Tag: homeschoolkindergarten

A Ray of Sonlight – Updated April 2025

Photo from Our First Sonlight Unboxing Day

Twas the night before Homeschool Semester two, and I could have panicked about planning but had nothing to do.

How could I be so relaxed for the next day? Because the Sonlight curriculum outlined much of the way!

Based mostly around books and reading to my son, it didn’t matter that ice and snow threatened to make the power not on!

Full disclosure, when we started looking at curriculums for homeschool Kindergarten, Sonlight was not on my radar whatsoever. In fact, when Mr Kisby and I attended a homeschool convention last April, we didn’t stop at their booth. We left with no Sonlight material sure that we wouldn’t be using them. However, fast forward to June, and I still was uncertain about what we were going to use. Somehow I got an ad from Sonlight about a FREE (my favorite price) virtual homeschool summit they were doing, and all attendees would get a coupon plus one lucky attendee (it wasn’t me) would win a full curriculum package! Free and winning are two of my favs plus the days of the summit we were traveling, and I needed something to pass the time, so I signed up!

Going into the summit, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away. I thought I would hear some of the same information that I’d heard at other free homeschool summits. Boy was I wrong! I was immediately impressed by the concept of using read alouds as a way of teaching! Essentially fiction and non-fiction books are used to teach concepts across various curricula areas. Secondly, I loved that people who worked for, but mote importantly used, Sonlight were answering my questions immediately. I assure you I had a lot of questions, and they were on the ball! As a parent, one of the things I was most impressed by was their free instructor guide sample which included a delightful chapter book. Additionally, I was impressed that they had free assessments to see what materials were most appropriate for your child. This had been a concern as I had no idea of where to begin for sure. After our free sample came, a few assessments, and several more questions with an advisor, we became a Sonlight family!

Now that we’re a semester in, how do I know that Sonlight is working for LilKsby? My readers know I love a good Top Ten list, so drum roll please!!!

  1. For Christmas LilKsby asked for additional books from two series that were started as part of our read alouds: Heartwood Hotel and Humphrey. He even insisted we start reading the second Heartwood Hotel book during our break!
  2. He brings up things from our read alouds in conversation. For example, he tells people about how the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians would eat lying down. He talks about the Vikings and what it would be like to live in a longhouse!
  3. A couple months after reading some of the books, he recalls things that happened in them and can recall the names of characters.
  4. He enjoys learning a scripture each week and discussing what it means. To go with this, we’ve started keeping a journal where we write the verse and our thoughts about it. This has been a fun way to bond over the Word!
  5. He loves the big map and looking at where locations from our read alouds are. We’ve also used the map to make comparisons to where we are relative to book locations!
  6. LilKsby likes the timeline book (though sometimes he just wants to play with the stickers instead of putting them in) and seeing how far apart events are. He’s always especially curious to see how far things are from Noah. He also likes that we’ve included notes from things we’ve learned from our field trips, music appreciation, art history, and poetry studies in our timeline book!
  7. LilKsby likes that the curriculum doesn’t force him to do a lot of his least favorite thing: handwriting. It has him do just enough to show that he’s learning the basics without it feeling like a chore.
  8. LilKsby enjoys the narration days in the Language Arts curriculum. We’ve started a notebook just of our narrations, and he’s even willing to do extra narrations as he enjoys storytelling. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing things from his perspective!
  9. LilKsby loves the Book of Living Long Ago and has been fascinated by ancient civilizations. He’s intrigued by the differences and similarities to today, and he enjoyed some of the hands on activities!
  10. He looks forward to school (though he will say he doesn’t), and I believe it has a lot to do with the books! He’s loved reading since he was a baby, so the fact that our curriculum is centered around reading is kind of magical!

Bonus to LilKsby’s Top Ten? As a parent, I’ve enjoyed the support of the Sonlight app. I can ask questions any time, and I get answers from other parents as well as Sonlight advisors!

So as you can see, thanks to Sonlight, I’m relaxed and excited to continue our homeschool year. In fact, as I lay in bed typing this and listening to the ice storm, I’m giddy about tomorrow even if we have to do our readlouds by candlelight!

Since first writing this blog, I have become a Sonlight affiliate. To learn more about all of the great things that Sonlight has to offer click here. This is an affiliate link, and I may be compensated for any purchases made.

