Ambleside Online?

[HomesteadMommy]

I've been going over and over things for next year. I'm really looking at

Ambleside Online right now. I would love to hear ideas/thoughts from anyone who is using it or has used it.

 

How did you keep up with having each child in a different year? It looks like my dd9 would be in Year 2. Dd7 in year 1 and dd5 (6 at the end of Nov.) either in Year 1 or Year 0. Year 0 has a lot of FIAR books, so I just might keep doing that for her.

 

Did anyone find subjects in AO that you could easily combine your kids?

 

I had been using SOTW and Apologia YE series as well as unit studies to combine history and science. Part of the problem I'm finding dd9 gets it, dd5 doesn't really get much from the books and dd7 falls naturally in between.

 

We had been working slowly through SOTW vol 1 for the past few years and will likely be done by the end of summer.

If I switch to AO and use it as it's planned, dd5 (6 soon) will have no history in year 0. Dd7 in Year 1 would have some history but it seems to be some England history and biographies I think. Dd9 in Year 2 would be in the middle ages. I also think that was the next SOTW book we were moving into.

 

As long as I can keep up with the reading, it might not be a bad thing to break up their science and history. Each one might understand the books on their level better. But if interested in the others history could still sit in on the reading.

 

Has anyone lined up the readings in the SOTW volumes with the history books in AO?

 

My heads spinning right now! :001_huh::lol: Would love some ideas!

 

Oh yes, I will also need to add Canadian content into the history as well.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2011 by HomesteadMommy

[Tabula Rasa]

You could keep your DD9 and DD7 together and do year one, especially if your older daughter hasn't read the books on the list yet. DD5 can listen along as well.

[HomesteadMommy]

You could keep your DD9 and DD7 together and do year one, especially if your older daughter hasn't read the books on the list yet. DD5 can listen along as well.

 

That was what I had thought at first as well. Dd9 hasn't read the books in year 1 yet.

But the AO group had suggested putting her in year 2 since she's reading well on her own. Although she gets tired of reading after a few pages, in a Little House type book.

But dd7 isn't reading well yet, she's working through her phonics program.

 

One thing is year 1 doesn't have a lot of history, well it does but it's more biography type if I'm understanding it right. Year 2 starts in the middle ages, that would be perfect timing for dd9 as we are almost done SOTW 1. But would be to far to push dd7 and 5. :001_huh:

Since I haven't used AO at all yet, I don't know what would work out best for each child.

[mamatohaleybug]

I stumbled upon AO late in the game, so to speak. I've been agonizing over where to place my daughter, too (she'll be 9 in late September and is entering 3rd grade but is an average to below average reader). We're also doing SOTW and are super excited to study the middle ages. I really want to move into SOTW 2 during 3rd grade (we haven't finished SOTW 1 since we began that in January).

 

I finally decided to combine AO 1 and 2 into one year. Yes, I'll be cutting out quite a bit but I think it's going to work. With all of the prep I'm doing, I think it should turn out well once we get started. I love that AO is so flexible and can be adapted to each particular child.

 

If you did literature from year 1 but history from year 2 (along with SOTW 2), would that work for all of your children? Your composer, artist, hymn and folk song (along with other aspects of a CM curriculum) can all be the same for all of your children, too. IF AO worked well for you, you could continue mixing and matching what you need each year (or not) depending on how the children progress.

 

I really love all of the rich and beautiful options in AO and hate to have DD miss anything. It's a good problem to have, though!

 

Good luck figuring it out!

Edited June 15, 2011 by mamatohaleybug
fixing a typo

[ChiknGirl]

There is a schedule online somewhere that combines year 1 and year 2. It doesn't leave out much reading, so it's quite full.

[HomesteadMommy]

If you did literature from year 1 but history from year 2 (along with SOTW 2), would that work for all of your children? Your composer, artist, hymn and folk song (along with other aspects of a CM curriculum) can all be the same for all of your children, too. IF AO worked well for you, you could continue mixing and matching what you need each year (or not) depending on how the children progress.

