Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read "How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Homeschooling help and encouragement from experienced homeschoolers - find out how homeschooling works and how to start, get tips & ideas for when things need adjusting, read curriculum reviews before buying, learn how online schools work, gain confidence about homeschooling high school, and more.
As featured on
Cons: Price, high shipping fee
Grades Used: 2nd and 4th
This is our first year using Sonlight for both of our boys (2nd and 4th). We definitely love the curriculum. We use D&E level in history for both boys, science D for both, L/A D&E for my 4th grader, and L/A 3 for my 2nd graders. Their books seem to be advanced for grade students but I think it’s very good for the children. My boys enjoy reading their books and we take books everywhere to finish reading.
I’m extremely happy to choose Sonlight since we reside abroad and have limit access to vast selection of English books. However, their workloads can be heavy on some days but we still manage to get them done in fun way!
The only con I found is that their shipment fee is very high for mailing to APO address.
Cons: Can be time consuming for larger family
Grades Used: K, 1
It takes a bit of tweaking and planning to figure out how to do less with a larger family. But we love Sonlight so far. This will be our 3rd year using it and we have 3 children who are school aged + 2 younger. I absolutely love the history, bible program. Language and reading are ok. I’m learning that you don’t have to do every suggested assignment, so it doesn’t have to be a huge workload. And each child is different so what might seem difficult for one will come easy for another, but Sonlight allows you to pick and choose. My husband enjoys the science projects with the children. You can easily send back items that you don’t care for. The curriculum is expensive but so are many others. Occasionally you can find a book on Amazon for less money but it’s not worth it if you’re getting a curriculum because of the discount Sonlight offers. We try to save up or use the no interest payment plan. The books are all reusable except for workbooks. I’ve learned more in my son’s kindergarten curriculum than I learned in all of high school sadly.
Cons: A lot of material to cover, hard for people who think they have to do it all! But YOU DON'T!!!
Grades Used: GRADES/LEVELS 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5.
My kids are now in 9th and 11th grade in private schools, but we used Sonlight for 6 years when we homeschooled until they were in middle school. Once my son hit 13, he needed a teacher other than Mom, and thankfully, we were able to afford the wonderful Christian school they attended at that point. But back to Sonlight, I miss those wonderful days of read-alouds and doing school with my kids!
I cannot say enough good things about Sonlight!! My daughter who is in 9th grade is an EXCELLENT writer and was publicly recognized by her middle school LA teacher as an upcoming author. Sonlight’s LA program was NOT what made her a great writer, it was all of the reading she did with Sonlight! In a prior review, one of the mothers stated that her daughter had a great imagination and that was because of Sonlight…I concur! My son is also an excellent writer, but more on the side of technical papers and essays. Again, he didn’t really do any of that with Sonlight, but I truly believe their excellent writing skills came because of their exposure to massive amounts of great writing through all of the reading that we did!
As for many of the parents struggling with trying to get it ALL done, relax. It’s not necessary to get it all done. We were more relaxed and made things fit our schedule. If we didn’t read every single book, that was okay! I used to get upset that I wasn’t getting everything done, always felt like I was a slacker because other stuff kept getting in the way…but now I’m on the other side and I can assure you that my kids are perfectly fine even though we didn’t get everything done or finished! 🙂 In fact, being too worried about getting everything “checked off” makes for stressed-out worry warts when they grow up! 🙂
We chose different programs for math for each kid. Singapore math was great for my son. I believe it gave him a firm understanding of math at an early age and he’s REALLY good in math at a college level now. My daughter, however, struggled with Singapore math. We used Teaching Textbooks for her and that was great for her! She is going to go back to using Teaching Textbooks this year at 9th grade for Geometry. Teaching textbooks is very thorough in explaining the concept in small bits so anyone who struggles with it will be able to understand it. For someone with a natural aptitude in math, I think they would be better off with something that moves more quickly and is more challenging to them.
As for Sonlight Science, it was fun for them when they were little. The greatest thing you can do for your kid is to let them enjoy learning, and I think their science program made it fun. The Usborne books are FANTASTIC and we loved the videos.
