persephone43 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I was looking through this site and I stumbled upon Oak Meadow...well re-stumbled...I remember years ago thinking this looked pretty cool for a boxed curriculum if I ever chose to home school again and go that route. Last time I home schooled I followed TWTM pretty closely...but this was with my dd who is very different than my son (who is a soon to be 5th grader). I was thinking about doing things more relaxed, eclectic, hands-on with him but this "most everything we need in one place" curriculum appeals to me since I will be working as well as teaching. Has your experience with this been positive? What do you like/not like about OM? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 You can get samples which could help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 I've looked at samples and they look great but I guess more specific questions are: is the math section a spiral or mastery approach? Is the science hands-on (does it have good quality experiments to go along with the lessons)? Could the history be easily supplemented with SOTW (which I really love). Are there any major gaps anywhere in this curriculum? Because I also work, the thought of a boxed curriculum appeals to me this go-around but I don't want to short change his education in any way. I'm sure we would still supplement here and there...I just don't want to pay the heafty price of this curriculum if we have to fill in *too* many gaps. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceFairy Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 We used K and 1 earlier this year. It was not a fit for us. Too gentle in math and language arts for us and my kids came to loathe the fairy tales. But I understand grades 4 and up are totally different...thorough, in depth, and fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pippi Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 We've purchased Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade Oak Meadow. Pros: I like the Waldorf aesthetic, especially for the early years. (Natural materials, slow pace, simple pleasures of daily life and household work) Everything is very beautiful and poetic. It's still really great for my daughter who is 6. I have friends who used Oak Meadow for their daughters (who are now grown; one a teacher, one in law school) and they loved it. My kids love the stories and fairy tales. I bought it used on eBay and am planning to resell it, so it really didn't cost anything. Cons: My son is now almost 8, and doesn't love drawing. This curriculum is ALL based on drawing (drawing stories, drawing science, drawing math problems), so it no longer works. He wants an actual Math workbook with problems to solve. Oak Meadow just has the student draw pictures of squirrels dividing up their nuts. We never did much with knitting or recorder. My son wasn't really interested. It's not really that rigorous in terms of learning to read, write, spell, do math. (I liked that in the early grades, but we're transitioning to wanting to do more.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Well my son is an artist, so the drawing part may work. I wonder if that continues in the upper levels. Maybe I need to look at the samples more closely. Thank you for the response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winoelle Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 We are using OM5 this year and really loving it. We did not use the younger years, and whenever anyone describes them they sound very different from what we have, so I think there is a change. I do not use the language arts portion because we were already really happy with what we were doing. My dd11 loves the history and science which is what we use. The history could be supplemented by extra reading, we are big readers so we do that here. As an example, yesterday we were reading about colonial children. We have been watching "Liberty Kids", reading books about daily life from the library, and Oak Meadow had her make a doll or whittle a figure, play a colonial game, make butter and sourdough bread. This particular lesson has a lot of activities, they aren't all like that. Sometimes she writes an essay, sometimes she needs to go do research, there are art options. She loves that often she has choices of assignments. Now for science, it is similar. There is reading, questions, and a variety of activities to choose from. I choose to add to the science, following the same topics, because we really love it. It is not necessary though, the reading in the lessons, along with the research they assign is pretty complete. I can't answer the math questions because we don't use it. Math is a struggle here and I was afraid that switching to yet another curriculum would set us back. Sorry if this isn't very coherent, I am typing on the iPad after taking some Dayquil so feeling a bit foggy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 No, that was very helpful! Thank you! The science and the history parts are what really appealed to me and we are staring with another math program for remidial work and likely sticking to WWE and FLL which we liked and never finished last time. So is there a good place to find cheap, used copies of just the science and history sections for 5th grade? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winoelle Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 No, that was very helpful! Thank you! The science and the history parts are what really appealed to me and we are staring with another math program for remidial work and likely sticking to WWE and FLL which we liked and never finished last time. So is there a good place to find cheap, used copies of just the science and history sections for 5th grade? Thanks. I purchased mine here on the boards, but I have been watching e-bay too. I think there is a sale from Oak Meadow in the spring too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I am just starting OM 5 with my two youngest. I do think the English is a bit light, but I am going to go ahead and do it, since it is integrated into the lesson, but do our own LA studies, in addition. We also are using something else for Math. I think it can be very adaptable, this is our first week, we are doing week 5 and the second half is on Jamestown. I wanted to go deeper into it, so we are reading A Story of Us section on Jamestown in addition to OM. I like that we are given several options for activities at the end of the lesson, and I can pick one that either looks most interesting or one that is less time intensive if needed. Nance blogged about using OM 5, her posts were really helpful for me, showed me what it looked like in real life. Nance- Home's Cool OM5 I looked around and purchased my set used. There is also a yahoo OM group and people post their used stuff there, and it looks like OM runs a store called OM Seconds on Amazon, but right now it doesn't seem to be running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Great! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 I just received OM 6 for my dd12 today. :) We are making the switch from Sonlight. I will probably start OM 6 with her next week & blog about it, so you can check out my blog at the end of next week. I can say, though, that just glancing through the materials this afternoon, it looks very nice. ETA: I also have Oak Meadow's Preschool Package. I use it with my dd4. It is sweet and gentle and I really like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone43 Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 Really wish I would have found OM and Waldorf....as well as Charlotte Mason, when he was younger. I could have saved us both a lot of heartache by never sending him to school in the first place and given him some creative room to enjoy his childhood and explore a bit more before the stress of formal schooling. Oh well :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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