Anyone using Ambleside Online next year?

[KIN]

I can't satisfy your every desire.... but I can tell you generally what I did this past year with a 5th, 2nd, and 1st grader. We did ancients - which of course AO doesn't do at those grades.

 

Another Lynn -

Thanks for your input! What part of AO did you use? Did you only do the AO yr 1 recs and found your own books for your oldest?

[Pat in MI]

This may help some of you looking for a four year plan. Carol Hepburn has begun a four year plan using AO books. Her site is full of information about AO. Here is the link: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cheps/schedules.html . Scroll down the page and you will see where she has a four year plan. HTH

Blessings,

Pat

[Another Lynn]

Another Lynn -

Thanks for your input! What part of AO did you use? Did you only do the AO yr 1 recs and found your own books for your oldest?

 

Pretty much. Story of the Greeks and Story of the Romans are from AO Year 6. Other AO books we used: Genesis Finding Our Roots (Yr6), Archimedes and the Door of Science (Yr6), The Hobbit (Yr6), Wild Animals I Have Known (Yr5)

 

Other books he read that were not AO books:

Gilgamesh the King, Revenge of Ishtar, Last Quest of Gilgamesh, Ludmila Zeman

Adam and His Kin

Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

A Place in the Sun

Tales of Ancient Egypt (Green)

Hittite Warrior

Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt

Children's Homer (Colum)

Jason and the Golden Fleece (Colum)

Alexander the Great (Landmark)

Within the Palace Gates

Detectives in Togas

Caesar's Gallic Wars

Twice Freed

Greek Gods (from Logos Upper Grammar Lit. guide)

Julius Caesar (Landmark)

Cleopatra (Landmark)

 

 

He read some other books as well - but those are the ones that relate to Ancient History. I went out on my own more because it was ancient history and AO doesn't start with Creation. I'm really excited to use AO as written next year at least for my younger group.

[woolybear]

Wait another year?:svengo: I've been drooling over Ambleside for two years now. Okay, back to thinking again.

 

I created my own Year .05 for ds, age 7. He wasn't really ready for Year 1 and the Year 0 was really a bit beneath him. I think that could be a good compromise for you. I felt ds needed more than the picture books in Year 0 and I wanted to alter what I found on the Yahoo groups for Year .05 I felt he needed to get prepared to do Year 1. I used some of the suggestions and found my own for others. I can give you more info. if you are interested.

Edited May 18, 2010 by woolybear

[Another Lynn]

I created my own Year .05 for ds, age 7. He wasn't really ready for Year 1 and the Year 0 was really a bit beneath him. I think that could be a good compromise for you. I felt ds needed more than the picture books in Year 0 and I wanted to alter what I found on the Yahoo groups for Year .05 I felt he needed to get prepared to do Year 1. I used some of the suggestions and found my own for others. I can give you more info. if you are interested.

 

I would love to hear more :D :bigear:

[Mama2two]

I would love to hear more :D :bigear:

Me too!

[Guest Cindie2dds]

I created my own Year .05 for ds, age 7. He wasn't really ready for Year 1 and the Year 0 was really a bit beneath him. I think that could be a good compromise for you. I felt ds needed more than the picture books in Year 0 and I wanted to alter what I found on the Yahoo groups for Year .05 I felt he needed to get prepared to do Year 1. I used some of the suggestions and found my own for others. I can give you more info. if you are interested.

 

 

Don't leave me hanging, Kim! :D

[Testimony]

I use Ambleside Online. The women on the yahoo group are a great source. They are soooo helpful.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Edited May 19, 2010 by Testimony

[KIN]

Thanks, Karen, for your great *testimony* :) with how you combine AO on a 4 year cycle. My mind is in full gear tonight with all of the possibilities!

[Josephine]

Could someone tell me how to do what I have in my head, but can't figure out how to do? :confused: I want to do Ambleside with my 1st, 3rd and 5th graders next year. However, I want my oldest to do WTM history and I like the structure of SOTW with the AG (narration questions and maps) for my youngers.

