So the other day I let you in on the “why” of switching homeschool curriculum. In this post I’d like to share the “what” that we’ve chosen to use and why it seems like a better fit for our family.

After casually reading about Sonlight from a friend over the past few years, I’ve been intrigued with what the program had to offer. I shied away from it at first because it seemed more parent-led than I thought I was capable of. But as I discussed in this post, I now believe that I need to be even more involved in the details of each day with my children as they learn.

It’s going to be a major adjustment to not have the video doing the bulk of the teaching. For this reason, I’m a bit nervous. But for the following reasons, I’m completely excited:

1. Sonlight approaches history and geograpy from a world perspective, where many other curriculum focus mainly on American history. As an American who has been on the Canadian mission field for almost 8 years, I’ve seen first hand the downside on focusing on one’s own area of existence. My husband and I passionately desire for our children to approach their learning from a healthy worldview, even from the very beginning of their education.

Small Son has always been attracted to maps and geography, which is one reason I was drawn to Sonlight. Included in their program is a large dry erase world map and a blank timeline to help children visualize what they are learning. I’m convinced that my children will have a much better worldview than even I did, having studied mostly American history/geography in my own years of being homeschooled.

2. Sonlight makes it easy to ‘double up’ their curriculum for more than one child, where other curriculum prohibit it. In my mind’s eye, I envisioned two video sessions going on in two different rooms, and one crazy teacher-mom hopping from one to another. Perhaps this system works well for upper grades, but for Grade 2 and Kindergarten it might just be the reason this mom grayed early. 🙂

With Sonlight, it’s easy to combine both children with some subjects while giving them activities and practice exercises that are appropriate for their individual levels.

3. Sonlight offers attractive electives that interest the teacher as well as the students. In other words, this mom is excited about learning new things along with my children! So, in addition to the core I chose (Bible, Math, History, Geography and Language Arts) I added a drawing/art course, a classical music course, and Rosetta Stone French. All of these electives we will enjoy learning together.

4. Sonlight has a refreshing eclectic approach. They pull their reading books and materials from many different publishers. They make it easy to choose subjects based on the student’s strengths and interests. Small Son shows promise in drawing, which is why I chose a drawing course for one of his electives.

I chose Rosetta Stone French because we live in a French {bilingual} province. Also my husband and I hope to help prepare our children to minister in one of the many French speaking countries in the world someday if God should lead them into foreign missions.

The classical music course is a no-brainer for our very musical family. I’m excited about my children having the opportunity to learn music history years earlier than I did.

I really feel like Sonlight is more balanced because it has an eclectic approach. And their approach makes them flexible to meet different families’ needs. I’m ecstatic about zeroing in on Small Son’s interests based on my observations from the past two school years. I’m still learning about Tiny Daughter, but last year I focused more on Small Son.

5. Financial reasons are the final reason we are going with Sonlight. We will be spending about the same amount that we spent last year for Abeka video school. Yet we are homeschooling TWO children, and we have a huge stack of beautiful books to add to our family’s library. It’s not really about money anyway {but it sure helps to save!}- it’s about choosing the curriculum that best fits our family for this year.

So there you have the “what” of our choice of curriculum. Will I switch back to Abeka or to another curriculum in the future? Who knows…I certainly don’t plan to be switching every year. But do plan to observe and evaluate my children closely as they grow and learn, and to make decisions accordingly.

For us, the decision to homeschool is not necessarily black and white. Our choice of schooling is always an annual evaluation of our family’s needs.  I’m so grateful to God for another opportunity to invest in my children’s lives during the 2013-14 school year.

Let’s chat: How do you choose curriculum each year you homeschool? How do/did you decide whether or not to homeschool?