Sonlight Vs. My Father's World
Part 1
This is part of a 4 part series.
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?
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