 

How can I do this? We are ready to do Ancients again next year. I'm just torn, torn, torn between giving up my history cycle and just doing AO with each child on their own level. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, the books for 5th and 3rd won't be "ancients" books.

 

 

I've been torn between LBC and AO so I was thinking about trying to combine them but another factor is the co-op I signed up for. The co-op is covering year 2 of the 4 year history cycle.

 

Anyways, getting back to what I really was going to say.....I just happened to look through my subscribed threads and I found a thread about an AO/WTM schedule. Here it is for those who are interested: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172250

 

Has anybody actually done this?

 

Josephine

[SophiaH]

 

Anyways, getting back to what I really was going to say.....I just happened to look through my subscribed threads and I found a thread about an AO/WTM schedule. Here it is for those who are interested: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172250

 

Has anybody actually done this?

 

Josephine

 

I did this year, mostly. We were in year 2 of the history cycle and did SOTW 2 along with OIS, Trial & Triumph, Fifty Famous Men, some Diane Stanley bios, a few chapters of TCOO, as well as some of the lit. I'm in bed typing from my phone so I can give you more details tomorrow if you have any questions.

[Josephine]

I did this year, mostly. We were in year 2 of the history cycle and did SOTW 2 along with OIS, Trial & Triumph, Fifty Famous Men, some Diane Stanley bios, a few chapters of TCOO, as well as some of the lit. I'm in bed typing from my phone so I can give you more details tomorrow if you have any questions.

 

 

Can you give me a rough(or detailed ;) ) idea of how you set up your schedule? I guess you picked material out of the other books that wasn't covered by SOTW?

 

Josephine

[SophiaH]

Can you give me a rough(or detailed ;) ) idea of how you set up your schedule? I guess you picked material out of the other books that wasn't covered by SOTW?

 

Josephine

 

I can try. :)

 

If you click on the pdf file linked in that thread, you'll get the original file Missey made with all the books and chapters listed in different colors. I printed that out, then divided up the list.

 

First, you'll see that at the bottom of the first page is SOTW 2, chapter 1. Everything before that, I read during the summer leading up to our year (we had done SOTW 1 in 1st grade, anyway).

 

Then from Chapter 1 of SOTW throughout, I drew a line after every 5 items and that would be one week of reading. The only exception was that I left the green lit titles out of the 5 weekly items and read those throughout the year as my read-alouds.

 

For example,

Week 1: SOTW 2: Chapter 1

OIS (Our Island Story): Vortigern and King Constans

SOTW 2: Chapter 2

OIS: The Story of the Coming of Hengist and Horsa

OIS: Hengist's Treachery

 

Week 2: OIS Chapter 11 through OIS Chapter 14

Week 3: T&T Pope Gregory through SOTW Ch 13

Week 4: CHOW Ch 47 through SOTW Ch 14

(Viking Tales not counted as part of week 5)

Week 5: CHOW Ch 48 through SOTW Ch 15

 

Because Viking Tales was the first lit title, we started it the first week, and I think ended up reading 2 chapters a week until we were finished. Some of the lit we read within 1-2 weeks (like the Stanley books), and some we read over a whole semester (The Little Duke).

 

Once I got each week separated, I looked over it to see if I wanted to switch around any chapters. For instance, if it turned out that in one week landed two chapters of SOTW, and the next week no SOTW was included, I might see if I could switch out one of the SOTW chapters with the chapter of another book to even things out.

 

Other things of note: *I scheduled week 9 and a short week 15 (Thanksgiving) as catch-up weeks.

*OIS became our car-schooling project and we listened to it on librivox via my iPhone, which really helped to keep up with all the readings.

*We just continued on into the AO Year 3 division, and will end the year (this week!) at the line in her document where SOTW 2 ends. We will do the remaining readings (mostly TCOO) over the summer.

