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8arrows wrote:1. Am I naive about the editing? Is that something you need to do with any curriculum?

NO!!!! I was the queen of white-out when we used Sonlight. One day my young son said, "Mom, if you have to use that much white-out, why are we reading it. BINGO! We picked another book. I have never forgotten that moment. Even in "OK" books, the children talked to each other and behaved in ways I certainly did not want to expose my children to. I think you are wise to consider another option.

2. For those of you that have done Sonlight would you say the HOD book selection is more Christian?

YES!!! There is no comparison.

3. For those of you that have done Sonlight, if I switch to HOD will the schedule feel a lot lighter?

Not lighter, but like a breath of fresh air. I have a feeling it will be everything you have been wanting Sonlight to be. HOD has plenty of books, but you are not "plowing" through them. There is time for discussion and pondering. We just finished out read-aloud about Florence Nightengale and had so many good discussions. My children still talk about the ealier read alouds from the year. Reb and the Rebcoats was one of their favorites, and whenever I give them a displeased look, they all get silly and say, "Oh, no, Mom is giving us the Baltimore stare!" I love it when they make allusions to what we have read. I got tired of reading aloud to my children with Sonlight. Now our read aloud time is one of the most popular of the day--even for me. HOD, as the guides advance, has the student take over history and science readings, something I was looking for. Independence is gained at such a nice pace.

4. Do you really do the hands on activities?...is there time?

Yes. They are quite "doable" and popular at my house.

Kathleen in NJ wrote: So my questions are:
1. Am I naive about the editing? Is that something you need to do with any curriculum?
Everyone has to come to their own conclusion on this issue. SL was our first curriculum. My DH and I had a lot of talks about the 'SL method'. Our conclusion was the opposite of John Holzman's conclusion. We concluded that when we learn a lot of Biblical Truth and Christianity through the Bible and Christian materials the counterfeit becomes obvious. John Holzman uses in his 27 reasons (to Not use Sonlight) of how people are taught to recognize counterfeit money. They teach counterfeit money by having them look at stacks and stacks of bills of the real thing, and then the counterfeit is obvious. John Holzman indicates in his 27 reasons that this logic doesn't follow for Sonlight. Instead they use the analogy of giving spiritual immunization, like an immunization shot, by presenting information that is not Christian or Biblical for discussion. For our family we came to the conclusion that his logic didn't make sense to us. It makes more sense to us to use Christian materials and the Bible to teach Truth; rather than try to teach the Truth by presenting the opposite and then discussing why it isn't true. This seems like too many unnecessary steps to us. We also found Sonlight to have much too big of an immunization dose for safety or spiritual health. We chose to focus instead on the Bible and Christian resources for Truth, Scripture, and looking at life through the lens of scripture. Then the counterfeit becomes obvious and discernment, we have found in our own lives, is easier the closer we are to Christ.
2. For those of you that have done Sonlight would you say the HOD book selection is more Christian? Definitely!
3. For those of you that have done Sonlight, if I switch to HOD will the schedule feel a lot lighter? Different. You will still read a lot in HOD, but it is different than Sonlight. HOD has more writing and less reading. Carrie puts a lot of writing and skill building into her note booking, which is not present in Sonlight. She also has hands on activities. Sonlight spends most of the time, in comparison, in reading. HOD feels more balanced to me.