TOG vs. Sonlight

Warning: this is a long post!!

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.

That will happen when you're the only adult in the house.

Ideas and thoughts tend to bounce around in my head instead of breathing life in the real world. So, I am going to dump them all on the blog as a means of trying to sort through them.

We started our homeschool journey when Ellie was about 4. We used Story of the World for a few years and enjoyed it so much. I love the thought of history being taught in a 4-yr rotation. I love making history the basis of all of our studies.

We "outgrew" Story of the World though. The geography work wasn't to my liking. Ellie needed writing assignments and more "meat" to the curriculum. I happily moved to Tapestry of Grace, still using the Story of the World book and CDs along the way.

I was really madly in love with TOG, but the love affair is over.

I'm considering switching to Sonlight next year. Before I make any rash decisions however, I'm going to try to mull it over for the next couple of months.


Here is my thought process:

PROS of Tapestry:
1. It follows the 4 yr history rotation that I love.
2. It allows me to have all 5 kids studying the same thing at the same time - which I REALLY love!!
3. It is a Christian curriculum and teaches so much Biblical and church history along the way.
4. Most weeks have wonderful books and activities to do.
5. I love the mapwork included.
6. The freedom to choose which books and activities we want to do and when we want to do them.

CONS of Tapestry:
1. While they have great teacher's notes and book selections, I hate that I still have to plan it all out and separate it into the daily schedule. It is time consuming for me and I don't have much extra time. Right now this is the biggest drawback for me. I have Homeschool Tracker, and technically if I wanted to spend a month entering in assignments for the year, then I would be fine. I just feel like that would be a bad use of my time during the beautiful summer months here. I would much rather spend that break outside with the kids or working on genealogy.

2. There were a few weeks during TOG 1 where we felt that there wasn't enough to do (ie. some of the weeks that the spine was only the Bible). While we enjoyed learning about these time periods also, I felt like so many weeks were devoted to it and there were so little books and activities during this time to engage the kids.

3. Looking ahead at TOG 2 (which we have used half of before), I feel like that year goes too quickly. I don't like that it encompasses the Fall of the Roman Empire through the Writing of the U.S. Constitution. I just feel like so many subjects are passed over in a hurry during this year. We would love to devote more time to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, Vikings, Explorers, etc. I realize that we could take things slower if we wanted, but for some reason this just bugs me.

4. I honestly don't enjoy the "Writing Aids" program. I want to, but I just don't. Since I'm not using it, it requires me to do the extra planning for writing assignments and that is SO time consuming. In the past couple of months, that has been falling completely by the wayside. I just never have time to get to it and I can't let that happen!

PROS of Sonlight:
1. All of the preparation is done for me. I can open the teacher's manual and know what we're supposed to read or do every day. It includes a languages arts program and comprehension questions for the reading assignments. I thought that I wouldn't like this. I wanted the freedom to plan our own curriculum, but reality is hitting. I have 5 small kids and it doesn't feel like freedom anymore - I feel pressured and out of time to actually DO the work with them. I feel like Sonlight could alleviate that problem.

2. I can even order other subjects through Sonlight. Science, electives, etc. Looking through their catalog, they offer much of what we already use or were planning on using in the coming years (Horizons Math, Artistic Pursuits, Apologia Science, Rosetta Stone, Spelling Power). I feel like we would be a good "fit" with Sonlight. We also already own many of the wonderful books used in this program.

3. It is also a Christian curriculum. I use a public correspondence school through which I get funding for our homeschooling. They allow the use of Sonlight, but won't buy the teacher's manuals or religious books (which is fine with me). They would not accept Tapestry of Grace at all, so it was more time consuming for me to "pull out" all of the religious content and turn in only the other parts of our schoolwork.

CONS of Sonlight:
1. The kids will be in separate "cores" and learning different things at the same time. I don't like the idea of one studying U.S. History, another studying ancient history etc. I like them all being on the same page. This is really the one deterrent from me running out and buying Sonlight right now.


In an ideal world, I would love to have Tapestry of Grace written in the format of Sonlight, if that makes sense. If Sonlight followed the same 4 yr rotation and included daily lesson plans for every level at the same time (with family read-alouds and projects for everyone to share), then I would be sold in a second.

I have a lot of thinking to do. I'm glad that I have started now so that I have some time before I have to make the decision. I don't like changing curriculum on the kids. I think that sometimes that can be frustrating and confusing, but other times it can be a blessing.

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on these two programs -especially if you have used both and can compare.

Do I order Sonlight and save myself a bunch of time in prep work, or do I spend my summer preparing the next school year?