# curriculum opinion



## FannyMay (Apr 4, 2008)

I have a quick question. Has anyone used Bob Jones curriculum or Son Light curriculum. I am still trying to decide what is best and need some opinion on the two of these. OR if you have a favorite please let me know. I will have a 5th grader who will just turn 11 on July1st and a 8th grader who is 13. This is our first year to HS. I have a 3 year old waiting in the wings.


----------



## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

I have used Sonlight but not Bob Jones. Sonlight is good if you want a christian-based literature based approach to schooling. If you want text books, you should probably go with Bob Jones.

Cindyc.


----------



## busybee870 (Mar 2, 2006)

I use ABEKA, its has alot of visual and alot of extra help in it. My son does very will with it. Some of the curriculms have nothing but words and some kids need to see more examples, pictures to associate what the words are saying. Abeka is the best I have seen in my opinion.


----------



## Happy Palace (Sep 21, 2007)

Oh, I can sing the praises of Sonlight, sing the praises of Sonlight! It's a good fit for us because we love, love, LOVE to read! They really cover their topics in-depth. We'll be using Core 5 with my 6th grader (11 yo) this fall. We love the structure of having everything planned out for us, yet the freedom and flexibility to drop things of we need or want to. We have used Cores K, 1, 2, 3 and I modified Core 4 this past year because our journey into a unit study fell apart. My dd did about half of Core 4. I'll be doing Core K with my 5 yo this fall. Some of it will be over his head, but that's okay.

My favorite thing about Sonlight is the support that is available on their forums. I would have thrown in the homeschooling towel many times over if it hadn't been for the support and encouragement that I find there. Whenever I have a question or a problem, the ladies are there. Kind of like HT! 

One thing I didn't like with Sonlight is their language arts beyond K. It was great for teaching my dd to read, but the natural language approach is too off for me. IT's rather sporadic and I prefer a little more structure to my English. We've been using Rod & Staff for 2 years and my younger ones will do that through 5th grader. My oldest is switching to Bob Jones for English this year. I want a stronger emphasis on writing. MY SIL used BJU for 1 year and she said that the English was her favorite part.

We did Sonlight Science for 2 years and found out that we don't like experiments, but that's just us. The Science books were great and they get read all of the time. We switched to Apologia Elementary and it is way too in depth for the ages I have, so we're going back to Sonlight Science this year and we may or may not do experiments with it.

Good luck with your curriculum search.


----------



## FannyMay (Apr 4, 2008)

Thanks for the suggestions. My Ds will be 11 in July and he just finished 4th grade in public school and they said he was at level or a little below level, but I just don't think so. I think that maybe Sonlight might be to much for him. He absolutely hates to read. And he has a speech problem and stutters. The reading outloud I think would be a problem. I don't really know what I am going to do yet. Thanks for the advice so far!


----------



## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

We tried Sonlight. I love the idea of a literature based program and my son is an avid reader. But he hated it. He did not like the book they choose for him to read. I would suggest you find one or two books from the library from the Core you are looking at buying or one down and see if the books interest your child. Even if they are a bit above his reading level, if he likes them him will push himself to advance enough to read them. 

My son loves textbooks for learning, we use Rod and Staff (also Christian based). I have never looked at Bob Jones, I heard some really bad things about them when growing up (late 80's editions), but have never looked at them myself to know if what was said was true. So I would just advise to look them over first, I know too many people that use them and like them to think them all bad.


----------



## busybee870 (Mar 2, 2006)

my son doesnt like reading either but becuase Abeka has alot of visual he does great. I was suprised how much he learned from Abeka, I wont use anything else!!


----------



## texastami (Sep 13, 2002)

We use BJU Science and Heritage Studies (history) 

I like teaching BJU (just meshes with my teaching skills) and I like the thoroughness of it. 

Never used Sonlight....


----------



## FannyMay (Apr 4, 2008)

texastami,

I just got my BJU catalog and are trying to make some decisions, there is one thing I was not very clear on. Do my children have to have a test before I can order curriculum through BJU and do I have to send them grades or can I just keep up with them myself.


----------



## Farmerwannabe (Jun 23, 2008)

This is our first year with Son Light curriculum and we loved it. It is rich in history and literature content. If your child enjoys reading, this might interest him. I liked the fact that all my lessons were planned and I didn't have to search for books, materials, worksheets, ect. Everything was there for me. I loved the books so much that I have read many of them myself!


----------



## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

We love Sonlight too. We also used Abeka at first...hated it. Their history was way watered down for the earlier grades and the math jumped around so much that my daughter had a hard time with it (we used Singapore math now...love it).

Isn't it great that there are so many choices out there for us that we can hopefully find just what we need to fit what our children need ?! :clap:


----------

