Compare Oak Meadow with us
Oak Meadow provides secular, nature-based coursebooks for families to teach from, plus a distance school with teacher feedback. Our lessons start at your child's level and guide them through each idea, with every submission graded.
Coursebooks you teach or lessons written for your child
Oak Meadow publishes a secular, book-based homeschool curriculum for prekindergarten through Grade 12, described as nature-based and screen-free, with a Waldorf-inspired approach in Kindergarten through Grade 4. Its print coursebooks hold weekly lesson plans, and through Grade 3 all subjects share one coursebook. Families use the curriculum independently, with the parent teaching, or enroll in Oak Meadow School, a distance-learning school.
Our interactive articles explain each idea as your child works through it, without a separate school enrollment for feedback.
Where your child starts
Oak Meadow does not use placement tests. Parents read its grade overviews and samples to choose the coursebooks, so the starting grade is a family decision before the coursework begins.
To start your child where they actually are, we write a placement test for each subject. It has 25 questions, or 12 for younger learners, and it adapts as your child answers.
From every answer, we estimate where your child is solid but not yet finished, and that's where they start. Each subject is placed on its own, so your child might begin in the middle of fourth-grade math and the beginning of fifth-grade reading. In grades 3 to 12, a child who prefers paper can print the free placement test, then upload a photo of the answer sheet for grading.
What a school day looks like
Oak Meadow organizes work into weekly coursebook plans, largely away from screens. A parent teaches in independent use; an enrolled student also works toward the school's scheduled submissions.
Our Parent Dashboard lays out today's lessons by subject. You can build the week around your family's hours and print it for the fridge.
Interactive articles weave in your child's interests, with images and videos made for them. Reading checks confirm understanding, then your child applies the idea in a project, such as optimizing lap times for F1 or working out a rocket’s fuel load.
When your child gets stuck
Oak Meadow has no live or prerecorded lessons. Enrolled students reach their Oak Meadow teacher by email, phone, or video, and in independent use the parent is the teacher.
Our Always-On Mentor sits beside every reading and project, so help is there the moment your child needs it.
The mentor also steps in on its own when your child seems stuck, explains the idea another way, and can make it visual by drawing on its board. In a reading check or a project, it guides your child's thinking without giving the answer away.
Learning to keep a notebook
From Grade 3, our readings offer an optional Notebook guide to help your child organize their learning. It encourages lesson headings and unit labels, and the printable guide offers tips for taking notes in their own words rather than copying the article.
The guide encourages your child to note where they struggled and how they got past it. One tip is to star a useful takeaway, then gather those takeaways into a review page. When your child scans and uploads their notebook pages, we help them remember those ideas and shape practice problems around the places they struggled.
Who grades the work
Enrolled Oak Meadow students submit work on a schedule and wait for their teacher to review it and send feedback. Kindergarten through Grade 4 is graded pass or fail, with no tests.
We grade everything your child submits as soon as they submit it, so grading never lands on you. When your child gets something wrong, we help them work through it, and projects come back with feedback so they can revise them.
Records, state paperwork, and the transcript
Enrolled high school students complete an accredited course of study through Oak Meadow School. The school then issues the diploma and official transcript, separate from a family's independent use of the coursebooks.
At TheHomeschoolingCompany, your child's school record builds as they work: daily check-ins log attendance, and everything they finish is saved automatically. Attendance logs and learning summaries are ready to export, and we draft the documents your state asks for from that same record, including portfolios with real work samples.
Our high school transcript builds from completed work, with courses, letter grades, credits, and GPA calculated for you.
Moving from Oak Meadow to us
School in a Box includes up to 12 subjects, from the core to custom electives on anything your child is curious about. Single Subject covers one course, if you would rather start there.
Start the 14-day trial and choose School in a Box or Single Subject.
Pick your child's subjects, including any topics they have been asking to learn more about.
Your child takes a placement in each subject, and their whole curriculum is built around them.
Other questions
- Is your curriculum religious?
- Our curriculum isn't a religious curriculum unless you want it to be. Add Bible study, Christianity, or any faith as a custom elective, and we build a course around it, graded and recorded like every other subject. Or add it as an interest, woven into any or all subjects.
- Can my child read lessons on paper?
- Yes. Lessons, reading checks, and projects can be done on paper. Uploaded scans get the same feedback.
- Can a child who is not reading yet use it?
- Yes. Kindergarten through Grade 2 is spoken, with an adult nearby.
- Can we use ESA funds?
- We are approved in Arizona, Alabama, New Hampshire, and Utah. Program rules apply.
Your child's curriculum. Your family's time.
Try lessons shaped around your child's interests without adapting a published course yourself.
$149/month per child after the trial.