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Changing from Sonlight LA to English for the Thoughtful Child and Phonics Pathways
Posted by Coral on September 8, 2008Homeschooling is quite the adventure. I thought I was going to make changes in our History/Geography from Sonlight. Turns out changes happened else where. I love Sonlight Cores, & Read -Alouds. My prior idea of stretching it out over two years did not fly with my girls. R (the one I was worried about it being to much for her to handle) would ask, “Can we please do the other page?” After trying to shorten things at least 4 times, and being met with the same response, we went back to the regular schedule. I believe we just needed to get into the groove. It has been smooth sailing since.
I ended up making the changes needed in Language Arts, however. SL Language Arts was too much work and did not suit the girls, very well. P’s reading level is way above the Readers 1 for SL LA 1. She was bored with the reading assignments, but the LA assignment were still at her level. I switched her to the Readers 2 (which we already had), and we still use some of the SL LA 1; such as the spelling lists, Explode the Code, and every once in awhile some of the activities and games. However for P’s LA we have switched to “English For the Thoughtful Child”. For R we have switched to “Phonics Pathways” with a little copy work added on, . Both of these are working great! I love their simplicity.
With ETC I love it’s artistic creative feel.The works of art to observe and discuss, the poems to memorize, the stories to narrate are all right up my ally. P catches on pretty quickly and loves to think through thing, so this book is great for her (I have a feeling it might not work for R, we shall see
). The lessons are different lengths so sometimes a lesson take 1 day sometimes 4 days. It also depend on P’s understanding of the concepts,to determine how long we take. If you want or need a script this is not for you. You need to know or recall your early LA skills (no teachers manual). I did skip the lesson on the new moon, because I didn’t know the answers and couldn’t find them 
. Anyway I have been able to make this one really work for us. It brings in more of the Charlotte Mason methods I have been so interested in.
As I have said before, R has been begging to learn to read, just like Sister. SL LA K was good, but too slow for her liking. So I purchased PP. We skipped the Letter sounds; since she knew these; and started with the consonant short vowel blends such as- Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu. We are finished with these and are now on the short 3 letter word as in -Bad, Bed… It is amazing how the consonant short vowel blends help her to easily and quickly identify these words. The program is super easy (just a few minute a day). I love it! P reads very well. However I believe this program would have made it much easier and less confusing, than all my trial and error, ways of trying to teach her.
I’ll let you know if I change anything else . All this can be frustrating, but part of it is fun because it means I am learning more about my girls and how they learn best. I do realize that I need to put more prayer into my curriculum decisions from now on. He knows better than I do, what they need. If I can hand this over to Him I will fare much better in coming years.
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