Pre-Kindergarten Multi-Subject Package

by Yu shan C on 2013-05-01
THANK YOU SONLIGHT for getting rid of the Kenneth Taylor Bible you had included in P4/5 before. We ended up with 2 copies (because we had purchased P3 and P4/5) and we disliked it so much we didn't even want to give it away. Other than that, we love all the book choices and this great curriculum for little ones!

by Heather M on 2013-03-14
I am finishing up the 2011 version of this core with my kindergartner. We spread this core out over 2 years for use in Pre-k and kindergarten. This is a wonderful core however it is not a stand alone one as the math and phonics is lacking even if just using as Pre-k. I really enjoyed The Children's Book of Virtues and the Stories from Africa. First Thousand Words, A Child's Book of Art, and Eric Carle's Animals Animals were in my opinion not worth the cost. We enjoyed the fact that a song was introduced every week. We often watched the songs on utube to learn the songs. Even my eight year old son enjoyed many of the stories so some of them we would save for bedtime story time and share them with him.

by Andie W on 2013-01-18
I used this core 2 years ago with my daughter (who's now in first grade) and now we're on our second go-round with my son who will be turning 5 in a month. The stories included in this core have really opened up their eyes to the world and drastically increased their attention spans (especially my son; he wouldn't sit through any story any time 6 months ago, now he'll sit perfectly still for a good 3 or 4 stories). My daughter's favorite books were (and still are) Milly-Molly-Mandy, Brer Rabbit, and Uncle Wiggily. My son is really enjoying the science books, but also really loves the Children's Book of Virtues and Uncle Wiggily. A lot of different world views get introduced throughout a lot of the stories, and I'm such a big fan of this. I choose to shelter my kids a lot less than a lot of believers I know. I'd much rather be by their side when they encounter these different views and beliefs and be there to answer their questions and point them to the Bible and Christ. Plus we live overseas in a Muslim country. So people believing different than we do is certainly nothing new to my children, even at such early ages. I've never regretted for a second investing in this core, since it's helped me find so many new and amazing ways to invest in my kids.

by Katrina L on 2012-05-30
I first bought P4/5 with K Language Arts for my bright 4-yr-old son, but life happened and it took us a little while to get really into it. We ended up taking 18 months to get through the IG, but it worked out perfectly, since the difficulty level of the K Language Arts program grew profoundly by the end, and I feel my son matured just enough in the interim to be able to handle it. When I realized the LA program was actually kind of advanced for kindergarten (writing poetry, copying full sentences, narrating back stories or sequencing mixed-up fairy tales) - we ended up supplementing the preschool readers with kindergarten-level math and more reading on starfall.com. By the time we were done with Week 36, my 5-year-old was reading at a 1st grade level, writing his own staple-page books, making up his own science experiments using levers and tinker toys, and performing sums mentally. It seemed only fitting to hold a family party for his kindergarten graduation at that point! We'll be doing Core B next year with Science B and Singapore Math 1A/1B and calling it 1st grade for our friends and family. I cannot believe how much he has learned in just 18 months and at such a young age. Sonlight truly is a gentle way to teach our children with high academic standards. Even when the work was difficult for him, it was also fun. I just pulled up the picture of all the books we used for the past year and a half and asked him which ones he liked best. "I loved all of them!" he told me. When pressed, he says How to Lift a Lion is his favorite, which totally makes sense for my mechanically-minded 5-year-old. If I'd had to guess, though, I would have said he loved the Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature best. He asked for it multiple times AFTER we'd read through the entire thing. I'm very impressed that my kindergartener knows what a solid, gas, and liquid are, and it's thanks to that book! Joyous times for me were doing "Art Time" with Animals, Animals and A Child's Book of Art. My son loved trying to duplicate the Eric Carle masterpieces and even made his first still art: a bowl of fruit to match the ones in A Child's Book of Art. I also LOVED reading the classic stories and fables with him at nap time, like Stories from Around the World, The Children's Book of Virtues, and The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book. I had thought Milly-Molly-Mandy would be too girly for him, but it was perfect! She's about his age, so he wanted to try everything she got to do. The story about all the things she did with one penny was a favorite. We're anticipating another Box Day in two days and cannot wait to see what's in store for first grade. This preschool core with kindergarten extras was a great introduction to homeschooling for both of us. Thank you, Sonlight!

by Emily C on 2012-04-28
My son used this when he was 4/5 (his b-day is in Feb). We used this in 2010, so some of the items included might be slightly different now after the recent changes. His reading level took off after using this program. The Developing the Early Learner books were great and really helped develop the readiness skills for reading. He LOVED the berenstein science book! He learned a lot from it. He also really enjoyed and learned from the read-aloud science books. We bought the optional 'get ready, set and go for the code' books. They were better suited to a child just learning his or her letters. Too easy for us. Also unneeded were the art book, first thousand words and animals, animals (although he did like the pictures, it didnt really teach or help with anything). I highly recommend the pattern blocks. We didnt use them with the curriculum, but in 2011 he took the book and the blocks out himself and has been building things every day. He loves it! Over-all this is a great core for 4 and 5 year olds!