As stated before, the LA program was lacking, but the reading and exposure to massive amounts of good writing is actually teaching them LA without any effort!!
The history/literature is the gem of Sonlight and what makes Sonlight so wonderful. Both of my kids have a love of history and I think a better understanding of the world because of studying history. And doing it through the Read-Alouds was wonderful family bonding time as well as painting a picture in their minds of what it was like “back then.”
I also have a little tangent I have to go on for a moment–I’ve read reviews from people who say their kids can’t sit and listen to stories because they’re “kinetic learners.” My daughter is definitely one that liked to be on the move and would rather be doing something else other than sitting there, but I gave her a coloring book or, when she was older, told her to draw me a picture of whatever she wanted from the story that we were reading at the time. Or I let them play with Legos while we were reading. If they need to do something with their hands WHILE they’re sitting there listening, I think that’s fine.
But I think we’re doing a huge disservice to our kids if we don’t teach them how to sit still and to listen. Many years before us, there were kids sitting through 2 and 3-hour long church services where they couldn’t move a muscle! 🙂 I’m sure many of them were kinetic learners too, but they had to learn to sit still and be quiet for the sake of manners! I really don’t see that any different than teaching our kids not to talk with their mouths full or not to shout and run around in the library. Not everything that we should do comes natural to us when we’re children, but we still have to learn how to do it! Sitting and listening to mom or dad read is something they will learn to do AND will come to enjoy it if you get through the making them do it time!
If you can’t afford the entire program, just look at the list of books for history and the read alouds and order those or get them through the library. Or go to homeschoolclassified.com and buy it cheaper there. I used to think it was expensive too but that was when I was before I knew how much private school tuition cost! 🙂
And as for the little kids, I don’t think you need a “curriculum” per se, just read a lot, show pictures or go out and talk to them as your exploring the real thing! Do math with your food and teach them their letters and sounds. That was the fun easy stuff! The I Can Read It 3-book series taught my daughter how to read at the age of 4! She had already learned all her letters and their sounds so it was simply a matter of putting the sounds together. Make learning fun when they’re little so they won’t hate “school time!”
Even though I always felt like I didn’t do everything right or that I left a lot of things unfinished, I now have a 17 year old son who is in his second year as a full time college student and a 14-year-old daughter who is much more mature and academic-minded than most of her peers. She has decided that she is completely unchallenged at high school and is going back to homeschooling this year so she can finish at a much quicker pace and go to college earlier like her brother. She will still go to the school for orchestra and other extra-curricular things like ski club and archery, but her main schooling she’ll enjoy much more at home–and yes, we’re going back to Sonlight!! I remember looking at the high school readers and history studies and being so excited for when they would get to do those! After 5 years of them not being homeschooled, I’m so excited that my daughter has chosen to go back to it to finish strong with her education! And I’m so looking forward to reading the Iliad with her and all of those awesome classics I never read in public high school many years ago! Thank you, Sonlight!
She always struggled with math, but once we found Teaching Textbooks we were good. My son did Singapore Math in his early years and I believe it really helped him get a deep understanding of math at an early age. He is GREAT in math now. My son (now 17) became a fulll time college student at the age of 16 and he carries a 4.0 GPA. Most of his education came from our years with Sonlight. My daughter who is now in 9th grade is pursuing her musical education at a private school but we are going back to Sonlight to finish out her history and literature studies. Math still isn’t her strong suit and she’s going back to Teaching textbooks after being in private school for 4-1/2 years now. She’s looking forward to being able to go at her own pace with Teaching Textbooks. They were very thorough in their lessons and she was able to go over it as many times as needed until she fully understood it; that is not a luxury given in high school. The history at the high school is so dry compared to what she’ll be reading in Sonlight and she’s very much looking forward to it.
As for my son, he is also a great writer but more in a technical, essay setting as to where my daughter is more story oriented. Regardless, I know that most of their skill came from being exposed to SO MUCH great writing through our Sonlight curriculum.
