Who uses Oak Meadow?

[mo2]

I'm thinking about a boxed curriculum for next year, and I'm considering Oak Meadow (vs Sonlight). Can you share your likes/dislikes for OM? What does a typical day look like? I'm probably going to buy 3rd or 4th grade.

[Guest Cindie2dds]

This is the 3rd grade package. Here's 3rd grade broken down into what is covered over the three trimesters. You can get a real feeling for what is covered. There is a sample on the page of the last link you can click on to see an entire week, which is exactly the same in the actually curriculum. If you like it, you'll like the curriculum.

 

4th grade is where a lot more writing is required of the student than most other "boxed" curricula I've seen. I would call OM if you have any specific questions. They will get a Syllabus of anything you are interested in out and go through it step-by-step with you over the phone. This is how I decided which grade to use.

 

Sonlight vs OM (my reasons) ~ We did Sonlight's Preschool Cores before moving to OM. I liked the book selections from Sonlight's PreK cores a lot. I use them for my 4 year old now. Why I switched ~ I didn't like the amount of books Sonlight had and some of the selections. I felt rushed through the books. I also wanted to have guidance on nature study, art of all kinds and fun projects related to nature. I didn't want a grid-type TM like Sonlight's; I like OM's weekly schedule much better. Although, this is one thing a lot of people love about Sonlight's complete box. I feel OM is more complete for the child, especially on an emotional and tactile level.

 

All of the above is my opinion. Take it with a pound of salt and toss appropriately. ;)

[StephanieF]

Anyone blogging 3rd grade OM?

Stephanie

[Closeacademy]

I will be blogging about about 3rd grade OM starting in January. Now the syllabus I am using is from '99 but I have my lesson plans available for free download so you can see what I am doing under the 3rd grade tab or my download tab on my blog.

 

We did 2nd & 5th this past year. We started in January and finished up last week. It was the best homeschool year yet for us. I added Rod and Staff math, SWR, Scott-Forsman language arts and lapbooks. It was very unstressful. I felt like we were covering everything that needed to be covered and that we made a lot of progress.

 

If you go through my weekly review and Oak Meadow posts on my blog you can see how we used it throughout the year.:001_smile:

[NanceXToo]

I used OM4 last year, and I'm currently on Week 12 of OM5 for this year.

 

I STARTED OMK this year too but after about two months decided we'd be better off holding off on that until next year for now.

 

I absolutely love OM though!

 

If you click on the link in my signature, it will bring you to my livejournal where I journal about our days with OM... there's a sidebar on the left with various links and one of them says "Detailed 4th Grade Schedule Sample, Oak"

 

...actually, here's the link directly to that:

 

http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/126472.html

 

It shows what a week was like for us with OM, includes some pictures, and at the bottom of the entry there's a link that goes to our first day of using OM4 and from there you can hit 'next' as many times as you want to skim through and see what OM4 was like for us.

 

Hope this helps!

[ondreeuh]

We're using OM 4, loosely. It's a very different type of scheduling than Sonlight. With SL, your schedule grid tells you which pages of each book to use each day. Discussion questions are filed separately by book and many people end up ignoring them and just using the grid as a quick checklist of what to read. It's a LOT of reading each day.

 

With Oak Meadow, you have no checklist of what to read. Instead, you have a section in the syllabus for each week that includes objectives for each subject. OM 3 includes math in the main syllabus but it's separate in OM 4. There is no "spine" because the syllabus either gives you the information or tells you want to research. It doesn't tell you which pages of each literature book to read each day; it tells you which weeks to read it (2-4 weeks per book) and which week to do your report. There is more teaching included in OM - I mean, it gives the parents info on how to teach various skills, and is heavy on games and activities to reinforce. There are NO worksheets. There is more of a traditional scope and sequence as far as "social studies" goes because they are an accredited school. The SS and science are integrated which is really cool. In OM 4 you start studying your local history, with nature walks, observation and recording information. You research the animals and plants that lived in your area (through library books, websites, or visits to a nature center), and then move into a study of seeds. Instead of telling you to read a book about seeds, it asks you to examine seeds from various plants, draw them, and sprout them. The syllabus gives you the info to teach to the child.

