Box Day!

Our books have arrived! I have been tracking the two packages since a week ago and finally FedEx man came to my aunt's place. I think I am more excited than Reese! :) After checking the contents... I knew the decision to homeschool him is right. The materials are wonderful. This year's theme is 'An Introduction to the World: Culture'. What is nice about this program is that learning is through life books and not text books! Instead of reading from boring text, we get to read stories and more stories related to the theme and learn in a natural way with some supplementary worksheets.

Reese was so excited when I took out all the books!

Checking what else is in the box

'Reading' a map in the box

Our loot for the year!

Checking out the books...

Can't wait to read! This was taken when it first arrived at my aunt's house

Ready steady Box!

I was like a child waiting for Christmas for the Sonlight box to arrive.

We were away on an errand and when we got home, there it was! The look on Isabel's face was precious. She was shivering with excitement to get that box open! I let her unpack and kept on saying, "Surely that must be it! Are there more!?"

She loved it.

Dr Seuss's ABC book is a favourite and I have to read the whole thing to her about every second day.


Isabel's Favourite

The other science books also seem to be a hit. I wonder: Could there be a little genius in the making? Of Course!

Riette

Christmas... uh, I mean box day

We impatiently patiently waited on that special day to arrive.

Though it seemed to take ages, the delivery was prompt and complete.

The girls had been asking all summer about when we were going to start school. Getting our school material first was a definite requirement.When it came, I am certain you would have thought it to be Christmas morning, with all the excitement and paper flying through the air.

Why, one of the girls even had on their Christmas attire... it's a normal thing for my "bunch" to be in dress up mode.
They are girly girls after all, through and through!

This was our first experience with "box day".
I love how Sonlighter's use the term so lovingly.
It really is a very, very, very delightful day indeed.
I always enjoy a visit from Fed Ex!

I also rather enjoy planning things. And so I started organizing things way before the boxes actually arrived. I still have tons of things I want to do for the school room. But for now, I am pretty happy with what we have accomplished.

As I began looking through the material and reading some of the books I realized this was going to be a productive, eventful, and very fun year! Optimistically speaking.

I also spent some time discovering how to use the teachers manuals and figuring out how to plan my daily schedules in a way that fits our family the best. I like the sound of that! Such flexibility is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing! (I often say things in threes to get my point across... it works with my girls!)

Anyway, I am beyond thankful to Sonlight and all it's makers for putting together such a complete program for our first homeschooling year.

I've always wanted two Christmas's... And now I have it.

We give Sonlight an: A+

-JW Davis

And away we go!

The long awaited box day has arrived and we couldn't be happier. Grandparents came to share in the fun because frankly they wanted to see what I've been yammering about for the past few months!


Waiting to Open the Boxes

We had one box Wednesday and one box Thursday. It was awful waiting until the last box but we did and we dove right in!

"OOOH, we got movies too." (It's the Mathtacular and the Science DVDs) 


Owen isn't wasting any time either...


Owen can't get over how many books there are!


Why'd we get a ping pong ball???


Had to rest a minute, Mommy, I'm excited.


Ian discovered Miquon Math....
 

And this is what he did for the next while...off to the side doing math!


But Daddy lured him back with more books


Map=happiness


Castle Time

And then it was castle time as Mommy checked off the list. Whoever thought up the castle on the inside of the box was a smart person!!!


Ian's castle needed decorating


Then it was time to get in it.


This is our loot!!!

I have no more doubts that we have made the right choice with Sonlight. We are all excited and impressed. I cannot wait to get some down time to go through it all and take it in. We have a daunting task ahead of us, a 4 year old and 6 year old doing the same core, but we are well prepared! Thanks for making the books and all the materials so inviting and interesting.

-Jessica B.

SHEER JOY on Box Day!!

Sheer Joy

I simply cannot imagine that public-school children share the same thrill, excitement, and sheer JOY that my children experience when receiving new school books from Sonlight on Box Day!


The Big Box of Books

The entire family slept in this morning and missed the FedEx guy at the back door. But during breakfast, the box was discovered: "MOM! School books are HERE!!!!!"


School Books Are Here

The children could hardly contain themselves! I only wish I hadn't been just as eager and excited. I may have taken better pictures!


Shepard (Age 6) says, "SONLIGHT ROCKS!"


Selah (Age 7): "I can't wait, Mommy! How 'bout I just read one right now?"

Our start date this year is August 23rd. We are doing Core 1 Introduction to World History - Part 1.
Also: Language Arts 1 and 2-Intermediate, Singapore Math, A Reason for Handwriting, and Apologia Science [Botany].
New for us this year: ARTistic Pursuits. (The Supply-Backpack is securely hidden on a top shelf in the laundry room lest anyone including mommy feels the needs to sample supplies before opening the accompanying textbook.)

And Dad CAN'T WAIT to open up the missionary books! ...Pretty sure "George Muller" will be read long before week 26!

THANKS, SONLIGHT!!!!!

~Esthermay

Hiding the Box! (July 14th, 2010)

Our box arrived unexpectedly the day before yesterday while our daughter had two friends over to spend the day and night. Of course, I had to open it and take a peek, but I didn't want our daughter to know because I knew there was considerable likelihood that she would desert her friends so she could peruse her materials for this year (which starts next week). I also was somewhat concerned that her two friends who are not homeschooled might consider such behavior to be unusual or even freakish, so I did the only thing I could do - I hid the box in my bedroom.

The next day, even though her friends were still at our home, I could stand it no longer and disclosed the information to our daughter. She immediately deserted her friends, plopped down beside the box and began to inspect the contents - most with great excitement, such as India's People and some with less than enthusiastic response, such as her math curriculum. She also began to look at her brother's material and asked why she had not read some of those books when she was his age. She was most indignant until I explained that she had been able to skip the level 2 intermediate readers at his age and had gone directly to the level 2 advanced readers. Nonetheless, I suspect that I will find her reading some of his books in her spare time this year...

I have yet to reveal the box to my son because he also had a friend over during the past couple of days, but his moment to explore the books is coming. I am sure he will try to start reading one of his readers immediately.

As for me, I immediately installed the World Book Encyclopedia on our computer and began looking through the Eastern Hemisphere Explorer to see how best to guide my daughter through it using the World Book Encyclopedia. I am really excited about delving into Core 5 this year! I am sure we will all learn a great deal, as usual.

Box day is the best!

~Elaine S

Surprise! The FedEx truck is here!

I was not expecting the curriculum today, so when we saw a FedEx truck pull in the drive we all got excited! This was our first box day, so we didn't know what to expect when we opened our box. My son pulled out each item 1 by 1 and made a pile. I said STOP! I have to take a picture for Sonlight.


First Box Day Books

After that, they opened the books immediately and started asking me questions and wanting me to read everything to them. We even called daddy who is a pastor at the 1st Baptist Church down the road from our house, and told him to hurry home and see all our books. My husband walked in and said wow that's a lot of stuff!

He started looking through all the books and saying oh i love the Boxcar children, oh I remember reading this a kid, etc. This made the kids more excited because their daddy read all of these.


Excited to Start School

We enjoyed our first Box Day and look forward to many many more!

--
Holly M.