(x-post) Excellence in Literature Intro vs Oak Meadow The Hero's Journey

[Alte Veste Academy]

Does anyone have experience with both? Either? Comments or reviews are very welcome. I'm trying to decide between these two for DS's 8th grade year. I love the price of EiL but have always loved the vibe of Oak Meadow. The book lists are both interesting, although I think I tend toward EiL's more, and I love that there is an honors option.

 

I am especially interested if anyone has used multiple levels of either EiL or OM high school English/Lit.

 

Thoughts?

 

[Mom22ns]

I've used multiple levels of EIL for two very different kids. I really like it. Is there anything specific you'd like to know? Here are a few past threads that might get you started:

 

OM English 9

9th grade lit options

Help finding a lit program (actually about 8th grade, but discussion of high school too)

[Alte Veste Academy]

That was very helpful! Thanks! In particular, your post below contained helpful specifics. I do not want lots of comprehension questions. I want rich discussion, deep thoughts, and solid writing assignments. I spent the evening comparing the high school levels of EiL and OM. Although I love what OM does and how they do it, I really like the lit choices (in both quality and quantity) better than those in OM. The reading seems sparse in the OM high school years, definitely fewer books in the upper levels than in the Hero's Journey level, which has lots of books, some I think DS would really enjoy. Maybe I will end up combining stuff. Maybe not though, because EiL is a bargain and OM is $$$. 

 

I love Excellence in Lit. There are no comprehension questions. You read the books and write a paper at the end. The Introduction to Literature level is considerably gentler than the others and could work for a 7th grader, but is written to 8-9th.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Mom22ns]

That was very helpful! Thanks! In particular, your post below contained helpful specifics. I do not want lots of comprehension questions. I want rich discussion, deep thoughts, and solid writing assignments. I spent the evening comparing the high school levels of EiL and OM. Although I love what OM does and how they do it, I really like the lit choices (in both quality and quantity) better than those in OM. The reading seems sparse in the OM high school years, definitely fewer books in the upper levels than in the Hero's Journey level, which has lots of books, some I think DS would really enjoy. Maybe I will end up combining stuff. Maybe not though, because EiL is a bargain and OM is $$$. 

 

 

Thanks for your help!

 

I felt this same way. I loved the book choices in EIL, particularly the Intro to Lit level. I loved that there was no time wasted on busy work which we found to be an issue in the OM class we tried. I loved that it is so inexpensive. If you end up hating it, there is little lost. 

 

OM had too little reading and I feared the busy work type assignments that we found in Health would be in English too. I like OM's structure and gentleness, but I could never bring myself to try their high school English. I considered it repeatedly and always talked myself out of it. Since I didn't try it, I don't know if that was the right decision or not, but we never regretted EIL.

[brookspr]

We are doing EIL. I have all 5 years in one binder and we pick and choose which lessons to do based on interest. We jump around quite a bit between the 5 units. There are really no busy work assignments, but the curriculum does list quite a few extra things you can look at, watch, read (movies, recording of author reading the work, short videos, historical information, etc...) so we just go thru the lesson ahead of time and pick a few things from each section to do.

 

EIL does have an honors option, but basically all that requires is an extra book to be read. Often it is by the same author, although not always. That's it. In my opinion, simply reading an extra book does not make it honors.