Using a Literature Based History Curriculum for Your Homeschool
My kids love to read. Our favorite part of our homeschool day is always when we get to read together. I love reading out loud to them, and they love to read independently as well. That’s why I was so excited to discover the Sonlight History/Bible/Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 curriculum that has been fully updated for 2022! Keep reading to learn about our experience with using this incredible literature-based history curriculum in our homeschool.
I received compensation and the Sonlight History/Bible/Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 curriculum in exchange for my honest review, but all the opinions in this post are my own.
What is Sonlight?
Sonlight is a company that offers literature-based curriculum for homeschool families. Sonlight offers full homeschool curriculum options for preschool through high school.
Sonlight’s curriculum is unique because it doesn’t focus on textbooks, worksheets, or tests. Instead, kids learn primarily through reading living books. These are novels and stories designed to teach kids as they read.
Sonlight’s History / Bible / Literature curriculum for kids in grades K-12 takes kids through both American and World History, from ancient history to modern times. Each yearlong curriculum package includes everything you need to teach history using quality literature.
In 2022, Sonlight completely updated the History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 curriculum!
Order a free Sonlight Catalog to see all the curriculum options for yourself.
What’s Included in Sonlight American History?
The Sonlight American History program is a full boxed curriculum. That means that everything you need to teach your child the curriculum is mailed to your house in one box. As a busy homeschool mom, I love the convenience of this arrangement. I don’t need to go find additional resources or look for ways to supplement the curriculum to make it interesting for my kids. Everything is already included!
Instructor’s Guide
One of my favorite parts of the Sonlight American History curriculum is actually the instructor’s guide. It includes all the lesson plans for the entire school year, neatly organized and ready to go. When it’s time for history, all I have to do is open my Sonlight binder and we’re ready to go.
Download a free 3-week sample instructor’s guide for Sonlight American History here.
Bible Resources
I love that this curriculum includes both Bible and History resources together. Bible study happens from an American history perspective, which is a great way to help kids develop a Biblical worldview.
One of our favorite Bible Resources was the Native American Prayer Guide. This book shares the history of different Native American tribes and includes daily prayers to pray for each of the tribes. I loved sharing this book with my kids. It was a great discussion starter for us about worldview and Christian apologetics. I love that Sonlight American History includes opportunities to teach my kids about different cultures while praying for them as well.
History and Geography
The curriculum also comes with several reference and non-fiction books to help kids learn more about American History.
My son’s favorite book by far is the Smithsonian American History Visual Encyclopedia. This book is full of colorful photographs, illustrations, and maps that make each subject that we are studying come alive. He is always asking questions and I love that we have a reference book on hand to help us find the answers to many of his questions. We have enjoyed reading the pages that go along with the time periods we are studying in our novels. They help fill out the details of each time period in history.
Read Alouds
The curriculum comes with 13 different books for parents to read aloud to their kids throughout the course of the school year. The instructor’s guide includes a suggested schedule for reading the books. It also features notes and discussion questions for each day’s reading.
I love that all the notes for the readers and read-aloud books are included in a separate section at the back of the instructor’s guide. My kids are always asking to read “just one more chapter.” This made it easy to customize the schedule to match our own needs without having to search for the discussion questions.
My son’s favorite read-aloud book was Alamo All Stars. This book tells the story of the Alamo in a comic book style. I love that this book is so approachable and engaging for kids.
Readers
The curriculum also comes with 16 books for kids to read independently. I love that in 2022, Sonlight has updated the curriculum to include one standard set of readers that are appropriate for a variety of reading levels.
The readers are also used in the Language Arts D curriculum, so kids can explore the books that they are reading further through writing and Language Arts assignments as well.
What’s New for 2022?
In 2022, the Sonlight History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 curriculum got a complete refresh. Here are the changes:
- Many of the novels have been updated or replaced
- Level D now includes a single set of readers that can be used by students at a variety of different reading levels.
- The Level D Language Arts program also uses the same readers.
Check out the specific book updates here.
Reasons to Use a Literature Based History Curriculum
Diverse Perspectives
My entire family loves that the Sonlight American History curriculum is based on primary sources and great books that are engaging to my kids. My son is now begging to do his history lessons. And, he’s understanding what we are learning more deeply and remembering it better because of the emotional connection he makes with the characters. Reading good books is his favorite way to learn. I love that Sonlight American History makes this so easy for our family.
