Oak Meadow families, pros & cons? - Page 2

[BonesSpeak]

Thanks Max's Mama for your feedback, I appreciate hearing from you. Have you read the story about Prince Ivan (the letter i story)? If so, did you find the part about cutting off the monster's head a bit violent or in line with what you expected?

I am asking this because it seems my daughter is very sensitive and has been bothered by it. It is difficult for me to judge how much is her sensitivity and how much is actually crossing the line with stories for 6 year olds. As we approach planning for next year, I am torn. I love the curriculum but not the violence portrayed in some of the fairy tales.

[skyblufig]

subbing

[calynde]

Bones-
We had no problem at all with the fairy tales in grade 1, and in general i found them to be more tame than many of the other Grimm's tales. I do know that from a developmental standpoint, in Waldorf education, the first grade fairy tales are meant for a child who is 7 years old for most of the first grade year. It really is amazing how much of a difference a year can make! The idea is that the content is what is important for the child of a certain age, and the academic level of work they do can be tweaked up or down depending on where they are at.

Anyway, back to your dilemma...if she is sensitive, i would simply read the story in advance and see what you think. There is nothing wrong with swapping out a story for anoer one...or changing the questionable line to something else. If she gets on well with the materials otherwise, this should be fairly minor and easy to fix i would think.

[Max'sMama]

We did read the Prince Ivan.  My 1st grader is pretty active in his imagination (we can't even watch Mary Poppins,  he claims it's too scary) but the fairy tales are fine.  I think part of that is that by the time we got to Ivan he understood that it wasn't real life story and already understood that the story has a beginning which is sad, or 'woe is me', a middle which is pretty unfortunate (read: super duper sad or scary-yet not real) and an happily ever after.  

So for him it wasn't bad.  But he was 7 by the time we read it and I agree with calynde that 7 is very different from age 6.  So much happens.  

[flutterby8]

Thanks for writing such a great descriptive post of your experience with OM!  This was so helpful.

My DS is only 22 mos but I am getting my hands on all the info I can about various alt education methods a la Waldorf and Montessori.  From what you write it sounds like OM is right up my ally. I like the idea of a curriculum that provides a foundation to build upon and expand.  

[BonesSpeak]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback. I love the Oak Meadow Curriculum. (It gives me a great foundation to build on but I did have to add a separate math package for my daughter.) I had thought of changing the story in certain places but I was asking here about it because I was very curious if it was just my family's own particular sensitivity to things or if others thought it was just a little too much. I am glad you were able to give me some help with this part. Thanks again!

[boatbaby]

We especially adored the book of Fairytales. You can find great deals on Oak Meadow on ebay... that's where we picked our up.

[Rebecca2009]

Someone here said that OM's middle/highschool program is kick butt.  My question is, are the lesson plans more detailed for the higher grades....I am thinking of homeschool beginning in the fall.  My 12 year old has been asking if she can homeschool and my older daughter is not happy with the local highschool, she will be entering her junior year next September.  I would need very laid-out plans if we were going to HS with both of them.  Thanks for any replies!

[Reha]

Does anyone know WHEN Oak Meadow goes on sale?  Is it always end of March?  I don't want to miss it, but it seems silly to buy right now if it's about to go on sale.  We are excited to give OM a try!

[Max'sMama]

From what I have seen and heard for high school with OM.  It's  much more 'text book' type of learning than the earlier waldorf style.  I have a friend who has used OM from K-12 and she really likes it.  

Have you checked out their sample lessons for high school?  I think that will give you an idea if it will work for your kids.

As for the other question about when it goes on sale...I was just looking for that myself earlier today   I think it's May/June.  But I am not sure.  I was trying to figure it out myself, since I will need to buy 2 years worth this year, I will have a K and a 2nd and I already have the 1st grade stuff, but I will need both so I want to make sure that I can buy it on sale!  

[tankgirl73]

Thanks for this thread and the reviews therein.  :)  I'm sure I've looked at Oak Meadow before but for some reason, this isn't what I remembered or thought it was lol...

I'm very Waldorfy-inspired too, but my 4yo daughter is precocious, so it's difficult to balance the delayed academics with her capacity for early learning in some areas.  For instance, we're already doing RightStart math... she's doing simple addition with the abacus, finds symmetry lines in shapes, we're up to about lesson 38 I think in level A and she loves it.  She can also read simple words -- so something that includes beginning-level phonics, or that teaches the numerals, is not a good fit for us.  But the stories, the crafts, the songs (she's learning the piano, can read off-the-staff notation), the nature study etc -- I'd love something spelled out for us along those lines.

We're currently using a lot of the Teachers Book Bag unit studies, which have book recommendations, crafts, projects, etc.  But I'd love something that's actually Waldorf, since we have the paints and the beeswax crayons and the lesson books and the playsilks... I've got some Christopherus materials, and they're useful, but not really what I'm looking for.

So now I'm re-looking at the Oak Meadow, and like a lot of what I'm seeing.  I actually think the grade 1 level might be the best match for us.  A few questions, though:

Holy smokes that's expensive stuff.  I'm guessing the Syllabus must have a gazillion pages to cost $190 all by itself??  We wouldn't need the craft kit, we already have all the stuff in fact (and then some).  We can also get the storybooks from the library (and own a couple of them already too).  How interdependent are the rest of the things?  Could I use another recorder book (I have several -- I'm a music teacher by profession) or are the stories too integrated into those lessons?

We're learning cursive handwriting, not printing (though she prints several letters on her own -- was never taught it, she just figured them out).  I don't mind doing an alphabet book with her, in fact I think she'd love it, even though she's known her letters for years.  But since the shapes of the letters are drawn from the stories -- would it be compatible if we substituted in the cursive shapes?  

How essential is the Word Families book?  What about the teachers' manuals, which must be purchased separately?  I think the "Process Manual" must be essential, it seems to include the actual instructions for crafts, form drawing, etc (though I have other Form Drawing materials) -- but is the Heart of Learning essential?  If it's only about the philosophy of home learning and Waldorfiness, I'm already VERY well read on that and have strong ideas on how we do our scheduling, etc, already.  :)

If these are truly great and $200-$300 is all I have to spend each year for my daughter (well, plus the RightStart materials but that's a given for us anyway heehee), then it's not a bad deal.  But I need to be more sure before committing that much...
 

Also, I just noticed that there's an Online Curriculum option -- $200 which says it includes everything.  Just on your computer screen rather than printed format.  I'm a big fan of e-books, in fact it saves on shipping for me since I'm not in the US.  Has anyone here used the Online option?

I'm curious about the upper level studies as well, for my 12yo son who is "in" grade 7.  I glanced at their grade 8 curriculum looking ahead for next year... The math reviews fractions, decimals, etc and introduces early algebra.  That's what he's doing this year.  And the novels -- he's already read 2/3 of them lol... And I'd bet the "Civics" stuff is all American ("Champions of Freedom"???)  Oh well... maybe for high school then.  ;)

Edited by tankgirl73 - 3/4/11 at 7:52pm