has anyone used "Organic Homeschooling" a super laid back curriculum?

[mamakven]

its REALLY neat! http://www.organichomeschooling.com/ it costs $10 a month plus literature books and i'm buying it even though we aren't hsing my youngers right now. we'll do lit and stuff when they get home- its super laid back and it looks PERFECT for moms like me that never can seem to get it together :)

[mama27]

its REALLY neat! http://www.organichomeschooling.com/ it costs $10 a month plus literature books and i'm buying it even though we aren't hsing my youngers right now. we'll do lit and stuff when they get home- its super laid back and it looks PERFECT for moms like me that never can seem to get it together :)

 

 

What ages is this for?

[Guest submarines]

Sounds neat! And with the first month free, it is easy to try / explore.

[mamakven]

i believe its prek-12 and YES! request the sample month!!

[zenjenn]

That looks pretty antithetical to the whole classical method, but it's hard to tell since that web site gives virtually no information except a table of contents that looks pretty weak.

[mamakven]

I BELIEVE the website is in the process of being reworked, but i'm not sure... BUT you can send for an entire month sample, which gives you a good idea how it works. I wouldn't say its antithetical at all, though i'm clearly not a strict adherent to classical methods :tongue_smilie: I think that its a very DOABLE curriculum, particularily useful for those of us who are in a complicated time in life or have LOTS of kiddos :)

[stripe]

i believe its prek-12

as in 12 years old, not 12th grade

 

Also the table of contents (for what level?) shows learning the ABCs, so this would not help the parent of an older child understand what is being learned. Obviously it's only appropriate for US Christians, preferably in cold climates, as Christmas, Advent, and Winter are the topics for December, and other topics (Lewis & Clark, 4th of July, Pilgrims) are American in focus.

 

It's designed by the publisher of Homeschooling Today. http://www.homeschooltoday.com/

 

I wouldn't say its antithetical at all, though i'm clearly not a strict adherent to classical methods :tongue_smilie:

Clearly not:

The problem with most "academically rigorous" programs is that they attempt to duplicate institutional school in the home—the same subjects, the same materials, the same methods, the same timetable. This leads most families to burn out. "Seek first the kingdom, and all these things will be added to you."

http://www.organichomeschooling.com/faq.html

Edited August 28, 2011 by stripe

[Faithr]

There are different understandings of classical education. The Well Trained Mind as well as other homeschooling methods that bill themselves as classical because they focus on history are termed by some as 'neo-classical.' If you are an adherent of the Latin Classical Curriculum approach, you focus far more on learning classical languages. The Circe Institute has a different approach which does not see grammar, dialectical and rhetoric as corresponding to ages and also focuses more on experience rather than the 'parts' to whole' approach of neo-classical.

 

I have no idea about this curriculum. I just learned about it here! Just mentioning that there are broader and more varied understandings of what a classical education is. I don't see anything listed in the table of contents that would render it automatically antithetical to classical education.

[stripe]

I have no idea about this curriculum. I just learned about it here! Just mentioning that there are broader and more varied understandings of what a classical education is. I don't see anything listed in the table of contents that would render it automatically antithetical to classical education.

I in no way meant to suggest I have any idea what it's like, because very little information is given, only a statement against "academically rigorous" programs and a table of contents for very young children. The website seemed a little light on details so I couldn't say whether it's neat or interesting.

[zenjenn]

I don't see anything listed in the table of contents that would render it automatically antithetical to classical education.

 

Well, I'm not a card-carrying classical method homeschooler either, but fundamentally I think there's a philosophy shared by most on this forum that one lays a strong foundation of fundamental knowledge and then builds upon that foundation, layer by layer, based on what has been learned before.

 

The contents there seem to lay out a method that is topical not based upon a context of what has already been learned, but based upon seasons and the calendar year, plus an element of random selection. For example, the contents suggest studying George Washington as a central topic in February, presumably because Presidents' Day is in February. To make matters worse, the study of Medieval literature is thrown in. Why? No particular reason!

 

Typically an individual who subscribes to classical methods would reject this. George Washington would be studied in the context of a chronological study of history - that is, when one is studying the 18th century and colonial America. This isn't to say a classical homeschooler would never do side unit on Presidents' Day when the day came around, but I think the idea having George Washington be a central theme to the entire month of February because it is February, in spite of no study related to the time period in January or March, and then throw in Medieval literature to boot, would be an approach virtually everyone who posts here would reject.

