Instructor's Guides

We find that many families enhance their homeschooling adventure with a day of music lessons, sports, field trips, or other extra curricular activities during the school week. Other families may desire a slower paced school schedule than our standard 5-day program provides. So to meet the needs of these families, Sonlight developed the 4-day program option. We removed only the assignments that least impacted the overall foundation of the program, without losing any quality of the content. Some books were entirely removed from the schedule while others were shortened so you read a bit less. This way you have an extra weekday to do the other things that are important to you!

The 4-day program has a 144-day yearly schedule versus the 180-day yearly schedule in the 5-day program. You should check with your local education authorities to make sure you fulfill your state's requirements. Some Sonlighters spread the 4-day program over 5 days to best fit their lifestyle. That is certainly an option for you as well!

Every Sonlight Core with this option comes with both 4-day and 5-day schedules in your Instructor's Guide. You choose which will best fit your family. With the 5-day program you can always switch to the 4-day schedule if that proves to be beneficial for your family.

A couple things to note:

• For the lower elementary levels, our Grade K-2 Readers come only with a 5-day schedule because we believe children who are learning to read should practice daily. We desire for your students to learn to love to read and thus will enjoy opening a book each day.
• In our Language Arts programs, students complete 4 days of creative writing activities a week. The optional fifth day is filled with lighter, fun activities designed to develop skills through play: puzzles, palindromes, games, and more.

Sonlight^® Instructor's Guides are written to speak to you personally--like a friend ready to help when needed. You'll find no formal or stodgy "educationese" in our guides. Instead you'll find a knowledgeable companion who talks your language, speaks to your concerns, and offers suggestions based on experience. No heavy-handed statements about "the" right way for you to teach your kids. Just a friend.

Though we are convinced that homeschoolers need not spend anywhere near as much time in formal educational activities as children in classroom settings, we also believe that we parents have a responsibility before God to help our children acquire the maximum knowledge possible while they are under our care and have the time.

That's why Sonlight^® makes lots of suggestions... about reading assignments, reports a student might write, subjects s/he might study, languages s/he might learn, skills s/he might want to develop, and so forth.

We have tried to design a program that will challenge even the brightest student, and one who has more time on his hands than you can imagine: the only child living at home in a country where there are no extracurricular activities available to him and no entertainment options such as those most of us in the United States might enjoy.

We have wanted to make sure that even that student feels properly challenged, and his mom or dad will be suitably prepared to meet his needs.

One person suggested--and many others have agreed--that Sonlight^® is like an elaborate Thanksgiving feast. The banquet table groans with culinary delights, and no one expects you to sample "some of everything." Indeed, even if you wanted to, there are far too many dishes on the table for you to try such a feat.

And so most parents pick and choose among the Sonlight^® assignments.

Almost everyone does all the readings, but many will ignore the comprehension questions. Or they will skip Science in the early years. Or use a Sonlight program over the course of a year and a half or two years. Or do the Read-Alouds before bedtime, or during the summer.

Some parents, however, just can't shake the feeling that they must do every last item mentioned in the Instructor's Guide, and do it in the same order and at the same pace that the guide suggests.

If you are this kind of person; if you tend to think that, "I saw it in the Instructor's Guide, therefore I must do it," then we need to warn you: it is quite likely you might feel overwhelmed with Sonlight^®.

The titles for many of our Language Arts and Science IGs were modified to eliminate the "grade" association. If you ordered a Language Arts and/or a Science Instructor's Guide, but are not certain that you received the correct guides, check the titles below against the guide you have received.

Titles for 2007 Language Arts Guides:

KLG LA for Grade K Readers - Sounds, Letters, and Easy Words
1LG LA for Grade 1 Readers - Beginning to Read
2LG LA for Grade 2 Readers - Reading with Easy Readers
3LG LA for Grade 3 Readers - Reading with Chapter Books
4LG LA for Grade 4-5 Readers - Reading with Chapter Books
DLG Language Arts D
DELG Language Arts D+E
ELG Language Arts E
FLG Language Arts F
GLG Language Arts G (also used with Core W)

Titles for 2005 Science Guides:

ASG Science C - General Science C
BSG Science B - General Science B
CSG Science C - General Science C
DSG Science D - Introduction to Biology
ESG Science E - Electricity, Magnetism, Astronomy
FSG Science F - Human Anatomy & Physiology
GSG Science G - Introduction to Biology, Chemistry & Physics
HSSA Science H - General Science Schedule Plus
150-30 Science 100 - Physical Science Schedule Plus
250-01 Biology Schedule Plus - High School Biology
350-01 Chemistry Schedule Plus - High School Chemistry
450-01 Physics Schedule Plus - High School Physics

An Instructor's Guide repurchase discount applies only to those who are original purchasers of a Sonlight Instructor's Guide. If you have purchased an IG in the past, and would like to repurchase that Guide this year, simply place the IG in your shopping cart and cart will automatically deduct the 50% discount if you are eligible (i.e. the original purchaser).

You as an original purchaser (any private party who has purchased materials at full retail price directly from Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.) can repurchase an Instructor's Guide and receive the discount as many times as you'd like.

If, for some reason, your shopping cart does not list the IG at half-price, and you believe that you are eligible for the repurchase discount, simply make a note to that effect in the comment section near the end of the purchasing process. We will take care of manually adjusting the price of your repurchased guide.

Please see our Repurchase Discount Chart for details.

All customers who have purchased an Instructor's Guide (IG) from Sonlight receive support through a Repurchase Discount that gives them a 50% discount on the newest version of any IG they've purchased in the past. We do not support old versions of our Instructor's Guides: we are unable to provide replacement pages or research possible errors in any IGs other than those we are currently offering for sale.

Sonlight aims for perfection but from time to time we miss the mark.

As corrections are made, they are posted on our website. Please check Curriculum Changes to see if the correction you need is listed.

If you do not find the needed correction on the curriculum changes link, please contact us via an email to main@sonlight.com to inform us of a possible error.

Our first answer to this question would be that the product you used in the past is still a viable, complete product. Your older Instructor's Guide was a great product when you first purchased it and still is! However, if you are interested in seeing what changes have been made to our IGs, this chart may help you make up your mind when it comes to repurchasing: Instructor Guide Update Chart.

Please keep in mind that if you use a new IG with an older Core package, some of the books may have changed.

The decision is up to you. You are the teacher, and if you want to skip something, it is your choice. But don't take this responsibility lightly! Consider how this book (or chapter) could be valuable and enriching if taught carefully. Then weigh the pros and cons. Perhaps take some time to read I Can't Believe You Use That Book!

If you still feel strongly about skipping, then feel free to do so. Sonlight provides plenty of resources for your school year. Remember: These programs are guides and helps, not taskmasters.