Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight

I wrote this post, Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight, for Sonlight Curriculum

Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight

When I ask my husband how he feels about us using Sonlight, he always gives me his unprecedented support. He loves Sonlight. He tells me over and over that he would have loved to homeschool with Sonlight. It's the way he wished he'd been taught, and he loves that we are using this curriculum.

Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight

Indeed, he has always been my biggest supporter, but he's not merely cheering me on from the sidelines because he's in the game with me. This year we are studying the Eastern Hemisphere and World Cultures with Sonlight and even though my husband works full-time and is attending college full-time, he still makes time to read to the kids.

Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight
My husband's current reading stack.
So why does he love Sonlight?

In addition to loving all the books, he loves order and routine. He would love it if I had all of our subjects scheduled at regular times in the day. Math from 8 to 9. Science from 9 to 10. History, Bible, and Literature from 10 to 12, and so on.

I cringe at the thought of being so rigid. I like to pray in the mornings and ask God to order my day, and then I do whatever I feel is most important that day. I enjoy the liberty and latitude we have as homeschoolers and like to capitalize on that freedom.

So a good compromise win-win has always been Sonlight. 

Why my husband loves Sonlight:

  • He loves the schedule, of course. He loves that our homeschool day is rich, but also planned and scheduled out. It gives the OCD in him comfort.

  • He loves that Sonlight emphasizes world history and world cultures. One year, he read the entire American History history spine to the kids, and we took turns doing read alouds. 

  • He loves being ahead of me on the schedule, ha. He considers himself behind if he's not at least a week ahead of me. (And I love that when I turn to a new week, I can check off boxes before I even start.)

  • He is my substitute teacher. He can pick up my IG at any time and know exactly where we are in our week. It's nice to know that I have a back up when I am not feeling well or need a break from reading. 

  • He loves the books. He loves to read and loves that our kids are learning to love reading too. With Sonlight's real books approach, my kids are always asking for more. Sonlight schedules just enough to make you feel like you've had a productive day, and they often leave off at a riveting part of the story which elicits regular pleas to read just one more chapter. Of course he can't be there for every book, but he hears all about it and is always anxious to hear how a book turns out.

Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight
Praying for gateway cities in in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau — Sonlight F.
Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight
Reading Mary Slessor: Forward Into Calabar — Sonlight F.
Why My Husband Loves Homeschooling With Sonlight
Reading the Egermeier's Bible to Bo — Sonlight A. 

My husband loves Sonlight because he's a very routine and scheduled person. But, I'm not. I don't like being tied down to a schedule. I want to fly by the seat of my pants. But, I still love Sonlight!

Why I love Sonlight even though I'm not a scheduled person: 

  • Sonlight guides are all scheduled out for me. I'm not a very scheduled person which means I hate scheduling. I don't like planners. I've never actually been able to use one for any length of time, so I crave the structure Sonlight provides. 

  • Sonlight guides don't micromanage my day. They don't tell me WHEN to read, just what to read on what day. I can work the schedule down or across, if I want. As long as I complete Week 1, it doesn't matter to me (or my husband) what order I go in or how fast I go. If I want to finish a read aloud and read the rest of the week, I simply work the schedule across for that book and pick up with the next book or the next day on the schedule. 

  • I like putting a little check mark in the box after I finish reading. It gives me a sense of satisfaction. But, since I don't have to do it all, I'm not afraid to slash the boxes I don't want to do and move on. 

  • Of all my children, my youngest, Bo, is the most like his dad in this regard. He loves, loves, loves the schedule. If I grab a book to read to him without the schedule, he will go get the schedule himself so he can mark our progress. Like his dad, he also has a little competitive streak in him, so he wants to catch up to his older siblings. In order to catch up, I am saving a few books to read over the summer, and we are reading a week's worth of history and science in one day which is not hard to do in Level A.

  • After trying other literature based curricula, the Reader Guides are one of the reasons we came back to Sonlight.  I love that Sonlight equips you to fully engage your student without having to read a single reader because I cannot read every book I hand my students. I love to read and care about what I give my children to read, but I'm not a fast reader. I say every word in my head, and it's annoying because it slows me down. I read book descriptions and summaries along with the notes in the IG for important information about each book, and then I hand the book to my child. I love that Sonlight does this work for me. 

  • After years of heaping other curriculum on top of Sonlight and burning myself out, doing Sonlight has been a breath of fresh air. Our days feel productive with plenty of downtime to enjoy other pursuits. I love that I can close the school room door at the end of the day and not have to think about what we are doing tomorrow. I just open the IG and do the next thing. 

  • There is nothing routine about reading the books. Each day is a new adventure!  


So, even though I'm not a scheduled person, Sonlight allows me the flexibility I need and love. Since being content in my homeschool, I appreciate that all the more, and I'm grateful to use a curriculum that my husband loves and supports.

To see more reasons we love Sonlight, please read 19 Reasons Families Love Sonlight.


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Switch to Sonlight and discover an education that is beautiful, complete, rewarding, flexible, engaging, easy to use, rigorous, inspiring, worthwhile, encouraging, guaranteed, fulfilling, life-changing, relationship-building, and an investment in the future. 

4 comments

  1. That's so cool that your husband helps so much. I'm sort of on my own in checking off all the boxes, but I'm not complaining. I love that each homeschooling family can be so different and do what works.

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  2. Do you have your children read the readers from both Sonlight and All About Reading? If so how do you fit it all in?

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  3. My 7 year old is the only one still using AAR, and yes, he is doing both. We use AAR for guided reading and SL Grade 2 readers for independent reading. I just gave him the SL guide and the stack of books, and he reads on his own before bed and checks off the schedule as he goes. Initially, I asked the questions from the reader guide for a few of the books (to assess his comprehension), but I could't keep up and now just ask him what he's been reading lately and what the books were about. (He has one book left in Grade 2 readers).

    Recently, he challenged himself to read Tornado, a book from the Grade 3 readers, and I did have him read it to me so I could see if he was ready. He did great.

    This is the first year we have done both and it was born out of the fact that he shared a room with his older brother who is a bookworm, and he wanted his own books to read, too. So, I decided to continue AAR and let him read SL readers on his own.

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  4. What a great post! It’s nice to see a husband picking up those beautiful books and sharing in the fun :)

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