 

I also do not see how this approach can be considered "organic". I kind of see it as the opposite. It reminds me of what is done in public school, which I consider rather contrived. For example, when my daughter studied was in public school, the class studied Johnny Appleseed ad nauseum in the month of September, presumably because apples are associated with fall and the month of September. The result appeared to me to be an extremely weak study of disassociated folklore, and in spite of talking about Johnny Appleseed several times a week all month long, there was no context, and my daughter retained nothing of value about American history or folklore.

 

In fact, the more I look at those contents, the more I think it is the worst of all worlds. It is certainly not classical, because there's no bottom-up design, but I also don't think it can be called "organic" in the way unschoolers might use the word, because it lays out a structure that is not interest-driven. It imposes a study of topics that eliminates an interest-driven approach, but the study it imposes appears to have very little rhyme or reason to it.

Edited August 28, 2011 by zenjenn

[Faithr]

All acquired knowledge has to hang on formerly acquired knowledge That happens naturally, it is the way humans learn no matter what your methodology might be called. So foundations are laid whether you unschool or are of a classical bent. The foundation laying though can be done naturally or it can be done systematically and that's where the classical approach comes in.

 

The points you make about the topics not having rhyme or reason to me illustrate two assumptions about learning. 1) that learning is more effective in context, so learning about George Washington while doing a comprehensive study of American history is better than just sort of a pot shot approach. But 2) this assumes a child can't make their own connections. I can see merit in the first approach, but I've also witnessed kids making all kinds of connections on their own in wonderful light bulb moments for them that really fuel a love for learning. The first approach can be overwhelming, often over teaches and can become drudgery often. Something to just get through without much joy or retention. Of course, all this depends on the student!

 

I think it is quite 'organic' to structure one's learning according to the seasons or holidays of the year. It is what the child is experiencing as he or she passes through time!

 

But again, I don't want to defend this curriculum (nor condemn it!) because I don't know anything about it! Just expressing a different point of view!

[swellmomma]

Well, I'm not a card-carrying classical method homeschooler either, but fundamentally I think there's a philosophy shared by most on this forum that one lays a strong foundation of fundamental knowledge and then builds upon that foundation, layer by layer, based on what has been learned before.

 

The contents there seem to lay out a method that is topical not based upon a context of what has already been learned, but based upon seasons and the calendar year, plus an element of random selection. For example, the contents suggest studying George Washington as a central topic in February, presumably because Presidents' Day is in February. To make matters worse, the study of Medieval literature is thrown in. Why? No particular reason!

 

Typically an individual who subscribes to classical methods would reject this. George Washington would be studied in the context of a chronological study of history - that is, when one is studying the 18th century and colonial America. This isn't to say a classical homeschooler would never do side unit on Presidents' Day when the day came around, but I think the idea having George Washington be a central theme to the entire month of February because it is February, in spite of no study related to the time period in January or March, and then throw in Medieval literature to boot, would be an approach virtually everyone who posts here would reject.

 

I also do not see how this approach can be considered "organic". I kind of see it as the opposite. It reminds me of what is done in public school, which I consider rather contrived. For example, when my daughter studied was in public school, the class studied Johnny Appleseed ad nauseum in the month of September, presumably because apples are associated with fall and the month of September. The result appeared to me to be an extremely weak study of disassociated folklore, and in spite of talking about Johnny Appleseed several times a week all month long, there was no context, and my daughter retained nothing of value about American history or folklore.

 

In fact, the more I look at those contents, the more I think it is the worst of all worlds. It is certainly not classical, because there's no bottom-up design, but I also don't think it can be called "organic" in the way unschoolers might use the word, because it lays out a structure that is not interest-driven. It imposes a study of topics that eliminates an interest-driven approach, but the study it imposes appears to have very little rhyme or reason to it.

 

Not to hijack the thread but I was cracking up over this example because that is what my ds8 is doing this september in our homeschool lol. While he will continue with his FLL, WWE and math, he likes to do themes right now so we are while still using sonlight for history. September is apples, so we are doing Johnny appleseed, going to an orchard to pick apples, baking apple pies, canning apple sauce and making apple butter. Doing crafts like apple print placemats etc. I couldn't help but :lol: over your example of something those on this forum would not do as it is exactly what I have planned out for September

[TracyR]

The idea sounds good. But honestly I can't tell much of anything about the curriculum from the website. Its poorly put together, and why do you need to email someone to get a free month? Why do they not put up a few weeks of free samples to give you an idea of what it is? All you got was a table of contents, that granted has ideas that are good, but nothing more to give you an idea of what the curriculum itself is like. Maybe if they fix up the website and give people more information, visual pictures and so forth of what the curriculum is like one could make more of an opinion of it.