 

I think SL works well for parents who are box-checkers and want everything at hand (I believe it began as a program for missionaries who didn't have access to extra resources), and for kids who are fast readers and don't like or need hands-on stuff. I think OM works well for parents who want guidance but flexibility, and for kids who learn better through hands-on activities than through listening to books (and OM would argue that learning through doing/real life application is more developmentally appropriate than just learning through books). With OM there is plenty of room to add other programs for reinforcement.

 

I say I use OM 4 loosely because I use it as a guide of what to cover each week but I also use a lot of other resources. OM said to study a local Native American tribe, write a report, and make a model village. And they don't mean for you to put together a Dover cut & paste village, they want you to build it yourself. We made a house out of popsicle sticks, wove a blanket, created a totem pole and wrote out the story about it, and are about to carve a canoe out of a soft wood from a boy scout kit. I use other programs for LA and science because my son needs needs lots of review and reinforcement, so I skim the OM objectives for science and LA and use the activities to review. I use a different program for math and don't even own the math syllabus. So for me, OM is both a jumping-off point and a source for reinforcement. This works for me :)

Edited November 23, 2010 by ondreeuh

[AngelBee]

Taking notes...

[Guest Cindie2dds]

I say I use OM 4 loosely because I use it as a guide of what to cover each week but I also use a lot of other resources. <snip> So for me, OM is both a jumping-off point and a source for reinforcement. This works for me :)

 

Well said. I think this is the beauty of it. It's complete, so if you're having a rough week, you can do just what's in there and be done. It's light enough to enjoy rabbit trails without being rushed.

[AngieW in Texas]

I used Sonlight for Cores K-100 for my two older girls. My youngest followed along. However, my two older girls were voracious readers and my youngest is dyslexic. She can read at grade level now, but it isn't something that she likes to do. She didn't like the way that SL had us reading out of 4 or 5 books at the same time. When I tried fixing that by reading more each day from single books so that we read books A,B,C,D one at a time rather than than reading bits from each every day, she didn't like that either. It made her get the sequencing of the events confused because the books overlapped one another.

 

OM works much better for my youngest.

 

I don't like the way that SL does the high school level Cores. I like their Core 100, but I don't think it's high school level. I think it's perfect for 8th grade. I switch my girls to Oak Meadow starting with 9th grade. I like their biology program and I'm planning to use their chemistry program next year. I don't like their physics program because they use Saxon.

[unity]

NanceXToo, what a great blog! Thank you for sharing. Your full descriptions with pictures helped me visualize how this would work in our family. I think OM might be a very happy switch for my youngers next year.

Edited November 23, 2010 by unity

[Guest Cindie2dds]

NanceXToo, what a great blog! Thank you for sharing. Your full descriptions with pictures helped me visualize how this would work in our family. I think OM might be a very happy switch for my youngers next year.

 

Oh, we had so much fun with K last year! I have to say, I am really excited about doing it with my youngest next fall as well. :D

[mo2]

Thank you all. One thing I was wondering about is this: My dd8 is (unofficially but suspected) dyslexic. She does not read at grade level (nowhere near). How would this work with OM? Would she still be able to do their LA, or would I have to use another program entirely? I mean, I would hate to spend the money on OM and then have to spend a bunch more money on other programs to supplement.

[mo2]

I used OM4 last year, and I'm currently on Week 12 of OM5 for this year.

 

I STARTED OMK this year too but after about two months decided we'd be better off holding off on that until next year for now.

 

I absolutely love OM though!

