AO Year 4 - Term 3

We just finished out year 4 of Ambleside Online's online curriculum (our first year tackling everything listed) and I'm so impressed with what an impact it has had on our family.  School is easy and enjoyable, and I can't imagine ever going back to a worksheet-style curriculum.

Here is the link to our Term 3 daily schedule:

AO Year 4 Term 3 Daily Schedule

Because of my husband's work schedule, we chose to school Tuesday through Saturday, and because our flag football season fell during term 3, the schedule was adjusted to give Saturdays a lighter workload.

As with any school curriculum, there were some books we really loved (Ocean of Truth), and some that we just trudged through (looking at you, Abigail), but all in all, it was a great year.

We also left Plutarch behind after term 1.  That's the beauty of AO, you can easily adjust as needed for your family. 

If you're looking for the Year 4 daily schedule in its entirety, I will link to the other terms below:


AO Year 4 - Term1

AO Year 4 - Term 2


To parents just starting out into Ambleside, this can be done and it's so rewarding.  You've got this!! Have a wonderful school year!

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Daily Schedule for AO Year 4 - Term 2

We're nearing the end of Year 4's Term 1 using Ambleside Online's curriculum, and it has been such a refreshing couple of months.  I cannot say enough great things about this curriculum and about implementing the Charlotte Mason method in schooling.  Watching my son make connections and really learn from the living books we're using is such a magical thing.  I've even learned a few things myself!

Term 1 really helped me gauge where Bent is academically, and just how much independent work he's ready for.  I've learned a few things:

1. We weren't ready to read Shakespeare. Part of it I'm sure is that I'm from the camp of "Shakespeare's plays are meant to be watched, not read," but another part was simply that Bent hadn't been exposed to any Shakespeare before, so it was a bit much to take in.  Instead of reading the scheduled play for this year and term, we decided to take it back a notch (AO's year's 1-3 style) and read from Tales from Shakespeare (Puffin Classics) which we will continue to do on Saturdays (our Friday) for Tea Time.

2. Plutarch is NOT our thing.  I see you reaching for your pitchfork, but hear me out.  What works for some does not work for all.  Some people like chocolate, some like vanilla.  Bent was dying of boredom from each passage we read about Caesar, and frankly, I was too.  He just wasn't there yet comprehension-wise.  Language aside, Plutarch read to us like overhearing a conversation about Season 3, Episode 6 of a television program which we had never seen before.  There were no connections being made, no backstory to pull from, no way to remember the names since there were no details or development of any characters.  I felt like if the aim was to learn about Caesar, another book would be a better fit for us, and if the aim was to expose him to Plutarch's writings, well....we've been exposed for now, but we will have to wait a while until we revisit. We will not continue Plutarch next term, but Ambleside Online has a handy, 3 times/week breakdown on their site, which works nicely for a Mon/Wed/Fri schedule if you'd like to add it in.

I've made the schedule available in PDF and Word formats, that way you can edit it to fit your family.

Click HERE to Download the Daily Schedule for AO Year 4 - Term 2 

A few notes:

We've been using Easy Grammar, Grade 2 in our Morning Basket, as that's the copy I had on hand, and this is the first year Grammar is formally introduced.  We have been working through that at a pretty quick pace, so I think we will be moving up to Grade 3 after Christmas break.

We use the version of Madam How and Lady Why pictured below, so the reading breakdown by page number on the schedule has been adjusted for that version. If you are using the other version, use the page numbers listed on the AO site.

Our Morning Basket will stay pretty much the same as Term 1, with the exception of a new Cursive Writing workbook, and the replacement of Khan Academy for Math with Saxon 6/5.
Khan academy didn't work for us at all.  My son made a game of it where his goal was getting points and not actually learning the material. We switched back to Saxon Math mid term, and I'm so glad we did.  It's familiar to him, the spiral method works very well for him, and he understands the material.

George Washington's World will be part of the daily morning basket to be read independently and then narrated.

Kidnapped will be read independently twice a week, while listening along to the audio on Librivox.

I've moved one of the weekly Storybook of Science chapters into the morning basket time slot. The reading is something he can handle independently, and we will read the second chapter in the afternoon the same day, which provides the perfect opportunity for him to "catch me up" by narrating the chapter he read that morning to me before we begin the chapter we read together. 

For Latin, we've been using Getting Started with Latin, and I'm so glad that we chose this program.  It's such an easy program to follow, with just the right amount of new material each lesson.  Bent has really impressed me with his retention!  Other than a little bit of Spanish when he was younger (colors, numbers, etc), this is his first real attempt at foreign language, and I'm really wishing we would have started the recommended language schedule sooner! I'm wondering if it would be ok, to begin Spanish with him after Christmas break, since 2 languages are scheduled for year 4, or if I should hold off until next year.  I'd love opinions from other CM/AO mamas, so please leave me a comment if you have suggestions!

P.S.  I mentioned in the Term 1 post that I was thinking about purchasing Bird Bingo, and I wanted to let you know, it was SUCH a hit! If you're on the fence about it, GET IT!  It's very well made, the whole family can play together, and you can't help but learn all of the birds just from playing.  I definitely recommend it!