I guess it would work for families who enjoyed themed studies. But there just isn't enough there to make a good opinion on.

 

It says it helps prevent burnout but , honestly, have you done themed units before? There is quite a bit or prep work. Granted even if it gives you the ideas you still need to get everything together to present the lesson. Not exactly a curriculum that would prevent burnout. LOL

Edited August 28, 2011 by TracyR

[mamakven]

The idea sounds good. But honestly I can't tell much of anything about the curriculum from the website. Its poorly put together, and why do you need to email someone to get a free month? Why do they not put up a few weeks of free samples to give you an idea of what it is? All you got was a table of contents, that granted has ideas that are good, but nothing more to give you an idea of what the curriculum itself is like. Maybe if they fix up the website and give people more information, visual pictures and so forth of what the curriculum is like one could make more of an opinion of it.

I guess it would work for families who enjoyed themed studies. But there just isn't enough there to make a good opinion on.

 

It says it helps prevent burnout but , honestly, have you done themed units before? There is quite a bit or prep work. Granted even if it gives you the ideas you still need to get everything together to present the lesson. Not exactly a curriculum that would prevent burnout. LOL

 

Because they are a busy homeschooling family of 8 children and i BELIEVE they also run the magazine, I get the impression they are pretty busy. The sample is also BIG, its a 20 something page pdf if i recall correctly...

[boscopup]

Because they are a busy homeschooling family of 8 children and i BELIEVE they also run the magazine, I get the impression they are pretty busy. The sample is also BIG, its a 20 something page pdf if i recall correctly...

 

Plenty of companies have 20+ page samples. That's not a big deal.

 

Is this person e-mailing the samples by hand or is it automated? If it's automated, it would have been just as quick, or quicker, to plop it up on the webpage (that takes literally a minute or two to do). If she's e-mailing them by hand, it's way quicker to put it on the website.

 

I don't like having to sign up on an e-mail for samples. There's just no good reason to have to do that these days. Usually they do that if they want to hook you on their e-mail list. No thanks.

 

No opinion on the curriculum, since I'm not e-mailing for a sample, but yeah, nothing on the website impressed me, since it tells me basically nothing about it. If she has 8 kids, surely one of them is old enough and computer savvy enough to do this work for her? I've run into this type of thing a lot in the homeschooling community locally. Cover schools and such will have horrible websites (often using freebie sites) with no good information on them, and then they expect me to pay them money? I don't think so. Websites are very easy to build and maintain these days. Cheap too!

[Mommy22alyns]

Plenty of companies have 20+ page samples. That's not a big deal.

 

Is this person e-mailing the samples by hand or is it automated? If it's automated, it would have been just as quick, or quicker, to plop it up on the webpage (that takes literally a minute or two to do). If she's e-mailing them by hand, it's way quicker to put it on the website.

 

I don't like having to sign up on an e-mail for samples. There's just no good reason to have to do that these days. Usually they do that if they want to hook you on their e-mail list. No thanks.

 

No opinion on the curriculum, since I'm not e-mailing for a sample, but yeah, nothing on the website impressed me, since it tells me basically nothing about it. If she has 8 kids, surely one of them is old enough and computer savvy enough to do this work for her? I've run into this type of thing a lot in the homeschooling community locally. Cover schools and such will have horrible websites (often using freebie sites) with no good information on them, and then they expect me to pay them money? I don't think so. Websites are very easy to build and maintain these days. Cheap too!

 

 

:iagree:

[Homeschooling6]

I looked at the samples and thought the schedule was nice. I am the kind of person who needs things scheduled out, otherwise they don't always get done;). I like the duck theme of the samples for the month of April. They are cute. The schedule is clean and uncluttered, another plus for me.

The sample I was sent looked to be for Pre-k to K students. It had learning letters but also copywork. Edited to add:Could be used for 1st grade too. Looks like they suggest MUS and if you were teaching a first grader you would omit the letter sounds and do more of the copywork, grammar and vocabulary. It wold just be a good idea if they put the age/grade levels on the website. There is also writing included (about a pragraph). {I haven't looked through the whole sample yet}

 

I do agree that the website could use a little more information. I didn't see what ages this is for. It would be nice if the samples were available on the website.

 

Looks fun to me!

