Thanks to Sonlight's training, my daughter Rachel is in the habit of integrating everything she learns into the 'big picture' of time and place. Before she can read anything, she looks at her timeline to understand where the story takes place in the context of history. She'll also find the story's location on the map. She loves to peruse The Timeline Book [RR120] from beginning to end. I feel she has a great grasp on the big picture. In her fourth year of Sonlight, Rachel (7) uses Google to locate where Little Pear (from Core B) took place.

The Instructor's Guide helps me to be prepared each day, with lessons that I'm confident of and interested in teaching. The Markable Maps and the History Timeline Figures have given me a big-picture view of world history and geography that I lacked after all my schooling, including college! The characters in the Read-Alouds feel like family and become part of our daily discussion, teaching and training. Hanna (4, P4/5 Multi-Subject), Claire (7, Core B) and Dad observe tadpoles scooped from a neighbor's pond on a rainy day.

"Learning through literature enables my kids to feel like they know the characters and to gain a deeper understanding of the past and the world around them. We considered going back to a textbook approach for high school, but after one tedious chapter in a history book, we were reminded what a difference Sonlight makes. My younger kids could answer the test questions better than my high schooler who read the textbook because they'd been reading about the same period in The Story of the World. Making history come alive is a much better way to learn!" In their family's ninth year of Sonlight, Anna (11, Level 100) and Ellie (8, Level D) are eager to open their Box Day treasure.– Bethany N of Yorktown, TX