 

If you click on the link in my signature, it will bring you to my livejournal where I journal about our days with OM... there's a sidebar on the left with various links and one of them says "Detailed 4th Grade Schedule Sample, Oak"

 

...actually, here's the link directly to that:

 

http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/126472.html

 

It shows what a week was like for us with OM, includes some pictures, and at the bottom of the entry there's a link that goes to our first day of using OM4 and from there you can hit 'next' as many times as you want to skim through and see what OM4 was like for us.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Thanks so much. I am enjoying looking at your blog.

[mo2]

So am I understanding correctly that the OM guides tell you HOW to teach the topics, i.e., is it written out for you how to explain what the parts of speech are, or how to multiply, divide, etc? Because there aren't workbooks or textbooks really, right? All the instruction is in the TM?

[ondreeuh]

The LA is not specifically tied to any particular book. OM includes books that generally appeal to children in each grade, but the syllabi clearly say that if the reading level is too difficult for your child you should have them read something else at their level and use the suggested book as a read-aloud. My son is also dyslexic and we took turns reading Stuart Little, but I had to do all the reading for The Search for Delicious. He read a high-interest/easier level chapter book instead, and now we are on to reading Heidi. I bought a version (Classic Starts) that is adapted for children so he is able to read it himself. OM includes a list of recommended books at the back of the syllabus, and they say you can call them to ask for a rec.

 

The LA activities in OM 4 have so far focused on grammar and mechanics, and include activities like color-coding words according to their part of speech and building silly sentences, and having the parent write a bunch of run-on sentences so the kid can fix the punctuation. The kids write in a daily journal. After each book there is a book report or alternate activity. For Stuart Little, my son pretended he was Stuart and wrote a letter to his family telling them his adventures. We actually skipped the project in The Search for Delicious because we were hitting other subjects pretty heavy and I wanted to keep moving forward. OM is a guide and you don't have to do everything.

 

All this to say, if the content of the grade is appropriate, don't worry about the reading. On the other hand, since OM is flexible you can "beef up" the content on a younger grade if you would rather wait for your daughter to get to the heavier reading & writing load. Is your dd a 3rd grader? OM 3 would probably be very good for her because not too much writing is expected and you can buy a little time before getting into the bigger books.

[mo2]

The LA is not specifically tied to any particular book. OM includes books that generally appeal to children in each grade, but the syllabi clearly say that if the reading level is too difficult for your child you should have them read something else at their level and use the suggested book as a read-aloud. My son is also dyslexic and we took turns reading Stuart Little, but I had to do all the reading for The Search for Delicious. He read a high-interest/easier level chapter book instead, and now we are on to reading Heidi. I bought a version (Classic Starts) that is adapted for children so he is able to read it himself. OM includes a list of recommended books at the back of the syllabus, and they say you can call them to ask for a rec.

 

The LA activities in OM 4 have so far focused on grammar and mechanics, and include activities like color-coding words according to their part of speech and building silly sentences, and having the parent write a bunch of run-on sentences so the kid can fix the punctuation. The kids write in a daily journal. After each book there is a book report or alternate activity. For Stuart Little, my son pretended he was Stuart and wrote a letter to his family telling them his adventures. We actually skipped the project in The Search for Delicious because we were hitting other subjects pretty heavy and I wanted to keep moving forward. OM is a guide and you don't have to do everything.

 

All this to say, if the content of the grade is appropriate, don't worry about the reading. On the other hand, since OM is flexible you can "beef up" the content on a younger grade if you would rather wait for your daughter to get to the heavier reading & writing load. Is your dd a 3rd grader? OM 3 would probably be very good for her because not too much writing is expected and you can buy a little time before getting into the bigger books.

 

Thank you. Yes, she is a 3rd grader. I would probably go ahead and start with 3rd grade, even though it is midway through the year. A lot of reviews I have read say there isn't enough guidance for the parent. Do you find this to be true? For instance, I have read that they will tell you WHAT to teach but not HOW to teach it. (Does that make sense the way I wrote it?)

 

And regarding the younger grades: How does OM teach a child to read? Do they include a phonics program?

 

Thank you again.