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Ambleside Online 2017/2018 Music Playlists

I wrote in a previous post about creating playlists to share for our Composer Study, Hymn, and Folk Songs, and I've just remembered I never shared them!

You can find the Composer Study playlist by clicking HERE.  Please note: this playlist is only for Term 1, not the entire school year.  Since you may want to do additional reading about the composers (2 per term) that we are studying, I thought it best that I keep the playlist restricted to who we are covering for this term to avoid confusion for the kiddos. 

You can find the Folk Song playlist by clicking HERE.  This list contains all of the recommended Folk Songs for the 2017/2018 school year.  I chose the versions that appealed to me, though with some I was lucky to find any version at all.

You can find the Hymn playlist by clicking HERE.  There are some duplicates on this playlist because I wanted to show my children how hymns can be sung traditionally, soulfully, or in a more modern fashion and all still be wonderful.  

*Please note:  I was born in the 80's.  Sister Act 2 was HUGE when I was 11.  Joyful, Joyful is one of this year's hymns.  You can bet your bottom dollar I included the scene from Sister Act 2 as one of the versions of Joyful, Joyful.  If you don't like it, you're welcome to skip over it (but how could you not?!).

I will add the Term 2 Composer Study playlist soon!  

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Daily Schedule for AO Year 4 - Term 1

We love Ambleside Online, and have been using parts of it in our homeschool for 3 years, but this is the first year that we are really, truly following the entire curriculum.  I'll admit - it's not for the faint of heart.  I'm equal parts scared to death and totally excited.

Bent is 10 years old and a "5th grader" by regular school standards, so we will be working through AO's Year 4 for this school year.

The website provides you with a glorious curriculum that would have Charlotte Mason tap dancing in her grave, but the load is quite heavy for the average "regular schooled" child.  All books are linked to from the site - a great many of which can be found in the public domain.

Ambleside provides us with an extremely helpful weekly schedule for each year's curriculum, but in order to keep my sanity, and stay on top of Bent (whom I don't feel is ready to be given a weekly checklist just yet), I needed to find a way to turn that weekly schedule into a daily schedule.

I've skimmed through all the required reading for the year, and used my own judgement to decide which books I though would be appropriate for him to read independently and narrate to me afterwards, and which I'd like to read with him during our formal "sit down together" school time.

The day will start with Breakfast and Morning Chores, after which he will move to the school room and begin to work on his Morning Basket.

The Morning Basket will contain:

* Easy Grammar (one lesson per day)

* Copywork

* Drawing (I found this really fun book called Oodles of Doodles (Drawing Books) that has a different creative task on each page, so he will do one page per day).

* Math (he will work 20 minutes on Khan Academy)

* A Rotation of either Story Book of Science, Robinson Crusoe, or Poor Richard.
   
          *He will be listening to Robinson Crusoe on Librivox while reading along on his kindle, as I've            heard that Robinson Crusoe can be a bit daunting to read independently.

Since I've gone through and divided the weekly work into daily work, I thought I'd make the schedules available for you as well!  Simply Click on the link to download the PDF for Term 1 (12 weeks).

Download the Daily Schedule for  AO YEAR 4 - TERM 1  HERE

Please note that the page breakdowns for Madam How and Lady Why are different than listed on the AO Site, as I purchased a different edition (the one pictured below).  I went through and marked off the starting and stopping points for the edition that I purchased, and used those in the daily schedule. 

I also thought it would be fun to imagine what the little fairies Madam How and Lady Why might look like, so I made these posters to hang on our school room wall.  Just right click on the image to save if you'd like.

As for Plutarch, I just printed out this school year's first term (Julius Caesar) from the Ambleside website, hole punched it, and added it to a binder.  The version on AO's site is broken down into a easy to follow, 3 parts per lesson, one lesson per week format.  I intend to do this for each term.

Enrichments are not listed on the schedule, as I don't want those to feel like part of school "work." I've printed out the first picture for this term's Artsit: Peter Paul Rubens, and hung it in the school room to be observed and talked about as often as we like.

For Composer Study, Hymns, and Folksongs, I am working on creating a YouTube Playlist for learning the songs and searching the songs on Amazon Music to play in the car.

As for Nature Study, that's something that we incorporate into our lives, rather than schedule on a calendar.  I will be steering our attention towards birds this term, but we will be observing nature as it presents itself to us, and learning all the time.
Something that I've found really helps us pay attention to details and be more mindful of the natural world around us is to keep a nature journal.  We simply use a sketch book, and while we are out, either bring home our specimen (ie. flowers, shells, leaves), or take a picture with our memory or with my phone and draw when we get home.

I'm also hoping to add this wonderful Bird Bingo game that I found on Amazon to our collection to help us increase our Bird Knowledge in a fun way!



Not included in the schedule are Recitation (we will work on that when the opportunities present themselves), and Poetry (we hope to follow the AO Year 4 Poetry on our Kindle and read the scheduled poem a day).


I hope you found this post helpful!!  If you use Ambleside Online, please leave me a comment with any tips you may have, or links to Year 4 related posts!  I'd love to connect with you!

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