Homeschool World Forum

We have four children at home that we are homeschooling. They are ages 3 1/2, 5, 9 and 11. Our 3 1/2 and 5 year olds are very advanced. Our 9 and 11 year olds are very behind in school and just joined our family through international adoption. We have a lot of "special needs" going on at home that limit the amount and quality of time I can spend preparing for school. I love KONOS, but it has been overwhelming this year to do as good a job as I want to with it. Also, with all of the children's different special needs (either being super advanced or super delayed) I am finding that I have a mess on my hands trying to coordinate all the different subject/content areas and keep them straight. With KONOS all the planning (picking and choosing activities and books falls to me).

A mom-friend from our homeschool co-op recently recommended Sonlight and I am very interested in learning more about how this might help streamline my planning time or how I might be able to make things work better for our family.

Does anyone have experience with Sonlight or with both Sonlight and KONOS to be able to compare the two? Since I have no experience with Sonlight I am still pretty confused how the curriculum works. What does it actually look like when you are teaching, say, your 1st grader?

Thanks for any advice!

Meg

I think maybe you should just go to their website and request a catalog, they explain it pretty well in there. http://www.sonlight.com I'm considering using it myself this coming schoolyear.

Thanks for the replies. I have actually read the entire Sonlight catalog cover to cover.

I, too, have found that I need to dedicate more time to KONOS a few days a week. However, this doesn't work as well for my special needs children who need a LOT of structure to their day and don't do so well on the days when we spend more time on KONOS. It sounds odd, but sitting time working on tasks helps them stay calm and reduces anxiety. In this way, KONOS works great for two of my kiddos (who would thrive academically regardless) and is overwhelming for two of my kiddos.

We already read aloud together a lot using KONOS, it is just the prep and planning time that is difficult for me.


With Sonlight, the reading aloud together (seated together in close proximity or even being held) would be very good for all of my children. Eliminating planning and going with a preset lesson plan would help me, too. Maybe I'll try to borrow it for next year and try it out. It can't hurt to try.

Thanks.

Meg