The science was fun for them, they both enjoyed it. The experiements and worksheets were good for them.
Cons: workload for mom with multiple kids
Grades Used: PK-7th (core H)
Sonlight has allowed me to home school for the last 7 1/2 years without too much work in planning. We have enjoyed the reading together literature and history. My kids are turning into avid readers. They love to read their school books on their own time. If I can see a way to keep going on this curriculum I will. My biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to teach 3 cores next year. So far we have mostly done 2. This year we are doing PK, E and H, but PK is really short. My 5 kids are all 2 years apart, so we have to do at least 2 or 3 cores at a minimum. One has to be willing to do a lot of reading. I also let the oldest read to herself mostly. I am probably going to have to have the 2nd oldest do that as well next year to make it work. Or take a gap year from sonlight. I am hoping not though, because I really like having it all planned out for me, and reading a lot of good books.
Cons: Rip off
Grades Used: 1
Unsure as to why people would pay for something which is available for free and of better quality?
Cons: Very expensive, found lots of typo errors in IG and received printouts for corrected information in books. Very time consuming, books seem a bit advanced for the grade level Core D&E.
Grades Used: Core D&E
I chose Sunlight for our first homeschooling year as I was nervous and this had a guide with scheduled days. We did the 5 day plan and there is a TON of reading, some of which I felt was very advanced for a 4th grader (he was in the 90th percentile reading before I pulled him out of public school and he struggled with some of these books). The concept of tying in history, geography, handwriting with LA sounds like a great idea, but it didn’t work well for us at all. My son was very uninterested in some of the books and it was a chore to get him to finish. I wish they would provide a few more choices from the books, a lot of these were “romantic” read alouds more fit for a young teen girl I’d think..The LA worksheets provided were just very boring and they tied in with the books we were reading. I know its not always fun and games, but I found better ways to teach writing/LA online. Toward the end of the year, there were several typos in the IG I had found, along with incorrect assignment pages listed on several occasions. They also had stuck a few printouts in the history books with the corrected information. For the cost of this curriculum, I don’t think its worth buying new at all. If you wanna try it, I would recommend buying the reading books used and just buy the IG, spelling, science and math separately. Science was OK. We both loved the books and the worksheets worked well for him. I think the experiments could be revamped with a little more variety though. We did love the math! My son improved greatly with teaching textbooks this year, it made it fun for him. He was really struggling with the common core math in public school. I won’t be using sunlight’s core LA programs again. It’s definitely not for everyone.
Cons: sometimes hard tp keep up with the Read-a- louds. When that happens, they become bedtime stories. Problem solved!
Grades Used: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (Core B, Core C)
We LOVE Sonlight! Used for 2 years. It’s easy to follow, and allows less planning time. I combine my oldest two children for History and Science. They have their own levels for Language Arts/Readers/Handwriting and Math. I order the optional lesson books offered for Language Arts and they love them. I look into other curricula, here and there. (I want what is best for our children and their future). I am continually comforted that Sonlight is right for us.
We do our own family worship on top of what we do in class. My youngest will be starting K next school year. He sits with us and listens and does his lessons. Just the other day at dinner, he was telling my husband about Queen Elisabeth I and her sister Mary. He’s 4! It was a great homeschooling Mom moment. We all love the History (we are in year 2 of 2 World History now), and Science. My boys love doing the experiments!
Sonlight works for us. I love how you can customize for each child. We will be ordering our next core soon! This will be the only year we will have to order a core for our youngest! You can reuse mostly everything. You can order the consumables separately. This is a great help with cost. They also have payment plans.
Cons: Hard to separate if you are looking for just one subject
Grades Used: K-8
We have been very happy with Sonlight. Living overseas without access to an English language library, Sonlight has been the best curriculum in terms of books, completeness and price. We have tried other subjects, like science, but there are hidden costs with most curriculums: additional books or supplemental supplies. With Sonlight there will be no overdue library fines or an missing ‘supply’ for an assignment.
