Little Women
• Apr. 29, 2006 - Review/Comparison: Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace
On the forums I frequent, there has been a lot of discussion lately about how Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace compare. Having used Sonlight for the past 5 years (7 cores), and having just throroughly researched and begun to use Tapestry of Grace, I thought perhaps what I have found might be helpful to others. (We still love Sonlight, and I would recommend it to others. We just needed a bit of a change. :) )
Let's start with the similarities:
* Both are history-focused.
* Both use living books, primarily. (Living books are written by a single author who loves his subject, and contain more depth and interest than most textbooks, which are typically written by committees.)
* Both treat history chronologically, though in a slightly different manner.
* Both use historical fiction, especially in the younger grades, to get a feel for the time period being discussed.
* Both also contain a huge amount of historical depth, far more than I ever got, even in college!
* Both are written by Christians, and seek to have a Christian worldview. (This is more overt in TOG, as I'll explain later.)
* Both have similar costs, if buying all books at one level. (Both can also be used in conjunction with your library, though this is easier with TOG.)
* Both can be used with Charlotte Mason or classical approaches, though TOG more directly follows the classical approach.
* Both offer strong writing programs. (SL's is in their language arts component.)
* Both are well-suited to gifted kids, as they offer extra challenge, as well as to more challenged kids, as they are quite flexible.
* Both give you more to do than you possibly can, so you do have to pick and choose, with either.
On, to the differences! :)
Sonlight:
* Gives you a more thorough schedule. SL's schedule is broken down day by day, and for each subject.
* Makes available all the books, in one convenient package (though you can also order just parts and use the library, if you need or want to).
* Lists out for you which books are best read aloud, and which are good for kids to read to themselves.
* Teaches world history chronologically, then US history chronologically, and has a few years where the focus is geography or some other non-chronological area. (It seems to me that this essentially fulfills the "study history chronologically" approach, though it does not do the 4-year cycle. It also does split US history apart, in a way that "classical" education typically does not.) Some people really like the variety of the years when history is not the main focus.
* Has a greater missions focus each year. (Every year, there are one or more missionary biographies. They may not fit the time period, but are done as a separate thing. There is also generally a "pray for the world" book. TOG seems to cover missions in their chronological place--I haven't gotten quite that far, yet.)
* Offers language arts and readers that go along with their history program, and also offers science, math, etc. (Their recommendation for high school is the same as TOG's, Apologia, but SL actually sells it, as well. SL also has their own program for lower grades.)
* SL just separated their Bible, so if you already have a program you love (or don't want one), you can buy a complete core without it.
* SL has a very strong cross-cultural focus. They do have several years of US history, but they are much more interested, generally, in other cultures.
* SL's LA is very much in line with Charlotte Mason ideas. (Also with Ruth Beechiks' ideas.) It's a "natural" learning system, using sentences taken from their reading. SL also gives you passages to use for dictation. The grammar itself is very challenging.
* SL offers significant commentary about many controversial/liberal ideas presented in the books they use. TOG does, to some extent, in the teacher's notes, but from what I've seen, they don't seem to have the kind of specific analysis that SL does.
Tapestry of Grace:
* Has a much stronger focus on Biblical history, particularly the first year. Eg, it covers Creation, rather than just starting with the Sumerians, and uses directly Biblical resources for studying the early years of history. It also covers Israel more thoroughly than SL does, including studying how the law foreshadows Christ. (This makes SL work better for the non-Christian homeschooler, at least for year 1.)
* Offers hands-on activities most (or possibly all) weeks. These are simple to do, and not overwhelming. (You can add these into SL fairly easily, but they aren't already there.)
* Gives the ability to really correlate all of your students over multiple grade levels. (This is a big factor with many who have chosen TOG over SL--SL's cores don't really go together for different age levels.)
* Has more flexibility in terms of exactly which books you can use. This makes it easier to use your library or your own bookshelves, but does require more planning work on your part, choosing exactly what you will use.
* Has weekly schedules for each age group, rather than daily ones.
* Does not offer science, math, phonics, etc, though they offer recommendations.
* Offers extensive teacher's notes, so you can talk about things intelligently without having to read every book your kids read. (Some people choose TOG because they like learning for themselves, others turn away because they don't like this.)
* Requires more planning than Sonlight. You can't just pick it up and go. (Though, with several students in different cores, you may need as much planning with Sonlight, especially if you are trying to correlate them.)
* Is more flexible than Sonlight, because it offers all the levels in one package. Eg, if your child reads better than he writes, you can use higher level reading books and lower level writing assignments.
* Uses a more traditional style of grammar (recommends Easy Grammar), though you could easily substitute any grammar program. They do recommend dictation, but do not provide specific passages.
* Integrates fine arts and music into all years and levels.
* Uses the more traditional, classical chronological breakdown of a 4-year cycle. (However, TOG's last 2 years are the 1800's and the 1900's. I think most classical methods group the last years a bit differently.)
In conclusion:
I would suggest Sonlight if:
* You don't have time to plan, but want to spend your homeschool time actually schooling! :) (This was a big deal for me, in the beginning.)
* You don't care about hands-on.
* You like to have things easy--tell me what to do, and I'll do it. :)
* You want a very strong international focus.
I would suggest TOG if:
* You or your kids need/want the hands-on activities, but you don't want to have to come up with them.
* You like flexibility.
* You like planning, or at least don't mind it.
* You have several school-aged children at different levels, and you'd like to correlate their studies.
* You strongly want a classical style of education.
Hope this helps someone! :)
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• Apr. 28, 2006 - Very interesting
Have you used both?
Also, I've checked your page for updates all week and just today saw this...I wonder why it took a week to show up?
Edited by ThreeLittleLadies on Apr. 28, 2006 at 7:57 AM