Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Comparison | Gentle and Classical vs Sonlight Kindergarten

Summary

In this informative video, Sarah from "My Home. Your Home. Our Home." compares three leading kindergarten homeschool curriculums: Gentle and Classical, Sonlight, and My Father's World. She delves into the various aspects of each program, such as subjects included, teaching methodology, flexibility, and additional components like art and music. The video aims to help parents choose the best fit for their family without endorsing any particular program. With a comprehensive breakdown, Sarah ensures parents are well-informed to make the best decision for their child's education.

Highlights

• The video features Sarah comparing three literature-based kindergarten programs 📚.
• Sonlight offers the most comprehensive package, ideal for structured learning ✨.
• My Father's World provides a hands-on approach with a Charlotte Mason philosophy 🌿.
• Gentle and Classical focuses on arts, virtue, and memorization, perfect for a classical approach 🎨.
• Flexibility varies; some programs offer structured schedules while others allow customization 🗓️.
• Sarah emphasizes making the best choice for individual family needs and educational goals 🌟.

Key Takeaways

• Sarah offers a detailed comparison of Gentle and Classical, Sonlight, and My Father's World curriculums 📚.
• Sonlight is comprehensive, covering all subjects and providing a strong language arts program ✨.
• My Father's World is ideal for hands-on, nature-inspired learning, focusing on Bible themes 🌍.
• Gentle and Classical shines in arts and virtue studies, using storyboards and memorization 🎨.
• Flexibility varies, with Gentle and Classical offering the most for personal scheduling 🗓️.
• Each curriculum has unique strengths, from science focus to inclusivity, catering to different teaching philosophies ✨.

Overview

Sarah welcomes viewers to explore a comprehensive comparison of three leading kindergarten homeschool curriculums: Gentle and Classical, Sonlight, and My Father's World. Her aim is to guide parents in selecting the perfect program for their family without pushing them towards a particular choice.

She details each curriculum meticulously, examining various elements such as curriculum structure, teaching methods, subject inclusivity, extracurricular components, and the educational philosophies underpinning each program. Through amusing yet informative narration, Sarah offers insights to help parents understand what each program can offer their child.

Concluding with a balanced perspective, Sarah provides a thorough examination without bias. Whether it's to prioritize flexibility, artistic emphasis, or a well-rounded academic experience, she empowers parents with the knowledge to make an informed decision about their child's educational journey.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Curriculum Comparison Overview The chapter "Introduction and Curriculum Comparison Overview" features a presenter named Sarah who leads a channel called "My Home Your Home Our Home." Sarah welcomes both new and returning viewers as she introduces a session dedicated to comparing three literature-based kindergarten curriculums. These include Sunlight Curriculum, My Father's World, and The Gentle and Classical. The presentation is aimed at families interested in educational options that incorporate literature into early childhood education.
• 00:30 - 05:30: Comparison of Curriculum Structure and Content In this chapter, the speaker discusses their experience comparing different homeschooling curricula, focusing on the curriculum structure and content. They note that experienced homeschoolers often rotate between different curricula and consider multiple options before making a choice. The speaker aims to highlight similarities and differences between the options without advising on which one is better. However, they do intend to share their personal choice and reasoning at the end. The chapter emphasizes a balanced and informative comparison with the goal of helping others make informed decisions.
• 05:30 - 08:00: Focus and Subjects Included The chapter begins with a disclaimer emphasizing that the overview of various educational programs is not meant to diminish any but to help the reader decide on a suitable program for their family. It proceeds to categorize and compare these curricula based on various factors such as subjects included, teacher and student workload, follow-up programs, and scheduling. For instance, Sunlight offers scheduling flexibility with options for 5 or 4 days a week, while My Father's World is structured for a 6-day week.
• 08:00 - 13:00: Language Arts, Reading Levels, and Geography The chapter discusses various education curricula regarding their structure and flexibility. It highlights that each unit typically lasts 6 days, and thus could extend into the next school week unless classes are scheduled on Saturdays. It mentions that the 'gentle and classical' curriculum offers more flexibility without pre-scheduled timelines. The standard school year is noted as 36 weeks or 180 days as per usual school systems, whereas 'My Father's World' curriculum comprises 26 weeks plus an introductory unit.