It can be overwhelming if you try to do everything in each core. We have taken a relaxed approach and will drop assignments or alter them to fit each child. I think you can combine all your kids with each core until high school without a lot of additional work.
Cons: I had a hard time using it for our larger family and it is expensive.
Grades Used: 5, 3, K and preschool
Sonlight just isn’t working for my family. I like the schedule and it does save me time. But I’m struggling with getting everything done! I’m currently doing 2 cores-D and A.
Some of the books are wonderful! Some are not so good IMO. I stopped reading one of the Children’s Bibles all together. I found that while I was reading it I had to change the wording a few times. It was very graphic. Especially the part about Sodom and Gomorrah.
I think Sonlight would be perfect for a smaller family that didn’t want to spend a lot of time planning. Just be careful when you are reading and make sure there isn’t anything YOU find objectionable!
Cons: Wish it were cheaper
Grades Used: K
This program is wonderful if you are just starting to homeschool and have NO IDEA (as I did) what you are doing. It is very easy to use and takes no prep time. It’s all laid out for you. We chose to do the Four Day Core and we were able to spend time on Fridays to expound on some of the LA and catch up on any science experiments we hadn’t had time for during the week. We had a lot of fun this year with this program and I would highly recommend it to anyone. However, if you know what you’re doing, I suggest you save yourself the expense and put together your own. We are going to try it on our own this next year and see how it goes.
I do wish it was cheaper, but for all that it offers, I can’t really complain.
Cons: LA too vague
Grades Used: 1/2
Very good program to start off with (its all in one). Directions are simple to follow except for the LA, which I felt was lacking sustance. My daughter loves it and looks forward to school everyday. I would highly recommend this program with a supplemental LA program.
We love Sonlight, and would highly recommend it, especially if it’s your first year homeschooling. Their IG’s make it very easy to teach, and the bonding time that the read-alouds provide for is invaluable. The only negative, IMO, is the language arts program. It is a very natural, loose approach, which did not work well at all with my child. We ended up returning it and using something else. However, because of their learn to love guarantee (if you buy a complete core or a whole package), I was able to return it for a full refund a couple months into the school year, used. Pretty amazing customer service! They really care that you do not waste money on items that aren’t going to help your child learn.
Cons: Not so easy to combine kids together if more than 2 years apart in age
Grades Used: P3/4, P4/5, A, B, C, D, D+E, F
I have four children and have used this curriculum for four years. I love it. My kids are learning a ton. The curriculum is challenging and easily, even without their LA program, can encourage great language skill simply from all the reading. All the scheduling is done for you. To take full advantage of the curriculum does involve a good deal of parental involvement. The IG notes are full of great information that is more than most can or want to wade through regularly but is a great resource. The IG is easy to follow. Some aspects (like vocabulary words) aren’t easily compiled for the parent but are listed in the IG. Other than that, it is very easy to follow.
I found after our first year that combining wasn’t the best for my kids. They needed to be challenged at their own levels and I didn’t have the time or brain power to tweak the program myself. Many do and are happy, but for us it wa more work to tweak than to do separate cores. I have three cores working now (youngest two are twins). It can be hard to get all the reading in but it is doable. You have to be flexible, adjust your expectations and maybe spread the core out over more than just 180 days in order to complete everything . . .or just not do everything.
The LA program is sound, but you have to be willing to actually do it. I have chosen not to and realized it was due to my need for something predictable and more spelled out. The lessons are easy to follow but often don’t provide enough instruction for parents who are unseasoned or simply prefer to have it broken down more (like me).
The science program is (IMO) one of the most thorough on the market. Each year covers a topic of focus but also reviews at deeper and deeper depth basic science concepts.
Overall a highly rigorous and academic program that does both support and challenge a
Christian worldview (they purposefully don’t shy away from the tough topics). We love it!
Cons: Expense exceeds the value. Some of the pictures in the book used for History were very inappropriate for the eyes of children. Needless nudity that distracted my sons. The spelling words are found in the IG in paragraph form, and had they been presented in a list format, the child could actually do somethings independently. The entire curriculum was too parent intensive. It was not a time saver as it claimed.