 

I've been thinking about combining the history! I just can't make up my mind. I guess I do have some time, but I would like to have it planned out soon. I need time to save for some of the books not available online.

 

I think I might try having dd9 read some of the year 1 and 2 selections online first. That will give me an idea how well she can handle the readings.

 

The only drawback to switching around the history years would be I would have to create our own schedule every year. I don't mind, I love to plan! But right now I think I want something easy. It's been a year of burn out for me.

[HomesteadMommy]

There is a schedule online somewhere that combines year 1 and year 2. It doesn't leave out much reading, so it's quite full.

 

I tried googling it, but couldn't find it. Do you remember where you found the schedule?

[Heidi]

With my dd for 1st grade, we did about half of AO year 1 (and then life happened and we stopped).

 

Now that we've started up again, and with the age line-up of my kids, I've decided to do AO differently. Mainly because year 1 was a lot of reading for me... and I don't want to read those books outloud again for a while.

 

I LOVE most of the books (not all of them). And I THINK that years 1-3 are roughly about the same level, though I may be wrong.

 

So here's my plan: I picked out 7 books (not all from AO, but mostly) that I read aloud to them (1 a day for 30 min.) every day. In other words, I'll read a couple of chapters/stories out of one book for 30 min/day. I want them to become familiar with the stories and love them, instead of rushing through them like I tended to do with year 1 this year. When we've exhausted those, I'll pick 7 more books and do the same thing. Some are from AO year 0 and some from year 1. I'm reading these to my dd7 & dd5.

 

For my dd7 that is going into year 2 this fall, I picked out about half of the books scheduled and she will read those on her own. Afterwards, I'll read them to her. Currently she is reading Joan of Arc aloud to me every day because there are a lot of words she just doesn't know yet. (BTW she loves that book)

 

I don't worry about keeping AO's history in sinc with SOTW. We listen to SOTW cd once a week and color/do maps while listening, and make a timeline. That's it.

We read from Apologia once a week and do a quick notebook entry on it.

We are semi doing Am. history once a week, (still undecided what to use) and intend to make a notebook with it as well.

And we alternately read Greek Myths/Shakepeare once a week and just discuss.

 

In other words, there are lots of ways to work with AO. The books are excellent! Good luck finding what works for your family.

[Heidi]

I tried googling it, but couldn't find it. Do you remember where you found the schedule?

 

I haven't seen that schedule, but I bet its on one of the yahoo groups. They have all sorts of schedules on there. Here is a link that lists all of the yahoo groups; you have to scroll down a little.

 

http://www.amblesideonline.org/Links.shtml

 

I found a schedule for year 1 that I used and edited. It helped a lot.

[HomesteadMommy]

I finally figured out what we are going to do with AO next year. We will all start with Year 1. Dd5 will start with Year 0 and sit in on the Year 1 readings if she wants to.

I was able to make my decision by picking out readings from year 1 and year 2 for dd9 to read to me. She had trouble reading the year 2 selections on her own, but could easily read the year 1 material. Year 1 was just challenging enough for her reading level.

 

It feels so good to have finally made a decision! I've been going back and forth for days. :lol:

[woolybear]

I just read a post about this on the Yahoo group Amble Ramble. One person said she kept all her kids combined until they became independent readers (usually around year 3). So, she combined for all subjects! Just something to keep in mind. I wish I read this a couple of years ago. I think it would've worked so much better.

[momtotkbb]

For the poster looking for the combo schedule - if you join Amblesideonline yahoo group - then click on the files - select schedules --then scroll down to the schedules that Melissa Gray created - she has ones that combine Years 1/2; 3/4 and 5/6.

 

I encourage anyone interested in AO to join the various Yahoo groups - I esp have liked the ones for the individual years.

[Whereneverever]

For the poster looking for the combo schedule - if you join Amblesideonline yahoo group - then click on the files - select schedules --then scroll down to the schedules that Melissa Gray created - she has ones that combine Years 1/2; 3/4 and 5/6.

 

I encourage anyone interested in AO to join the various Yahoo groups - I esp have liked the ones for the individual years.

:iagree: