Here we go...

So, finally, I am actually homeschooling my eldest, Sonic.  We had homeschooled when he was in Kindy, but it has taken awhile to get back to it.  Last year was not a good year at the local public charter school.  He was not challenged at all, and began to stop handing in his work, etc.  He did great on his FCAT...but I'm not a fan of standardized tests...so a year of misery for a perfect FCAT is not enough.

I've always been drawn to Waldorf methods--especially for the younger years.  But I've also been drawn to the more academically rigorous WTM/Classical approach.  My compromise is to use Oak Meadow 4th grade this year, with stuff taken from Waldorf Essentials/A Little Garden Flower's 4th Grade Curriculum.  We're also using various BraveWriter tools, such as the Arrow for some of the OM books, like "The Trumpet of the Swan" or "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."  (I bought mine at Homeschool Buyer's Co-op cheap. :))

As we're Muslim, we'll be doing some spoken Egyptian Arabic using Michel Thomas (better IMHO than Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, or Madina).... as well as high frequency Qur'an words using this app.

I purchased my OM curriculum on ebay used.  It's from 1998.  Comparing the topics with the overview on Oak Meadow's website, I don't see a lot of differences.  Sure, we won't be pulling out a tape recorder...but as part of my goal was to get back to a pre-standardized testing type approach, I'm not worried.