*I initially was using SOTW as a "spine" and doing the narrations, comprehension questions, etc. from the AG, but that ended mostly in frustration for my dd because she has a hard time with details (plus we had a hard time getting to it consistently because we'd all rather just read ;)). In this second semester, SOTW has become mostly just another book we're reading through. Well, actually dd is listening to the pertinent chapter during her rest time on CD. (Saves my voice even more!)

 

My dc love OIS and all of the AO book choices, but some dc just don't like them. This was a pretty intense schedule, but it worked because my dc were always begging for me to read history or to listen to it in the car. Also, I learned that it's not necessary (and maybe not even a best practice) to try to line things up *perfectly.* I found that my dd really loves it when we read about say, William the Conqueror in SOTW, then maybe the next week there will be a story about him in 50 Famous Stories, then we might hit him in OIS. Missey's document actually doesn't do that, but our circumstances of getting behind in some books during the year created that scenario, and it was actually a positive thing. YMMV. :)

 

Well, you asked for detailed, so there it is...:tongue_smilie:

Let me know if you have any other questions. Hopefully that helps and doesn't confuse you any further. :)

[woolybear]

Don't leave me hanging, Kim! :D

 

 

Sorry to leave you all hanging! I've been out all day. First of all, I just noticed I wrote Year .05. I meant Year 0.5. At any rate, here is what I attempted to do: (it fell off a bit for two reasons--Often he just wanted to listen in on his older brothers read alouds and then wouldn't have patience for his own and I think it is still a lot of reading aloud for him. Other ds could listen to stories all day.)

 

History:

Fifty Famous People

STOW 1

History Portfolio

 

Geography:

The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins

The Eskimo Twins

Other books from the Twins series

Map work

General geography: learning directions, reading a compass, finding N,S,E,W in relation to our home, making maps, reading maps

 

Natural History/Science:

Handbook of Nature Study--Nature walks

The Burgess Bird Book (I figured any books of older brother's that he wanted to listen to was fine and I could find a replacement for the following year or in some cases, just redo it.)

James Herriot's Treasury

Among the Pond People (Clara Dillingham Pierson)

 

Poetry:

Mother Goose

Now We Are Six/When were Very Young

Oxford Treasury of Children's Verse

 

Literature:

The Aesop for Children (This is pretty much the only book I used for narration.)

In Storyland by Elizabeth Harrison (the boys loved this)

The Sandman: His Farm Stories (Not a resounding favorite:))

Peter Rabbit

The Children's Book of Virtues

The Children's Book of Home and Family

The Children's Book of America

 

Additional books for free reading:

Little House Series (we are just finishing this up--I think they will cry when there are no more to read)

Paddington books (love, love ,love)

The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

Billy and Blaze books

In Grandma's Attic

Animals of Maple Hill Farm

Winnie the Pooh (never got to--Paddington captured their hearts)

The Christmas Porringer

 

American history:

Stories of the Pilgrims

The Puritan Twins (Lucy Fitch Perkins)

Biographies

 

We also had copywork (Happy Scribe or Draw Write Now) memorization (Mother Goose) Math (boring, stupid, cheap workbook bought at Barnes and Noble:001_smile:) Phonics.

 

Picture study, composer study, were shared with older brother.

 

NOTE: This was the *plan*. This is not what we actually did for the most part. I would say I followed this for about 3+ months. I would recommend for anyone trying to do an interim year The Twins series, In Storyland, Mother Goose, James Herriot, In Grandma's Attic. For picture study, the "What Makes a____ , a ___" series is a nice way to start out. We also have a nice classical music series. Each disc has a story of the composer and some music. I can check the name if anyone is interested.

 

That's about it. It really is nice, but ds needed another way to learn to read, language arts in general, math, writing. So, next year I will be using both Ambleside and Oak Meadow.

[Zoo Keeper]

I can try. :)

 

If you click on the pdf file linked in that thread, you'll get the original file Missey made with all the books and chapters listed in different colors. I printed that out, then divided up the list.

 

First, you'll see that at the bottom of the first page is SOTW 2, chapter 1. Everything before that, I read during the summer leading up to our year (we had done SOTW 1 in 1st grade, anyway).

