Sonlight 3 Introduction to American History, Part 1

by NICOLE M on 2010-08-17
Priceless! This was our first year with sonlight, and my 9yo son and I were so impressed. My son had struggled with dyslexia and learning to read, and I was worried that this curriculum may be too advanced for him. In a way, some of it was on day one, but I was amazed at how quickly he rose to the challenges with both his written language and reading. He now loves to read books and discuss. His enthusiasm for learning through literature has been surprising and heart warming. I would never have known what he was capable of, if I had shied away from what, at first, seemed too hard for him. The language examples are above that of most children this age, and whilst I don't expect him to turn out this level of competency overnight, it is beneficial to have standards of excellence to aspire to. He loved all aspects of the curriculum package, even the spelling lists which we used as handwriting exercises. Horizon Math has seen my son enjoy and progress really well in math. The teacher guide isn't all that helpful, but at this stage it's not difficult to teach from the text. The books are colorful, clearly presented and interesting to the child. There is just the right amount of practice in each lesson. After one year using the Horizon 3 math, my son went from being behind on New Zealand math standards, to a year ahead. I never realised such wonderful resources existed to teach history/geography. We so enjoyed looking into American history, and it has opened up a number of interesting conversations for us. We didn't do all of the TOPS/plant stuff, but did do most of the biology level1. My son loved learning proper classification terms for the animals and plants and can still apply it a year later. I am loving the sonlight experience and want it to last as long as possible. One of our favorite language books was "A Child's Introduction to Poetry" with the CD. We both enjoyed playing the CD of poems over and over whilst reading along or sometimes my son would put it on whilst playing lego. I only wish I'd found it earlier so that my grown-up children could have been taught this way. It truly is the way I wish I'd been taught.

by DEBORAH N on 2010-06-10
“George Washington Our First Leader” written by Augusta Stevenson Book review by Jessica Z. The book begins when George is a young boy in Virginia. Young George goes to school in Master Hobby’s school. Young George plays a trick on his schoolmaster, by stealing his wig. George justifies his action because the schoolmaster teased him about his hair. Later, George attends college for surveying and makes his living as a surveyor. He becomes a soldier in memory of his brother Lawrence, after his death from smallpox. The book continues with George Washington’s marriage to Martha Custis and the adoption of her two children Patsy and Jack. The book ends when he becomes the First President of the United States of America. I liked this book because it helped me to learn more about the life history of our first president. It was the most exciting book I ever read about George Washington. He was a brave and courageous soldier.

by NATALIE H on 2010-05-07
This is our favorite history/geography core so far. We can't wait for Core 4. We used audio books for some of the read alouds and that helped. Science was a bit slow to get started. We needed more experiments than just TOPS/botany since we can't grow plants well here. We didn't like most of the LA (two stars). I think the writing assignments were too advanced for a third grader. There's not enough guidance on how to teach LA and the samples were unrealistic for elementary age. Great ideas in LA; but very hard to do at this age. Five stars for the core, three for science and two for LA.

by CHRISTIAN P on 2010-03-27
This was our first year, and we were so happy with it. The books were exciting and we had so much fun with it.

by GIZELLE A on 2009-03-30
I didn't want to do this core since we do not live in America. But what a splendid course, my favorite so far. Can't wait for the next day's reading myself!

by WENDY C on 2008-07-02
My Son (9yrs)really enjoyed this program, his understanding about history is far greater then I thought possible. He is not crazy about The Story of USA 1&2 but it was quick enough of a read that he would do it, his favorite book in this core was The Lewis & Clark Expedition. He can hardly wait for school to start just to get back to U.S.history! Hope Core 4 is as much fun!

by DANA P on 2008-05-30
Call me crazy but, we have two dyslexics doing litature based Curriculum and it was hard.Yet the outcome and blessings out wait the grief and hard work. I never read a whole book in college, out comes my secrets. Now my child has read and loves history so much through books that are worthy of her attention. We often talk about and reanact the historical characters because they are like family to us. I can't thank you enough for teaching old dogs new tricks I am now a former non reader teaching an avid reader, bless you all for your emendous insight on this level. Again thank you from the intermost part of my being.Praise the Lord....

by LINDA H on 2008-05-16
This was our favorite core so far, great stories, really linking together history, time and events in a systematic way. Great Job, Sonlight!

by KIM G. on 2007-12-03
I'm writing under my mom's name (I'm Kimberlee G.), but I just wanted to thank the wonderful people at Sonlight for creating this Core! I'm 13, and I shared this one last year with my 5 year old brother and my 9 year old sister. This year, I'm doing Core 4 alone, and I love that one as well! History has come alive for me like never before. One thing bothered my mom and I about the Instructor's Guides, though: it would be alot easier for us to use them (the IGs) if the study guides for the books were put in reading order instead of alphabetical order. It's not that bad, just something we wanted to point out for future reference.