Give your children a powerful advantage over their peers...

Sonlight's Core Programs: a Literature Rich Education

Read—and talk about—"real" books together.

In his bestselling book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, E. D. Hirsch, Jr. says children benefit greatly when they are brought up in stable, literate homes in which their parents read to them and introduce them to a breadth and depth of subject matter. The mere exposure (with understanding) places these children at a distinct advantage. They are able to understand things that make no sense at all to their peers.

Sonlight, being rooted in world history and biography, provides students with exactly that kind of input so they know the world in a way that few if any of their peers do. They are prepared to read with pleasure a broad variety of literature and to engage in mature and thoughtful conversation with people from a wide range of backgrounds. Unlike graded textbooks, real literature can be read, understood and enjoyed by students across a wide range of ages. You and your students will read real books (like biographies, fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction), rather than textbooks and the experience will be broader and deeper, providing a far richer tapestry of study than you'd get by reading and memorizing facts from a textbook.

A literature-rich education in which parents and children engage in vigorous discussion about issues of significance: that's what Sonlight's Core programs are all about.

 

Core: the heart of Sonlight

Our Core programs are the central component of each full curriculum package. A core integrates History, Geography, Literature (Readers and Read-Alouds) as a coordinated whole. When you design and purchase a complete curriculum from Sonlight you use the Core as the center and add the other components from our comprehensive collection of best-of-the-best products covering Language Arts, Math, Science and Electives.

 

Easy to use: start with everything, or personalize your Core.

If you are new to homeschooling we created grade-specific quick start packages (Newcomer packages). Designed with the assistance of our advisors and consultants, they contain the best, most complete grade-specific components combined with a Core program. This complete curriculum gives you everything you need to teach one child for an entire year. Newcomer packages are available for students through 6th grade. From about 6th grade and above the number of choices increases dramatically and we believe only you can make appropriate choices for foreign language, electives and, in the upper grades, math, science, etc.

 

Why do we use the term "grade"?

We use the term grade only when referring to curriculum components that are truly grade specific. Math and Handwriting are good examples as are grade-level distinctions for beginning readers. So for Cores B-2 we provide grade-specific Reader packages. This enables you to combine a Core 1 package with 3rd grade readers. So choose a core that interests you.

 

Use one Core with two, three, or more children...

We designed each Core program for use, with no modification, across a wide range of ages (usually 3 years but in some cases as many as 4). (See choosing and planning pages 36-37). We want to help you effectively teach as many children as possible with as few materials as possible. In this catalog we list only those options we are confident will work well for 99% of all families. In selecting the right starting point for your family take your children's reading abilities, interests, last grades completed, and (if you are teaching to more than one child) which children you will teach to into account.

 

Your choice: four ways to buy exactly what you need

1 Core packages: (All Levels)

The History, Readers, Read-Alouds, and (optional in some levels) Bible programs all wrapped together along with a thorough, helpful Instructor's Guide (see pp. 22-24 for a look inside the Instructor's Guide). Add math, language arts, science and electives as desired.

 

2 Newcomer packages: (Grades: P3/4, P4/5, K, 1, 1+2, 3, 3+4, & 5)

Grade-specific packages with every book, and virtually every other educational component you will need to teach one child for a full year. We provide at least two and most often three graded options blending the graded reading programs with the other grade-specific components required to complete your curriculum package.

 

3 Subject-specific packages:

All the books and supplies for any one subject area per level or year—all Core 1 history books, for example; or all the Core 5 Readers; Level 4 Science; Grade 6 Math; etc.

 

4 Individual products:

You can purchase any and every individual item that is part of our complete packages.