A Review of Oakmeadow

Assalam alykom:

I get quite a few private emails asking me what do I think about the Oak Meadow. I decided to just make it a blog entry and hope people can be helped from it. This entry is going to be the advantages and disadvantages of the curriculum in general. I used the kindergarten, 4th grade and 6th grade this year. There is a definate difference in the quality of each grade. It is not completely uniformed. I like some of the grades better than others. I would say one of the biggest advantages is that it is very affordable. Compared to other major curriculums, it is functional for a large family to be able to afford several grades. Another great advantage is that it is reusable from one child to another. There are no work books. There is only text books. The student writes all his work in a note book. This is great for someone who has four children like me. I can just pass it down to the next child with out having to buy anything else. Oakmeadow is designed to teach the child to independently learn and observe. Therefore, he or she is not just reading from a text book and then being tested on what he or she read. Nor, is he sitting down being drilled with worksheets. The student is continually researching and learning through writing assignments and projects. This could be an advantage or disadvantage, depending how your child learns. Because the price is low compared to other book companies, the text books are pretty plain looking. The ones I bought last year are all black and white photos and not very exciting looking to the student. I found each grade to be different and not all grades that I taught, I feel the same about. Stay tuned to my blog and I will go into more detail about each individual grade. One more word of advice, If you live in the States or Europe where there is easy access to the library, I would not buy any of the reading books. They are all common books that are found in the library. This will save you some money in the end.