• 13:00 - 18:00: Philosophy of Education and Vocabulary The chapter discusses the structure of a particular educational curriculum that operates on a 6-day school week totaling 166 days per year. The curriculum is divided into three terms, each containing 36 units or weeks. It highlights the content of different educational programs, such as 'sunlight,' which includes 46 books in subjects like history, Bible, literature, and science, along with readers, CDs, and a teacher's guide.
• 18:00 - 23:00: Inclusivity, Instruction, and Scheduling The chapter "Inclusivity, Instruction, and Scheduling" discusses the structure and resources of a particular program that relies heavily on books. In total, there are 28 books, a classic music CD, and a teacher's guide included in the program. While the teacher's guide provides a book list, additional books are not included and need to be sourced from elsewhere like libraries. The program designates only one day a week specifically for 'book book' time, indicating a highly organized schedule.
• 23:00 - 26:30: Student and Teacher Workload The chapter discusses the typical weekly structure where students spend the sixth day specifically for reading books. The books align with a unit theme for the week, which could include topics like the Sun, the moon, or other elements of creation. Flexibility in book choice is emphasized, as there are no tied discussion questions or specific requirements for the books. The 'gentle classical' approach is mentioned, highlighting that it does not include books in its package, requiring separate purchases. A total of 26 books are recommended in the program, similar to 'My Father's World', but they are not specifically tied to the program.
• 26:30 - 30:00: Additional Areas: Art, Music, and PE The chapter 'Additional Areas: Art, Music, and PE' discusses flexible curriculum areas that can be tailored to subjects like geography and includes CDs of music. The main focus of the programs mentioned is on US history and Bible studies, with an emphasis on science exploration. Students learn to investigate the world and science through questions. There is also a big book of questions to encourage inquiry. The chapter hints at deeper science topics and materials provided by the speaker's father.
• 30:00 - 35:30: Program Longevity and Unit Studies The chapter discusses various educational programs and their focus areas. It highlights 'gentle and classical' programs that emphasize nature, virtue, character, and Bible study. 'Sunlight' is another program mentioned that offers a comprehensive package including science, math, history, and Bible studies. 'My Father's World' is also discussed, which includes several subjects but lacks a comprehensive history curriculum, focusing mainly on Biblical history in its kindergarten program, alongside offering some math and basic science.
• 35:30 - 46:00: Strengths and Weaknesses of Programs The chapter discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different educational programs with a focus on the presence or absence of certain subjects. It highlights that the 'gentle and classical' program does not include all subjects such as phonics but is still comprehensive for many topics. Regarding foreign language education, 'Sunlight' and 'My Father's World' are noted for not including a foreign language component in their curriculum. However, they allow for flexibility as users can replace English books with books in another language. The 'gentle and classical' program includes vocabulary words, which is highlighted as a noteworthy feature.
• 46:00 - 54:00: Overall Impressions and Pricing The chapter discusses the qualities and components of Bible-based language learning materials. It explains that the focus is on vocabulary acquisition, not grammar, using children's Bibles as a primary resource. The curriculum integrates Bible reading, memorization, and a biblical worldview into its thematic units and discussion questions.
• 54:00 - 55:30: Closing and Final Thoughts The chapter discusses the integration of Biblical content into children's learning without using a traditional children's Bible. Instead, the material is read from paper, focusing on a few verses daily. Each unit presents thematic concepts, including a theme or statement that could be memorized regarding the Bible. The curriculum offers a Biblical worldview, but it does not provide specific discussion questions or instructions on incorporating them into books. The approach encourages a classical education style.

Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Comparison | Gentle and Classical vs Sonlight Kindergarten Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Hi friend today we're comparing three different kindergarten curriculums I'm Sarah of my home your home our home if you're new here welcome welcome back to my channel if you've been here for a while and today we are comparing three different curriculums for kindergarten that are somewhat similar they all have some literature elements so I'm calling them literature-based kindergarten programs we have sunlight curriculum My Father's World and the gentle and classical I have two of these curriculums and
• 00:30 - 01:00 recently was able to get my hands on the third and I have always been wondering how they compared and what is different about them in my experienced homeschoolers will usually rotate between these or look at these and consider which one they're going to go into so today I want to just help you to compare and contrast them what is similar what is different I'm not going to tell you which one you should choose but at the end I will share with you what we have chosen and why we've gone with that let me be clear from the very beginning I'm not trying to to bash any
• 01:00 - 01:30 one of these programs I'm not looking down on any one of them I think they're all awesome programs for different reasons so this video is here solely to help you to sort through which program you might want to use for your family I will go through different categories for each of the curricula we'll talk about the subjects that are included the teacher workload student workload follow-up programs all of that good stuff first days of the week sunlight is scheduled with 5 days a week or 4 days a week you get to choose My Father's World Is A 6 days a week program which I
• 01:30 - 02:00 should clarify is 6 days per unit so each unit is 6 days long you're going to be extending into the next school week unless you want to do school on Saturdays the gentle and classical is more flexible things are not scheduled out as I'll explain later so you have however many days a week you want to do the number of weeks and days per school year sunlight is 36 weeks or 180 days which is a school year in a school system My Father's World is 26 weeks plus attending introductory unit about
• 02:00 - 02:30 creation and with those 6 day weeks that works out to 166 days per school year the gentle and classical is broken up into terms there are three terms and within those terms there are 36 units or 36 weeks the number of books that are included are read throughout the program this is varies quite widely between these programs sunlight includes 46 books in their HB or history Bible and literature and science put together in addition to that there are readers CDs and a teacher guide sunlight's books are
• 02:30 - 03:00 essential to the program the program relies on these books completely you draw your history vocabulary discussion questions language arts assignments from these books uh In My Father's World there are 28 books included plus a classic music CD and a teacher guide there is a book list at the back of the teachers guide that includes book suggestions and you can go through there and choose more books if you wish but they're not included in the program so you'll be finding those in your library or other places there is also only one day a week that is called book book time
• 03:00 - 03:30 so only on the sixth day are you actually reading the books and the rest of the week you're doing other activities the books are themed around the unit theme for the week which could be the Sun the moon or other elements of creation these book choices are a bit more flexible because you're not tied to those specific books and there aren't discussion questions which are dependent on those books the gental classical includes no books in its actual package so you're buying those all separately there are 26 books that are included in the program and recommended similar to to My Father's World those are not tied
• 03:30 - 04:00 to discussion questions or geography or anything like that so they are flexible and you can move them around as you wish plus you're going to be doing CDs of music what is the focus of each of these programs in sunlight the focus is US history and Bible there's also a science focus and it's in general an exploration of the world and learning how to do science and learning how to investigate things through questions you also have um a big book of questions of why I'll get more into the science in a minute and my father's the focus is the
• 04:00 - 04:30 alphabet nature and Bible and in the gentle and classical the focus is nature virtue or character and the Bible what subjects are included in sunlight you have all the subjects included you can actually buy a package where everything is included uh science math history Bible everything My Father's World includes many of the subjects but not all there is basically no history except for Biblical history in the kindergarten program there is some math and very lowkey science the
• 04:30 - 05:00 gentle and classical does not have all the subjects included you're not going to find phonics in there and maybe a few other things that you'd want but still a very very inclusive program for many of the subjects now for the subjects foreign language sunlight and My Father's World don't really include a foreign language in their curriculum however if you do want to do that with these programs you can easily sub out their books in English for books in another language that's what our family does um dentle and classical actually does have vocabulary words in their program I do want to note that those are
• 05:00 - 05:30 just solitary words so you're not going to be learning an overall language grammar structure any of that stuff you're learning vocabulary for Bible sunlight includes a one-year children's Bible so you are reading every day from that Bible you also have Bible memorization and a Biblical worldview interwoven throughout all the discussion questions and readings and My Father's World the Thematic concepts of each unit are centered around biblical themes you have Bible memorization and you have readings from the Bible uh these are