[Guest Cindie2dds]

Thank you. Yes, she is a 3rd grader. I would probably go ahead and start with 3rd grade, even though it is midway through the year. A lot of reviews I have read say there isn't enough guidance for the parent. Do you find this to be true? For instance, I have read that they will tell you WHAT to teach but not HOW to teach it. (Does that make sense the way I wrote it?)

 

And regarding the younger grades: How does OM teach a child to read? Do they include a phonics program?

 

Thank you again.

 

It does make sense, but there's not a lot of detailed day-to-day instruction. There is a word group book in OM 1 (like "AG, OT, CH"). To be quite honest, I haven't looked into how they teach phonics because my oldest was reading before we even did K. My youngest isn't even close to that, so I'll have to delve more into it then. I do want to encourage you to call them. I asked several questions about how to teach certain things once I got the Syllabus in. I also want to warn you it's not instruction intensive. They want you and the child to explore things together, not tell you "how" to do it. I know that's not what you're wanting to hear, but that's been my experience. That's also the beauty of the program, which will be wonderfully freeing for some and excruciatingly painful for others. :lol:

[mo2]

That's also the beauty of the program, which will be wonderfully freeing for some and excruciatingly painful for others. :lol:

 

Hmm.. I wonder which category I will fall into.

 

How did you *know* that OM was right for you? Or did you have reservations when you bought it? What led you to it?

[Guest Cindie2dds]

Hmm.. I wonder which category I will fall into.

 

How did you *know* that OM was right for you? Or did you have reservations when you bought it? What led you to it?

 

Well, I fall into both. :lol: What led me to OM was the nature exploration and natural crafts. So many of the curricula out there seemed to have really low-quality arts/crafts. The materials OM uses each grade are very, very nice. Their watercolor paper is amazing, using 3 colors only has been great for my girls to really understand color. They had no problem tie-dying when they only had three colors. They still easily created a rainbow. Most of the crafts are garden/animal related or real life, as in knitting, crocheting, woodworking, etc. I always have reservations. I breathe; therefore I tweak. ;)

 

Seriously, it's great for what it is. I wouldn't do the hands-on at all if it weren't for them. I'm not that motivated or crafty. I do also like CM. We use other History since OM is light (purposefully) in the lower grades. We also use other LAs (to bring in poetry, copywork, etc. ~ this is for me, you don't have to). We do Miquon and Saxon math. We still read the stories from OM LAs and math exercises. I know it sounds like we don't use OM, but we do. It frees me up to do other things as well. I had a really hard time choosing between a Charlotte Mason and Oak Meadow. I don't now because I like them both for different reasons.

 

By the way, OM is complete and accredited. You don't have to tweak anything, I just don't think I could ever help myself and not tweak.

[ondreeuh]

A lot of reviews I have read say there isn't enough guidance for the parent. Do you find this to be true? For instance, I have read that they will tell you WHAT to teach but not HOW to teach it.

 

Yes, it is true that there isn't a lot of guidance. The syllabus does tell you what to cover and give you an overview, but a lot of the learning comes through working through the concepts with your child. On the upside, this makes it extremely adaptable because you can move at your child's pace and interest level. On the downside, because there aren't worksheets or assessments, the parent has to judge how deep to go and how much reinforcement to give. Some kids like mine need a LOT of reinforcement and so I add a lot to OM because I don't think it's enough on its own.

 

I am in my third year of homeschooling. In my first and second year, OM would have scared me because I would have wanted something more explicit. Now that I feel like I'm in my groove, I'm comfortable using OM as a guide. We do all the social studies, but we also are memorizing states & capitals. We do the science but also do Singapore MPH because ds loves science and I like MPH's approach. We do some of the LA activities as reinforcement but rely on CLE for most of our LA, and only use CLE for math. DS is not really artsy but I do really like their art instruction and keep meaning to do more of it with him.

