Sonlight vs. Oak Meadow

[Bramble Patch Academy]

I have a 5 year old DS and a 4 year old DD. I have purchased (used) Oak Meadow 1 and Oak Meadow K for them for this school year. I saw how teacher intensive they were and decided to combine. But then I had trouble deciding which to combine them in. I started thinking about Sonlight again, specifically P4/5.

 

I LOVE the thought process behind OM, but in all honesty, I do feel the need to supplement the Math and LA because I can't get behind delaying those as they suggest. In the long term, combining looks to be difficult. With Sonlight, my concerns are 1) the choppiness I read about in reveiws and 2) the sheer amount of reading. Personally, I am an avid reader. I want my kids to love reading, too...but both are wiggle worms, although I know it is the age.

 

I don't want to curriculum hop every year, I really don't. I fully plan as a personal goal to stick with what we choose this year for three years. I am just so torn. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Device

[mhaddon]

I was going to go with OM, but was worried I would end up adding and changing so much I decided against it. My children are close in ages, but still that many different levels worried me.

 

When my oldest was in K we did S: P4/5 and loved it. I am excited to read them again! I may stick with SL until they are old enough to combine into MFW and until HS may switch out to MFW, just because I have 4 close in age and I don't want to run too many history programs.

 

I did order the new P4/5 guide because it looks like the LA may have improved (K)

 

ETA: The books are not to babyish for even my 7 year old. I say he will listen in again :)

[Bramble Patch Academy]

I was going to go with OM, but was worried I would end up adding and changing so much I decided against it. My children are close in ages, but still that many different levels worried me.

 

When my oldest was in K we did S: P4/5 and loved it. I am excited to read them again! I may stick with SL until they are old enough to combine into MFW and until HS may switch out to MFW, just because I have 4 close in age and I don't want to run too many history programs.

 

I did order the new P4/5 guide because it looks like the LA may have improved (K)

 

ETA: The books are not to babyish for even my 7 year old. I say he will listen in again :)

 

Thats just it for me. I am adding HWT, ETC/BOB Books, and Singapore Math to the OM, which defeats the idea behind the method. Essentially, I would be using the read-alouds, social studies, science, and art.

[KAM]

We use SL but I don't know too much about OM. So-

 

Choppiness- I think this is more a problem with the early Cores. I am going to do P 4/5 with my 4 y.o. this fall but we will just read through the books without the guide. It sounds like the guide breaks up the books into ridiculously small portions. Core A might be like this too, I don't know. I have used Core B, C, and D and don't find them to be at all choppy.

 

There is a lot of reading, compared to some other curriculums. But I don't think it is more reading than if we were doing exactly what TWTM recommends. Even doing 2 Cores, it has been very manageable, though my three that have been doing it are older, so they have been reading more independently.

 

We have the wiggles too. Some of the read-aloud assignments are long. I let the kids do Legos, blocks, color, etc. as long as they can tell me what we read about at the end.

[Dinsfamily]

Yes, it is usually P4/5 and A that get the choppiness feedback. I've used P4/5 for K twice now and love it. My 8 yr even declared that I was not allowed to read some of the books without him this last year. I get around the choppiness by using the grid horizontally instead of vertically for some books. However, the more I use SL and the more cores I have going, the more vertical I have become. The key is the use the schedule however it fits you.

 

I think P4/5 is good for wiggly dc. Most of the readings are short and all are entertaining. As my ds closed in on 6yo, he was much better at sitting for the longer stories and usually asking for more.

 

I really think SL has given my 3 older boys a love for reading that I would have had trouble duplicating by myself. Ds8 started taking the read alouds to bed in Core A after I'd declare I was done for the night. That led him to reading more and more as the weeks passed. My 6yo has followed suit and the 3yo is begging to learn how to read so he can read books by himself too. (Unfortunately for him, he isn't quite ready for that.)

 

I can't compare with Oak Meadow, though.

[mhaddon]

with core 4/5 my K son actually begged for more reading than called for. He easily sat through the Chronicals of Narnia in preschool without blinking an eye so maybe he is different than most... I have a feeling we will fly through 4/5 again with my other son and then move onto A in his K year.