XOXO,

The Great Kaysby

A Ray of Sonlight

Photo from Our First Sonlight Unboxing Day

Twas the night before Homeschool Semester two, and I could have panicked about planning but had nothing to do.

How could I be so relaxed for the next day? Because the Sonlight curriculum outlined much of the way!

Based mostly around books and reading to my son, it didn’t matter that ice and snow threatened to make the power not on!

Full disclosure, when we started looking at curriculums for homeschool Kindergarten, Sonlight was not on my radar whatsoever. In fact, when Mr Kisby and I attended a homeschool convention last April, we didn’t stop at their booth. We left with no Sonlight material sure that we wouldn’t be using them. However, fast forward to June, and I still was uncertain about what we were going to use. Somehow I got an ad from Sonlight about a FREE (my favorite price) virtual homeschool summit they were doing, and all attendees would get a coupon plus one lucky attendee (it wasn’t me) would win a full curriculum package! Free and winning are two of my favs plus the days of the summit we were traveling, and I needed something to pass the time, so I signed up!

Going into the summit, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away. I thought I would hear some of the same information that I’d heard at other free homeschool summits. Boy was I wrong! I was immediately impressed by the concept of using read alouds as a way of teaching! Essentially fiction and non-fiction books are used to teach concepts across various curricula areas. Secondly, I loved that people who worked for, but mote importantly used, Sonlight were answering my questions immediately. I assure you I had a lot of questions, and they were on the ball! As a parent, one of the things I was most impressed by was their free instructor guide sample which included a delightful chapter book. Additionally, I was impressed that they had free assessments to see what materials were most appropriate for your child. This had been a concern as I had no idea of where to begin for sure. After our free sample came, a few assessments, and several more questions with an advisor, we became a Sonlight family!

Now that we’re a semester in, how do I know that Sonlight is working for LilKsby? My readers know I love a good Top Ten list, so drum roll please!!!

  1. For Christmas LilKsby asked for additional books from two series that were started as part of our read alouds: Heartwood Hotel and Humphrey. He even insisted we start reading the second Heartwood Hotel book during our break!
  2. He brings up things from our read alouds in conversation. For example, he tells people about how the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians would eat lying down. He talks about the Vikings and what it would be like to live in a longhouse!
  3. A couple months after reading some of the books, he recalls things that happened in them and can recall the names of characters.
  4. He enjoys learning a scripture each week and discussing what it means. To go with this, we’ve started keeping a journal where we write the verse and our thoughts about it. This has been a fun way to bond over the Word!
  5. He loves the big map and looking at where locations from our read alouds are. We’ve also used the map to make comparisons to where we are relative to book locations!
  6. LilKsby likes the timeline book (though sometimes he just wants to play with the stickers instead of putting them in) and seeing how far apart events are. He’s always especially curious to see how far things are from Noah. He also likes that we’ve included notes from things we’ve learned from our field trips, music appreciation, art history, and poetry studies in our timeline book!
  7. LilKsby likes that the curriculum doesn’t force him to do a lot of his least favorite thing: handwriting. It has him do just enough to show that he’s learning the basics without it feeling like a chore.
  8. LilKsby enjoys the narration days in the Language Arts curriculum. We’ve started a notebook just of our narrations, and he’s even willing to do extra narrations as he enjoys storytelling. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing things from his perspective!
  9. LilKsby loves the Book of Living Long Ago and has been fascinated by ancient civilizations. He’s intrigued by the differences and similarities to today, and he enjoyed some of the hands on activities!
  10. He looks forward to school (though he will say he doesn’t), and I believe it has a lot to do with the books! He’s loved reading since he was a baby, so the fact that our curriculum is centered around reading is kind of magical!

Bonus to LilKsby’s Top Ten? As a parent, I’ve enjoyed the support of the Sonlight app. I can ask questions any time, and I get answers from other parents as well as Sonlight advisors!

So as you can see, thanks to Sonlight, I’m relaxed and excited to continue our homeschool year. In fact, as I lay in bed typing this and listening to the ice storm, I’m giddy about tomorrow even if we have to do our readlouds by candlelight!

Note: Sonlight did not pay me to write this blog, and I’m not being compensated in any manner. I’ve wanted to share my delight with them for a long time, and today, I finally knew what I wanted to say.

XOXO,

The Great Kaysby