Afterschooling Curriculum

Supplemental Learning for Kids in Traditional School

The key to raising great kids is parental involvement, and that can happen whether you homeschool, choose private schools, or send your kids to public schools. At Sonlight, we support school choice. We know all parents love their kids and choose the best educational opportunities for them.

Reasons to Supplement Education at Home

Provide enrichment for gifted learners
Augment instruction from a low-performing school
Offer remediation to get children up to grade level
Improve grades
Protect the natural curiosity that the classroom can unintentionally dull
Nurture the creative expression that a structured school environment may stifle
Review and reinforce school lessons

Some parents call these supplements afterschooling, homeschooling after school, Mommy school, hybrid homeschooling, after school skill building, or enrichment. Whatever you call this approach, these add-ons boost academics and foster close family bonds.

"A child only educated at school is an uneducated child." George Santayana

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Choose Your Style

Which approach suits your child best?

Laid Back Approach

If you want a laid back approach that feels nothing like traditional school, go for strewing where you simply make learning resources easy to access:

12 Books Perfect for Science Strewing
stack engaging novels on your child's bedside table
Put science kits on the kitchen counter
Hang a markable map on the dining room wall
Place non-fiction books or picture books on the coffee table
Gather art supplies in a basket
Toss a few logic puzzles into the backseat
11 Books for Your Homeschool Nature Center

The beauty of strewing is that the materials themselves will call to your children, inviting them to explore and learn of their own volition.

Structured Learning

Take a more direct approach and implement an after school curriculum. Connect your family with the most enjoyable parts of homeschooling without having to become a full-fledged homeschool family. You can simply read aloud meaningful books and have thoughtful discussions with the children after school and on the weekends.

While you may use a homeschool schedule as a foundation, you can work through it at your own pace, either skipping around, or doing the next thing as time allows.

Sonlight's Instructor's Guides are perfect for connecting you with meaningful, powerful literature and helping you to link the books you read as a family to learning. Move at your own pace, picking and choosing which books to dive into as a family from the guide.

Open-ended Exploration

When you focus on kids passions, learning feels more like a hobby than schoolwork. Children often discover their life's calling by extending these passions into higher education and later a career.

Take your child's lead on how much direction they want and need from you. Often all you have to do is provide the right books, kits, and classes. Their quick minds will devour the supplements with effortless learning – all because of their intrinsic motivation.

When kids are at this level, it's a good idea to hand them a catalog and let them create a wish list of learning resources.

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." John Dewey

Choose Your Goal

What is your afterschool focus?

Math Support

Whether your goals are to improve grades, shore up gaps, or to fuel a child's giftedness, math is a common academic subject for afterschooling. See our math options here, with full descriptions.

Strengthen their foundation by choosing a complete program at a slightly lower level than they are studying in school.

Reach the child who learns differently by choosing a program with a completely different methodology than the approach they are receiving in school.

Reach the self-declared math hater by adding fun math resources. MathTacular! (DVDs) and Life of Fred (books) are radically different from the math textbooks your child uses in school. Their quirky approaches have won over many a hesitant math student.

Engage hands-on learning with the use of physical manipulatives to illustrate the math concepts is the key to mastery. Maybe your child's school doesn't use manipulatives, but you can use them at home while going over homework.

Advisors are available to help you choose a program that fits your child.

Reading Support

One of the easiest – and most enjoyable – ways to afterschool is by reading books.

Reading aloud is a powerful way to build reading skills and create joyful reading experiences.

When your child is reading to you you are able to offer support in realtime.
When you read aloud to your child, they receive the benefit of sophisticated vocabulary, cultural literacy, and advanced grammar simply by listening to you read.

Naturally deepen reading comprehension afterschool with great Read-Alouds simply by having conversations about books as you read:

tell back what happened
ask why
predict what may happen next
compare to other books, events from history, or current events

If your children prefer to read silently, provide them with stacks of the best historical fiction, biographies, and nonfiction to devour in their free time.

For a whole family experience, choose books that will create meaningful family discussions. Most upper elementary, middle school, and even high school students still adore being read to, especially when the book is suspenseful, funny, or thoughtful. We often hear from our customers how meaningful sharing books together has been, and the inside jokes, idioms, and words that they enjoy as a family that have come from these special times together.

Reading solo or together is one of the most laid back yet brain-engaging ways to afterschool! See our top picks here.

Nurture Joyful Learning

Ignite a joy for learning through powerful literature. Establish a daily read aloud habit, using a collection of high quality novels. Then see where your discussions take you!

As questions arise, research them by watching videos, consulting atlases, and reading more books. Let the learning happen organically, inspired by sharing books together as you learn what's important to your child and get to impart your values, too.

Sonlight's Instructor's Guides are perfect for connecting you with meaningful, powerful literature. Move at your own pace and pick and choose which books from the guide to dive into as a family.

Advisors are available to help you choose a program that fits your child.

Build on What is Taught at School

Get an outline from your child's teacher and gather materials at home to help supplement and improve your child's understanding and grades. The Sonlight catalog can be a great reference to help you choose novels, biographies, and non-fiction titles that match the topics from your child's classes at school. Enjoy them at bedtime, after school, or on weekends.

Use the search function here at Sonlight.com to find resources by topic, period of history, or scientific field. Or reference this comprehensive scope and sequence.

Advisors are available to help you choose a program that fits your child.

Preschool to Kindergarten

Every book you read aloud to your child at this age transforms into pure gold in terms of vocabulary, language skills, and imagination.

Journey through the best children's books, nurturing a love of learning and cultivating curiosity about the world around them.

Choose from our award-winning early-education courses :

Preschool: Enjoy favorite children's book classics, engaging games, and hands-on Montessori-type materials and activities all designed to address the developmental needs of young children in a fun, relaxed, and interactive environment.

Pre-Kindergarten: Expand your child's knowledge of the larger world around them through hands-on Montessori-type materials. Teach alphabet sounds, verbal skills, reading readiness, early science concepts, and foundations in Bible, art, and history.

Kindergarten: Put together a customized program to compliment what your child is learning in school and enjoying the joy of literature-based learning with your child or select the entire kindergarten curriculum package to pick and choose from it throughout the year.

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