• 05:30 - 06:00 included in the package so you're not actually going to be using a children's Bible at all instead you are reading them from the paper for your children it's a few verses every day with the Thematic concepts for each unit you have a theme or statement that you could memorize possibly if you wanted to uh around the Bible and you're going to have a Biblical worldview interwoven throughout this curriculum as well though you're not going to have the discussion questions spelled out for you uh for the books and how to interview that into them gentong classical you
• 06:00 - 06:30 have a readal loud Book of Bible stories they have a suggestive one for this but you can choose any one that works for your family there are virtue studies you read the book theology where you're going to be teaching Doctrine to your kids you read Pilgrim's Progress and you memorize Bible verses and catechism statements science this is where I see a very big difference throughout these programs and so something that you might want to note um sunlight science program is phenomenal U they just revamped it and you can tell I love
• 06:30 - 07:00 it okay um but it has um books with it so you're reading books you're doing experiments you have videos that your kids are watching and you're doing worksheets so you have a lot of different avenues for learning this then in My Father's World of Science is much more informal there are nature studies uh you don't actually have a science textbook um you have one or two books for science it's much much less a focus of this program you're doing an ant farm
• 07:00 - 07:30 and a butterfly farm optionally gentle and classical you have nature volumes so you can choose to do one or two um one nature volume should cover about one semester of Science and so you're doing nature studies the nature studies focus on animals uh waterways and oceans you also have statements with that program that you're memorizing math sunlights all subjects package will include a math book of your choice if Father's World has no math book really included although you're doing something with quiser rods but it's not about math per
• 07:30 - 08:00 se it's about making animals with quiser rods so I would say this program is weak in the math department um you're going to find something else that can work with it the dental and classical recommends a math program kindergarten math with confidence and there are some math pages in their morning binder history the focus for sunlight's history in kindergarten is US History you have a timeline and you also have maps to show different historical events My Father's World has no history included except for biblical history similarly gentle and
• 08:00 - 08:30 classical has no history included except when you're doing composer and artist studies and reading the Bible for language arts sunlight has a very heavy focus on language arts you're reading poetry with your children you're doing verbal or written uh creative writing prompts you have handwriting included in the all subjects package and of course lots and lots of reading and books so a very natural approach to language arts where you're kind of assimilating it from all of the reading that you're doing you also have readers for the children which with kindergarten they're learning PHS and they've also been
• 08:30 - 09:00 taught phonics throughout the preschool unit so they're getting more into reading by themselves at this point My Father's World includes phonics in their program it is different than maybe you would find in all about reading or logic of English or these types of programs but it is there and you have no readers associated with that your student packet includes handwriting Pages for learning to write the letters the instructor's guide includes the phonics you have poetry written in the teacher's guide itself rather than in a separate book also have Book Day once a week where you're reading books for that day the
• 09:00 - 09:30 gentle and classical is also language arts heavy poetry is included in the memory statements um rather than in another book then you have a lot of classic literature like Peter Rabbit child's B of Virtues and so on the reading level of these programs a sunlight is very adjustable so you can do this program with various ages and you can choose for your sub your um history Bible and literature package which readers you want to come with that program your children if they have followed sunlight so far have already been starting learning to read learned their phonics already in preschool um 34
• 09:30 - 10:00 and also pre prek 45 within those programs sunlight introduced the letters not by letter names per se as much as by the letter sounds and now that they're 5 years old 6 years old somewhere around that age range they are ready to start reading and so that's what they're doing in this program My Father's World your student is starting to learn to read in this program uh you can use this program with children who have learned to read there's a note in the back of the instructor's guide that lets you know this program is still valuable even if
• 10:00 - 10:30 your child is already reading however the focus for the language arts is on Phonics and learning to read letters are introduced by their sounds and you also have a few games that you're playing with those letters there are kind of foam tactile letters included in the package that your children can feel the gentle and classical includes no phonics instruction this is something they note and they say that you need to choose something else they recommend all about reading there are letter Pages included in their morning binder geography sunlight includes Maps throughout their teachers guide so that you can find
• 10:30 - 11:00 exactly where Place happened the focus of this program is on the US and that geography they also include Mission story so you are learning about some other countries throughout this program My Father's World the geography is an inflatable globe that you're holding and just realizing that the world is a globe you do have stories and places mentioned throughout the books however those are not the subject of particular study gentle and classical does not include any geography in their program you can buy optional additional uh programs that are called on Mission and these focus on