 

Then from Chapter 1 of SOTW throughout, I drew a line after every 5 items and that would be one week of reading. The only exception was that I left the green lit titles out of the 5 weekly items and read those throughout the year as my read-alouds.

 

For example,

Week 1: SOTW 2: Chapter 1

OIS (Our Island Story): Vortigern and King Constans

SOTW 2: Chapter 2

OIS: The Story of the Coming of Hengist and Horsa

OIS: Hengist's Treachery

 

Week 2: OIS Chapter 11 through OIS Chapter 14

Week 3: T&T Pope Gregory through SOTW Ch 13

Week 4: CHOW Ch 47 through SOTW Ch 14

(Viking Tales not counted as part of week 5)

Week 5: CHOW Ch 48 through SOTW Ch 15

 

Because Viking Tales was the first lit title, we started it the first week, and I think ended up reading 2 chapters a week until we were finished. Some of the lit we read within 1-2 weeks (like the Stanley books), and some we read over a whole semester (The Little Duke).

 

Once I got each week separated, I looked over it to see if I wanted to switch around any chapters. For instance, if it turned out that in one week landed two chapters of SOTW, and the next week no SOTW was included, I might see if I could switch out one of the SOTW chapters with the chapter of another book to even things out.

 

Other things of note: *I scheduled week 9 and a short week 15 (Thanksgiving) as catch-up weeks.

*OIS became our car-schooling project and we listened to it on librivox via my iPhone, which really helped to keep up with all the readings.

*We just continued on into the AO Year 3 division, and will end the year (this week!) at the line in her document where SOTW 2 ends. We will do the remaining readings (mostly TCOO) over the summer.

*I initially was using SOTW as a "spine" and doing the narrations, comprehension questions, etc. from the AG, but that ended mostly in frustration for my dd because she has a hard time with details (plus we had a hard time getting to it consistently because we'd all rather just read ;)). In this second semester, SOTW has become mostly just another book we're reading through. Well, actually dd is listening to the pertinent chapter during her rest time on CD. (Saves my voice even more!)

 

My dc love OIS and all of the AO book choices, but some dc just don't like them. This was a pretty intense schedule, but it worked because my dc were always begging for me to read history or to listen to it in the car. Also, I learned that it's not necessary (and maybe not even a best practice) to try to line things up *perfectly.* I found that my dd really loves it when we read about say, William the Conqueror in SOTW, then maybe the next week there will be a story about him in 50 Famous Stories, then we might hit him in OIS. Missey's document actually doesn't do that, but our circumstances of getting behind in some books during the year created that scenario, and it was actually a positive thing. YMMV. :)

 

Well, you asked for detailed, so there it is...:tongue_smilie:

Let me know if you have any other questions. Hopefully that helps and doesn't confuse you any further. :)

 

 

Heather,

 

Thanks for elaborating; I just printed off Missey's list the other day and was wondering how to make it work without some insanity along the way. Your scheduling makes it look do-able. Thanks:). I have one child who really could read all day, so I've been perusing AO's lists to give him more to chew on. It also gives me more to chew on.....

[Mama2two]

Sorry to leave you all hanging! I've been out all day. First of all, I just noticed I wrote Year .05. I meant Year 0.5. At any rate, here is what I attempted to do: (it fell off a bit for two reasons--Often he just wanted to listen in on his older brothers read alouds and then wouldn't have patience for his own and I think it is still a lot of reading aloud for him. Other ds could listen to stories all day.)

 

History:

Fifty Famous People

STOW 1

History Portfolio

 

Geography:

The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins

The Eskimo Twins

Other books from the Twins series

Map work

General geography: learning directions, reading a compass, finding N,S,E,W in relation to our home, making maps, reading maps

 

Natural History/Science:

Handbook of Nature Study--Nature walks

The Burgess Bird Book (I figured any books of older brother's that he wanted to listen to was fine and I could find a replacement for the following year or in some cases, just redo it.)

