Oak Meadow experiences?

[ktgrok]

Thoughts and experiences on Oak Meadow? I'd totally forgotten about it as it was the exact opposite of what my non creative, non artsy, oldest would have wanted. And then my next was dealing with dyslexia and I made the mistake of thinking each lesson was a day's worth of work, rather than a week, and knew it would be way too much.  But now she's up to speed on reading, and the week's worth seems reasonsable, especially since they have an option of using art rather than writing for a lot of it, and I'm thinking she might really like the way that it gives a week of assignments that she then has to complete - sort of gives her a bit more control over what gets done when.

I'm looking at the 7th grade history and english in particular. The english seems to start out with response questions, but not full on essays, which would work for her, and we could always do some orally. It also has a reader's response journal that is not graded or looked at by the teacher - that would give her a chance to do some writing without the sometimes nearly crippling anxiety of worrying about her spelling. And again lots of assignments that can be done using art - she's my artist. 

We'd do it independently, not with enrollment. 

Also interested in what people think of their math? 

Edited August 17, 2022 by ktgrok

[EKS]

Here is a blog post that I wrote many years ago on this subject: https://atreehouseeducation.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/beyond-joy-balancing-challenge-and-inspiration/

Also, later on we used Oak Meadow in high school for foreign language.  The older one did Latin 1 and 2, and the younger one did French 3.  It was enormously expensive, and they didn't learn any Latin or French, but they did get accredited foreign language credits, and that is what we were after.  That said, each semester, there was a project assignment where the student could essentially do anything related to either Roman or French culture and generate some sort of output.  These assignments were particularly memorable for my kids.  My older son research the Roman aqueduct for one of them, which he found to be interesting.  I can't remember what he did for the other ones though.  The younger one did two projects on French colonialism, both using French films as a springboard.  The first used the film Battle of Algiers and the second used Indochine.

Note that for all of this, I had to be an active participant to ensure that they were getting the most out of the program.

Anyway, all of this is to say that Oak Meadow is a mixed bag, but they really have thought about what makes an assignment meaningful and have tried to incorporate these sorts of assignments into their products.

Edited August 17, 2022 by EKS

[cintinative]

6 hours ago, EKS said:

Here is a blog post that I wrote many years ago on this subject: https://wordpress.com/view/atreehouseeducation.wordpress.com

 

The post didn't go through but I am curious to read it. Could you try again?? Thank you.

 

Is it this? https://atreehouseeducation.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/beyond-joy-balancing-challenge-and-inspiration/

Edited August 17, 2022 by cintinative

[EKS]

21 minutes ago, cintinative said:

The post didn't go through but I am curious to read it. Could you try again?? Thank you.

Is it this? https://atreehouseeducation.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/beyond-joy-balancing-challenge-and-inspiration/

Sorry, yes, that's it.  I've changed the link in my other post as well.

[Green Bean]

Oak Meadow has changed quite a bit since EKS used it or even me! OM is a solid choice as long as Mom is involved/aware of the weekly assignments. My 2nd son, now 23, did OM 5 in a month doing every assignment many moons ago. He loved the creative aspect. Be aware the writing assignments increase as you move up. I remember not being impressed with the teaching of writing skills, but 2nd son was a natural writer so it didn't matter for him. I know that area and grammar have had more direction added to them in recent editions. And you want newer editions!

It is incredibly expensive new. I would check Ebay for a set first or call OM and ask about Seconds. OM is super nice and will be happy to you talk about your DD and help with placement.

[ktgrok]

Thanks all! We have a plan for now, but I like having a back up plan, lol! Sounds like it could work, so goes in the "plan B" bucket