How to Choose the Right Materials for Your Child

Sonlight approaches home education differently from classroom schools. In fact, Sonlight is different from many homeschool programs too. This can make it difficult to figure out which Sonlight homeschooling program you should use.

So how do you decide which homeschool program is right for you and your child?

First, pay attention to the fact that Sonlight's levels do not necessarily correspond with grade levels in classroom schools. For instance, if your child was in 3rd grade last year in a classroom school, that doesn't mean he should necessarily use a Sonlight Level 4 program this year.

Why?

Primarily because the content of Sonlight's homeschool curriculum programs is appropriate for a wide range of ages. Therefore, your choice of homeschool program should be based more on the content you and your child are interested in studying than on the number we happen to have assigned to it.

If you would like some objective help in determining your student's general reading level, we recommend you use the Quick Reading Assessment. This assessment will determine your child's word recognition ability, as well as his or her strengths and weaknesses in reading. For more information, please see our full description of the Quick Reading Assessment. (Please note that the Quick Reading Assessment results will not tell you which level Sonlight Core and Language Arts homeschool curriculum programs are the best for you to use; it will, however, give you the a level at which your student is reading.)

How to Choose the Right Homeschool Language Arts Program

Sonlight's homeschool Language Arts programs coordinate with the books your children read in their Core programs. If your students are in K-6, you should buy whatever Language Arts package matches your child's Reader set (e.g. for Grade 1 Readers, add Language Arts for Grade 1 Readers; for Core F, add Language Arts 5). In Cores 7 and up, a full Language Arts program is already integrated in the Core Program.

How to Choose the Right Homeschool Science Program

To choose the right homeschool Science program, write your child's name in the row on the chart next to his age. Follow the row to the right and select a color/shade that represents the difficulty level that is appropriate for your child. Then go to the top of the columns to see what level Science programs match your selections. Then do as you did when you chose the appropriate Core Program: determine which subject(s) most suit your fancy and, if you have more than one child, determine which program(s) might best serve all of your children together. (Note: for Multi-Subject Package users this selection is already made for you.)

Make it easy on yourself... and your kids. Combine wherever possible.

How to Choose the Right Homeschool Math Program

It's important that you gauge your child's math skills before you select the homeschool Math program for him or her. (Note: for Multi-Subject Package users a math program is already included for you.)

To help you find your child's math level, we offer math placement tests for our major math programs. Just select the appropriate placement test for your child on the placement tests page.

Use the results from these placement tests to select the math program that best meets your child's needs.

You can read detailed overviews of Horizons Math, Singapore Math®, Saxon Math, Miquon Math, and Teaching Textbooks here on our site.

How to Choose Homeschool Electives

While homeschool Electives can sometimes seem unnecessary, they are, in fact, very important to a child's development. Those "extra" subjects — art, foreign language, music and so forth — really can make the difference between an average student and an outstanding student.

We recommend you choose at least one Elective per student per year. Choose an Elective your child is interested in to encourage him to take the initiative... and to become excited about learning.

Jump over to our Electives section to see what we offer.

Putting on the Finishing Touches

Once you've made all of your choices, you'll want to check for two things:

1. Required Resources--items you purchase from Sonlight only once but that are used in more than one every year of study. If you don't own them yet, you'll need to buy them. View list of Required Resources.

2. Consumable Items--items that will be used up by your child during the school year. That means you'll want extra copies of any consumable items if you're teaching more than one student. The easiest place to find a list of these items is on the Consumables page. Just use the Consumables list on the right-hand side and click on the level you're interested in.

Questions?

If you still have questions, please know that there are hundreds of experienced homeschoolers who would love to help you at the Sonlight^® Forums.

And you can always send us an email at main@sonlight.com. We'll be delighted to help you or to put you in touch with one of our Curriculum Advisors (homeschooling moms just like you, who have had many more years of experience). They, too, are eager to give you personalized answers to any questions you may still have.

As always, we want you to know we look forward to serving you!

• Try the Let's Go Learn Reading Assessment for your Child
• Yes! I want a FREE Sonlight Catalog
• I'm ready to find my Curriculum

If you'd like to get more advice and information about the homeschooling process, please check out the following Sonlight Podcast:

How to Do It