For our first year of homeschooling, I couldn't have asked for an easier-to-follow Instructor's Guide. To see the love of books through my children's eyes is amazing! When they're finished with their schoolwork, they even choose reading for their fun activities. Sparked with an interested for the homeless after reading George Muller in our Read-Alouds, Abby collected 144 blankets. The encouragement that book gave her for this mission is one we could've never taught on our own. Here Abby (7, Core B+C) shows her goal checklist and the blankets she collected during her first year of Sonlight living and giving.

Sonlight lessons are all planned out for me and they include all kinds of fun activities. This was our first year homeschooling. I've been terribly busy and sleep-deprived with a new baby and three young children. Using Sonlight's Science A program was the best decision I could have made. Although the program is laid out in a weekly schedule, I've found it easy to adjust according to our needs. Some weeks we do a bit each day. Other times we have a 'Science Day' and do a week's worth of lessons and activities all at once. I simply pick up where we left off. Here, Gideon (2), Miriam (5) and Tabitha (6) make "hot lava" while studying volcanoes.

Before we made our decision to use Sonlight, I felt as if I'd never move beyond an endless succession of 'Teacher Planning Days. Things changed when we started the Core P4/5 curriculum – I could stop planning and start doing! Now I'm checking off boxes instead of constantly creating them. We've found it easy to use Sonlight to enrich our family activities. We read, and then we 'do' (and sometimes we even read while we 'do')! Hiking in the Appalachians, Julia, Lincoln (4), baby brother Zane and cousin Ben (9) stopped to read Caterpillars and Butterflies … and were surprised by a real tiger swallowtail! In his first Sonlight year, Lincoln is studying Core P4/5 and Science A.