8 lesson shy from All about reading Level 1. My thoughts is since she is so young I want to focus on comprehension and literature based for another 6 months before we go back to all about reading level 2. Do you think Sonlight level A would be a good fit? What do you recommend or do you recommend anything else? Your my homeschool go to guru/momma.. 🤣
1) On the point of stopping reading instruction due to her age--if you don't want to progress into AAR 2 for now, that's fine, but I would not stop reading practice all together--maintain a habit of having her read from early readers to you for a few minutes everyday to keep the habit up. If she moved through AAR 1 that fast and that early, there is also a risk that she may just keep on learning how to read and picking it up on her own even if your plan is to take a break. ;)
2) I love literature-based learning with a strong focus on comprehension. The current Sonlight Level A is not really designed for children below elementary age--it focuses on early US History, and I tend to prefer NOT introducing real history studies in preschool and kindergarten, instead focusing on good stories and learning about the world through story. My own curriculum, The Curious Kinder, might be a good fit for a bright and eager 4 year old (it's aimed at a typical 5 year old learning level but it sounds like she leans toward the advanced side). I haven't released the full program yet but a free sample of the first two weeks is available now: www.wheredyoulearnthat.com/freebies/p/the-curious-kinder-sample
And I will be making videos about the full curriculum soon.
When my daughter asks for more, I usually do at least one more for something, but then I might hold off on something from that day until the next day and then she’ll ask for two of that. So we sort of work horizontally and vertically on the schedule until we get the whole week finished. 🤔
I’ve been completely unmotivated to do any of it right now. We’ve been sick for two weeks and I get very unmotivated around the holidays too. I think we’re cutting back to bare bones until January. 🤷🏻♀️
Yes, there's definitely some element of just reading all the pages in a book for the week on one day, and then not pulling that book out again for the rest of the week. So sorry you all have been sick! That makes all of the work of life harder. Hope you all feel better soon and enjoy the last few weeks of the year!
What made you choose Sonlight over a deeper literature-based curriculum such as Ambleside online?
I'm not sure that Ambleside Online is all that much deeper than Sonlight at the preschool level...I think many of the stories and books recommended for year 0 are the same. My mom already owned Sonlight Preschool and PreK which made it a rather affordable choice for me, as someone who doesn't live in a place with good library access. ;)
This is my first year homeschooling my kindergartener and she asks for "just one more" story of Bible as well 😀. Also, whenever we do any of the read alouds, science books, or history books it's the same, except her 3 year old sisters join her in begging for another chapter. It warms my heart, but I've definitely started saying, "No," more often.😅
The "just one more" with Bible stories kind of surprised me...I don't usually think of it as a very suspenseful book...but I love that they want more. But yes, I have to say no, no more stories, sometimes these days...they have to learn to experience a little bit of suspense...haha!
. Love to hear they your sons love books!!
It warms my book-loving heart!
Hi Rachel. What program are the pattern blocks from?
Pattern blocks can be purchased anywhere, but the curriculum I am using that has assignments for using pattern blocks is Kindergarten Math with Confidence.
Hi Rachel! I really enjoy many of your videos! If I can ask you a favor and it is able, is it possible for your recordings to be less echoey? I think you may have a home with high ceiling and the wall and floor that bounce off the sound in a big room. Is the sound adjustable with your microphone? I have no problem when I sit and pay attention to watch your videos but when I often listen while doing chores or cooking , it is hard to keep up. Thank you for considering!
I know there's an echo/sound problem, and I'm sorry about that...I keep experimenting with different set ups to see what helps because I don't have an ideal sound situation: my house has tile floors, plaster walls, high ceilings...and not much soft furniture to muffle sound. There just aren't a lot of cozy/soft fabrics in the typical home in our part of the world, ha! Thanks for the feedback, and I'll keep working on it, sometimes I think I find a set up that improves the sound...but... I may have to buy a separate mic.
Thank you. I’ll be alright watching meanwhile. :)
My son LOVED What do People do all day! Pretty sure that book is his favorite thing I’ve brought into the house this year 😂 I made him wait for that one, but others I don’t. He insisted I read all of George and Martha in one sitting (so I obliged), and he has been re-reading it to himself since then! We just do the weeks worth of poetry all in one day, then he’ll pick one for me to write on our board and he’ll reread over and over for the week and he usually memorized that one. I actually cried like a baby all three times that I read nana upstairs and nana downstairs. I keep thinking I won’t “this time”, but I definitely do. We are doing parts of gentle classical preschool too. There are few other things about Sonlight that aren’t my favorite, but the books alone have been worth it. I’m probably going to have to do something else between the Sonlight pk and Sonlight K based on what I’ve heard about the K content.
We've owned "What Do People Do All Day?" probably since my oldest was 1, he's spent hours paging through it on his own, and I've read it multiple times before this...and he STILL wants to hear multiple stories each day. haha! I cannot read Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs without crying. I can't. Interestingly, that's my husband's favorite picture book to read. And yes...in general I would NOT recommend jumping straight from Sonlight PK to K...when I saw the K booklist I was like...yes, we are definitely not doing that this year. I love the Preschool and Pre-K booklists but the early elementary Sonlight years are not my favorite, overall. I think they start getting better in upper elementary and they have very strong middle and high school programs.
