Upward Journey Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Next year will be our first using Oak Meadow. I have an elementary student and 2 middle-schoolers. I'm really excited for next year! The curriculum is so different from what we've always used (mostly Sonlight & TOG). However, the number of projects/writing assignments at the middle school level seems a bit overwhelming. Were your middlers able to complete everything? Did they even attempt it? How do you organize their work? In the elementary level we have the main lesson books, did you continue to use them in middle school? That seems impractical considering the amount of writing the kids are doing. Do you get a big spiral bound notebook (lined/unlined) and just glue things in as they go along? Use loose leaf and a binder with page protectors & dividers separating things by continent? Or time period? What have you found to be the best notebook to use for science? And lastly regarding the elementary main lesson books (grade 3), how many did you set up? In other words what subjects areas had their own books? I'm thinking Language Arts, Social Studies & Science. Did you set one up for Math as well? If any of you know of a place to have some of these questions answered on their website, please direct me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I am currently using the OM Preschool Package with dd5, so there is no "work" to store other than her paintings and colorings, which I store in a folder. I am using the Sixth Grade package with dd12, and we store all of her work in binders: one for ancient history and grammar; one for science; one for math. When she makes large art projects, we display those for a while; then I take a picture of it and toss it (unless she wants to keep it in her room.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upward Journey Posted June 22, 2013 Author Share Posted June 22, 2013 Do you have her do all the assignments every week? It seems like an awful lot, but maybe if we'd been using OM all along it wouldn't seem like so much :) eta: I'll have one using gr.6 & another using gr.7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 I just posted a review of Oak Meadow 3 (with a giveaway ;) ) and am posting a week in the life on monday that may help you see how we organized and used it. I really want to highlight the main lesson book in that post so people can see how it works. I think everyone does it a little different. We do ALL of our work in one book as the lessons come up, so it's just organized as we do them. The math is the only thing we do separately, I have just been using lined paper/graph paper. Link to the giveaway (with the review) is in my siggy- I really hope it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveBaby Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 I am going to be teaching 1st, 2nd, 6th and 8th. My younger two will use a MLB. I will set it up like OM suggests, LA and Math in one, Science/Social Studies in another. My older two children have a 3-ring notebook for their work. We have already started with the 6th and 8th grade books and I am having Monday meetings with them to determine what assignments they will be required to do. It is a lot of writing, you are right. I am letting mine ease into it a bit, so my oldest is working only on science this month, then we will add English, then we will add Civics. My 6th grader is only doing History/English right now adm we will start Science next month, too. I don't think I will make them do every assignment as written, especially my 6th grader who has some reading/writing difficulties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Most of the assignments are pick and choose. The student is given several options and then chooses one. We have stretched one week into two when I wanted to cover more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deee Posted June 23, 2013 Share Posted June 23, 2013 The main lesson books are a Waldorf carry-over. Waldorf kids usually make one main lesson book per block, eg botany, Ancient Greece, Ancient mythology, local geography, etc. Waldorf schools use unlined paper bound into approx A4/letter size books of 20-50 sheets. These books are highly decorative and become treasured keepsakes. Maths and language arts books tend to become reference books. They may contain a summary, explanation or formula and a worked example, but are usually separate from workbooks and worksheets. As my son gets older (he's in yr 7) and we move away from our Waldorf roots and become more classical, we use visual arts books for history and french, a self-made reference book for maths (in a visual arts book which we began in year 4), and folders of his work for English and science. Sometimes we'll do our main lesson work on blank A4 drawing paper and bind it into a book. I used to hand sew these but now I use a ring binder. D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upward Journey Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share Posted June 23, 2013 You all have given me a lot a great ideas. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 My week in the life with oak meadow post is up, if you want to see how we do the main lesson book and what our routine looks like :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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