Ambleside Online for High School

[Monique]

Has anyone used this curriculum for high school and if so how well did it prepare your children. Also is this curriculum well rounded? How did it help your kids prepare for the SATs/ACTs. I do realize that test prep is required for the SATs/ACTs so I am referring to the content of this curriculum giving all that a child requires to graduate and prepare them for College.

 

Thanks.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I am planning on doing it next year with my oldest dd, and my 5th grader. I do plan on some modifications so that I can use what I own, but...

 

I do think it is a good, well rounded curriculum. One of history choices for 9th grade is Paul Johnston, which I think is also recommended in TWTM. The reading selections are good, I may give my dd some flexability in her choices, but it is all good reading. You should still do English, and they do recommend a grammar. Writing also needs to be taught. I am planning on using IEW, their US History Vol. I and II look like a good fit.

 

For SAT prep, the best thing is reading a lot, and of course a solid math background. You should do a SAT prep book to prepare. There is also a SAT daily question on the web you can do.

 

Ambleside is rigorous. It includes primary sources, biographies, economics, citizenship and great literature. You need to continue your basic subjects, but otherwise it is actually a good classical curriculum. It just goes more slowly than TWTM or other classical curiculums (like Omnibus).

 

HTH

 

Kim

[Monique]

Hi Kim,

 

Thanks so much for your response. I sincerely appreciate it. I always research things thoroughly before jumping in. My boys are just finishing up 7th Grade now and will start 8th Grade in the Fall so we're a ways from the SATs/ACTs. However, I don't think short term only. I'm always looking way down the road. LOL!!! Partly because I am not American born so I want to make sure that high school will give me no surprises.

 

We are finishing up Core 6 of Sonlight which covers Ancient Egypt and Sumer through the Reformation. Had we stuck with SL this Fall we would be doing Core 7 which cover the 17th century to about 1990. I wonder if making the switch to AO will disrupt the period of history they are studying now? I have asked this on the HEO list but thot I'd just mention it here too.

 

Thanks again.

[momee]

Is Kim the only one on the boards here doing AO? I don't see many high school users of this program. If you know of some blogs I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks.

[Mommyfaithe]

Has anyone used this curriculum for high school and if so how well did it prepare your children. Also is this curriculum well rounded? How did it help your kids prepare for the SATs/ACTs. I do realize that test prep is required for the SATs/ACTs so I am referring to the content of this curriculum giving all that a child requires to graduate and prepare them for College.

 

Thanks.

 

I used AO since its inception...in one form or another...IOW...tweaked to meet the needs of my kids. As you can see I have graduated 3 children from my homeschool...

 

The results:

 

DD#1 SAT almost perfect score on the verbal portion (750 pre essay)...not so great in math (550) BUT she is not real mathy. She graduated from College witha 3.9 GPA Summa Cum Laude #7 in her class of over 1000 students! She reads Homer for fun...nuff said

 

DD #2 SAT...Near Perfect verbal score...w/ essay...not as good as her sisters, but comparable..(725 w/ 12 on the essay if i remember correctly,) Also not great on the math. This I attribute mostly to using Saxon all the way through and not having her take an SAT review Math program...but she did better that her sister...625. She loves Math and tested into Calc on the College Compass exam. Because she was homeschooled and taught herself, the Math dept. would not let her skip College Algebra..GRRRRRR....She got an A+ in the class...brought her grade to the Math Dept. who still insisted she couldn't possibly be talented in Math since she taught herself...GRRRRRR....and they proceeded to talk her out of majoring in math.....UGH! These self -righteous jerks!!!! Anyway, She is majoring in Liberal Arts....which is having a real field day with her spiritual well-being...IOW...it is very hard to be a Christian in College and take Liberal Arts..UGH!!!! BUT she is still studying math on her own because she likes it....

 

DS #1 is graduated last spring, but is still part time homeschooling, while finding out who he is, working for DH's plumbing buisiness and trying hard not to get into trouble. :tongue_smilie: Anyway, he is not doing an SAT but going to CC in the Fall. He took 2 online business classes this spring and is going to major in Industrial Drafting. I wanted him to go into Environmental Science but the courseload looked too intimidating to him. he is smart, but lazy. He is my child who wants to follow the path of least resistance...so he dropped math after Alg. 1...wouldn't even try...so I am waiting to see how he does at theCC level before pushing on forward. He loved AO...and he is the best read plumber out ther. He is still working on reading all of the AO High School level books. Me too:D

 

Ds#2 took a year off of AO to use Omnibus 3 with VP academy. he loved the books and the teacher and the interaction with other students...BUT he really felt it was miles wide and an inch deep. he says he feels like he has whiplash from the amount of reading they did...and he feels like a lot of it was wasted because he read SO MUCH but had no time to mull over the ideas and form his own ideas. he said it was a great course in speed reading with no emphasis given to the Great Conversation....SO....Hey Ho...back to AO we go...

