Thursday, July 1, 2010

Doin' a 180 (or a 90 or a 270...I Don't Know)

Remember a couple of posts ago (which was really a couple of months ago) how I posted we'd be doing an around-the-world study and Core 5's Eastern Hemisphere?

Well, people go on and on over at  the SL Forums about how difficult this SL year is and how you shouldn't do it with kids under 10 and how kids get so much more from it when they are older, yadda, yadda.

I was pretty secure in my choice to do it anyway with Daisy (who will be 12) and Pepper (who will be 9-turning-10) and to do my own travelling-around-the-world thing with Banana Boy.  We've Sonlighted all along, which is a major factor in it being successful with a younger-than-average child (such as Pepper).  She's used to the format, the reading, the discussions.

But she's not an eager reader of books she considers too hard for her.  Or books she considers not interesting (meaning not full of puppies or ponies or kittens or child detectives solving mysteries).  And Core 5 is full of not-interesting-to-Pepper books.

So in a prime example of wishy-washy, second-guessing (and over-use of the hyphen) curriculum-hopping, we're shelving Core 5 for now.

Instead---take a deep breath----I'm abandoning Sonlight.  Sort of.

There.  I said it.

Now I've always considered myself a die-hard Sonlighter, even though in actuality, I use SL pretty LOOSELY.  I own all the SL cores up through 6.  I have all the catalogs back through 1998. (I think I even have a 1996) 

I love SL.  I love what they stand for.  I love the books they choose.  I love that it's all planned out and shipped in a box right to me.

But I'm a grass is greener kind of girl and I just can't HELP messing with it.  Er, I mean, Tweaking.

So, my plan was to do Core 6 World History and use Mystery of History instead of Story of the World (which I just can't stand.  I've tried to use it.  I've tried to like it.  It. Annoys. Me.  I don't like her style.  And then when people throw in the accuracy issues... I'm just done.  If you want to buy my SOTW collection, it's for sale.)

I have a schedule I put together when I did this same thing with Rose Bud several years ago, using MOH and Core 6.  Looking over it this summer, I realized it's not Core 6.  It's not SL.  It's MOH and many of the great books SL suggests (and many great books suggested by other curriculums).

So, reluctantly, I admitted to myself that I would not be using Core 6 this fall.  And I won't be using Core 7 next year.  In fact, I'm going to do MOH for the next 3 years with the girls.  They WON'T BE USING SONLIGHT.  (insert moment of silence)

After that, I'd like to come back to Core 5.  We'll have to see, as Daisy will be in 9th grade.  If I've learned nothing else, it's not to even bother to plan ahead.  Three years from now, I'll have all new ideas.

Anyway, I AM going to do Core 1 World History with Banana Boy as written, out of the IG, open and go.  NO TWEAKING!  I do like Hillyer's Child's History of the World.  I used that with Rose Bud long, long ago.

Ok.  I might tweak a little.  I hate the Usborne World History.  But other than that.  NO TWEAKING!

Funny, how it all works out.  I've never liked SL's science and this year we are completing Science 5.  I've always used SL's Cores and this year we'll be switching to MOH.  I feel a bit like a traitor.  It was Jimmie, who actually gave me the courage to say out loud what I was wanting to do on the inside.  Thanks, Jimmie!

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