[StartingOver]

For P 4/5 & K I just tossed the IG's, and enjoyed the books with the kids over and over sometimes. I could not take the chopiness in the early cores but loved the selections. The kids have learned a ton, even when I wasn't sure they were listening at all, the proof would show up in their play.

[ChandlerMom]

Well, let me come to you at this from a different perspective. I started with a classical, rigorous academics approach and NOW that I have 4 years of that under my belt am I embracing what OM has to offer. We've been using OM for about 6mo, and for my kids OM has brought a real joyfulness and engagement with learning.

 

Yes, K-2 are at a much slower pace, but by 3rd/4th it's just as rigorous as a "standard curriculum". So, you get to the same point. Academically the main point of K-2 should learning to read and basic math. I will say that most of the stuff they delay (like punctuation) is learned much more quickly later on.

 

My kids are highly accelerated, but when I started doing OM2 with my 7yo I found my 9yo loved doing it with her, even though she'd completed a 4th grade LA program 18 mo ago and enjoys solving algebraic equations "for fun". I just added depth and let them work together. She can tell you about codons and mRNA, but that does mean she doesn't like just looking at a flower. ;)

 

You could probably use the OM K curric with both kids, maybe add some extra phonics if you felt the need or extra math practice and have a pretty solid year. But, honestly if you feel the need to be using it grade(s) ahead and add on tons of other curricula, OM may not be a good fit for you and you might do better just trying to incorporate some of the ideas that appeal to you?

 

BTW, I add math, MCT, latin, and unit studies on history/science topics that interest us, so I'm not opposed to tweaking. Ironically, my 2nd dd is only a couple months behind her sisters pace with far less encouragement from me and their 3yo brother has the Waldorf poster childhood and is already reading. It is truly humbling to realize how little my efforts seem to matter. :lol:

 

[ETA: Sounds like maybe you don't really *trust* the OM approach, which I understand and to be honest I don't know that I would have if I'd heard of OM at the start. But fwiw, knowing what I know now, I do. Partly because I believe that if a child learns to think and loves to learn that any gaps of deficits in FACTS can be easily remedied (plus everything they need to know gets repeated so many times). At the same time, there's no one perfect curricula or method out there. :D]

Edited July 2, 2012 by ChandlerMom

[LearnLaughLove]

Well, let me come to you at this from a different perspective. I started with a classical, rigorous academics approach and NOW that I have 4 years of that under my belt am I embracing what OM has to offer. We've been using OM for about 6mo, and for my kids OM has brought a real joyfulness and engagement with learning.

 

Yes, K-2 are at a much slower pace, but by 3rd/4th it's just as rigorous as a "standard curriculum". So, you get to the same point. Academically the main point of K-2 should learning to read and basic math. I will say that most of the stuff they delay (like punctuation) is learned much more quickly later on.

 

My kids are highly accelerated, but when I started doing OM2 with my 7yo I found my 9yo loved doing it with her, even though she'd completed a 4th grade LA program 18 mo ago and enjoys solving algebraic equations "for fun". I just added depth and let them work together. She can tell you about codons and mRNA, but that does mean she doesn't like just looking at a flower. ;)

 

You could probably use the OM K curric with both kids, maybe add some extra phonics if you felt the need or extra math practice and have a pretty solid year. But, honestly if you feel the need to be using it a couple grades ahead and add on tons of other curricula, OM probably isn't a good fit for you and you might do better just trying to incorporate some of the ideas that appeal to you.

 

BTW, I add math, MCT, latin, and unit studies on history/science topics that interest us, so I'm not opposed to tweaking. Ironically, my 2nd dd is only a couple months behind her sisters pace with far less encouragement from me and their 3yo brother has the Waldorf poster childhood and is already reading. It is truly humbling to realize how little my efforts seem to matter. :lol:

 

I had planned on adding ETC for phonics as my older is reading (mostly self taught thanks to Leap Frog, lol) and my younger knows all her letters and sounds. And for math, just using Singapore. Everything else would be OM.

 

ETA: we will be doing OM1, not K.

Edited July 2, 2012 by LearnLaughLove

[FairyMom]

I have a 5 year old DS and a 4 year old DD. I have purchased (used) Oak Meadow 1 and Oak Meadow K for them for this school year. I saw how teacher intensive they were and decided to combine. But then I had trouble deciding which to combine them in. I started thinking about Sonlight again, specifically P4/5.