[Guest Cindie2dds]

Yes, it is true that there isn't a lot of guidance. The syllabus does tell you what to cover and give you an overview, but a lot of the learning comes through working through the concepts with your child. On the upside, this makes it extremely adaptable because you can move at your child's pace and interest level. On the downside, because there aren't worksheets or assessments, the parent has to judge how deep to go and how much reinforcement to give. Some kids like mine need a LOT of reinforcement and so I add a lot to OM because I don't think it's enough on its own.

 

I am in my third year of homeschooling. In my first and second year, OM would have scared me because I would have wanted something more explicit. Now that I feel like I'm in my groove, I'm comfortable using OM as a guide. We do all the social studies, but we also are memorizing states & capitals. We do the science but also do Singapore MPH because ds loves science and I like MPH's approach. We do some of the LA activities as reinforcement but rely on CLE for most of our LA, and only use CLE for math. DS is not really artsy but I do really like their art instruction and keep meaning to do more of it with him.

 

Well said, especially the bolded. :)

[NanceXToo]

NanceXToo, what a great blog! Thank you for sharing. Your full descriptions with pictures helped me visualize how this would work in our family. I think OM might be a very happy switch for my youngers next year.

 

Cool, glad it is helpful! I'm sure you will enjoy it, it's a great curriculum!

 

So am I understanding correctly that the OM guides tell you HOW to teach the topics, i.e., is it written out for you how to explain what the parts of speech are, or how to multiply, divide, etc? Because there aren't workbooks or textbooks really, right? All the instruction is in the TM?

 

No workbooks, no worksheets, no textbooks- in 4th and 5th grades, there is usually a short lesson or amount of text right in the syllabus written to the student and bolded activities telling you what assignments to do. And yes if one of the assignments is to write sentences using verbs for instance, it will tell what a verb is and show examples of how verbs are used and will give specific assignments pertaining to working with verbs and so on.

 

Thank you. Yes, she is a 3rd grader. I would probably go ahead and start with 3rd grade, even though it is midway through the year. A lot of reviews I have read say there isn't enough guidance for the parent. Do you find this to be true? For instance, I have read that they will tell you WHAT to teach but not HOW to teach it. (Does that make sense the way I wrote it?)

 

And regarding the younger grades: How does OM teach a child to read? Do they include a phonics program?

 

Thank you again.

 

I think starting with 3rd is a good idea, she doesn't sound ready for 4th from what you described (writing assignments and whatnot do get more in depth in 4th and 5th and so on). Honestly, I did not find that there wasn't enough guidance- I thought it was just right. Many things, where necessary, they do tell you (or the student) exactly what to do and their activities and assignments are pretty specific. I mean it's not like scripted or anything, but I was certainly never floundering going "how do I teach this?" I think it will be fine!

 

K introduces the upper case letters of the alphabet in hands on ways. 1st grade does upper AND lower case letters of the alphabet and then starts doing vowel sounds and word families and consonant blends etc, and comes with easy readers...

 

How did you *know* that OM was right for you? Or did you have reservations when you bought it? What led you to it?

 

A friend of mine was using OM and I had the opportunity to see the Kindergarten curriculum and I fell in love with it. It was just exactly what Kindergarten SHOULD be like in my opinion and I wished that my daughter (who went to public school for K) had had something like that for her K, and I knew that when the time came, I wanted that for my son.

 

I looked on their website and liked what I read about their philosophy and their older grades, too. I wanted something fun, creative, hands on, gentle and not so academic in the earliest years and so on.

 

I lucked out finding a GREAT deal on a used set of OM from grades K all the way up through grade 8- it was an older version but the price was too good too pass up, and when I got it, I started OM4 with my daughter that year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

I looked forward to moving on to OM5 this year and to starting OMK. But then I decided (well, my son decided too lol) that he would be better off waiting a while longer to do a K curriculum, so I'll try again with him next fall.

 

But no, I've had no reservations whatsoever! I'm very happy with OM, we're really enjoying it, it's not boring, and I can see that my daughter is learning lots. :)