James Herriot's Treasury

Among the Pond People (Clara Dillingham Pierson)

 

Poetry:

Mother Goose

Now We Are Six/When were Very Young

Oxford Treasury of Children's Verse

 

Literature:

The Aesop for Children (This is pretty much the only book I used for narration.)

In Storyland by Elizabeth Harrison (the boys loved this)

The Sandman: His Farm Stories (Not a resounding favorite:))

Peter Rabbit

The Children's Book of Virtues

The Children's Book of Home and Family

The Children's Book of America

 

Additional books for free reading:

Little House Series (we are just finishing this up--I think they will cry when there are no more to read)

Paddington books (love, love ,love)

The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause

Billy and Blaze books

In Grandma's Attic

Animals of Maple Hill Farm

Winnie the Pooh (never got to--Paddington captured their hearts)

The Christmas Porringer

 

American history:

Stories of the Pilgrims

The Puritan Twins (Lucy Fitch Perkins)

Biographies

 

We also had copywork (Happy Scribe or Draw Write Now) memorization (Mother Goose) Math (boring, stupid, cheap workbook bought at Barnes and Noble:001_smile:) Phonics.

 

Picture study, composer study, were shared with older brother.

 

NOTE: This was the *plan*. This is not what we actually did for the most part. I would say I followed this for about 3+ months. I would recommend for anyone trying to do an interim year The Twins series, In Storyland, Mother Goose, James Herriot, In Grandma's Attic. For picture study, the "What Makes a____ , a ___" series is a nice way to start out. We also have a nice classical music series. Each disc has a story of the composer and some music. I can check the name if anyone is interested.

 

That's about it. It really is nice, but ds needed another way to learn to read, language arts in general, math, writing. So, next year I will be using both Ambleside and Oak Meadow.

 

Thank you for all the great ideas!

[Josephine]

I can try. :)

 

.....

 

Then from Chapter 1 of SOTW throughout, I drew a line after every 5 items and that would be one week of reading. The only exception was that I left the green lit titles out of the 5 weekly items and read those throughout the year as my read-alouds.

 

For example,

Week 1: SOTW 2: Chapter 1

OIS (Our Island Story): Vortigern and King Constans

SOTW 2: Chapter 2

OIS: The Story of the Coming of Hengist and Horsa

OIS: Hengist's Treachery

 

Week 2: OIS Chapter 11 through OIS Chapter 14

Week 3: T&T Pope Gregory through SOTW Ch 13

Week 4: CHOW Ch 47 through SOTW Ch 14

(Viking Tales not counted as part of week 5)

Week 5: CHOW Ch 48 through SOTW Ch 15

 

.........

 

Well, you asked for detailed, so there it is...:tongue_smilie:

Let me know if you have any other questions. Hopefully that helps and doesn't confuse you any further. :)

 

Wow, thanks a lot Heather. It's very encouraging to know that it is possible.

 

Josephine

[SophiaH]

Wow, thanks a lot Heather. It's very encouraging to know that it is possible.

 

Josephine

 

You're welcome! :)

[Another Lynn]

oops sorry - I missed the update I was looking for...

Edited May 21, 2010 by Another Lynn

[She]

We've been using AO for the last 3 years (only slightly the first year). We've followed so many curriculums and ideas over the years, but was never completely happy. I loved the classical approach, but even with the WTM was never able to follow it. I love that AO has a loose (weekly) scedule and has all the books laid out. I'm happy to finally find something we are ALL happy with! Will be moving on to AO 0.5, Pre-7, 8, 9

[Medieval Mom]

We've been using AO for the last 3 years (only slightly the first year). We've followed so many curriculums and ideas over the years, but was never completely happy. I loved the classical approach, but even with the WTM was never able to follow it. I love that AO has a loose (weekly) scedule and has all the books laid out. I'm happy to finally find something we are ALL happy with! Will be moving on to AO 0.5, Pre-7, 8, 9

 

Wonderful! This thread got a bit off the beaten track. :001_huh: Thanks for chiming in that you, too, are using Ambleside next year! :)