Based on Books
In a world that seems to rely more and more on screen time with each passing year, the Sonlight American History curriculum is a welcome relief. I love that my kids are excited to learn history because Sonlight American History makes them excited to read.
One of my favorite parts of this curriculum is that it is based on books and activities, and not on worksheets and tests. I often ask my son some comprehension questions after we finish reading together. This helps me make sure that he is understanding the historical events we are learning about in the stories, without needing to have him take a test.
Stories, Not Textbooks
I love that my kids are learning Early American history from real books, instead of textbooks. Sonlight American History helps me expose my kids to great literature. Because the curriculum includes a huge variety of high-quality books, we don’t need a textbook to study history. This makes history way more exciting for my kids.
Easy to Use
As a busy homeschool mom, one of my favorite parts of the Sonlight American History curriculum is the comprehensive instructor guides that are included in each of the Sonlight curriculum packages. I love that each history lesson is completely planned for me.
When it’s time to teach history, all I need to do is open the blue binder to the day’s plan and find the corresponding books. Having the lessons planned for us has saved so much time for my family. I love that with Sonlight American History, I can spend my time enjoying learning alongside my child, instead of planning lessons.
I also like the way that all of the discussion questions for all the reading books are included in one place at the back of the lesson plans. My kids often get excited about the books and want to keep reading beyond the section that is planned for one day. And sometimes, we get interrupted in the middle of our reading and need to come back to it the next day.
That is not a problem with Sonlight American History. Because all the discussion questions are included in one spot, it is easy to work at our own pace without having to flip through days of lesson plans to find the questions.
Flexible
I also love that Sonlight American History has different options that are flexible to fit our family’s schedule. My family is using the 4-day curriculum, which means that we have plans to study history 4 days per week.
This works well for our family because we have a day every week to concentrate on field trips, appointments, or other activities without feeling like we are getting behind on our history class lessons.
Sonlight American History also offers a 5-day option that includes additional resources for families that want to study history 5 days per week.
If you have specific questions about homeschooling your children with Sonlight, they have a team of knowledgeable homeschool advisors that can help.
Chat with a homeschool advisor for free to get your questions answered!
Christian Perspective
As a parent who is choosing to homeschool in order to teach from a Christian worldview, I am so grateful that Sonlight provides all the resources we need to do that. The Sonlight History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 curriculum includes both Bible and History together in one curriculum. Combining these subject areas is a great way to remind my kids that the Bible is an important part of history.
Teach Multiple Ages
Since I homeschool both my kids together for subjects like history, I love that the Sonlight American History curriculum can be adapted to fit a variety of grade levels. Although each curriculum is targeted at a specific age group, the curriculum is also designed to be appropriate for kids within a 3 year age range.
Parents should note that the Sonlight American History curriculum does not shy away from teaching difficult topics. This curriculum covers the time period from the Pilgrims to the Civil War and it does include difficult topics in history. Parents should look at the list of books and topics included and make sure that they are appropriate for their child’s age and maturity level before using this curriculum.
In our experience, the difficult topics that we come across in our reading often become a great opportunity for deep discussions.
Read more about teaching multiple children with Sonlight here.
Geography and Timeline
I love that Sonlight American History is a complete curriculum that also includes resources for teaching geography. The United States and world map is a beautiful addition to this curriculum. It is a great option that gives kids a visual reference for the locations they are learning about in their historical fiction books.
My kids also really enjoyed working on their history timeline books. The curriculum comes with beautiful timeline figures that are printed on sticker paper. My kids just had to color the figures and stick them in the book. This was a good way to help my kids understand how the events they are learning about relate to each other.
Academically Challenging
I think Sonlight American History is a great curriculum because they choose the best books that allow us to teach history in depth. Kids learn a tremendous amount of history through reading historical novels. This is a great way for students to learn a lot of history.
Family Time
As a mom, one of my favorite things about Sonlight American History is the amount of time I get to spend with my kids while we are reading good literature from the history book list. Our life is very busy, and those moments we get to spend together on the couch reading a book are so precious to us. There are a lot of benefits to choosing a literature approach in homeschooling. I think that this is the biggest one.
Try Sonlight American History for Yourself
Every Sonlight package is always 15% off the retail price!
Download a free sample of the Sonlight History / Bible / Literature D: Intro to American History, Year 1 of 2 curriculum here.