 

Does AO prepare a child for college???...oh yes!!!! However, my goal is not in preparing my child for College or SAT's...but preparing my children for life. AO is RICH in that it is a 12 year character curriculum which prepares children to think, to appreciate beauty, to enrich their lives with learning...even after the school session is over . (My kids can not wait for finals to be over so they can get to their reading lists :lol:) My only issue with AO, is I sometimes feel very inadequate as a teacher and mom to provide all that is there to offer...as we have yet to study Plutarch...and I need lots of hand holding in the upper years, so I tend to break down and order study guides.

 

Anyway...that has been my experience over the last 10 years with AO.

 

HTH,

Faithe

 

 

If I can help you with any particulars, please feel free to ask.

[Kareni]

I've no direct experience with Ambleside; (but just to muddy the waters) I've heard good things about Mater Amabilis: A free online Catholic Charlotte Mason Curriculum.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[naturalmom]

I used this for a lot of years, and then I lost my confidence after Year 7. I felt unprepared, and wanted something that would "hold my hand" a little bit. We used Omnibus I last year, and then I decided to use Omnibus II, just the 1st semester, this year, because there's so much more I wanted to cover than just Omnibus.

 

Last month, I decided we will go back to Ambleside. I am using TWEM to give me some guidelines for discussion (it's a little easier to follow than How to Read a Book, the Ambleside resource). I think they have excellent selections, a lot of source materials are used.

 

More important to me is the fact that my children are interested in history and literature whenever we do Ambleside - Omnibus seems to have taken the joy out of things for my son.

 

I am adding other history to it. We'll be doing Chinese, German and Russian history, along with British and American. So I'll be making my own schedule for readings, but I'll be using the Ambleside selections and methods.

 

I can't say how the testing will go, since we're not quite there yet.

[Chloe]

Faithe,

When doing AO, did your dc do the readings as scheduled, or did you use the books but go through them in a different order or at a different pace?

 

My oldest is only going to be a 6th grader next year, but I'm thinking about doing AO for the rest of her (and the other dc's) schooling. We've dabbled in AO for the past two years now, mostly using them as a book list, but I'm thinking about jumping in to their schedule. I'm not a huge proponent of CM, and I think AO tries to cover too many subjects (hymns, composers, poetry, Plutarch, health, etc). I prefer to keep things simple and concentrate on the 3R's, a "less is more" approach, but I do believe reading through books at a slower pace and really letting the information simmer in the mind is very beneficial. So I'm thinking about following their schedule but leaving out about 1/4 of the books. Do you think this would still provide a thorough and rigorous education?

 

Thanks so much, and any more details about how you used AO would be greatly appreciated!

[momee]

I would definitely love to see this conversation continue with any details offered.

 

I have gone back and forth and back again about letting my kids move from our structured unit study approach to AO.

 

So many comments have been addressing the supposed "unschoolish" type of mindset towards CM methods that I'm just not sure it's enough WORK. Plenty of tough pieces as the years go, but what about the instruction from mom and essays and ....

 

It's just a few things that keep me from it. I'm much more of a look at the guide and tell the kids "we've got this work to do..." type mom anyway so it seems like letting go of the reigns jumping over.

 

I appreciate the success stories!

[Mommyfaithe]

Faithe,

When doing AO, did your dc do the readings as scheduled, or did you use the books but go through them in a different order or at a different pace?

 

My oldest is only going to be a 6th grader next year, but I'm thinking about doing AO for the rest of her (and the other dc's) schooling. We've dabbled in AO for the past two years now, mostly using them as a book list, but I'm thinking about jumping in to their schedule. I'm not a huge proponent of CM, and I think AO tries to cover too many subjects (hymns, composers, poetry, Plutarch, health, etc). I prefer to keep things simple and concentrate on the 3R's, a "less is more" approach, but I do believe reading through books at a slower pace and really letting the information simmer in the mind is very beneficial. So I'm thinking about following their schedule but leaving out about 1/4 of the books. Do you think this would still provide a thorough and rigorous education?

