and AP Preparation

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“Can’t we please do just a little school today?”
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How “real books”
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Sonlight, by contrast, with its “real books” But what can we say in response to the mom
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approach, brings you right “there” to see, feel, who tells us about her children who decided to
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contribute to education and hear what happened—even if it was 2,000 stage a “Do School Now!” protest in the middle
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years ago. of August? That’s exactly what Rinae H of West
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“It was Saturday morning, for crying out With the kinds of books Sonlight carries, you Lawn, PA told us a few years ago (and provided
Grade:

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loud!” Marjorie M told us. “And here my son get to experience history. They draw you into the photo evidence)!
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was pleading to ‘do school’! I couldn’t believe story so that all the things traditional textbooks Isn’t it time for you to see if maybe you and
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it! Thank you for changing my hate-to-learn son and classroom materials tell you you’re sup- your son or daughter might not experience a dra-
into a learning magnet.” posed to memorize... you memorize “coinciden- matic, positive change by entering into the joy of
Other moms have told similar stories about tally.” You can’t help remembering the names of the Sonlight educational experience?
Sunday mornings. And holidays. And summer the key characters, the places they go, the events
vacations. “Can’t we do just a little history?...” they participate in.
Your kids won’t want to quit (and
neither will you).
The question is: Why? Why do children be- Somehow when you are caused to feel some-
Please. Don’t get me wrong. You’re almost sure
come so excited when their parents use Sonlight thing, emotionally, about a person or event, you
to experience discouraging, low-as-a-snake’s-
Curriculum? What does Sonlight do that others seem never to forget. The images and experienc-
belly days while using any curriculum—even
don’t? es are forever imprinted on your mind.
ours. There will be days when you want to chuck
The answer, honestly, is rather simple. It has Learning happens naturally... easily. the whole homeschooling experience right out
to do with our literature-rich approach to edu- the window. It happens to all of us. (More, usu-
When you enjoy reading your school books;
cation: education the way you wish you’d been ally, in the first few weeks and months of home-
when one of your favorite things to do each day “M
taught. schooling than later, after you’ve gotten the hang
is to read the books that are part of your cur- e

a When history “comes alive,” your kids

remember more of what they study.
riculum; and when the books themselves make
it easy for you to remember your lessons, you’ve
of things.)
But we all have bad days, don’t we? No matter
w
fa
C
With other educational media, and most espe- got the easiest learning process possible. what our responsibilities. Work of any type can in
You can read the testimonials we’ve sprinkled be frustrating. m
cially textbooks, students don’t read stories. M
They read reports about subjects. In fact, text- throughout our catalog. We’ve been receiving But ignoring those worst-case-scenario days, S
books seem less like books, and more like “stor- stories like these ever since we began our com- what is the general experience? Here at Sonlight,
age space” for dump truck loads of facts—as pany. we get comments like this one from Kristi W:
many facts as possible. When was the last time you heard stories “O.K., the Sonlight books may be meant
There’s just one problem: they leave out all the like these? If we hadn’t enjoyed the experience for my kids, but they are such a treat for me.
ourselves with our own kids, and if we didn’t be
drama, the conflict, the context, the emotion— The way our society has been doing edu-
know so many people who tell us pretty much ed
the story—so there is nothing left to attract the cation for so long, it feels positively criminal
the same things, I’m afraid we wouldn’t believe p
interest and attention of student readers. to have materials that are so appealing and
Articles

it ourselves. so rich. I keep catching myself saying, “This L

is far too much fun to be work.” th
Imagine getting to teach your kids under these I
circumstances! a
If you use materials your kids enjoy and that hu
you enjoy: what do you think the probability is ly
that you’ll want to quit homeschooling? Do you su
think you’ll become discouraged or burned out? so
Not likely! bo
m
Can the same be said about textbooks, work-
bo
books, computer- or video-based programs?
Maybe. But with Sonlight...
The biggest problem we’ve found with a lot of
our customers is that they would rather spend
their time teaching their kids than just about
anything. So the housecleaning, laundry, dish-
es... yep, even dinner: It all gets placed on the
back-burner while mom and kids “Sonlight” to-
gether!
In sum: I expect you’ll find that Sonlight in-
forms, challenges and inspires you as much as
it does your kids. And so you and they, together,
will find yourselves drawn to find out whatever u
you can in all the different subject areas: sci- te
“Sonlight makes it very easy for my husband, Eric, to read stories or do different activities with my sons Caleb (6)
and Joshua (4),” writes Bobbi H of Rolesville, NC. “I was homeschooled, so homeschooling our children was an ence, math, geography, history, literature... best tu
easy decision for our family. But I was a little nervous about starting our first year; I was not quite sure where to of all, you won’t want to quit! You’ll finish the
begin or how to approach certain subjects. I was very happy to find Sonlight. to
“The Instructor’s Guides have made my job so much easier by laying everything out for me. I can look at the
course.
Instructor’s Guide in the morning, and pull out the book(s) we need to read. Our boys love to ‘do school’ and of
usually ask about getting started before we’ve even finished breakfast in the morning.”

142 NEW! Unlock the mysteries of Modern Economics for your high-schoolers! See page 98.

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Veterans

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But then, after they began using Sonlight, Every Sonlight book is a treasure your

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mom and kids began to lose interest in what was

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whole family will cherish for years to

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on the tube. The stories began to seem thin or

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come!