• 11:00 - 11:30 several different countries you can take your pick of what they have and it has missionary stories in there and also some cool fun facts and features that kind of cultural stuff but none of this is interwoven throughout their package so it's going to be a separate study philosophy of education this is quite different between the programs even though they all are literature somewhat literature-based sunlight is based on the ideas of Ruth beichi who has the three Rs Reading Writing and arithmetic so you're going to focus a lot on reading and writing and arithmetic
• 11:30 - 12:00 throughout this program you could find Sunlight compatible with several different other philosophies of education but this is the main one that they based their program on My Father's World is based on Charlotte Mason you can see that and that is much more gentle in its approach than either one of these other programs um that is more laidback about reading and that kind of thing the gentle and classical follows classical education and Charlotte Mason mixed together I do see more of an emphasis on the classical and the readings and that kind of thing um and you're finding living books in in there as well so Charlotte Mason vocabulary
• 12:00 - 12:30 sunlight teaches vocabulary in the notes so you have definitions of words that students might not know you can make a word wall out of those if you so choose or just use those for defining words that your students don't know My Father's World I did not find any vocabulary included in this program except just the ones that you're naturally going to be picking up through the reading so you have no separate notes about them they did not pick out those words for you Gentle and classical you have vocabulary words in their memory statements and in their cards that are printed and included in the program inclusive or diversity by this I
• 12:30 - 13:00 me exposure to different cultures and races throughout the program and also maybe some different ideas and ways of looking at things um all of these programs are going to be a Biblical worldview so you're not thinking about looking at these things from an atheist perspective or that kind of thing um instead you're going to be looking at it from different cultures um or seeing different history of different cultures that's what I mean sunlight was made with this specific intention in mind of diversity inclusivity you're going to find a lot of the heroes from American
• 13:00 - 13:30 history that they include in their program are ones that are from many different races and different people groups within the US and I think that is an amazing feat um that was done very intentionally by them they also have a missions Focus you're going to be looking at this from other cultures and other places within the world My Father's World is also missions minded in their General philosophy in their program however I found their inclusivity and diversity extremely minimal the gentle and classical similarly didn't find any inclusivity or diversity of different types of stories
• 13:30 - 14:00 uh from other cultures all of these were based on Western European um stories and classic literature which is classical education mainly in the US if you want to include more diversity and inclusivity you're going to need to add their onm missions program which will bring a lot more richness to that instructions and scheduling this is an area in which sunlight and My Father's World both shine and gentle and classical you're going to find a little bit more need in this area so sunlight comes with a full scheduled out instructor's guide for you there are
• 14:00 - 14:30 also lots and lots of notes so you know exactly what you're going to be discussing and reading My Father's World also includes a weekly schedule and notes and you're going to find a lot of detail there to help you to implement this program gentle and classical you have a unit type of overview but you have no weekly schedule so it's a little more flexible if you're looking for that flexibility can be for any of these programs you can spread them out however you wish but with gentle and classic you can choose maybe you want to have 3 days a week and that's how you're going to schedule it yourself student workload or
• 14:30 - 15:00 teaching time son that recommends that you spend 90 to 120 minutes per day on their subjects My Father's World recommends 60 to 90 minutes of teaching time and gentle and classical recommends 80 minutes of teaching time the teacher workload for sunlight this is no prep let me just say honestly from experience no prep at all it's just open and go and you're spending about 60 to 90 minutes teaching per day My Father's World there is a little bit of prep um everything is laid out for you in in the schedule like I said but it is pretty open and go as
• 15:00 - 15:30 well gentle and classical you are scheduling this for yourself as I just mentioned so you are needing to look at the overview of the unit and then decide how you're going to teach that you do have a recommended daily routine or schedule in the package um it includes times from 8: to 3:00 p.m. so if you want to you can use that as your set schedule for the day it does include naps and other types of things in there so you're not teaching for all of that time art sunlight has optional art electives that you can include in your
• 15:30 - 16:00 package they have recommended resources but this is not something that is included in their all subjects package My Father's World has different art projects U that are included in the notes for the section such as noodle art and things like that they're included in your schedule there's no famous art that you're studying necessarily you could add this optionally on as an elective dental and classical shines in this area they have famous artist studies and also include studies of elements of art such as perspective and depth physical education or PE sunlight has no formal
• 16:00 - 16:30 PE included but you can add this through another book that they recommend My Father's World has no formal program as well and for the gentle and classical preschool at least they had some a program called brain gy that they recommended I don't see that kind of program in their kindergarten program so kind of with all these programs there's a gap there for physical education um I think there is in general for a lot of homeschool programs music sunlight has no formal music program again there are options electives that they recommend
