Christian Light Education: A Comprehensive Overview for Homeschooling Families

Christian Light Education (CLE) is a popular curriculum choice among Christian homeschooling families, known for its biblical worldview, focus on independent learning, and systematic approach to education. Established in 1974, CLE offers a comprehensive K-12 curriculum designed to promote student success through incremental learning, daily review, and a simple, effective design.

What is Christian Light Education?

CLE is a curriculum designed to balance academic rigor and independent learning, using rich literary resources to ignite curiosity and deepen understanding, all while remaining biblically grounded. It is designed for independent study, especially in the upper elementary and high school years.

Key Features of the Christian Light Curriculum

Several key factors define the Christian Light curriculum:

Biblical Worldview: A Bible-based worldview that acknowledges God as Creator and Master touches the way every subject is presented so that your student grows in wisdom and understanding. Every lesson is infused with biblical principles, ensuring that a child’s education is rooted in faith.
Workbook Format: Most Christian Light courses are divided into 10 workbooks called LightUnits. A workbook format bolsters a student's sense of achievement as they complete a LightUnit workbook every 15-17 days, rather than becoming overwhelmed by a large textbook for the whole year.
Daily Lessons: Sunrise Edition Math and Language Arts courses introduce new concepts in bite-size increments at the beginning of the lesson. Daily lessons teach new concepts in smaller increments for better mastery. Most Sunrise Edition courses are divided into 160-170 lessons.
Systematic Review: The built-in daily review process is a key component of the spiral learning approach in Sunrise Edition courses where multiple threads are taught simultaneously. Systematic review helps students remember concepts. Regular reviews are interwoven throughout each LightUnit and are strategic reinforcements that cement new knowledge and prevent important details from slipping through the cracks.
Independent Learning: Once a child can read, they’re empowered to explore the curriculum independently, freeing parents from constant oversight and allowing the child to build self-confidence and autonomy. Christian Light curriculum is designed for more independent study in upper elementary and high school years.
Screen-Free Education: CLE offers a screen-free educational experience for parents who prefer traditional learning methods over digital distractions.

Curriculum Structure and Content

Christian Light offers curriculum by grade level, subject, or individual unit. The core curriculum covers the following subjects:

Bible: The Bible program introduces Bible stories and points students to God and His timeless principles.
Language Arts: The Language Arts program provides effective tools for communicating with clarity and purpose, and includes a separate literature strand.
Math: The Math program takes a systematic approach to learning. New concepts are introduced in small increments, followed by a comprehensive daily review. Math textbooks are available for grades 4-6 and grade 9.
Science: Christian Light Science takes students on a journey of exploration into the fascinating world of science. God's Marvelous Gifts is a fifth grade science textbook designed primarily to meet the needs of Mennonite students but of interest to many other home schoolers.
Social Studies: Social Studies presents a Biblical view of US and world history. Living Together on God's Earth, Into All the World, North America is the Lord's, and God's World - His Story are social studies texts for grades 3-6, designed primarily to meet the needs of Mennonite students but of interest to many other home schoolers.

First graders begin with ten Learning to Read LightUnits. After completing these, they are ready to move into five basic strands of Lightunits: Bible, language arts (with a separate literature strand), math, science, and social studies.

Read also: Generation of Disciples

LightUnits: A Closer Look

CLE courses are divided into 10 workbooks-each called a LightUnit. Instead of facing a daunting, year-long textbook, a child works through digestible portions every 15-17 days. This approach not only prevents overwhelm but also celebrates small wins along the way.

Each LightUnit incorporates:

Daily Lessons: Each day introduces a new concept, keeping the material fresh and engaging. This steady stream of information ensures that learning remains dynamic and enjoyable. Most Sunrise Edition courses are divided into 160-170 lessons.
Systematic Reviews: Regular reviews are interwoven throughout each LightUnit. These aren’t tedious repetitions; they’re strategic reinforcements that cement new knowledge and prevent important details from slipping through the cracks. The built-in daily review process is a key component of the spiral learning approach in Sunrise Edition courses where multiple threads are taught simultaneously.
Quizzes and Tests: With two quizzes in each LightUnit, measuring progress is simple. After every five lessons, a quiz serves as a checkpoint. At the end of each LightUnit, a test celebrates a child’s achievements and readiness to move on to the next unit.

Electives and Supplementary Materials

In addition to the core subjects, Christian Light also incorporates materials from other publishers into some of their courses at the upper levels, primarily for high school electives. Elective courses include keyboarding, accounting, practical record keeping, computer literacy, electricity, agriculture, woodworking, art, home economics, Spanish, consumer math, practical math, Greek, carpentry, home repair and maintenance, small engines, basic automotive service and systems, and Christian ethics.

Christian Light also carries a broad line of supplementary books and resources.

Christian Light Math: A Deep Dive

Christian Light Education Math is a comprehensive, Bible-based math curriculum designed for grades 1-12. CLE Math offers simplicity, effectiveness, and flexibility.