Grades Used: B+C (about 3rd grade level)
I bought this with high hopes. I had even explored it at a homeschool convention. I was impressed by the great reading books my child would read. I was pleased with the layout of the schedule and how the lesson plans were already created. Sonlight boasted a Christian worldview, that I really did not find when it arrived to my home. We ended up sending the core books of the program back. I am still hopeful to salvage some of my investment.
Cons: too time intensive
Grades Used: Core F
Sonlight has wonderful books but is very expensive and time intensive for the parent. We did the first 13 weeks of Core F this year. I bought the Instructors Guide and all of the books that couldn’t be found at the library. I really enjoyed the books to read aloud to my kids but the reading load is very heavy and we couldn’t possibly get all of them read. It was frustrating to me and my child. I called Sonlight to return the books and guide per their “Love to Learn Guarantee” and I was told it was too late. ( It was 8 months since I bought it.) The website is MISLEADING as it states that you can return the IG, or Core or multi subject packages within one year of purchase if you use only weeks 1-18. When I called Sonlight they said that the guarantee only means that I can return the IG only! (Not the books.) Poor, misleading return policy.
Cons: None
Grades Used: PreK-10th
I have used Sonlight for years! I did try Bob Jones and Abeka, but I found these curricula dry, and boring. I have done multiple cores at once, and, in fact, continue to do so. My kids LOVE it and I would never switch. The Language Arts has changed and they do offer supplements if you wish to use them. Initially, it is expensive, but as I have 5 children, it costs me less every year because I can keep the books and re-use them. My oldest daughter will be a senior in high school. She was asked to skip two grades when she took a placement test. Sonlight is an excellent homeschool investment!
Cons: Language Arts a little weak for teaching reading
Grades Used: P3/4, P4/5, K, 1
I have been very happy with all of Sonlight except I also fill like the Language Arts has holes. Although with that to say, I still use it and supplement with Kumon workbooks. My kids love all of the Sonlight books, and honestly I don’t understand when people say it’s expensive. Their books are already discounted and overall you always spend less than if you ordered them all on Amazon. Also, for missionaries they have a subsidy which is a huge help! We are so blessed!
Cons: Tons of reading, which could also be a pro
Grades Used: 4th-5th
We pulled our son out of 4th grade midway through the school year and had no idea what we were doing. Sonlight made it so easy to organize the lessons that my husband and I both felt very comfortable with what we were doing. All 3 of our kids now use Sonlight, 4th and 5th grade, and they are learning at a pace that I would never have imagined. Not only are they learning daily, they are enjoying the learning process.
The best part of the Sonlight curriculum is how thorough the American History is in their 4th grade curriculum. The history coincides with all of their daily reading and read alouds, their language arts and writing, as well as their science (as long as you stay true to grade with science). We have been extremely happy and will continue to use Sonlight in years to come.
Cons: price, difficult to manage several levels
Grades Used: P4-6
For my book-loving kids, they loved the Sonlight method of reading a lot of books. However, many of the secular books need edited, and with having 5 children in school at the time, I could not keep up with pre-reading all of the material. Probably for smaller families, this would not be a problem. I did not care for their language arts program, so did not do many of the pages. My children still enjoy watching the math and science dvds.
Cons: Sometimes like institutional education
Grades Used: 2nd
I have used only the Language Arts program, and I did not purchase the books from them, which helped me keep the cost down a lot! I bought a few from Amazon after checking the list against my library’s availability. I got Sonlight because I was looking for a program that would help me plan and make sure I covered a wide variety of literature types and writing assignments. I have liked what we have done so far. My son doesn’t enjoy reading/writing much, but he has been able to handle the manageable assignments and learn from them. He is making great strides in reading and writing. I think we will continue to use them in the future. The spelling program that comes with it is okay, but if you really need help in this area, I would look for something else.
