Part 4: My Father's World and Sonlight.... Can't I Have Everything?

Sonlight Vs. My Father's World

Part 4

This is part of a 4 part series.

Part 1: My Story

Part 2: Review of Sonlight

Part 3: Review of My Father's World

Part 4: How I mesh Sonlight and My Father's World Together

How I use My Father's World:

We use: the cores (this year Creation to Greeks and Kindergarten) as our overall guide, including the book basket.

We drop: the recommended math, art, or read alouds.

We tweak: We summarize the history and science readings (and sometimes skip altogether) and only choose the hands on activities that work best for our family. We enjoy listening to the cds in the van, cooking the suggested foods, and doing the occasional craft. Instead of everyone doing a timeline, we do one set in the Sonlight timeline book

How I use Sonlight:

We use: the read alouds, the timeline, and the history/reading/language arts for my oldest as his reading program

We drop: the recommended math, science, and Bible

We tweak: We listen to the verse cds in the van, but don't memorize the verses. We sometimes drop a book, or I'll stick it in the book basket for free reading. 

How I Mesh Sonlight and My Father's World Together:

As you can see, I love both My Father's World and Sonlight! Here's how our day currently runs using both My Father's World and Sonlight (Note I said CURRENT rhythm, things change all the time!)

-After breakfast and morning chores (around 9ish), we start with MFW Bible all together as a family. Sometimes I do this part DURING breakfast, and it is my ambition to start doing it the night before.

-After Bible the olders do "table time," which is phonics and math while I do K with the littles on the floor of the living room. We call this "circle time." Once we're done with circle time, the "official" Kindergartner moves to the table for written work while I check the work the olders have been doing and the others play with "school toys" (MFW preschool/preK toys). 

-Then (around 10ish) we move into the "other" subjects with MFW which are mostly "couch subjects:" history, science, music, art. I pick and choose at this part. I often will summarize a page or two of science or history into a couple of sentences, and we skip a lot of experiments and projects. I try to keep the most meaningful ones. For instance, I try to always to the meals/food. Errybody's gotta eat!

-Speaking of food, I nurse baby while reading in the above segment, and when that segment's over, it's usually around lunch time (12ish)! We do lunch and chores.

-After lunch (around 1ish), we snuggle up to read core A and the read aloud from D (if I run out of time,  my oldest will read his read aloud independently). 

-Around 2 nap time starts for the younger crew, and I direct the olders to do their reading. The 4th grader reads the Bible, history, and readers from D for his reading, and the 2nd grader is reading through Heart of Dakota's emerging readers. 

-Around 3, I go take a nap!! Woo-hoo!

-At 4 nap time's over, and so is school. But before bed we try to read a couple of the P3/4 books. 

Clay Daddy and Kids #2, #5, #4, #3, #1 2016 with SL P3/4

All the Clay Clan, Easter 2018

Does anyone else combine Sonlight and My Father's World? How do you do it?

Part 3: My Father's World and Sonlight.... Can't I Have Everything?

Sonlight Vs. My Father's World

Part 3

This is part of a 4 part series.

Part 1: My Story

Part 2: Review of Sonlight

Part 3: Review of My Father's World

Part 4: How I mesh Sonlight and My Father's World Together

My Father's World:

Below I shall list my pros and cons for My Father's World. However, keep in mind that what for me is a con may be a pro for you. We are all different!

Pros:

-Family Learning! There's so much I could say about this...

-All the wonderful books! People think Sonlight has a lot of books, but that's only because they haven't seen the book lists in the back of the MFW Teacher's Manuals. If you have a good library, MFW has MORE books than Sonlight!

-The history is chronological and Bible is woven in to each of the programs

-Art, music, science, and hands on projects are included

-The Teacher's Manuals that have taught me HOW to teach my children

-Their ministry to missionaries by providing discounts and sending a portion of proceeds to Bible translation 

-Less expensive than Sonlight

-Customer service is awesome

Cons:

-Readers are not scheduled (I like them to be scheduled so I don't have to plan that part)

-In the lower levels the phonics is tied in to the program, which makes it difficult if you prefer a different phonics program. 

-Some of the history books have been a bit dry and there's not nearly as much great fiction as with Sonlight

Could be Pro or a Con:

-You have to use the library. This is a pro because it is less expensive, but it is a con because you have to go to the library every week (and it is a challenge if your library isn't well-stocked)

-The hands on part is generally a pro, but sometimes I'm in a season where I'm tired and I can't do much, and it makes me feel guilty to skip things

-The student sheets. It's nice to have a notebook to remember things your children have learned, but then again you have a notebook (or five) from each year to keep up with and feel guilty about tossing. Also at about $20 per child the student sheets can get pricey, especially since in some levels you still have to make up some of your own student sheets (or skip that part, like I do!). 

-The early phonics programs: I LOVE the K program. It is a simple but thorough program that can serve as a preK program. However, I pretty much hate the 1st grade program (sorry you lovers of 1st). It moves too fast and it can be confusing the way they present the material (with two very different learners I ended up supplementing with ABeka because 1st was so confusing).

To learn more about My Father's World, click HERE.

My Father's World Kindergarten

Have you used My Father's World? What do you think of their program?

Part 2: My Father's World and Sonlight.... Can't I Have Everything?

