Ideas from Other Sonlighters

For years I've collected links and ideas for supplementing Sonlight. I've posted the ideas I've compiled on my website. (And, yes, it needs to be updated. I'm hoping to work on that soon! Let me know if you have links I could add to it.)

In my blog-hopping this week, I came across a couple of posts from other Sonlighters sharing how they added to their Sonlight adventures in creative ways.

• Tanya @ Everyday Adventures: Exploring Ancient Greece and Greek Mythology
• Donna @ Morningside Academy: History in Our House

I love that Sonlight has that flexibility built in, so we can add in any extras that are a good fit for our individual families.

We're having a great time with Core 3+4 this year, taking a notebooking approach and adding in lots of library books. I'll be sharing more about our experiences as we go along.


Picture from Sonlight.com.

I love libraries!

Aren't free public libraries one of the greatest ideas ever? I've alway thought so! My family didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up, but we were rich in books because my mother took us to the library just about every week!

I've often thought I could probably give my children a pretty adequate education with just a library card. I'm glad I don't have to, but I bet I could!

Yesterday my 13-year-old daughter and I made a library run. We are studying American History this year, based on Sonlight's Core 3+4. However, my daughter has learning challenges (probably ADD and auditory processing delays) so she needs to hear information over and over to be able to retain it. My approach this year is to read about the same event from a lot of different perspectives, so we are going through stacks of books!

Right now we are learning about the 13 colonies, George Washington, and the Revolutionary War. Here are the titles of the books we brought home yesterday:

• General Washington and the General's Dog
• If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution
• Eyewitness: American Revolution
• George vs. George: The American Revolution as seen from Both Sides
• American Revolution Battles and Leaders
• Hello USA (We got several of these, as there is a separate one for each state.)
• Shh! We're Writing the Constitution
• Cartoon Nation presents The American Presidency
• George Washington's Breakfast
• Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?
• Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents: John Adams
• In 1776
• The Revolutionary John Adams
• Midnight Riders
• Row, Row, Row the Boats
• Trouble Brewing
• Take the Lead, George Washington
• National Geographic Society: George Washington

I'm sure some of these are better than others. I haven't read them all yet. We will probably just skim some of them. But... that's the beauty of library books! You can take 'em home with you and peruse them at your leisure.