Cons: Expensive
Grades Used: 1st-5th
My oldest started out with another program for Kindergarten but she needed more for 1st grade and when we found Sonlight we knew it was perfect. She loves to read and has 2-3 books going at the same time not including the “assigned” reading in the Sonlight program.
When we started, we had everything from Sonlight. I was not impressed with the Language Arts so we went with something else but still do the read-alouds and readers. I have since heard that the LA has improved greatly but I do not have personal experience.
We used their Bible and Science until this last year when finances deemed that we find something else to use. We loved both of those parts of the program and pray that God will allow us to come back to those soon. The science encompasses both writing, observation and hands-on which is great for all different kinds of learners. The Bible was broken down into bite-size pieces to read and ponder. I believe that Sonlight had some influence on my daughter becoming a believer and has a desire to share the word with other near and far. They have a strong emphasis on missions which has really touched our hearts.
Over and above, our favorite has and always will be the reading and history. I like that we are not using textbooks with small snipets of history. We are reading biographies, true history and historical fiction books that make us feel like we are right there in the action. My daughter’s imagination is amazing and I have Sonlight to thank for that.
Cons: Price, not a lot of book work for those children that like book work
Grades Used: Pre-K 4/5
I have only used Sonlight for the P 4/5 year so far. I love it. We will be getting it for K also. It is all set out for you with the IG. For Pre-K, you can easily use it for a 4 OR 5 day a week schedule. Most of the books are incredibly interesting and fact-filled. Even the ones that are a bit drier (for my child specifically) are still enjoyable. Sonlight is perfect for those parents that do not want to put any work into putting a curriculum together. The IG also has some optional activities you can do each week that corresponds to the books read each day. Those activities work well for the more hands-on children.
Pre-K does NOT have a lot of book work. There is only 1 set of 4 books that are written in. I also bought their Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K book, which did not come with the ready-made P 4/5 set. It adds some fun crayon book work. We are done with Sonlight in less than an hour. For children that want to be working longer than that (like my child), you may need to supplement. I’m sure that the work load gets harder in K, and thus lasts longer.
Cons: price
Grades Used: K-4th - so far
I have used Sonlight for the majority of our homeschooling years. I love it because it has an instructors guide that tells me exactly what book to read and how much to read. Sometimes we follow it exactly and sometimes we do not. As a college graduate in Elementary Education, I found that I would search around for stuff online for my kids and waste time that I wanted to be doing things with them. Sonlight was the answer for us. With the laid out instructors guides I do not have to spend hours planning. If I do have some time and want to supplement I can do that.
We use Sonlights History, Reader, and Read-aloud schedules. We tried their Language arts but found that it had “holes” in it that we did not like. They use more of a whole language approach and we like a more phonetic approach. We also do not use their Science because we found a different curriculum that suits our family so well. I have not tried their science so I really can’t comment on it.
Cons: a bit pricey, could be hard to juggle for multiple students (esp. if not too close in yrs)
Grades Used: 2nd - but not a full curriculum
I had toyed with going with Sonlight for several years & a good friend of mine uses it. I was even in an online discussion group of Sonlight users for some time. I finally got a “trial” version – not a full Core, but the schedule, the Science DVD, timeline book and got the books from the library. I love the idea of Sonlight because they do use really great books – and a lot of them! (we’ve read all the reader & read aloud books that are available at our local libraries, plus have gotten some on inter-library loan, for grades pre-K thru 2nd or 3rd). It is a pretty pricey curriculum, but it really is a complete package, with master schedule and all. I’ve decided if you want to be sure your children will be well prepared for an accredited college, if you yourself have set the bar high for your own education, then Sonlight will make you confident your children will excel (not that they couldn’t otherwise). I fit those criteria (having graduated from the Univ. of Mich. and having had a successful 10yr career in Software Engineering before becoming a mom), however, for me (a more relaxed homeschooler) I realized it was going to be too stressful. Also, having 4 children 2 & 3yrs apart (so far), we would have to use several different Cores, which would make for a very busy household! Not that families with many children haven’t used Sonlight successfully. I just wasn’t sure I was up to the task with my own personality & scheduling skills. 🙂