...Time once again for The Sonlight Order.
In case you are reading this and, umm, not a Sonlighter, Sonlight is the name of the home schooling curriculum we use. Sonlight is a literature based program, using wonderful "real" books to supplement and provide the bulk of the history, reading & literature courses. Sonlight also gathers science materials (and writes their own), math materials, language arts (again, also their own), and extra-curriculars to provide a wonderful one-stop shopping experience for home schoolers.
We have used Sonlight from the beginning, from the time Timmy was 3.5, using what was then called Basic PreK (and is now called something like Core P4/5, if I have the correct catalog...). That first order was only a few hundred dollars, and our order size and price have gone up every year since.
This year we were looking at $1200 for all three boys, before Quentin made me cull down to the bare minimum. Once we did that, we were "down" to "just" $1015. GULP.
With the exchange rate the way it is (insanely unfavorable to the Real), that was just a next-to-impossible number. And so I did, at Quentin's prompting, a very humbling thing. I checked eBay.
Ebay didn't work out, but in the process, I happened to mention it on the Sonlight forums. And a mom just happened to have the main thing we were needing, which was the bulk of the cost. And she just happened to be willing and able to sell it to me very cheaply.
I love how God "just happened" to work all that out. Her generosity saved us right around $400, bringing our total down to about $600, including what we paid her. Amazing.
I hate that we had to buy used. I am grateful for Sonlight, which offers a Used For Sale Forum on their site to make such transactions possible. I am grateful for Sonlight being a curriculum that doesn't get used up, so that it *can* be passed down. I am grateful for people, perfect strangers but virtual friends, who see a need and are moved to meet it.
I am deeply humbled at us being in this place of need, and at God, meeting us here. Just at Thanksgiving I posted that I was thankful we could homeschool, had a great curriculum and the money for it. And then, we didn't have the money. Not without shuffling some things that we didn't think it wise to shuffle. And then someone stepped up, and we didn't need as much money after all. Did I mention how humbled I am by this??
Thank You, Father God, for providing for us through this fellow child of yours. May we return the favor one day soon. AMEN.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
4 comments:
Thanks so much for stopping by! I welcome comments of all sorts and viewpoints, but I do have moderation enabled so I can avoid the word verification. I will post everything, but it won't show up right away. Thanks for reading & commenting; I look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm so happy for you! I love hearing stories about how God works things out for His children.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful it worked out for you to get some SL used. What a wonderful blessing!!
ReplyDeleteI'm very thankful you are a Sonlight family. I treasure your friendship and hope that it can be IRL someday.
Awe, thanks J! me too -- one of these trips, we'll make it up to your corner ; )
ReplyDeleteYea, God! I'm so glad you were able to get your core(s) used! What a blessing. What will you be enjoying next year?
ReplyDeleteWe have actually (shhh!) switched to Tapestry of Grace, but Sonlight still has my heart due to doing five cores. That's a lot of history, literally and emotionally.
I'm really glad it worked out and that God blessed you to be able to continue to use the curric you love within your financial means. He's so loving!