[GoodUserNamesTaken]

I am not a "school in a box" person, but working from home and homeschooling has just been overwhelming for me. So, I decided to get Sonlight (though I'm not Christian!) Core 1, because I really like their reading selections and the guides.

I know the guides are there to help, and I bought them just because I got overwhelmed planning everything myself. I want to be flexible, as always, but I also want to use the help I've got. But... I'm all confused! Can anyone help me out?

My questions are...

* My kids want to read the read-alouds in a different order than they are presented. So, given this, what would you suggest as the best way to keep track of where we are in the IG? Should I just following the day-by-day suggestions that go with the read-aloud we're enjoying now, and follow the history guide schedule for the other work? Or should I try to mesh together the read-aloud schedule that goes with the read-aloud guide we're working on, but just read a different books? (IE, if it says we read chapter 1 and 2 on day 1, we read those chapters in the book we're doing...)

Why do I get the feeling I'm working and thinking way too hard about this?

You can all laugh at me.

* Second question --For the map assignments. I'm kind of confused here. So, the IG tells us when there is a map in the study guide. We also have the markable map, and we're supposed to mark the map accordingly. Call my silly, but... what do we mark it for? Do we just quickly look at it, put a little star or circle, and say, "Yep, that was where Mr Popper wanted to go." Or... am I missing something? Do we leave the marks on the map, and if yes, until when, and why? (I am really confused... did you notice?) My kids LOVE maps, they thought the map was the best part of what we got. So we want to use it! But I'm not clear on how...

* Third Question -- How do you prepare? Do you read the lessons the day before, the moment before? Do you do the assignments, and only after look at the study guides together?

I really am determined for these IGs to make my life easier, and so I'm willing to make my life harder for a bit until I figure it out! LOL I do know it's all flexible, I intend to be flexible, but I need the structure in some form or another. So... help me out?

Thanks!!!

 

[onlyzombiecat]

We bought Core 1. After the first couple of books we started going off the schedule.
1- I just mark down what we finish in the schedule as we finish it. You could also just swap the name of the book and read the pages or chapter they say for that day (as long as the book has those pages and chapters) if you want to keep everything on one page of the IG.
We just abandoned the IG eventually and I don't plan to get it for the next level. I plan to try it again at level 3 though.

2- I used the map for the first couple of books but my dd wasn't too interested. I suppose it is up to you if your family will prefer to see every mark every time or not. I don't think you need to leave them all marked after you finish the story.

3- Starting out, I read the IG and discussion questions before we started for the day. After a time I stopped using the discussion questions and just asked dd questions on my own while we read. That worked better for us.
You really don't have anything to set up far in advance unless you want to find additional activities to go with the reading. That's up to you.
I added in some coloring pages and talked about spiders and pigs during Charlotte's Web. I found a butter making experiment, a sun dial and info about one room school houses during Understood Betsy.

You might find this useful if you want to supplement some books-
http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/sonlight1.htm

If you bought a Core from Sonlight you should have access to their forums. You might find more ideas and help there.

 

[amyable]

LOL, I can't remember if we did Core 1 or not (I've used so many SL read alouds I can't recall if I ever bought that IG and used it

: ). But I know we did Pre-K, Core K, and 3.

By the time you get to 3, the read alouds start coinciding history-wise with the history lessons so we tried to stick at least with the order the IG asked for (although we never read the exact amount per day it said).

But in the younger cores it didn't matter, so I would take a list of the book titles (I think my IG's had one somewhere in the front?) and just check the book off when we were done. I used the IG's more or less in order for the other subjects we were using from SL (history, etc) and checked off as we went along - just ignoring the read aloud section.

We never really did the maps/timelines like they suggested so I'm no help there.

As far as preparation goes, I would skim ahead once in awhile to see if there was anything I wanted to supplement (with library books, DVDs etc), but then each morning I'd usually just take a glance and off we'd go!

 

[thundersweet]

We just bought core c and I am sooooo excited about it. I can't wait to get started. I have the same question about the map. Have you joined the SL forums yet? I'll bet they have the answer.

 

[Queen Gwen]

We marked up the map as we went along. I would look in the Guide for where the marks were supposed to go, then would have dd draw whatever symbols she thought appropriate (within reason) on the markable map. We tried to leave everything on the markable map 'til the end of the Core.

She loved looking over all the marks she made; I hate figuring out mapwork (because I stink at it) and so was eternally grateful for having the info in theInstructor's Guide for where to put stuff. The markable map was the best part of the whole thing, I thought

I could live without the schedule, and much of the commentary from the IG I could've come up with on my own, but no way did I want to figure out how to map all that stuff.