Will this Core be your favorite, too?
This beloved Core is unique among Sonlight programs. Its subject matter stands out from homeschool programs available anywhere.
Where else can you get a full year's exploration of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the South Pacific? A huge percentage of the world's population calls the Eastern Hemisphere home. Ninety percent of all unevangelized people live there. If we want our children to understand this increasingly interconnected globe, if we want them to embrace God's heart for the whole world, let's journey to the East!
We've prepared a rich year of adventure and discovery for you and your kids. I've lost track of all the customers who say this is their favorite year. As one mom said last year, "What an utterly fabulous, not-to-be-missed adventure Core F is! It is my new favorite Core." Will it be yours too?
Core F is perfect for 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds and advanced 10-year-olds. But I wouldn't be surprised if the entire family wants to listen in!
Take a cultural adventure
I created Core F to fill a gap in education. In public schools and homeschools, students study Western history and culture year after year after year. So Core F is a cultural and historical journey through the often-overlooked lands of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Unlike the other Cores, this one doesn't focus on one set period of history. Instead, it's a cultural study that acquaints your children with the fascinating peoples and nations of the East. As you move from region to region, you'll study a subset of history at each stop.
This year's cross-continental itinerary
Take an ambling trek that starts in China and moves through the rest of Asia, over to the Middle East, down to Africa, sweeps through the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand, and finishes in Antarctica. Get to know the people and cultures of places you hear about in the news, but may have never studied in-depth (such as Japan, India, the Philippines and Afghanistan).
Because this is such a novel part of the world (to us Westerners, at least!), the history spine for this Core is quite distinctive as well. You'll use the kid-friendly and uncommonly interesting World Book Encyclopedia as a point of departure for each country you visit. Your Instructor's Guide suggests many relevant hands-on activities and lots of fun to help cement your learning.
Core F also uses the Instructor's Guide and the World Book Encyclopedia to teach children how to do basic research. They'll look to the encyclopedia to answer various questions and gain an overview of the region they're visiting. They'll also learn to do some basic (supervised) internet research. This gives them confidence to develop academic research skills in the years ahead.
Big-picture goals
My hope for this Core is that children will understand that there's a big part of the world we're often unaware of, but that these nations are not forgotten or lost to God.
I want kids to grasp the fact that not everyone lives like we do in the West. All over the world, people eat, dress, work, play and see the world very differently. But we're also the same in key ways: God loves all of us and we all need Jesus. Families all over the world love each other; children like to play, learn and explore; we all have to work hard; we all want to be loved and appreciated; we can all overcome obstacles.
I want children to be inspired toward greater compassion and courage through the many missionary biographies featured in this Core. I want them to gain God's heart for lost people everywhere. I want them to understand that we don't need to be afraid of other cultures. At the same time, we don't have to pretend that every aspect of every culture is wonderful.
As children see Christianity compared to religions of the East this year, they will appreciate even more what a great God we serve. We do not pray to lifeless idols; we are not stuck in an endless cycle of reincarnation. Our God is alive, loving and powerful!
With Core F, you receive:
Instructor's Guide
Like an expert tour guide, your Instructor's Guide (IG) gives you confidence to explore these new lands. You can follow the IG exactly each day, or take detours and reroute your trip as you please. With all your lesson plans already done, your guide makes your books, activities and timeline all fit together to reinforce concepts and allow for effective learning. The riveting discussion questions and background notes help you get the most from your time with your children. Request the first three weeks of this guide for free at sonlight.com/3-week-samples.
History & Geography
Get a splendid store of books and materials this year. Look for inspiring biographies of people through whom God did extraordinary things: from Hudson Taylor in China to William Carey in India to David Livingstone in Africa.
As you learn about countries with such different economic histories from ours, you'll enjoy Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, an easy introduction to basic economics. And throughout your year, timeline figures and maps pull all your learning together.
Bible
In keeping with a theme of Core F, you'll focus on the idea that our individual lives and culture are not the center of the universe. A surprisingly profound book, 101 Differences Between Cats and Dogs, will inspire challenging conversations with your children about how we view God. Are we like cats, who think that their master (or in our case, God) exists to serve us and make us happy? Or are we more like dogs, who eagerly recognize that we exist to serve and glorify our Good Master?
The core of the Bible program comes through your daily Scripture reading together. Your kids will also absorb weekly Scripture memory passages through the catchy global beats of the Sing the Word: All Nations Shall Worship CD.
Read-Alouds
Share adventures of life overseas with your children. I've also included a few classics from our own culture. Get ready to:
- See cultures with new eyes as you walk with a young Tibetan girl from her homeland all the way to Calcutta.
- Read my all-time favorite story: The Horse and His Boy, one of C. S. Lewis' marvelous tales of Narnia.
- Shuffle behind Marjan, a crippled Persian girl, as she risks her life to collect stories for the Sultan's wife, who must tell him a new tale every night--or be killed.
Readers
Your children will get more glimpses into life in the Eastern Hemisphere through their Readers this year. They'll meet characters who inspire courage, curiosity, strength and lots of fun!
After you meet one such character in Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, your children will use the included paper to make their own authentic Japanese origami.
Language Arts
Watch your children's creativity blossom this year as they take on more challenging writing assignments. The full Language Arts program integrated into Core F teaches grammar, writing mechanics, research writing and creative expression. Students will recognize and imitate good writing through dictation exercises, explore various writing styles through fun and diverse writing assignments, so-lidify their natural grasp of grammar and more.
You get the tools you need to guide your children successfully, including student activity sheets, teaching helps, parent instructions, full answers, definitions and more. We also schedule optional workbooks in your Instructor's Guide if you want additional focus in vocabulary or grammar.
An eye-opening journey
May you enjoy Core F as much as countless other Sonlighters have. And may God open our eyes to people who live so differently from us, and whom God loves as much as he loves you and me.
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