How easy/non prep is Oak Meadows?

[Thankfulforgrace]

I'm looking for 1st grade.... Thanks!

[GraemesMomma]

:popcorn
The K program is very accessible, but it's a good bit of reading for Mama. I've not seen the 1st grade syllabus, though.

[inesperada]

I tried it for 4th grade this year and ended up ditching it because it was way more prep than I wanted to do. Ymmv.

[allisonintx]

It's much more parent intensive in the lower grades than in the upper ones.

The good part is that if you buy their supply kit, you have every thing that you need to do any of the projects.

Non parent intensive lower grades tend to be those that are computer or workbook driven.

[Thankfulforgrace]

Ok, thanks. I want to be involved but I feel so scattered that a lot of prep isn't so good right now. Now I"ll have to figure out a way to go ;)

[Sweet Life]

In case you're looking for suggestions, I have really liked My Father's World - we did the first grade curriculum, Adventures, and Exploring Countries and Cultures (kids hit this in the third grade, and enter a 5 year cycle of study). Most weeks I get by with little to no prep; especially true until my oldest hit third grade and we hit their 5 year cycle.

[Thankfulforgrace]

In case you're looking for suggestions, I have really liked My Father's World - we did the first grade curriculum, Adventures, and Exploring Countries and Cultures (kids hit this in the third grade, and enter a 5 year cycle of study). Most weeks I get by with little to no prep; especially true until my oldest hit third grade and we hit their 5 year cycle.

I forgot to come back to this... S did MFW and it looked to work sheet-y for me. The easy is appealing though!

[SweetCaroline]

:cup

[Pragmatist]

You should do Sonlight with us. :). Use the IG as a guideline and jumping off place.

[wisdomjourney]

I use OM first grade. It is more intense than K imo, but I am so far sticking with it. I like the way it approaches learning for my dc, so I guess that's incentive. :) I have been getting more interested in MFW, but not enough to fully research it yet. :shrug3 Also, since I did K with OM, I have a lot of the supplies already, and I like the crafting and festivals. I'm not so into worksheets. So it works for us right now. :shrug3

[Thankfulforgrace]

You should do Sonlight with us. :). Use the IG as a guideline and jumping off place.

I've thought about it:think. But I'd have to buy all the books too as I'm so over library trips, fees and the library not having the books!

But I :heart waldorf... I kinda feel like if I don't get to unschool b/c I'm not confident right now at least I could do that... IDK. Such a big (expensive) choice!

[sprout]

just following along.

[Katydid]

We did part of OM 1st grade, and while there were some things I loved about it, it ultimately wasn't a good fit for us. I tried to do it "open and go" and I was caught unprepared a few times as far as having certain supplies on hand, etc. So if I were to do it again, I would definitely try to read ahead for the week to get a feel for what is coming up. But that was mostly laziness on my part. :shifty I think it is actually fairly straightforward AFA prep work goes. :shrug

I wish I could afford to buy each grade's syllabus just for the science. I absolutely loved the science in 1st. :heart

[Ms_Dahl]

We are OM users (used OM1 last year and we are in OM2 this year). I find the prep work/time very manageable. I have all the required supplies needed for the curriculum. I make sure to quickly glance at the next couple of weeks to give me a head's up of what supplies I'll need, what books I'll need to check out from the library to supplement the weekly lessons, etc. It's literally a quick 5 minute look-see and I'm all set for the week. If I find that I'm not up to a particular science lesson that week because of a supply issue, I simply shift the lessons around. I find it to be a flexible and easy curriculum. One of the reasons why I like it is that all the guess work of planning is removed for me and yet we have an authentic, creative, loving and warm approach to learning at the touch of my hands....I don't have to think too hard to supply this to my son, I just have to sit along side and create it with him.

I think if you aren't used to a curriculum like OM, there is definitely a learning curve to get used to.

[GraemesMomma]

Ms. Dahl, any chance you could approximate how many/how much extra materials are involved? I have parts of OM K but I'm curious how much more involved/extra stuff there is in om1 :)

[Ms_Dahl]

I didn't use OM for Kindy but for the most part the craft/extra materials we used were the recorder, watercolor paints (the primary colors), watercolor painting paper, beeswax crayons (we used the stick and the block ones), long tube of paper (to trace his body) and we finger knitted last year instead of using the knitting needles. My son likes to use coloring pencils as well, so we did use that. We also incorporated a lot of natural materials (pinecones, acorns, leaves, etc etc). I would have to go back to look at his work from last year to be sure that was all.