Homeschool: My Father's World vs. Sonlight

[Jengerbread88]

Hey, homeschoolers! I need some opinions!

We have a student going into 6th grade next year. He is very hands-on, very kinesthetic, not so fond of reading. For our first semester homeschooling (second semester, fifth grade), we put together our own curriculum, but starting in 6th, we want something a little more... put together.

We're kind of debating between My Father's World, and Sonlight.

So. Pros and cons of each. Which do you like better? Why? Have you tried both? Just one? What made you choose the one you chose? What are they like? ANY info you could give me would be crazy-awesome, because we feel so lost and overwhelmed... We're really trying to figure out what's best, and we're so confused...

Help?

[Darcy Baldwin]

I can tell you, Sonlight is INTENSE reading. It's a literature based program, and there's a TON of reading, and it's heavy stuff. I also found them really weak for those that are hands-on. I haven't used MFW for upper grades, so I can't comment on them.

[heathergw]

We use My Father's World for Kindergarten... I don't have experience for higher grade levels... but I have really enjoyed the Kindergarten curriculum and plan on getting the 1st grade curriculum for next year

I read a book over Christmas that really helped me decide on what style is best for the child... it has a quiz and stuff in it to help you narrow it down... and then based on what you find in the quiz it points you to curriculum that will fit both the child's style of learning and the teacher's style of teaching and what you goals are for your child... that's how we found that My Father's World is such a good fit for us right now... but it might not be down the road so we'll keep evaluating and deciding what works for our family as we add in more school aged kids... It was this book... and I was able to check it out at the library.... I highly recommend looking through it

[webseitler]

I use a lot of Sonlight (but I pick and chose the read-alouds because I use a different history curriculum). And my oldest is only in 3rd grade. But as a whole, I really love Sonlight.

Then again, I don't know anything about My Father's World.

[taracotta7]

Originally Posted by webseitler

I use a lot of Sonlight (but I pick and chose the read-alouds because I use a different history curriculum). And my oldest is only in 3rd grade. But as a whole, I really love Sonlight.

Then again, I don't know anything about My Father's World.

This. I have only had experience with Sonlight between the two. I love Sonlight because of how organized it is and it totally takes the planning for me and helps me stay on track. It is as Darcy said though.......heavy reading.....but that is the awesome thing about homeschool. You get to pick and choose what you will use and mix and match to make it work for you.

One I used for my oldest son when he was in the 8th grade that was awesome was School House Rocks (I think that is what it is called). It was computer based and very organized. It was perfect for Robert and his learning style. We had all subjects on the computer and then we did some hands on stuff for science. It worked well for him.

[nonnie]

When we home schooled we used Sonlight - I like the lit biased approach - I will say that I did not like some of the books - they were dated and some were just not historically accurate - so I found a good substitution, or used them and had a lesson on why they were off. It is a LOT of reading -

[YepBrook]

I can't be much help in your difficult decision, because I am there, too! I am debating between My Fathers world and Heart of Dakota. They seem so similar! I am leaning towards MFW, though. Did you get to look at the books? Which curriculum appealed to you the most personally?

[Jengerbread88]

I'm personally leaning towards my fathers world. J know for sure I'm doi..ng their fiddler curriculum for zach. Its hard to choose for Jeffrey, but o worth a lit based curriculum wouldn't fit his learning style. This J's where its hard to coteach. Ultimately, its moms decision, not mine.

[Emmy]

I would look at winter promise. It is lit based but has a lot more hands on projects. I agree with Darcy's thoughts on sonlight, it is a ton of reading and often heavy reading. I like sonlight but haven't ever used a whole curriculum from the, straight through as planned, I tend to combine stuff from a variety of places in hopes of creating the "perfect" plan (ha)! MFW is a great program but it doesn't schedule a lot of reading so that bugs me, if your son doesn't like to read much it might be a good fit but I would worry that it isn't going to help him develop a love of reading either. If I used it, I would choose some required reading with it. But check out winterpromise, they have a great mix of books and hands on.

[Jengerbread88]

After talking to you wonderful ladies, and talking to the people at both booths at convention (two or three times, actually), and praying about it, I think we're going with My Father's World, and for language arts and math, using some alternate methods (since with MFW, you have to buy the extra packages for Math and Language Arts, and their recommended curriculum didn't really fit us as well, we decided to go with Teaching Textbooks for math, and... gosh, I forgot the Language Arts one, but I know the books all had yellow covers :P It's a program that has suggestions as you read a book for discussion questions, vocabulary and spelling, and hands-on activities related to the book you're reading-- all of the book selections are award winner sort of books and a lot of them are on schools required reading lists, so I think it will help us get those language arts credits in).

Thanks for all of the suggestions!