Edited August 31, 2011 by Homeschooling6

[HejKatt]

I don't subscribe to the curriculum, and my experience with it is one sample they had in one of their magazine issues.

 

That said, I found one of their strengths was quality literature. Their monthly timetable pulled together beautiful picture books that I could find at the library, short poems and picture study.

 

Just my 0.02, I could see their model working for a larger family viewing the pictures and listening to the text together, then having the children narrate or describe the pictures. It would have to be paired with a strong math and science program at least.

[angela in ohio]

There are different understandings of classical education. The Well Trained Mind as well as other homeschooling methods that bill themselves as classical because they focus on history are termed by some as 'neo-classical.' If you are an adherent of the Latin Classical Curriculum approach, you focus far more on learning classical languages. The Circe Institute has a different approach which does not see grammar, dialectical and rhetoric as corresponding to ages and also focuses more on experience rather than the 'parts' to whole' approach of neo-classical.

 

I have no idea about this curriculum. I just learned about it here! Just mentioning that there are broader and more varied understandings of what a classical education is. I don't see anything listed in the table of contents that would render it automatically antithetical to classical education.

 

Even though there are different ideas of the specific implementations of classical education, there are certain underlying principles. Otherwise, the word is meaningless. It's not the case that anything and everything can be considered classical homeschooling.

 

I don't know that that is relevant to this curriculum being posted here or not, though. It is a unit study, and that is usually at the opposite end of the spectrum from classical education, but many things are posted here that aren't classical in nature.

 

I can't imagine paying $9.95 every month for this when you can get something similar, I assume, in one of the unit study guides published for elementary school teachers: book lists, monthly themed activities, etc.

[Homeschooling6]

Okay, found where it said this program can be used up to age 12. Now some of the assignments make more sense. At first I was thinking pre-k-1st grade.

 

Some of the book suggestions for mom to have on hand are Ruth Beechick books and the Handbook of Nature Study.

 

It would be nice if they had a book list on the site too :D

[Faithr]

HI Angela in Ohio!

 

I agree that the word classical is meaningless if certain underlying principles aren't the foundation of classical education. I think classical education has to have as its source and inspiration the teachings and philosophy of the classics! To me that would be classic languages, literature and the classical approach to discovering the Good, the Beautiful and the True. That approach involves depending on memory, Socratic discussion, with a conscientious emphasis on grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. However, you could do all that through unit studies! Even unschooling! Having a history rotation is not a hallmark of a classical education in the traditional sense. Yet that is what is emphasized in TWTM. TOG is like a glorified unit study and it is considered classical. If you examine Waldorf, many of the concepts used there can be traced to writings on education from Ancient Greeks/Middle Ages. The main lesson in Waldorf is also basically another name for a unit study! I've recently read a couple of books/essays by philosophers who embrace a very different approach to classical ed from TWTM. So the definition is broader than it may first appear.

 

I'm not knockiing TWTM either! I think it is a wonderful resource and I think SWB has done incredible things for homeschooling. I admire her very much. I think there are many variations; what makes education classical is its inspiration and its goals, but the methodology can be very different from one family to the next.

 

And I'm probably going on too long about this! Sorry! You're also right that this board is very generous and is willing to discuss other methods besides TWTM. There's a lot of synergy among all the different methods which is very inspiring to all homeschoolers. And I am glad this board is so broad minded that it understands that and is open to all discussion.

[4littleones]

There's a lot of synergy among all the different methods which is very inspiring to all homeschoolers. And I am glad this board is so broad minded that it understands that and is open to all discussion.

 

:iagree: Well said!

[mamakven]

I don't subscribe to the curriculum, and my experience with it is one sample they had in one of their magazine issues.

 

That said, I found one of their strengths was quality literature. Their monthly timetable pulled together beautiful picture books that I could find at the library, short poems and picture study.

 

Just my 0.02, I could see their model working for a larger family viewing the pictures and listening to the text together, then having the children narrate or describe the pictures. It would have to be paired with a strong math and science program at least.

 

YEP! that's my favorite part and one of the parts i'm pulling out to use for afterschooling my kiddos...

[mamakven]

I suppose I should have specified that its not specifically classical in nature, Honestly, i didn't even think of it, because while tend to pull a lot of things from TWTM, i'm really not a strict classical adherent, i lean more toward Charlotte mason, but really like the organization of TWTM. Anyway, i didn't mean to start an argument :) i just thought this could be a really good curriculum for some particular circumstances.