One Curriculum, Ten Ways – A Sonlight Success Story

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In our last post I shared why we chose to homeschool our growing family, but I thought you might be wondering about how we really get it done. The best way for me to share is to introduce our family to you and share how we have used the same curriculum ten different ways. First a quick rundown of how we got here, year 15 of homeschooling with Sonlight Curriculum and how we found our own Sonlight Success Story.

What is Our Homeschool Style?

I get this question quite a bit. First off, I really had no idea what that question meant. I (obviously) never fit into catagories very well, so it makes sense that I don’t fit a style heading either. From what I understand, there are Charlotte Mason, Classical, Unschool, Traditional and others as well. I did read a ton about many styles in the early years.

Research helped me define my own school “style” by identifying our needs and goals. By identifying what I needed to learn, I became a student of homeschooling, parenting, and education in general. I read Ruth Beechicks, Three R’s, Charlotte Mason‘s Homeschooling Series, John Gatto, Jim Fay, Ron Clark and several others. By reading, I pulled the wisdom from every one of these that I needed and gained the confidence and assurance I needed. All of my learning before and since starting homeschooling created a skeleton structure we built on to create a education model that fit our kids, our entrepreneur life and our growing family structure.

I chose a literature based curriculum. This a type of schooling that leans heavily on reading “living” books. Classics, Historical Fiction and non-fiction alike, to create a fleshed out understanding about a subject or period in history.

I have friends who school completely online, others who rely on textbooks and a few who love workbook pages. Homeschooling is about finding your family’s fit. Curriculum are simply tools that helps you engage subjects and stay on track. Knowing your family’s needs will help you find a way to teach that will make learning easier for your kids and more enjoyable for you as well.

Why Literature Based?

My core value that led me to a literature based curriculum is simple; I want my kids to love to read. As a child, looking back, I think I suffered from decoding issues. Reading was panic inducing. I never passed a spelling test well into adulthood. With time and practice my mind did settle in. Reading is a joy, but books weren’t always a friend. In elementary school they were a source of stress.

Raising readers really began organically. I had five little ones, five and under. Reading was an oasis in our day. Nap time and bed time, every day we would read. I made it a habit to keep a book basket in the living room. When I would nurse the baby, I would read to the kids. Books were a huge part of our day. So, naturally when I began to think about how our homeschool should look, I thought, “I don’t really want to change a thing.” I just wanted to find a way to get school credit for reading great books to my kids.

When my oldest son was six, a friend introduced us to Sonlight Curriculum. I read the catalog from cover to cover. I still have that copy. It was full of answers to my questions and I could not get enough. This catalog had descriptions for every book. I wanted to read them all. I finally found my way to keep piling up on the couch with great books. With Sonlight, I could keep doing what was working for us and I could call it school.

Why Not Keep On Reading? Why Buy a Curriculum at All?

Organization is not my strong suit. A huge success factor in homeschooling is being honest with yourself and knowing your own weaknesses. If I were to “plan” the school year like some of the amazingly creative moms I know, school would end with the falling of the last leaf. I crave a check off list. Our school thrives best when the structure is layed out for us.

A curriculum like Sonlight, helps us stay on track year-to-year as well. With it I know we are covering more topics and places in the world. My time is free to read and be present. To be frank, having ten kids is a huge freaking undertaking. I could not have done it without help. Using a curriculum saved me hours of planning and gathering materials.

Literature Based Curriculum and The Big Family

When we started officially started school our oldest son was six. We made the three oldest kids (6, 5 and almost 4)  a “Class” of their own. The little babies would soon become the next “Class.” Sonlight has an H/B/L (History, Bible, Literature) for each year, Pre-K to college prep. By grouping the kids this way, I only had three H/B/L binders to work out of at a max. That is how we have streamlined schooling ten kids.

Another way we streamlined our reading was by scheduling like subjects in both age groups. For example, this year, Class A (15, 14 and 12 or 10th, 9th and 7th grade) is using Sonlight H/B/L 100: American History in Depth, and the younger group (11, 10 and 8 or 6th, 5th and 4th) is using H/B/L D: Intro to American History. Both groups are covering the same subject; American History.

We ensured our homeschool success by doing the same topic with both groups. Our Sonlight read-aloud books often overlap, so I can actually still read to the whole family at some point in the day. Our field trips and extra curricular studies can compliment what everyone is learning. Often the big kids will listen in on a teaching or reading time with the younger class, and in general, I feel less scattered.

There is No Box You Have to Fit

If you noticed, the range of ages in our “Class” are outside of the recommended range suggested by the helper on the Sonlight site. They recommend no more than three years between students. We chose to make Sonlight work for us as we needed it to. Less groups ment fewer H/B/L binders that I would have to keep track in. You can judge your kids and know if they can handle the workload. We can adjust each HBL individually by assigning more to work to older students and less to the younger end of the group when needed. We have done some shifting of kids between groups when we needed to as well. A curriculum is just a tool to help you meet your learning goals. Creating a Sonlight Success Story means making sure you are writing one for your family. Assessing your needs and knowing the tools that will help you accomplish them is the key.

I wrote a whole course to help you build a foundation for the best school year possible. In it I prepare you to overcome the six most common roadblocks that keep families from experiencing success in their homeschool. You can read all about it here

From Theory to Success Story

In the begining this was all just a theory. Fifteen years later, we can see the results. My three grads love books. They are succeeding in college and I enjoy them, a lot. Each of them have a unique #sonlightstory and I would like to share about how we used Sonlight differently for each of them.

Homeschooling lets you sculpt each child’s learning experience to fit them. Even when you are teaching multiple students with Sonlight. I believe that tailoring each child’s experience has been a huge factor in helping our kids overcome learning difficulties and leap over hurdles they would have never been able to in public school.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing our last fifteen years with Sonlight and how each child’s learning experience was different. Be sure to subscribe if you don’t want to miss it. You might see a child like your own in our descriptions. My hope is that you will be inspired and encouraged to find your own path to your best homeschool year as well. I want to be the one you tell your Sonlight Success Story to one day.

Want to develop a stronger, better homeschool year? I created a free resource you can use to create a “Why” page. This is a one page reminder of why you homeschool and where you want to focus. It serves to redirect you on hard days and is a beacon to correct you when days run off course. Hope you can use it to plan for your best year yet, while you read more about our Sonlight stories. I hope to hear your Sonlight Success Story next year!

Blessings,

Amber