Kfamily Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Hi! I'm struggling with my thoughts about some things and was wondering if anyone here follows Ambleside Online with no adaptations or with few adaptations? I'm particularily interested with those who also follow and intend to follow it through high school. How do you handle the narrations (oral and written) at the upper levels (middle and high school level)? If you don't follow the narration/copywork/dictation/grammar/2-3 languages etc, then what do you remove and why? Also, with what would you replace it? For example, I have always been too worried to go with written narrations and grammar etc. only at the upper levels. If you remove the narrations what do you do instead? I am not as concerned with the booklist. AO and HEO are excellent booklists but are not the only books that can/could be used so I don't worry about whether the booklists and schedules are followed perfectly...just curious about the methods. Any thoughts...? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Hi!I'm struggling with my thoughts about some things and was wondering if anyone here follows Ambleside Online with no adaptations or with few adaptations? I'm particularily interested with those who also follow and intend to follow it through high school. How do you handle the narrations (oral and written) at the upper levels (middle and high school level)? If you don't follow the narration/copywork/dictation/grammar/2-3 languages etc, then what do you remove and why? Also, with what would you replace it? For example, I have always been too worried to go with written narrations and grammar etc. only at the upper levels. If you remove the narrations what do you do instead? I am not as concerned with the booklist. AO and HEO are excellent booklists but are not the only books that can/could be used so I don't worry about whether the booklists and schedules are followed perfectly...just curious about the methods. Any thoughts...? Thanks! I did for a few years with my older kids. it was absolutely wonderful....I had to stop because of time constraints and it sort of kills me.... I used all sorts of "narrations" with my older kids. PLEASE...go to the AO site and link to CM's writings....Look for all the info you can. Narrations in their simplest form are re-tellings...but we got so creative with them. There are many ways...think compositon assignments. For high schoolers, we used a commonplace book for copy work. IOW, I had the kids copy inspirational quotes, political quotes, funny quotes...anything that struck their fancy. They still do it now. The commonplace "book" is replaced by a word processing program...but my kids all keep lists of quotes and use them in their essays, letters, e-mails and Facebook statuses :-) In the younger grades, I did grammar, but I always taught it using a piece of literature we were working on. I would find a paragraph or a poem, and teach nouns, verbs, adjectives, where to put a comma, capital etc. Each child on their level. It was A LOT OF WORK! But, I look back at their notebooks and I see how rich their education was. I miss it terribly and hope I can get a few more years of AO in with my younger crew....I am praying... If you have specific questions, do a board search...and I would also be happy to answer the best i can. Faithe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 You might also want to investigate the AO Yahoo groups. In my experience those on the groups follow it rather closely and guard against any variations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelaNYC Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 We follow AO with very few adaptations. We just took the religious stuff out because my kids have religious instruction elsewhere. We intend to follow it through high school with ds (dd has her heart set on a performing arts high school). I trust AO as a tried and true path to a great education. It's been around for 10 years. Those who have used it for the long run have nothing but raves, and I, too, find it exceptional. Dd(13) did very well with and loved the narrations. She would read half the books on her own and the other half I would read to her (we enjoy it that way :001_smile: ). She did oral narrations on the readalouds and written ones on the books/chapters she read herself. I would later scan the material and read her narration. Usually it was a nice summary. Sometimes, using the story as a base, she would write with different methods (persuasive essay, business letter, biography of main character, etc). It was fun and changed things up a bit. That, along with the copywork, dictation (dd's fave), and great books, is really all a child needs. Since NY requires standardized tests in 5th and 7th grades, dd also used bookstore language arts workbooks (spectrum, daily sparks) to fill in any (perceived) gaps. She zipped through them. There are excellent CM ones out there as well. Narrations are definitely an integral part of AO and the CM method. It's a good idea to read everything you can on the AO website and then try and get to CM's original writings. It will help you understand why the different parts matter. Ds(8) is doing Year 2 now. Ever since starting AO his vocabulary, reading, and understanding (the books are tough!) have skyrocketed. We follow the AO 36-week schedule. We also follow the term schedules for poetry, nature, artist, and composer. We've created a Book of Centuries and we're learning French. We try and get outside every day, implement short lessons (10-15 minutes each), and learn handicrafts. You can certainly remove or replace books in the schedule that you don't like. I'll admit, my kids like "twaddle" and I even encourage it. :tongue_smilie: There's a yahoo list called "AmbleRamble" which is all about what replacements can be or have been used. It's very active and can be a real help. I wanted to mention, it is encouraged not to try and add much to the curriculum since it's already a full load. I'm guilty of adding stuff, but usually it's what the kids ask for, like science experiments, art, and outside classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2blessings Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 and love it! I can't answer about narrations for older kids...my oldest is 4th grade. But I understand the concern about enough grammar, etc. for the older kids. To ease my fears (which may be unfounded), I add in Spelling Workout and a progym writing program (Writing Tales now, Classical Writing starting in 5th). I also plan to start Junior Analytical Grammar next semester, and continue with Analytical Grammar. I believe AG is rec. by both WTM and Simply Charlotte Mason. Haven't started, but I like that it is rigorous, but not all year/every year. That's the current plan, anyway:) Gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 Thanks so much everyone! We are always trying to do too much. I know what I would like our lessons to look like...I just need to figure out how to make that happen. I am also using CW to fill in for what is my own lack of teaching ability with regard to writing. I can't seem to shake this feeling that we could be doing some things better. Reading about how others implement the details is very helpful to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jami Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Two of my favorite blogs to see what CM looks like in everyday life are: http://morningtimemoms.blogspot.com/2008/09/charlotte-mason-day.html (I linked to an older post, more recent entries are just Morning Time focused, but there are great older posts linked in the sidebar) http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/ (LindaFay has moved many of her CM posts and information over to CharlotteMasonHelp.com) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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