by Julianne M on 2012-04-15
Our son turned five in December and Core 4/5 was a good fit for him. Overall we found this to be a strong program and will be purchasing Core A this next year. Strengths: The Bible included rocks. It was one we hadn't seen before and it was nice to have a wider variety of stories than in other Bibles for kids this age. Stories from Africa was another book that gave us good opportunities to talk about our Christian walk. The other major strength in this program is the Developing the Early Learner series which covers readiness skills. If you asked our son he would probably mention the Berenstain Bears' Science book, Uncle Wiggly, and Brer Rabbit as his favorites. Areas where the program is a little weak: If your child is a native English speaker, First Thousand Words will be a waste of your time. Also A Child's Book of Art didn't really seem worth the money. We found very little use for it. This program is definitely for you if you enjoy spending time sitting with your child and reading to them, as well as taking time to do small activities together. On the flip side, if you have several children close in age and are trying to teach them all during the same block of time, Sonlight will keep you on your toes. There is a fair amount of one on one time needed to get through the content. Also, this is a Christian program, but if you are the type of parent that gets nervous about dealing with "non-Christian" ideas and beliefs, you may want to preview before purchasing. You will see content that will give you a chance to explore how the Bible and your personal values address things that come up in real life outside your home. For example, Stories from Around the World is a multicultural book. You will see stories about a variety of things that others may believe. Mother Goose has some poems that you may raise your eyebrows at. All of the books are age appropriate, but as a parent you will have to use your best judgment as to how much you want to explain to your child. We used these opportunities to talk about the truth found in God's Word and to that end the few things that came up did not turn us off from deciding to purchase Sonlight again next year. Where did we supplement? I have a stack of alphabet books that we read along side our Dr. Seuss' ABC book to further familiarize our son with letters. We also worked with a calendar and did some outside math work to give us a little more number time. We wanted a program that would prepare our son for Kindergarten. With the supplements we added, he is. I am giving four stars instead of five because there are a few books I don't think are the best value and because I think Core 4/5 needs a little more math content. Overall it is a great program that I would easily recommend to others and look forward to using again with our next little man.

by Emily C on 2012-04-12
We did this from 3 to 4 (she is now 4 1/2) and was a great start. Didn't seem to be doing as much alphabet, etc., as I thought was appropriate for pre K, so supplemented w Sing Spell Read and Write preK, but by the time we got to the alphabet part of that program she already had picked up on the letters and their sounds and ended up not needing it. We also did Singapore K math which was a good start, I wrote the numbers for her because she can't write them yet, but she is a whiz at math now, can do simple addition and subtraction at 4. I originally purchased w K readers, but the K LA was more than we were ready for, so then went back and got the preK instead. I would recommend doing preK first, maybe do it on an accelerated pace for an advanced student. The books and stories were great, she especially loved Uncle Wiggily and Milly Molly Mandy, both of which are older books (early 1900s) which was a neat surprise. My 2 year old enjoyed sitting in on school too. We just did 2 days a week, for probably 1 1/2 to 2 hours, had other things going on other mornings and I liked doing school that way. The science books taught me some things too, which was both cool and humbling (I have a master's degree)...I didn't do all of the Developing the Early Learner, they can be repetitive, but some of them are helpful for working on some skills. I think a lot of what I think of as preK doesn't appear till Core A, so I liked doing this core early and starting core A a little earlier too.

by Jane G on 2011-01-27
Bought this for my advanced 3 -4 year old. The readiness books (Developing the Early Learner) were insightful, showing me she needed work following auditory directions. The exercises can get a little repetitive though. The Berenstain Bears book is the main source of science, and I have mixed feelings about it. My daughter loved it, but I found the attempts at rhyming & teaching science missed the mark a bit, and the book is not sturdy, it lost many pages and could not be repaired. I will be buying a second copy for our next run through the core with second daughter anyway. We love most of the other books; As a parent, I only dreaded reading Uncle Wiggly, but my daughter loved it. I wish Sonlight would replace Uncle Wiggly with a few of the Mary Poppins books by PL Travers instead personally. I did find out there is a Jim Weiss CD of Uncle Wiggly, I may use it the second go around to avoid reading the stories again. Curious, SL's IG follows Uncle Wiggly chapters all out of sequence. I am not sure why. Also, the "What people do book" took some time to get into, but both my girls ( now 2 & 4. ) love it. we can do most of the reading for the week in just two sessions. There is a theme among the books with stories from around the world; a lot of these we don't really re-read, but the other little science books & maple hill farm are a HIT and constantly revisited. The poetry assignments to Eric Carle's Animals book are a little silly in that the IG has you read just a few lines at a time. Once a month, I will pull the book out and read several parts, then put it back. On the whole, we love this core. Thank you Sonlight.

by Elizabeth C on 2011-01-08
We received our P4/5 about 6 days ago and tore into the box. My 4 year old and 16 month old were full of oooo's and aw's over the contents! We have done 4 official days of "school" and I must admit: try as I may, it is just so hard to put these wonderful books down! Full of teachable lessons that create ripe opportunity for conversation about biblical values and choices, this is nothing but a huge blessing to have discovered Sonlight! Thank you!

by Ida M on 2010-11-22
I bought Sonlight Pre K core 2006. My daughter loved the stories but she struggled with the Developing the Early Learner series. There is quite a jump in proficiency between book 2 and 3. I had to supplement the exercises with other pre school materials to help bridge the gap. Kind regards Ida McGill