Once Ty and I definitely decided to change course with our homeschooling curriculum, I felt the burden of the decision lift from my shoulders, only to have another burden fall into its place.  The burden of deciding where to go next.  I spent many late nights scouring catalogs, websites, and my own bookshelves searching for the key that would unlock next year’s homeschool.

In my search, I became intrigued by a classical curriculum that did a wonderful job of framing discussions from a Biblical point of view; however it had cons…why are there always cons…

Classical homeschooling has always appealed to me.  The chronological order, the reading of living books, the intellectually meaty discussions…all so beautiful.  But, this curriculum had another side.  A side our family has chosen to avoid.  The side that allows for nudity in the form of art and fantasy in the form of witchcraft.

Now, I know I kind of threw that incredibly hot topic out there in the middle of everything and proper etiquette would require that I now expound on it, but I’m not going to.  This post isn’t about the specifics, it’s about the big picture.

Late one night, after hours of pouring over sample pages and catalogs, weighing the pros and cons of everything I was reading, I decided to rest my weary brain from it all.  As I slipped into the bitterly cold sheets of my side of the bed, next to a husband who had been there for hours, I begged God to make it crystal clear what we should do.  Could the pros of the classical curriculum outweigh the cons?  Could I find a way to avoid those topics which oppose our family’s worldview?  What was the answer?

I asked.

The next morning, it was given.

Blake and I were sitting in the living room the next morning discussing homeschooling for next year as I was anxious to introduce him to some of the things I had been mulling over.  In our usual conversational tone, I told him of the things I saw potential in as well as the things I was concerned about, when suddenly, he stopped me and said,

Mom, I don’t think those things are good.

And my heart and mind became quiet.

I looked him straight in the eye and asked him to tell me more.

I listened as he told me about a book he had seen in the library.  He said he saw one page of inappropriate things, but figured it was just one page and he would avoid it.  So, he brought it home.  However, once home, he found there were more pages he had not seen in that one glance at the library.  The book had to be taken back.  But the damage was done.

My answer came from the profound and discerning thoughts of a 13 year old boy.

Ask.

It shall be given.

And so we move on.

{I wanted to publicly thank all of you who have been so understanding as well as those of you who are offering suggestions.  Even if it is not something I go with, I know other readers are interested in what you have to say!  Thank you!}

I was hoping to put this post off a bit longer, but the emails were coming hard and fast and I knew it was time to address it.

But, I will be perfectly honest with you…I am nervous to talk about this.

I am writing this post to hopefully explain why our family is no longer doing Sonlight.

You see, I thought I had made a good decision.  I wrote several posts on the matter…several posts that top Google searches for the keyword “Sonlight.”  I affected people’s lives.

And now I must come back and say we have changed our minds.

Humility hurts.

What I said in my Six Weeks of Sonlight posts is still true.  The curriculum has many pros and many fans, and the things that worked about Sonlight for our family REALLY worked.  But the cons that I spoke of here began to outweigh the pros.  Prayerfully, Ty and I sought a new direction.

Because so many of you have asked, here is a partial list of the reasons why we feel led to change our course:

*We were only using Sonlight for History.  It is a hefty price to pay for a History curriculum alone.

*We do not agree with many of the books (non-fiction and fiction both) theologically and/or based on our worldview. You’ll remember, I thought I could handle this with a lot of dialoguing; however, Ty and I became quite convicted that those sorts of things ought not to be even introduced into our children’s minds except through the worldview lens we espouse.

*Sonlight’s Christian educational philosophy is different from ours. They want to steep the child in understanding of other cultures and religions and then teach them to judge rightly.  We want to steep our children in the Bible and knowledge and wisdom of God and then teach them about other cultures and religions from that perspective.

Now here’s my caveat…

Just because we are changing course does not mean I think everyone using Sonlight should quit. I listened in on a webinar last year in which Sarita, the author of Sonlight, spoke from the heart with such grace and God-filled words, I have no doubt she is a believer and wrote the curriculum with only the best intentions.  However, because of our family’s desire to glean knowledge rooted and grounded in the Word of God from start to finish, we are required to take a different path.

As the Lord leads us in our new curriculum choices, I will share them here; not in the hopes that you will follow me, but with the desire that you would also focus your homeschool on Him…no matter what path you take.