Read also: DCS Tuition Information

Key Features of CLE Math

Simple and Effective Design: The design of CLE Math is straightforward and no-nonsense. The simplicity of the layout minimizes distractions, which helps children focus on the task at hand. The format of the LightUnits also contributes to this, as kids work on one small workbook at a time, with a little story at the beginning that the story problems may refer to later. It’s also broken up into milestones with a quiz at lesson 5 and 10 and a test at the end.
Bite-Size, Incremental Lessons: Each LightUnit focuses on specific concepts, allowing students to thoroughly understand each topic before progressing. The new content is short and to-the-point, with good instruction so that independent learners can move through it themselves.
Systematic Daily Review: The systematic daily review is what makes CLE Math a “spiral” approach to math instruction. Daily review in the “We Remember” section goes over previous concepts taught, reinforcing what has been learned and ensuring that the material is retained. The review sections also is helpful for identifying areas that they need more work on or have forgotten the mechanics of.
Helpful Additional Teaching Resources: The teaching tools available with CLE Math are incredibly helpful. These include:
- Charts, Tools, and Tips - For younger grades, there are charts, tools, and suggestions for around-the-house manipulative that make learning more engaging.
- Teacher Manuals - The teacher manuals are essential and contain how-to-use info, teaching tips, and more helpful material. They’re helpful for correcting assignments, and also contain other pieces that have been very helpful as well.
- Alternative tests - occasionally, a student might do poorly enough on a test that they need to spend more time reviewing and take a whole new test.
- Skills list - sometimes a kiddo would struggle with a concept and neither of us could remember how the book taught it. Instead of flipping around the workbooks, one of the appendices in the back has a list of the concepts learned and what page to find them on in the manual.
- Flash Cards - The flash card system is simple but effective and are used in grades 1-4.
- Diagnostic Tests - If you’re not sure where to place your student in the CLE math program, use their diagnostic tests.
- Reference Charts - These are math facts reference charts located in the back of the teacher manual and can be pulled out for use by you or your student. They also sell laminated versions of them.
- Skill Development Worksheets - On at least two occasions, extra help has been needed on certain concepts, usually on fractions.
Flexible to Fit a Child’s Pacing and Needs: Every child learns at a different pace, and CLE Math accommodates this beautifully. If you’re moving into a new level, you may be able to skip the first LightUnit because they are often review of the last level. For example, you may be able to skip 201 and move right to 202.

A Typical CLE Math Lesson

Correct and review last lesson: CLE doesn’t dictate this, but it’s what we do so I keep up with correcting. Once my kid is able to, I let them compare the last lesson to the teacher manual and circle what they got wrong, then they come show me and work through those problems before moving onto the next lesson. Once they hit high school they review and correct on their own.
Review flash cards (for grades 1 - 4): This daily flash card review really helps solidify math facts. The more consistent we were, the better they mastered those facts!
Complete math facts speed drills (for grades 1-5): The speed drills are helpful for truly mastering and making sure they weren’t relying on counting. Most of my kids enjoy this and like seeing their progress as they chart their results.
Learn new skill/concept: This is done in a bite-sized lesson each day and includes everything they need to learn that concept well.
Complete the We Remember section: The rest of the day’s lesson is the review section.

Notes on Specific Levels

1st Grade CLE Math: I really love CLE for first grade math. It includes a counting book, laminated counting chart, and addition and subtraction flash cards that you’ll use through level 4. Until your child is reading fluently on their own, you’ll be doing their math along with them. Depending on when your child takes off with reading, math becomes more independent in 2nd/3rd grade.
3rd Grade CLE Math: Around 3rd/4th, kids may feel challenged by the increased difficulty of the lessons. Slowing down as needed, as well as doing math year-round, has been the best strategy for us.
7th/8th Grade CLE Math: Pre-algebra content is split across 7th and 8th grade, along with other concepts. 8th also includes more family business and consumer math. I’ve heard some families choose to use a different program for pre-algebra and then move on to 9th grade CLE, but my oldest did both 7th and 8th with CLE Math and it really set him up for success in Algebra.
9th - 12th Grade CLE Math: 9th and 11th grade are Algebra 1 and 2, respectively. My oldest really liked Algebra 1 and did well with it on his own, so he plans to do CLE Algebra 2 in 11th. As of this writing, 10th grade Geometry has not yet been updated to the Sunrise format we know and love.

Placement and Pacing

Many fans of CLE Math confirm that it is a very thorough curriculum that is considered advanced compared to some others. The truth is, every math curriculum has its own pacing and may introduce things at different times. For example, one curriculum may seem “ahead” of others in the early years, but even out by the time they get to high school. That said, if you’re coming over from another curriculum, definitely take the diagnostic test. You may find that they place in a level lower than anticipated, but you can use my points above for speeding up the pace, if needed. Remember, that the most important thing is for them to go at the pace best suited for them!

Homeschool Plus

For parents seeking additional accountability, the Homeschool Plus option offers third-party review of a child’s work. Christian Light also offers school services through Homeschool Plus. Christian Light's accredited Homeschool Plus program costs an additional $310 for a family with two students.

Cost

For a 9th or 12th grader, Christian Light’s curriculum would cost between $400 and $500 per student.

Christian Light vs. Other Curricula

Christian Light Education isn’t the only curriculum on the market. Masterbooks is often compared with Christian Light Education.

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