New here - Oak Meadow help

[cindergretta]

Hi! I am new to this fourm. I am a SAHM with 6 dc. This is our 9th year hs'ing. I have a 2 year old, a kindy, a 2nd, a 4th, a 9th, and a 10 grader.

 

About a month ago I started really researching Oak Meadow and I fell in love with it! I wish I had known about it years ago. I found a used (complete) 2nd grade curriculum and bought it for my ds. (He is on the autism spectrum.) I do NOT have the craft kit yet. (And he is seriously bugging me for his "main lesson book." :) ) Anyway, we started using the books last Monday. (My kindy and 4th grade sets should come this upcoming Monday. I finally ended up having to buy their's new as I couldn't find any used.)

 

So we are reading "Jolly Robin" each night. Do those of you who use or used it, read every night or Sunday through Thursday or what? What about "Ben & Meg?" How often does your dc read to you out of that one? Do they read it out loud to you or quietly to themselves? My ds has finished it. He wants another "Ben & Meg" book but I can't find anymore. Should he just start reading another book?

 

I want to use this curriculum the way it is intended but I feel a little confused. I have read the "process" manual (and feel like I forgot a lot of what it said) and I have thoroughly read the intro and all in the syllabus. But I still feel like I am "missing" something.

 

Help?

 

Thank you!!!!! :001_smile:

[NanceXToo]

Hi,

 

Welcome to the board!

 

I'm a huge fan of Oak Meadow! :D

 

I homeschooled my daughter with Oak Meadow last year for 4th grade. This year I'm homeschooling her with Oak Meadow 5, and I'm homeschooling my son with Oak Meadow K.

 

I haven't used 2nd or 3rd grade yet.

 

But when it comes to assigned reading, my daughter and I for 4th and 5th grades ALWAYS read those assigned books together. OM usually tells you when you're supposed to finish a book by. So I figure out how long we have, and then figure out how many pages (or chapters) we would need to read a day (M-F) in order to finish it when we're supposed to, and we do it like that. Sometimes I read them aloud to her, sometimes she reads them aloud to me, sometimes we take turns, whatever we feel like doing.

 

I know in current versions of the OM curric, especially for K (and I guess later grades too?) they have you do your reading at night and then ask the child to 'recall' the story in the morning. Is that what you mean by reading at night? I have an older, used version of OM and it doesn't say that, so we just do our reading during the day, whenever we feel like it. If we miss a day where we're really busy and don't get to reading, we'll add extra pages on for next time or whatever.

 

Really, you can't do this wrong- do whatever works for you guys :)

 

If your son finished the assigned book for this week and wants to start reading something else on his own, sure, let him! My daughter always has a few books going at once- right now, she's reading "The Witch Of Blackbird Pond" with me, as it's the current assigned book from Oak Meadow 5. But she's also reading "Tituba of Salem Village" on her own (which was suggested supplemental/optional reading suggested by Oak Meadow). And we're still working our way through "On The Banks Of Plum Creek" for fun... so I wouldn't worry about it if you have a reader on your hands who wants more than one book going at a time, as long as you're also reading whatever is assigned through the curriculum.

 

FYI if you click on my livejournal site (in my sig) I have a lot of info about Oak Meadow on there, and I blog about our homeschooling with Oak Meadow on a daily basis.

 

There's also a forum just for Oak Meadow homeschoolers, which several ladies here are members of, that you might want to check out. :)

 

http://oakmeadow.yuku.com/

[Miss Peregrine]

Just wanted to say Hi! I remember you from GCM. :)

[chiguirre]

We're doing OM 2 loosely this year. There are about 20 chapters in each Arthur Bailey story, so we read one everyday.

[jazzyfizzle]

Hello and welcome. :seeya: We are Oak Meadow-ers also. Doing 1st and using partially for 6th/7th. We have tweaked just a bit. It is great how the program adapted easily to fit our specific situation.

[cindergretta]

Thank you. I think I am starting to figure out that my syllabus is older (2000) so maybe it is different?? Yikes. There doesn't seem to be much (anything??) in the way of science or social studies. I wonder if that will "pick up" as we move on.

 

I have some Delta science kits so that part isn't a problem, but I am always at such a loss for what to "do" for social studies. And even the math seems a little light. So it is a great program (from what I can tell so far, please correct me if you know more! LOL) for language arts and arts and crafts and music. Do I need something more current?

 

Maybe I just need to read and research some more.

 

(I just love the stories and feel of the program, kwim?)

[NanceXToo]

My syllabus is a 1998 edition and I love it. I don't feel like we're 'missing' out on anything. I wouldn't worry about it being an older version. There are some differences but nothing major that you'd be missing out on or anything.

 

There's a lot of integration in Oak Meadow. There may not seem like there's a lot of, say, social studies if you're looking for a lot of textbookish stuff. But they incorporate stories, hands on activities, discussion and so on. I can't speak about 2nd grade specifically but I know now for fifth our language arts and social studies programs are integrated a lot. We're doing reading relevant to our social studies learning. We're doing interesting writing assignments. We're doing some hands on projects. Vocabulary words and writing assignments are largely based on social studies. My daughter's loving the OM5 Environmental Science which has some reading, some writing, some hands on projects and experiments... we really enjoy it.

 

OM is not really about a lot of busy work or worksheets or textbooks so I guess it could come across as "lite" at first glance or to some people but I feel like my daughter really does learn a lot from it and retains a lot of what she learns as it is not presented in a dry, boring way, and does a lot of hands on things and reads things and answers interesting questions which lead to discussions that make it all seem kind of relevant to her I guess...

 

like for science, it was one thing to read about and talk about things that decompose and things that don't. But to go actually bury some things in our backyard for a few weeks and then dig them up again to examine them? That really brought it home for her.

 

It was easy to read about Jamestown, but to build a diorama of Jamestown using a shoebox lid and popsicle sticks to build little houses, that made it more fun for her.

 

OM is really good with things like that.

 

I am pretty sure K-2 are the years it deviates most widely from the 'norm' and pushes academics less and/or does it in more creative, hands on kind of ways, but me personally, that's one of the things I love about it.

 

You said you did a lot of research on it, and that you fell in love with it, and that you wish you knew about it years ago- (and it IS an accredited school ya know! :D) so don't be afraid to trust it. :)

 

I would suggest again that you join that OM forum I linked you to, there are a bunch of OM users there, including some that are using OM2 like you are and can answer more specific questions about that particular grade level.

 

Nance

[cindergretta]

I joined the forum you linked to last night. :D Thank you!! I am prone to worrying... I don't want to *not* use OM, I guess I just want to make sure I am using it to its best advantage.

 

Once I get the craft kit and can start on the lesson book and craft projects, I think I will feel more like we are doing something.

 

I really like it, I just need to get the hang of it.

 

Thank you for all the help!!!