• 16:30 - 17:00 however with sunlight you are memorizing Bible verses set to music My Father's World you are studying some classic works with a CD and also listening to some songs some songs are written down in the notes and you're supposed to sing them together such as Christian songs and children's songs gentle and classical as you would expect with a classical program includes M classical music in its studies you were listening to musical Symphonies you also had the catechism songs Bible verse songs and hymns so they do hymn studies throughout
• 17:00 - 17:30 this and um you are reading the book The Story of the orchestra let's take a look back at the previous years of the programs so what programs do these curriculums offer before this year kindergarten son offers two years of preschool before this kindergarten program you have p34 and PK 45 My Father's World also offers two preschool programs for 34 and 4 five and my uh gentle and classical offers one preschool program for any age that you're going to use that program for
• 17:30 - 18:00 future years both sunlight and My Father's World go through 12th grade so you have programs for every year up through then uh gentle and classical only goes through around first grade so far um you can use their kindergarten program for kindergarten or first grade this is the last program they have as of this recording formally for an entire year after this they have virtue studies character studies and on Mission so you have little kind of things you could use as unit studies but I would not say they're a complete program yet they're probably work working on making more of
• 18:00 - 18:30 this unit studies so are these programs based on unit studies for sunlight no you're not going to have unit studies instead you're just continuing with your reading throughout the year My Father's World is based on unit studies they're centering around elements of the natural world and gentle and classical is also a unit study somewhat you have a unit overview that just gives you kind of a time frame it's not really a specific topic that you're studying for that unit although you are changing up some of the things that you are studying within that unit for the next unit so I guess yeah
• 18:30 - 19:00 it does fit within a unit study just not an overall theme for that study student workbook and worksheets oh some that includes student worksheets for science in their program My Father's World includes a student workbook with some math number Stuff U fine motor skills cut and paste and some phonics gentle and classical has a morning binder um that includes some letters writing your name location weather those types of morning Circle time type of activities missions Focus sunlight includes several books for
• 19:00 - 19:30 missions in their program my father's rle doesn't have any specific books included in this particular program although overall they do have a very missions focus and gentle and classical you can choose any on missions study to include in your program classroom use so are you looking at using these for a classroom uh sunlight doesn't have any specific instructions for doing that My Father's World does have specific instructions for a Christian school classroom and how to implement this program there gentle classical again
• 19:30 - 20:00 like sunlight it is possible to do that but it's not indicated in the program how to do so multiple ages and levels are these programs suitable for various ages within a family yes yes yes yes poetry sunlight includes a poetry book called llama who had no pajama for My Father's World The Poetry is printed in the teachers guide and gentle and classical has Robert Lewis Stevenson poems printed in their teacher guide as well handwriting sunlight includes handwriting in their all subjects package uh Handwriting Without Tears is usually the one I see people using with
• 20:00 - 20:30 sunlight but there are other options as well My Father's World includes some handwriting and their student workbook and gentle and classical uh does not include a formal handwriting program although they do have some letter writing and other name writing in their morning binder note helps sunlight hat comes with extraordinary help in the form of notes so you have discussion questions and other types of notes throughout the guide to help you understand exactly what you should be doing and to give you ideas for talking with your kids about what they're reading my father's World also has questions though not to the same depth
• 20:30 - 21:00 for each book because their books are a little more flexible than sunlights and you have a lot of notes and helps throughout their teachers guide there's also a weekly note from the developer of their program and uh for a little bit of reflection for the teacher each week with their fonx program you have somewhat of a script that you're following um as you're teaching that program gentle and classical comes with a lot of Chatty explanatory notes for how to use the program and the reasons why they've chosen different uh ways of teaching or different books but there aren't really any notes for the
• 21:00 - 21:30 discussions or about the books or anything like that memory work sunlight does Bible memory work there are also sometimes some poems that you memorize My Father's World does Bible memorization gentle and classical true to classical education does a lot of memorization so you're doing Bible memory work catechism memory work and also some memory statements for Science and other subjects manipulatives by this I mean anything that your kids can interact with that's Hands-On like a toy um that can be used for learning something includes a science kit so you
• 21:30 - 22:00 have all the supplies for your experiments in there um but other than that there are no manipulatives in this program my My Father's World has several manipulatives that come in their package you have lry foam letters cuiser rods and optional farms for ants and butterflies uh gentle and classical being all paper doesn't have a lot of manipulatives but you do have story boards that you print out and your kids use as you're reading a story or narrating a story after gentle and classical also has has memory statement cards that you can use for your kids to