Sonlight Vs. My Father's World

Part 2

This is part of a 4 part series.

Part 1: My Story

Part 2: Review of Sonlight

Part 3: Review of My Father's World

Part 4: How I mesh Sonlight and My Father's World Together

Sonlight:

Below I shall list my pros and cons for Sonlight. However, keep in mind that what for me is a con may be a pro for you. We are all different!

Pros:

-All the wonderful books! Seriously, I love almost all of them (!), aside from about 1-3 in each core. 

-The rich discussion questions and vocabulary in the IGs

-Their ministry to missionaries by providing a huge discount and sending a portion of proceeds to various ministries

-The books. I know I already said this, but these books are ones that I read over for my own pleasure, that make me think and laugh and cry. 

-Customer service is awesome

-Their Love to Learn Guarantee (return within a year for a full refund; see more details on their website)

Cons:

-The cost is sometimes prohibitive (unless you purchase used!)

-The inability to group children together unless they are very close in age

-The Bible seems a bit tacked on. It's a good reading plan, but it is not linked at all to the history or read alouds and there are no notes for discussion. 

-Not many hands on activities (but they're working on it to add lapbooks and crafts to some levels)

Could be Pro or a Con:

-The books. Some people don't like them for various reasons. (See THIS article)

-Read alouds are great for snuggling, but you may get a sore throat

-The books may be expensive, but they are a great non-consumable investment with a great resale value

-There aren't many hands on projects, but for me that means no guilt over things left undone.

To learn more about Sonlight, click HERE.

Clay Girl #2, 2013 with MFW K

Have you used Sonlight? What do you think of their program?

Part 1: My Father's World and Sonlight.... Can't I Have Everything?

Sonlight Vs. My Father's World

Part 1

This is part of a 4 part series.

Part 1: My Story

Part 2: Review of Sonlight

Part 3: Review of My Father's World

Part 4: How I mesh Sonlight and My Father's World Together

My Story:

I'm a bookworm, so when my mom started using Sonlight in 2003 with my younger siblings, right after I graduated from high school, I was intrigued. I was jealous, too. How come they got to read "real" books for school when I had to read from textbooks? I knew that some day when I grew up and got married, I wanted to foster a love of learning in my children. I tucked Sonlight away in my mind for the future. 

Clay Children #1, #3, #4, #2, 2016 with MFW 1st

When my first child was yet a wee bairn, I started researching homeschool curricula. I loved the look of Sonlight (SL), and yet I learned of a newer curriculum: My Father's World (MFW). I fell in love with their family cycle and the idea of teaching all my children together. So in 2012, when my son turned 3, I started using My Father's World preschool (at that time it was only the learning toys) alongside Sonlight P3/4. We read good stories and played with toys. It was a good year!

Clay Kids #5, #1, #4, #2, #3 2016 with Sonlight Box day (used)

In 2013, my oldest was 4 and my second oldest was 2. I decided to go with MFW Kindergarten and SL A. Every morning we did Kindergarten for an hour, and every evening we'd snuggle and read with Sonlight. That year we had our 3rd child. 

Clay Boy #1, 2013 with MFW K

In 2014, my son was 5 and we moved on to MFW 1st and Sonlight P4/5... It was a rough year with baby #4 being born, and I ended up returning P4/5 because we didn't have time for it. 

In 2015 we did MFW Adventures for 1st grade and preK. Another successful year! That year we didn't even look at Sonlight. There were so many great books with Adventures, and besides I had four children 6 and under and I was expecting #5!

My Father's World Adventures

Clay Kids #3, #4, 2016 with Sonlight B

In 2016 I decided to go with Sonlight instead of My Father's World. I purchased core B and P4/5, but after a few weeks into it I realized it wasn't for us. We switched to Heart of Dakota for a few weeks before that one flopped as well. And then we tried Biblioplan (I have met the author, she's so sweet!). And then we tried plain old Story of the World. None of those seemed to "fit" just right. I didn't realize until later that I was struggling through post-partum depression, and so I was changing things up just trying to make myself happy and nothing worked. (But God brought so much healing, something I ought to share about in another blog post!) In the end we just did language arts and math and read through B in a haphazard way. 

Clay Girl #3 2016 with Sonlight P4/5

In 2017 we had 5 children 8 and under with baby #6 on the way. I purchased C and pulled 4/5 off the shelf, but it still didn't flow well for us. In the end we went with My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures for all, C for readers for the oldest, 4/5 for read alouds, and MFW preschool, and it was an awesome year! 

Clay Kids #4, #5, #3 2018 with MFW Preschool

Clay Girls #2, #5 2017 with a 1st grade reader

This year (2018; we start our school year early) Sonlight D was calling my name, and so I purchased the full set and planned to use it alongside A and 3/4 for the youngers. 

It was a no-go... after a few weeks in, we started to REALLY miss the togetherness that MFW provides! 

And so we are doing MFW Creation to Greeks (4th and 2nd) and MFW Kindergarten (K and preK) alongside Heart of Dakota Emerging Readers (2nd) and Sonlight D (4th; as readers), A (2nd and K; read alouds), and P3/4 (preschool; read alouds). 

My Father's World Creation to Greeks

What has your homeschool journey looked like so far?