I am so tired of piecing together our curriculum!

[Tani]

I have been looking at various curriculums that include everything. I really, really like the look of Oak Meadow, next is BJU. Not sure there is anything else that strikes my fancy. I like how it seems that OM would tell me when to have dc's write, do art, read, math, but in a gentle way. If you have used this, please share your experience with it. I have also heard good things about BJU and do have access to the 7th grade (which would be for next year) to buy here locally. I am looking at grades 3 and 6 right now for both dc's. I just feel that our school would flow more smoothly if I at least had the process laid out for me. I am also going back to work part-time next week, from home, but work none-the-less so having something at least partially put together would be a big help. Thanks for help :tongue_smilie:
Tani

[sagira]

Also check out Living Books Curriculum (http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com). I have this on stand-by in case life would necessitate a drastic change of plans.

[laurad1125]

Sonlight might work. Even if you prefer something secular, it's pretty easy to leave out any religious comments. I've used it and found it easy to follow. We don't use it now because I didn't like their approach to Language Arts and because I enjoy being able to change what we're doing when we need to....

My only other criticism was with their science experiments. Even though we bought the non-consumables and grade level science kits, we still had to collect a lot from around the house or WalMart. Nothing was hard to find, but I got tired of having to find it all.

[prairiegirl]

Well, I can't be much help as we are only using OM K, but I can tell you that we absolutely love it. It is very gentle in its teaching. From what I can gather though, the older grades (Gr.4 and up) aren't fashioned the same way as the younger grades. I have also heard that many use a separate math curriuclum as OM math is too vague.

[momof165]

We are in our third year of using Oak Meadow. We have used Oak Meadow for Kindergarten, 1st Grade and now 3rd Grade. We really like Oak Meadow. It is not as scripted as BJU - but it gives you an outline of what to cover for each subject. For us, it's the perfect curriculum. It's flexible enough to let ds further explore areas of his interest without loosing the big picture. In the upper grades (4th grade an up), kids are expected to work quite independently. The amount of independent work increases with each grade level. If your kids love to read, you can add some of Sonlight's books to further enhance each time area covered by OM.


Sonja
________________________________________
Homeschooling JUST ONE - ds 9

[coffeefreak]

I can't speak for Oak Meadow, but I've used A Beka and we really like it. A friend of mine is working full time right now (her hubby is out of work), but she's still homeschooling and using A Beka. She says if it wasn't for the scripted lessons and having everything pre-planned for her, she wouldn't be able to homeschool. From what I understand, BJU and A Beka are pretty interchangeable, it's just a matter of personal preference. I've also had several friends use the DVDs (from both A Beka and Bob Jones) with great results. One was a mom with a toddler and a first grader. She said they were a HUGE blessing because she could keep up with the toddler and her daughter's school at the same time.

HTH!

[coffeefreak]

One more thing. When you say Oak Meadow would tell you what to do and when to do it in a "gentle" way, I do think of A Beka and BJU's teacher's guides. I LOVE that A Beka has their lessons numbered. You're not hemmed in by a "week" view, or a "5 day plan". If lesson 71 falls on a Monday, it falls on a Monday. You don't feel behind or like, "augh! we didn't complete this week's work. It wouldn't be that way for the DVD's, but the Homeschool curriculum guides work with any schedule.

[training5]

OM requires the student to do quite a bit of research in 4th-8th. Lots of library trips. I also found it to be a HUGE jump from 3rd to 4th as far as expectations of work. I opted for WTM.

[lovemykids]

You could look at programs like LLATL and Teaching Textbooks to simplify LA and Math. Science and History could be combined to save time. Just a thought!
OM does jump way too much from third to fourth, wow. :001_huh:

[KrissiK]

We use A Beka for kinder and like it very much. I do about 15 minutes of planning on Sunday evenings and then the rest of the week is taken care of. Everything is scripted, it all works together and it's good curriculum. Plus, it's quite inexpensive. I thought about Sonlight, but it's so expensive, so we do A Beka and then get library books to supplement.

[Cornerstone Classical]

If you don't mind a biblical worldview, My Father's World is really good. It is a combo of Charlotte Mason and Classical and is chronological. You could do it with both your DC. It incorporates Bible, History, Science, Music and Art. You can choose to buy their LA and Math recommendations (Primary Language Lessons for LA and Singapore for Math). Or you could choose your own LA and Math. The Teacher' Manual is open and go and sometimes even scripted. It is very easy planning, you would have to check out books at the library.

I have a friend who works from Jan to April as a tax preparer, and she is doing MFW with her DD.

This is our first year with MFW and we really like it!

www.mfwbooks.com (http://www.mfwbooks.com)

[Tani]

I will look into Abeka further and re-read my WTM book. Oak Meadow sounds great but I do want a math that isn't 'vague'. I have used MFW a couple of years ago, I will revisit their site as well. I Love the wealth of information and variety we have on this board, it is so helpful when we need to make changes and need to know how things have worked for others. Thanks Hive-Mind ;)

[training5]

Another option is K12.

[Cadam]

For something all planned out I suggest My Father's World. The other programs tend to be text book based and not very classical in approach. If you only used the early years take a look at the 5 year cycle.