• 22:00 - 22:30 hold as you're talking scope and sequence sunlight includes a book list and you also have an overview of what your kids will be learning for the year but there is really no scope and sequence telling you this is exactly what your kids are going to attain My Father's World also doesn't have a scope and sequence per se but they do have notes telling you what you're going to be studying and the focus of their program gentle and classical includes a list of attainments so things that your student should be able to do by the end of the program these are your goals as a teacher things that you know your shooting for with your student I would
• 22:30 - 23:00 say they do sound pretty Advanced so you're setting high goals okay now I just want to share with you some strengths and weaknesses of each program and some overall Impressions so this is the part where a little more of my opinion of these programs is going to come into play so if you don't want anyone influencing your decision then maybe you wouldn't be watching this video right okay let's start with the weaknesses of each program so with sunlight the weakness I find is the Arts music and art this isn't such a subject of study a topic study for sunlight and
• 23:00 - 23:30 so you're going to find some recommendations for adding these on as electives but it's not as something that you're actually doing within the program itself it's something you have to do as or decide to do as a family with My Father's World I would say the literature is actually one of the weakest parts as an English teacher I know that reading every day to your children is an extremely important thing for building literacy skills um and because My Father's World just has reading on the final day I would say that's a really big weakness um of this person program but I would say that as a
• 23:30 - 24:00 teacher you do have the option to spread the books out so if you're going to use this program please read to your kids every day use their book recommendation list um but please make sure you're getting reading time with your kids every single day um another weakness that they have is science but this again depends on your philosophy of teaching so if you are wanting to go with a Charlotte Mason approach where you're doing nature studies and you're just approaching science for more a more natural perspective and kind of waiting to get into that formally then this will suit you fine um but I would say say that the science program in My Father's
• 24:00 - 24:30 World is very basic um at least compared to sunlight's program and even compared to Gentle and classical's program with all these programs I love them what I am going to say though is the gentle and classical has quite a few weaknesses when it comes to an overall program so you might want to find some other things that you're going to include to help you with these weaknesses I'll list them off for you the first is that all books are additional so your price cost for this program is not going to be the $140 that
• 24:30 - 25:00 you're paying or $60 that you're paying whatever bundle you choose instead you're going to have to find these books at your local library and if you do that they're not going to be in your home all the time and you're using them through several of them throughout the program so that's one of the weaknesses I would say with this program but there are other printable programs out there that are have just the same weakness so something for you to just consider for My Father's World and the gentle and classical I would say the weakness of not having discussion questions or comprehens attention questions especially for this age group where
• 25:00 - 25:30 they're starting to learn to read and they're paying attention to stories can be a bit Troublesome for parents and teachers who don't have a lot of experience or just on the spot ideas for comprehension questions I know that um those are really helpful for me just prompting me even to remember to ask questions so that's something you might want to think about before when you're planning your week out with these programs gentle and classical there's no schedule included so you're planning that out for yourself that might be a strength in your opinion um depends on how flexible you want to be now that we've covered the weaknesses let's move
• 25:30 - 26:00 on quickly to the strikes so sunlight's language arts program is phenomenal overall as an entire program I do think this is a phenomenal program you cannot go wrong with going with it um when it comes to all of the subjects really except for the Arts like I mentioned as a weakness um but there's science language arts you're learning critical thinking um with this curriculum there's a heavy emphasis on discussion they have the discussion questions right there um and just building an understanding of God and and his word and his world and
• 26:00 - 26:30 apologetics throughout all of sunlight's curriculum programs overall this is the most comprehensive and inclusive programs so you're going to have the most subjects in your program and the most Help For You especially if you're a beginning teacher My Father's World has great strengths as well um their unit studies approach is really good and it's backed by a lot of educational research um the founder of their program was an elementary school teacher for a while and so she has knowledge of the benefits of unit studies this program is overall
• 26:30 - 27:00 more Hands-On so if your kids are really wanting to be active and learning things and holding things and seeing things demonstrated for them then this is the way to go um I really like their bible program and how they have Hands-On things for that um so with sunlight and the gentle and classical kind of you just read the Bible you memorize something or or something like that both It With My Father's World you actually have like one week you're planting a seed and you're watching it grow and you're watering it and you're talking about how um God makes things grow or
