Sonlight users - read alouds for two cores?

[sted]

I wonder how those who are doing 2 cores find time to read from two read alouds each day?

Looking towards the future,

Shannon

[Colleen]

I wonder how those who are doing 2 cores find time to read from two read alouds each day?

I've used SL for 8+ years; the past three years have been two Cores at a time. (Core 5/Core K, Core 6/Core 1, and now Core 7/Core 3) Those first two combos in particular proved no trouble as the read-alouds in Cores K & 1 take so little time. Even this year, I've rarely felt pressed. We get through the Core 3 RAs fairly quickly; I honestly can't imagining stretching some of these books out over two or three weeks, as scheduled. So more often than not, we're ahead of pace in Core 3, which leaves me more wiggle room should the Core 7 RA require a bit more time.

Hope that helps; let me know if you have any questions.:)

[coffeefreak]

Colleen, do you read all the RA's out loud without fail? Or do you have your kids read some of them to themselves?

Thanks for the thread Shannon.:001_smile:
:lurk5:

[arcara]

I'm interested in this read-aloud question, too, as we will be trying SL for the 1st time next fall.

:bigear:

[samba2nite]

I am wondering how to do this too? I have not figured it out. Curious to hear from the wisdom of others...

[samba2nite]

I'm trying to figure this out too. I'm interested in seeing what others say.

[Colleen]

Colleen, do you read all the RA's out loud without fail? Or do you have your kids read some of them to themselves?

There have been a couple of times this year and last when I had my oldest read a RA on his own. Aside from those instances, yes, I do read them all myself. As I said, we tend to finish them off much more quickly than they're scheduled ~ at least in the case of the lower Cores (Core K-Core 4).

[Lovedtodeath]

Why not consider doing only half in each core and alternating?

Interestingly, SL has customer reviews and ratings for each read aloud and about half consistently get good reviews.

[4wildberrys]

We did 2 Core read alouds for about 2 years---the books were wonderful, but it took SO long some days! Doing Core 3 and Core 5 together wasn't too bad because the 3 books weren't too long. But...when I tried to do 4 and 6 together....I finally had to give up the 6 read alouds and just finish core 4 ones. Most of the Core 6 read alouds were VERY dry---and I would fall asleep reading them!:tongue_smilie: Of course the kids wouldn't complain...they would just sneak off :D So, I would say it IS doable, but can be draining. If your kids are interested, I would definitely let older ones read the read alouds and that way you can pace out reading them if you have younger ones coming along and you don't want to read the same books out loud twice. We will get to the rest of the Core 6 read alouds and the Core 7 ones next year.

[Colleen]

We did 2 Core read alouds for about 2 years---the books were wonderful, but it took SO long some days! Doing Core 3 and Core 5 together wasn't too bad because the 3 books weren't too long. But...when I tried to do 4 and 6 together....I finally had to give up the 6 read alouds and just finish core 4 ones. Most of the Core 6 read alouds were VERY dry...So, I would say it IS doable, but can be draining.

That definitely hasn't been our experience. In all these many years of using Sonlight, there have been so few times that we didn't enjoy a book. "The Trojan War", from Core 6, was a notable exception. Oh, my! I could not get into that book! I think my oldest son finished it on his own. But the other Core 6 RAs? We were riveted by most of them, from "A Single Shard" to "The Westing Game", from "Otto of the Silver Hand" to "The Second Mrs. Giaconda". Reading together, history and literature, is the highlight of my homsechooling experience.:)