Anyone have experience with Oak Meadow?

[mellie-bellie]

I'm looking for other's opinons of Oak Meadow. Do/did you like it? What's the best/worst thing about it? Would you recommend it? Is it practical? Thanks!

[teastaigh]

Yes, I liked it. We used it for K and 1st grade. I always used it loosely -- as a guide, not a prescription. It's very adjustable and low-key. I'm keeping it for my youngest who isn't as academically-oriented as my oldest. With my oldest, we've evolved our approach. We use some well-trained mind, lots of unit studies, and are very Charlotte Mason and Waldorf influenced.
From the Oak Meadow, my son and I enjoyed the seasonal orientation. He tired of the stories -- too many princesses and princes, according to him.
Actually, I agreed. But, it's a wonderful starting point.

You might just print their detailed .pdf outline. You can do a lot from that to see if you like it or not. Oak Meadow, for me, has the best of Waldorf without being truly Waldorf. It doesn't include any of the Steinerisms that are against my own beliefs and education.

peace,
teastaigh

[Sasha_girl]

Originally Posted by teastaigh

Oak Meadow, for me, has the best of Waldorf without being truly Waldorf. It doesn't include any of the Steinerisms that are against my own beliefs and education.

ITA. I like the gentle approach and the emphasis on art. Some of the stories are a bit antiquated (sp) for dd, who is 5. Most of the stories are Beatrix Potter stories and some are, quite frankly, boring.

[2tadpoles]

Well... here's my story.

We didn't embark upon our Oak Meadow adventure until my boys were in 2nd and 6th "grades."

6th grade curriculum still focuses on art and "hands-on" stuff, but it's way too "busy" a curriculum for us. We tried using it loosely, but that didn't work for us. It was just too schoolish, and my ADHD kid couldn't handle doing 2-3 projects every week. But if you leave out the project, what's left? Basically, it would just be reading, which we could do without shelling out the $$$ for OM.

My younger boy hated the OM curriculum. Not because it's a bad curriculum, but because he is very high energy and has to move all the time, and it was just too mellow for him. He likes to draw, occasionally.... but doesn't like to draw what someone else tells him to draw, which is what the curriculum prescribes. He didn't want to knit or crochet. He found the recorder frustrating and the stories boring. He thought Circle Time was lame (so did I, FWIW).

BUT....

My kids didn't have a Waldorfy background. If you start out using that approach, things will probably be better.

[homemademomma]

i help teach 3 kids who use the oak meadow curriculum. i think its okay; it has some good ideas, but some of it is kind of boring. we use it as a starting point and pick and choose what we like out of it.

[terrarose]

My friend has used it for 11 years

Hi. She uses it...in a way. She is a un schooler at heart so she uses it loosely. Sometimes she would follow it with the younger ones to make sure they did something together in the day. Sometimes the older ones would want more structure so they would follow it quite religiously. Sometimes they wouldn't look at it for a couple weeks. She really appreciated it as an outline. She used it as an unschoolers curriculum and of all the curriculum I've looked at over the years it is the most flexable. Of course, they did other things as well but it was nice to have the option of structure when they wanted it. She also apprecated their gentle, magical child approach to things. For example, -,+,multiplying and dividing is introduced as a story about gnomes.

[thrrrnbush]

We're using Oak Meadow kindergarten very loosely and enjoying it. Both of my kids respond well to circle time. I clear the dining table and get the "homeschool candle" off the mantle and they magically appear. "If you build it they will come" :LOL I leave the candle burning for our whole school day and when discipline problems arise I just ask "Are we done with homeschool? Should I blow the candle out?" You'd think I was threatening to beat them they respond so quick. I haven't told them yet but I figure on continuing to buy massive pillar candles and celebrate with some mutual indulgence when each candle burns to it's end. But I digress.

I like the frame work. I'll look it over and establish okay this week we focus on E (and ears), 5 (and stars) and backyard wildlife and we read "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies". Then I work out how we're going tweak that to suit our needs. It took me a couple of weeks to realize I could just skip the stuff that wouldn't work for my family, and skip ahead to "the good stuff". I've sped up the math and am using Right Start math in addition to the suggested activities. I also use my Schoolhouse Rocks DVD a lot ("Three is a magic number, oh yes it is, it's a magic number"). Can you guess my age?

I only read each story once and that seems to have improved focus (I used to read the main story daily for the week). I guess we're not a Five in a Row family after all. DD does a narration (it's a Charlotte Mason thing) after the stories read and seems to retain it just fine throughout the week. I have most of the Beatrix Potter books already so we read those from my full color hardbacks. DS is particularly more likely to pay attention to the "pretty" books than the OM Kindergarten Fairy Tales book. Though I've tried to point out to him when he gets frustrated with a lesson that he's three and doesn't have to do school yet. Sigh. Must they be in such a hurry to grow up?

We like the book of crafts, the gentle non-demanding style, the freedom to customize (we aren't enrolled I just bought the stuff) and circle time, especially all the wee sing stuff. We don't like the repetition, the slow pace, and some of the math/science stories are too... preachy I guess. I'm not really sure how to describe it; my mom would call them sugar-coated fluff. The kids' minds wander a bit during those but they're short so I read each one once.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Crystal

[mother_sunshine]

I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I recently got my hands on an old version of the Oak Meadow 3rd grade syllabus (off ebay) for my almost-8yo dd. I don't follow it word-for-word (and they encourage you NOT to), but I have found it wonderful! I love the concept that learning should flow naturally and with lots of hands-on connections (ie: from reading a folk tale to drawing about it along with a cursive caption). I have thus far gone for an eclectic approach to homeschooling, and I needed something that would help open my eyes to a different approach to "teaching". Oak Meadow has done that for us.

[Sasha_girl]

I have most of the Beatrix Potter books already so we read those from my full color hardbacks. DS is particularly more likely to pay attention to the "pretty" books than the OM Kindergarten Fairy Tales book.

I agree. I understand why Oak Meadow suggests using a book without pictures, but I think that most small children (mine, certainly), need some help imagining the scenes. For example, I read The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher out of the OM Fairy Tales book and she hated it. I had trouble following the story, for crying out loud. I got a copy from the library and she loved the story. She needed those pictures to help understand what was going on in the story.

I plan on going to the library and getting the story weekly (if we don't already have it). It works much better for us.