 

Thanks so much, and any more details about how you used AO would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

My opinion , fwiw, is that AO...especially in the higher grades is a pick and choose type of program. I have no problem ditching a book, replacing it with another, etc. You will see on the older levels where there is a caveat which states not to try to do it all...that is is more like a buffet and to choose your options. I take that to heart :D

 

Now as far as composer study, artist study, nature study, well we do not do those according to schedule, but in a stealth manner. I pick out a composer and an artist for each school quarter....same with poets. I download the composers music into my ipod and then play it in my dock or in my van etc. I also will read a story about the composer from a children's book at bedtime. By the end of 10 weeks...they KNOW the music and the composer. i may do a quick google search too, so I know bits of trivia about the compositions or composers...)ummmm or bands...we spent a full quarter on Hot Tuna one year and Phish another...LOL....) so I can blurt out a little "did you know????" every once in a blue moon.

 

For Art, I am pretty stealth too. I will pick the artist, take out books from the library with prints and then flip through then non-chalantly. i am amazed that my kids happen to be very interested in whatever I am reading to myself (or whatever is sitting on my plate. :lol: ) I call those teachable moments. Oh honey...look at this painting...what do you see????

 

Nature Study???? Ummmmm....we have a garden, birds, deer, racoons, skunks, foxes, coyotes, BEARS! all in our area. I couldn't plan those studies...but they happen almost more than I want them to, especially the deer in the garden. :banghead:

 

HTH,

Enjoy!

Faithe

[Guest Katia]

I would definitely love to see this conversation continue with any details offered.

 

I have gone back and forth and back again about letting my kids move from our structured unit study approach to AO.

 

So many comments have been addressing the supposed "unschoolish" type of mindset towards CM methods that I'm just not sure it's enough WORK. Plenty of tough pieces as the years go, but what about the instruction from mom and essays and ....

 

It's just a few things that keep me from it. I'm much more of a look at the guide and tell the kids "we've got this work to do..." type mom anyway so it seems like letting go of the reigns jumping over.

 

I appreciate the success stories!

 

Have you read Charlotte Mason's books? Do you understand her educational approach? Because, it is not anything close to "unschoolish", but more like Classical education.

 

This is my 15th year homeschooling, and we have mostly used CM methods. I like to hang out on these boards because when I read TWTM it seemed so very similar to CM. It constantly amazes me when I read/hear that people think CM is "unschooling". Nope. Couldn't be further from that! Following CM my dc were doing Latin in 3rd grade and added French in 5th.......

 

What I liked was CM's short but focused lesson idea as opposed to the time-schedule published in Susan's first edition of TWTM, but I also got a lot of curriculum ideas from TWTM.....I just like CM methodology better!

 

To be able to use and really get the benefits from something like Ambleside Online, I would think you would need to have read CM's original works to know how to apply the suggested curriculum/books, kwim?

[Chloe]

Thanks, Faith. I can handle picking and choosing.

[Vida Winter]

I've no direct experience with Ambleside; (but just to muddy the waters) I've heard good things about Mater Amabilis: A free online Catholic Charlotte Mason Curriculum.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

Thanks so much for posting this wonderful resource!

[harmonyartmom]

I actually had a blog post brewing on this very topic this week so I went ahead and finished this morning.

 

Here is the link:

http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/2009/05/charlotte-mason-high-school-or-not.html

 

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

[Peela]

I am using AO in a loose kind of way- HEO year 7, with my 13 and almost 15 year olds (we started our school year in February). Year 7 is a great place to start as the books are meaty but interesting. I understand it gets a lot more heavy going as the years go on, but also, you pick and choose more- its actually designed for you to do that so you dont have to feel guilty about not doing it all. Year 7 is medieval. I will tweak the later years to match our 4 year history cycle.

The great thing about AO is that it is free so its not expensive to tweak it to suit yourself. I started with all the extras but have dropped many of them. I added in a writing program for both, and an art history program for dd14 who is an artist, logic puzzles for my logic challenged child, etc

It is very rigorous- even year 7 has books in it that would be considered very late highschool here, or even college level.

I am not in the U.S. so i dont know what you need do meet your requirements, but like Faithe, I homeschool to give them a good education, first, and secondarily, to meet requirements.

Breaking the books down to weekly chunks was not something my kids were keen to do, but it has worked out better than we expected and allows us to read several books at once and makes our weeks very rich.