Charlotte Mason says readings should be kept short and you should always stop while they still want more. I you do, they will think about the reading and look forward to the rest. If you wait until they have "had enough" they will eventually become bored with reading. Also I find at the young ages re-reading is very age appropriate. We would read the daily mother goose and then re read a few favorites each day.
Yes, I know this is the philosophy that some stick to faithfully. I have not found it to be the case in my own life journey that excessive reading leads to boredom...for me it just leads to more reading... :)
I love when kids want to learn and it takes longer!!! So patten blocks sounds like they worked awesomely!!! Bedtime songs are awesome in the early years!!! We live in the ocean and use a lot of ocean books with my youngest and I’ve found some ocean readers for her!!! We don’t have a equal bilingual approach in our family and my big kids mainly just speak to family in German. They have learning games on their phones but idk how much they play them!!! We just read extra of sonlight!!! We don’t do all the activities as my sister in law looks thru them!!! They don’t do science but they now like history!!! I get the issue with sonlight!!! I’m glad that my sister in law wanted to do it as my nephew and twins!!! My teenager loves it as well!!! He’s looking at different courses on the website that aligns with his future!!! Thanksgiving went well and my friends from the states are still here and planning to leave after Aussie day in January!!! Their son is finishing his homeschool this year!!! His son came with him and he’s getting on with my teenage son!!!
Yes, our bedtime songs tradition is precious--I know that they won't always ask for songs at bedtime so I cherish these days! Glad you guys had a great month of homeschool in November!
I looked at samples of Sonlight, and that's why we decided to not go with it. That would drive me insane to read a little of a lot of books everyday. Every family is different, and I think Sonlight is fabulous, but I'm with your kids...let's read more! ;)
Having used Sonlight in high school...I think the "not enough" problem is noticeable most in the very early years, not so much in their advanced programs. We're not planning to use Sonlight for the next few years, but I do love the books we're reading now, even if we end up reading a more than the schedule tells us to--it's not very satisfying to just read a page, sometimes. haha!
@@SevenInAll fair enough. My kiddos are still very little, so I've only looked at the younger guides. Thanks for the info...I'll revisit using it when my kiddos are bigger!!!
@@SevenInAll question: Is there more to the guides than just the schedule? I thought about just following their reading list at my own pace, but the guides are expensive, and I felt disappointed that it was $80 for a guide that I wasn't going to use. Do they have other things in them to justify the cost?
Also, we are also Asian expats (originally from the US). So the shipping is annoying (vs a digital version that I can just print from this side of the world). How do you guys source books? Do you just go back to the US every so often and bring them with you? We did this this year, but books are so stinking heavy, and it ate up all of our baggage allowance
And also, our time in the US was short, so I didn't preview the books and was disappointed when many were good, but not age appropriate for my littles. We planned to use Tapestry of Grace this year, but ended up just putting the age appropriate books out to read as the kiddos desire. My plan is try Biblioplan next year?
So many things I want to comment on! I will have to let some slide (like, rebozo means shall?! I never knew! I always thought that was a specialized word from how I had heard it used in the natural birth community!)
We had exactly that same problem with Book Shark! (I am very picky about my religious books, so I didn't want to buy Sonlight and then hate the religious books) Over the summer we bought it at the same time as TGATB preschool, and my little boys got really frustrated with switching between books (even if I did keep going on some). So for months now, we have just had the books available for read alouds, and they pick what they want during our free reading, or bedtime reading.
I thought we would *definitely * prefer a book led program, but now I am glad we also had a more workbook style thing. Maybe when they are older?
Yes, a rebozo is a traditional shawl from Mexico--I have some vague memories from when I was pregnant of hearing about it being used in labor...but I didn't even remember that until you mentioned it. I think fun, well-designed workbooks can definitely have a very useful role in the homeschool...literature-based learning and workbook learning can end up being quite complementary!
@@SevenInAll I knew I hadn't spelled that right! Ah, well, looks like you figured it out anyways! 😅
I should also say explicitly, I enjoyed the chat! Here's to a happy December too!
I ended up just reading ahead in different books, doing it book by book for the weeks assignments instead of day by day. The jumping around was hard for us. We ended up taking a break from Sonlight pre k around week 17, I felt like I’d given it a good trial run and needed to take a break to reevaluate.
There's definitely been a fair number of times when I just go ahead and read the rest of the pages for the week in a particular book...and then I just don't pull that book out again until the next week. We are really liking the books...they just don't always find it satisfying to just read two pages, or whatever the assignment is. There are times when it makes the most sense to take a break to evaluate how things are going and what's worth continuing and what's not.
Do you like the good and beautiful at all?
I have a few reviews of TGATB resources on my channel (math and LA) - I wouldn't say I'm their biggest fan, but they do have some pros: 1) PDF availability, which can be very helpful for families overseas. 2) Some genuinely fun and creative learning activities, and integration of random topics that may not otherwise get covered in more straightforward curriculums.
A few cons I've noticed are: 1) With the many topics interwoven, straightforward, cumulative teaching can sometimes get lost in the mixture of it all. I think it might be a hard curriculum to achieve mastery with if your kids thrive with straightforward teaching and cumulative practice that builds in a very systematic way. Depends on the needs of the kid.
Read another chapter! Read another chapter!
Every day. lol!