Sonlight Science Question?

[greenbeanmama]

I know I might be jumping the gun, but we're just starting Sonlight for kindergarten. I really, really like the idea of literature-based learning, and not much prep work. However, I was worried that, in the older grades, the science wouldn't be "hands-on" enough. Anyone want to speak from personal experience? Thanks!

[Nitenites]

We used Sonlight for science K-4. My boys liked it (the two who are "schooled"). They liked the experiments, they liked most of the books. There were a couple books in second grade that we skipped (too Creationist for me), and in third grade, DS8 got a bit impatient waiting for his bean plants to grow. Sonlight did a complete re-vamp of all the science IGs in 2009, so I can't say if the updates are good or bad, since we used curricula from years 2005-2009. But all in all, I'd say that it was an easy-to-use, hands-on, literature-based science curriculum. We did weekly experiments, and the kits that come with the curriculum really help!

The only real criticism I'd level against Sonlight is that sometimes it seems to cover too wide a variety of material, and never goes into any one subject in enough depth. In second grade (when we skipped some books) we just expanded on the existing curriculum - taking a topic that we were currently studying and checking out books/DVDs from the library to get more information. It was a good way to fill the time while we were "skipping" the books we didn't use. (I use the History/Readers IGs, too, and I like to try to keep us on track with time - in the same week across subjects.)

That said, we moved to Apologia (Astronomy) this year so that both boys could study out of the same book. They're too far apart in age to combine Sonlight cores. I needed to trim down the time I was spending teaching each of them separately.