• 27:00 - 27:30 God Waters us or concepts like this where uh your child can really visually see something and for this age group that is great that is exactly what I think this age group needs so I would say that a really big strength of this program is its Hands-On interactive approach which is very Charlotte Mason um gentle and classical similarity has many uh strengths and those things are things like manners and virtue you're consciously teaching those to your kids with statements and things that they're memorized that you can refer back to later though My Father's World and
• 27:30 - 28:00 sunlight both do also um teach manners and um those kinds of things I feel like that's more of a focus in the gentle and classical and I think that is what Aaron Cox would love to hear about her program as it's teaching character and virtue you have narration with storyboards a very Charlotte Mason concept the Arts are phenomenal in this program I think that if you want to study the Arts and you want that to be a big emphasis get something from the classical even if you're not using their whole whole program you can also buy
• 28:00 - 28:30 parts of their package they have a really great art um focus and study memorization is also something that is a big strength of this program you're memorizing multiple different things and you're doing most of that through songs which is a great way to memorize also includes classical literature so if you want to introduce your kids to things that have been enduring parts of Western European culture than classical literature another big strength is the affordability of this program so if you live overseas you can buy this overseas
• 28:30 - 29:00 and you can use the program you don't necessarily have to have all the books for it but you will find that the math program they recommend is available as a PDF and so it's a little more friendly with not having to have things shipped whereas sunlight and My Father's World you both both are more dependent on the books and so you have to have them shipped to you um this one is the most Standalone type of curriculum I would say as far as what you're actually purchasing being sufficient if that's all you use I would really really highly recommend though that you don't skip out
• 29:00 - 29:30 on books whatever program you're using because especially with this age group you're establishing a lot of literary skills literacy skills and um it's really really important that you're reading to your kids I think the recommendation is 10 books a day at least with your kids which is a lot of books overall impression this is very much my own opinion so please take this with a grain of salt and know what's good for your family sunlight overall this program is the most robust I think this is the most challenging program it has the history
• 29:30 - 30:00 it has the science with experiments it has a lot of more advanced types of things that you could do with older ages as well as younger ages um than either one of the other programs on this list the world view biblical worldview is interwoven throughout everything because you have those discussion questions comprehension questions you're able to talk about the things that you're reading with your kids so you're they're not just learning only biblical things but they're also learning to evaluate other things in life which I think is a really good skill because isolation is
• 30:00 - 30:30 not our goal but rather teaching our kids to think biblically and to be Salt and Light My Father's World um overall this program is probably the most Charlotte Mason most truly Charlotte Mason purest Charlotte Mason is that a thing and um also is more fitting for classrooms as well as homeschool so if you're looking for a very Hands-On program this is the one to go with out of these three I think and also if you're looking for one that is more for
• 30:30 - 31:00 a younger kindergartener or for a student who needs a little more time and help with reading this is the one that I would recommend gentle and classical overall this one is phenomenal in the arts program it is very Arts heavy and that way your student is going to be very knowledgeable about music and famous artists and classic classical literature if you're like me you like to weigh the price of these things so what is the cost of each of these programs as of 2022 when I making this video These
• 31:00 - 31:30 are the prices for each of them sunlight there are several options for buying if you want to just buy history Bible and literature you can get 4 days for $ 353.50 5 days for 465 and if you want to buy an all subjects package which includes math science all of those subjects as well then for 4 days you're going to pay 75154 for 5 days you will pay 8741 my father world only has one package available you could buy the
• 31:30 - 32:00 instructor's guide separately and pick up the books at your library for any of these programs um but my Father's World the the price is 441 for 12 for the program now that price does not include math and if you want to do more in-depth science and the program includes you're going to be paying extra for that as well for the gentle and classical you're going to have several different ways to get this program first of all if you just want to get their teachers guide and you don't want to get their cards memory statements storyboards all of that stuff you can get it for free you can download the teachers guide for free
• 32:00 - 32:30 so this is a really budget friendly option if you want to get primer as a digital bundle with all the printes and everything you would pay $34.99 right now as of this video and if you want to get it in a digital bundle package you would be paying $139.99 for the gentle and classical plus both nature volumes I believe now this does not include any of the books so those are a completely separate price this is basically just your teachers guide and the printable Resources with it thanks so much for joining me for this
• 32:30 - 33:00 video today I wish you all the best in your homeschooling journey and I hope that you found this video helpful for that if so give it a thumbs up don't forget to subscribe because I come out with videos like this every week and I will see you guys in my next video love you ciao [Music]