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contrived.

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A lot of people have told me how much they ap-

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m So the kids would actually begin to read their

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preciate the fact that the books they buy from

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to Sonlight books in the evening! Or, if they didn’t

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Sonlight are their children’s favorites. Their kids

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le have enough Sonlight books, they’d beg to go

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don’t just read Sonlight books for school. And

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st to the library so they could find other books by

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they don’t read them once.

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Grade:
Age:
ed the same authors they had been reading in Son-

Grade:
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They keep going back to their Sonlight books

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light...

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and re-reading them.
nd Pretty soon (sometimes a few months, some-

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Becky wrote,
a- times a few years), Dad would start reading
of some of the books. Maybe Mom and the kids I recently was trying to trim down on the
would read them during the day, and then Dad books in our bookshelves and had set aside
would read them at night... some I was interested in selling. I asked my
son to look through them and make sure I
The relationships you build as a wasn’t getting rid of any he wanted. Every
re family will make a big difference single Sonlight book went back on the book-
s- during those difficult teen years... shelf.
n Eventually—especially as the kids get older— “Mom,” he said, “you can’t get rid of these.
ck families find themselves discussing things as a They’re from Sonlight!”
ut family: “Tim, I was reading _______ last night,” People ask why they should invest in Sonlight
u- Dad might say. “What did you think about rather than some other homeschool program. I’d
e- “My kids love the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ at the ______?” say it’s because Sonlight is not merely an invest-
ng end of every new country we learn about in Core 5,” Sonlighters often talk about all kinds of inter- ment in your children’s education, but an invest-

er
writes Gannon H of Thornton, CO. “This has been our
favorite year, yet! I love that this Eastern Hemisphere
Core is so ‘missions minded’ and that we are drenched
n in other cultures!” Here, Rebecca, Dakota and Joey H
make soap carvings to resemble the carvings of the
Maori people of New Zealand. The H family has used
s, Sonlight for all four years of their homeschool.
t,
But while you’re enjoying the educational
benefits of Sonlight’s literature-rich approach to
education, you’ll experience some other, unex-
pected benefits as well...
esting subjects.
And, if I may note something you’ll particu-
larly appreciate in the later teen years: the most
interesting “subjects” are not necessarily the
ones you’ll find in the books Sonlight assigns.
They are in the discussions you will enjoy as a
result of the strong relationships you will have
established with your teens by means of your
thoughtful, open discussions with them while
they were growing up with Sonlight.
You will have established a habit of open com-
munication. You will have established, in your
ment in top-notch intellectual and emotional
recreation as well.
a
Sonlight is not just an investment for your
kids’ benefit. It’s also an investment for you and
your spouse as well—because you will want to
read many of the books for your own pleasure
and education. Really.
“Your books satisfy my soul,” wrote Deb
F. “Usually at the end of the school year, I
trample the kids as I rush to the library to
get something to read for myself. After this
first year with Sonlight, I didn’t have that ur-

Articles
Learning becomes more interesting children’s minds, that you are a person they can gent need because the books are so beauti-
than TV—even for Dad! trust to tell them the truth... fully written and well developed. Thank you.
se I can’t tell you how often we’ve heard this from In sum: Not only will your kids get a decent Thank you. Thank you.”
a mom: Once they began to use Sonlight, their education with Sonlight, but you-all (the entire You get to enjoy a multiplied blessing from
at husbands (who had never been more than mild- family) will likely find yourselves being drawn your investment in your children’s education.
is ly interested in what the children were doing) closer together... because you’ll want to read and As your entire family reads and re-reads these
u suddenly began to ask if maybe they could read think and talk about things together. wonderful books, you can legitimately amortize
t? some of the books to the kids. Or, if not read the the cost of your Sonlight program not just over a
books themselves, then at least listen in while single year’s education of a single child, but over
mom read. Or, minimally: “Can I borrow that the life of your family’s library.
k-
book when you’re done?” Can you imagine a better investment than
s?
Tammy is not unusual. She said this: that? ■
of “My husband, who has never taken much
nd interest in homeschool matters, now looks
ut forward to reading with us every day. He

“startMyat sonpublicMichael
h- was hooked from the first Read-Aloud! I feel
he that Sonlight has brought our family closer has severe ADHD and Asperger syndrome. After a disastrous
o- together as we learn about those in far away
places. We look forward each day to the next
adventure. I know that sounds corny, but it’s
school due to lack of support, I decided (with the advice of
n-
as
so true.” several 'Sonlight Forumers') to pull him out of school and start home schooling.
er, Others have told us that when they first began
using Sonlight, they were addicted to TV. Too of- Friends, family, and doctors who were skeptical are now amazed at Michael’s
”
er
i- ten, they’d spend the night huddled around the
st tube. transformation with Sonlight.
he They would be watching the same program —Linda R, November 2007
together, but they never talked about anything
of substance.

Help: www.sonlight-forums.com/choosing/ • Orders: www.sonlight.com/order/ • Phone: (303) 730-6292 • Fax: (303) 795-8668 143

pgs98_147_EconomicsthruIGs.indd 143 2/21/2008 8:51:36 AM