 

I LOVE the thought process behind OM, but in all honesty, I do feel the need to supplement the Math and LA because I can't get behind delaying those as they suggest. In the long term, combining looks to be difficult. With Sonlight, my concerns are 1) the choppiness I read about in reveiws and 2) the sheer amount of reading. Personally, I am an avid reader. I want my kids to love reading, too...but both are wiggle worms, although I know it is the age.

 

I don't want to curriculum hop every year, I really don't. I fully plan as a personal goal to stick with what we choose this year for three years. I am just so torn. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Device

 

 

Sent you a pm. :)

[ChandlerMom]

I had planned on adding ETC for phonics as my older is reading (mostly self taught thanks to Leap Frog, lol) and my younger knows all her letters and sounds. And for math, just using Singapore. Everything else would be OM.

 

ETA: we will be doing OM1, not K.

 

I am in no position to sound like an OM purist -- my plans for this summer involve using OM 1 concurrently with all three kids (9, 7, 3), which requires significant tweaking. <remove details lest hijack thread> FWIW I was surprised at how nice the gentle review of phonics was for my ads, even tho they were reading (and needed a different program for their main one).

Edited July 2, 2012 by ChandlerMom

[Bramble Patch Academy]

I have both IGs/TMs sitting and have done lesson plans for the first week of both. Looking at them both at first glance, SL looks "meatier".

[ChandlerMom]

I have both IGs/TMs sitting and have done lesson plans for the first week of both. Looking at them both at first glance, SL looks "meatier".

 

That is probably true. But the measure of a program isn't how much content they expose your child to or even how many skills they teach your child in a year. It is how well they educate your child in the long haul. DIfferent styles have very different ideas about how to do that. SL is more heavily "front loaded" than OM. OM is betting that if you develop a child's creativity and enthusiasm and make them love learning they will be more enthusiastic and prepared for the "hard stuff" later.

 

Classical front-loaded programs can be very effective -- my eldest absorbed they 4th grade classical ed by mid-2nd grade and did well. She excelled. But she also tells me frequently that she wishes she'd been able to learn the way her sister is, who is probably a few months less accelerated in skills than her older sister, but enjoying herself a lot more.

 

Now, that is just two kids, and every kid is different. My eldest would have succeeded with either approach. My middle child would have not have done as well with the front-loaded approach -- she's just not the same kind of kid.

 

It's scary to choose a slower path. Is your child going to fall behind? Especially when you hear about some other kid studying 3 languages and 2 sciences, and tons of extracurriculars. But then I read my school district's guidelines breaking down how commas are supposed to be taught over 5 years, and OM's stance that they don't teach reading analog clocks until 3rd grade because "they are a manmade device and unnecessary to understand concept of time" starts making sense (I had already come to that conclusion on my own the hard way discovering teaching telling time on clocks takes years if taught early or 15min if you wait until a child is ready and knows things like, multiples of 5).

 

Personally, I think that in the K-2 years, any program that teaches a child to read, understand the relationship of the basic operations of math in the world, and encourages a joyful and inquisitive spirit towards learning is probably effective and "meaty" enough. Maybe throw in some handwriting.

 

A lot of programs don't start grammar/spelling/writing until 3rd grade understanding the need to get those basic skills down. Science and history are often just repeated content (3-4 times).

 

Anyway, there isn't one right choice, or a best curricula out there. We each have to make the best choice we can for our own family. I wish you all the best in your decision. Whatever you decide, remember you are at the beginning of a long journey, the destination is far ahead, and your course is not unalterable (i.e. days of 2nd guessing are never over, :lol:). Enjoy the ride! :D

[isitnaptime]

If you decide on SL P4/5, you can still follow the IG, just a different way! It makes more sense when you can see it but I will explain, you have probably heard this before.

Instead of going down the columns (one for each day) you read across them. So, if there is a book schedules for pages 1-4 on monday and 5-7 on wednesday and 8-10 on friday, you would read pages 1-10 on Monday. Then just continue as far as it seems like you would need to to accomplish the week in time. This way makes it much less choppy.