https://www.sonlight-forums.com/showpost.php?p=3586843&postcount=78
As a result, with the recent upgrade, I changed the IG to be more like Core 530 which was initially intended as a student-led guide. As an upper level high school course, I figured this was appropriate. And the level of "darkness" in the Core overall has diminished a great deal since John wrote the notes.
As a virtual teacher, if you will, I expected the students would interact with the text and the notes. Some notes direct the students to have an discussion with the parents about some deeper topic; some are more specifically literary analysis, and I would assume that the student can answer those quickly, on the spot. They don't warrant discussion.
As one of those "scrupulously honest" teens myself, if I was told to answer the questions mentally, then check my answers against the textbook, I would have done it. And I would assume that would be sufficient learning, really; a high school class lecture or discussion on a text is, basically, what the student is getting.
So how did I envision it? Student does the work. Student reads questions, then answers the questions mentally. Student checks the answers and moves on.
If the parent wants to interact with the student and the text, I would imagine that a more Charlotte Mason style narration might be in order. "Tell me what happened, and what did you think?"
In Core 300, we designed it so that most books have a particular area of emphasis, for example, tone or characterization, plot or setting. In Core 530, the analysis continues from book to book, so that once, say, "theme" is introduced, "theme" is asked about in all future books. We opted not to do that repetition in Core 300.
Also, I feel that college is the time for studying three or six books a semester in depth. I prefer, for high school, to read dozens of excellent books, on many topics and places. We include the requisite five or six books from the "canon," and, say, 20 more that are less worthy of analysis, yet excellent in their own way.
If you want fewer books with deeper analysis in high school, perhaps community college would be a better option for you. I don't know how I could cut two-thirds of the lovely books from Core 300; most of them I think are too good to miss.