figuring out some things

Well, its officially getting close to the end of the school year, so we're planning for next school year officially. We are leaving OHVA once the school year is up, which is the biggest change for us. I posted all about our decision before, so if you don't know why then try reading my earlier posts from this month. Now, here is what we're *considering* for next school year.

Melissa will be in 2nd grade, Lydia in 1st grade, and Kimmy and Jordan in preschool. Melissa is still struggling with her reading, but is coming along nicely. Lydia is taking off as well with reading, and is above grade-level in math. Lydia will do k12 math 1 until its finished, then move into Miquon with Melissa. For language arts, I plan on doing Sonlight lang. arts 1 with Melissa and going through lang. arts K with Lydia for the writing portion. So, that covers the basics of math nd reading.

History is a completely different matter. This year, Melissa studied ancient world history and has really enjoyed it. So, Scott and I are considering studying world history next school year. I've narrowed it down to either Sonlight or Winter Promise for world history.

Sonlight has cores 1 and 2, or core 1+2. Cores 1 and 2 are a 2 year world history program, with 1+2 being the condensed one-year version. It is a literature-based program with all kinds of goodies such as mapreading and working on a timeline. There isn't much hands-on material for crafts and such, so I'll have to come up with that on my own. I have experience with Sonlight after doing P3/4, P4/5, core K, science K, and lang. arts K. We went with k12 originally to give us another year to allow Melissa to really catch up with us for core 1, based on my experience with the program. You can learn more about it at http://www.sonlight.com if you want to.

Winter Promise is also a literature-based program. Its early world history program, Hideaways In History, is designed for K and 1st grades. It is a one-year run from the beginning of written history to pretty near current day. There are hands-on activities incorporated into the program, which makes it easier for me since I don't need to come up with ideas myself. I have never used this program, but it is appealing to me. You can see more about it at http://www.winterpromise.com if you want.

Now, both programs appeal to me for a lot of reasons. They both are literature-based, which means they use real books instead of stupid boring textbooks (sorry, remnants of my hatred for my own substandard public school education coming through) Instead of reading a passage in a textbook about lower and upper Egypt becoming one nation after years of war, they can listen to me reading a book about the war and its resolve from a child's point of view (ok really bad example, I highly doubt such a book exists, but you get the general idea) Both come with well laid-out instructor guides, complete with schedules on what to read and when, comprehension questions, timeline assignments (this stuff is really cool too), and other goodies.

Winter Promise is about half the price of Sonlight (that's assuming ONE core by the way, its approximately 20% the cost when you look at the 2 year program for comparison) and is scheduled as a 4 day program. Sonlight, however, goes deeper into history by spending 2 years on the subject if I don't choose the 1 year condensed core. Sonlight also includes both the 4 day and 5 day schedules for their program, so I can buy the 5 day and do the 4 day program instead if the 5 day is too much (which in reality I would just take longer to complete the material)

FInancially speaking, Winter Promise is the better option for our family immediately. However, Sonlight has much more potential for us in the long-term. It is more expensive, so it will hurt our budget a bit to purchase their program, however there is so much more material with Sonlight that I could more than easily stretch out each part of the program to last 12-18 months instead of just 9 months. But on the flip side, with Sonlight I would have to find hands-on activities to help make the literature come alive more, especially with Melissa, while Winter Promise has the hands-on already added in. With Winter Promise I would have to heavily supplement to make it stretch out to 2 to 2 1/2 years, while Sonlight I can easily do that with little to no work at all.

I can NOT decide which route to go. There are so many pros and cons for both programs. They are running pretty equal to me. Please feel free to comment on this situation if you want, I'm more than willing to consider all views on this decision. Scott has pretty much NO input, just "whatever you want dear" whenever I ask his opinion.

Science, well I'm thinking that if we go with Sonlight for history, then I'll use their science 1 program. If not, then we'll study astronomy and plants (Sonlight science 1 covers these subjects as well as a couple others, and yes I do feel that it is worth the money to not have to put together my own program LOL) The only reason I will not purchase Sonlight science 1 if we go with Winter Promise is because buying a complete core package with Sonlight gives me the perk of having a 10% discount and free shipping for 12 months. I have received this discount twice now with the purchase of their preschool-leveled cores in the past few years, and it has come in very handy as we needed more materials that Sonlight carries. Hmmmmmmmm another perk to choosing the Sonlight history program over Winter Promise......... ACK!!!!!!