Calling all AO Users...what makes this more than a booklist?

[keyjoh62080]

I am wondering what makes Ambleside Online more than another good book list?

 

Thanks SO much!

[Whereneverever]

The approach in how you read and interact with the books. The way that the books build and interact.

[Already Gone]

My amateur take:

 

1. For starters, you'll see towards the beginning of each year's schedules (not the booklist link) something like this:

 

 

To this book schedule should be added daily

penmanship

,

phonics

, and

math

, as well as weekly

nature study

,

art

,

music

, and

handicrafts

.

Foreign language

may also be started.

 

 

Penmanship, nature study, art and music in particular are covered in greater depth on the AO site if you follow those links, and they are covered in ways particular to a Charlotte Mason-style education. My point here is that AO offers a great deal of supplementary information and resources to the booklist.

 

2. The books are meant to be read along Mason's guidelines, not just willy-nilly and again, AO offers many resources. Specifically, understanding Mason's approach to narration (similar but not quite the same as in WTM) and short reading passages extended over greater periods of time has been helpful for me.

 

3. You'll see all kinds of recommendations on the site to read Mason's own works, and I really have to add my voice to that particular chorus, as intimidating as that suggestion might be. This is an entire philosophy of child development, intellectual, moral and otherwise--the booklists are just one small part.

 

All that said, I don't see any reason you couldn't use it as a booklist. I've recommended it to friends and relatives who aren't even homeschooling as a source of "books to read to kids."

 

Disclaimer: I've only been toying around with AO so far. We won't be starting Y1 until next month. But the broader ideas about language arts, habit development, etc., have already transformed our homeschool environment.

[Kfamily]

Hi!

 

Well, AO is often used just for its book list, which speaks to the quality of the curriculum itself, but it is so much more than a booklist. It is so much more depending on how you as the teacher implement the methods and ideas of Charlotte Mason. I actually follow the methods of Charlotte Mason more than I follow Ambleside Online. Although AO is an excellent guide and example of how to make her ideas work, you can apply her method to any booklist. Naturally the booklists will end up having many similarities. A good Charlotte Mason booklist includes living books and will often include books she used that are still available or ones similar in style and content. The idea, of course, is to choose the very best children's books that are available for each topic.

 

Here is a great article at AO on getting started:

 

http://amblesideonline.org/FAQ.shtml#started

 

These paragraphs really sum up nicely the overall idea behind CM and AO:

 

Charlotte Mason lived in England in the 1800's. [see photos of the Ambleside area where she lived and worked here.] Orphaned at age 16 and never married, she devoted her life to children and their education. Her ideas were ahead of her time - while others thought that children were no more than empty slates to be filled with information, she believed that they were already real people capable of independent, intelligent thought and that they needed vital ideas, rather than dry facts, to feed their growing minds.

 

The students in the schools she founded read and discussed living books written by excellent authors on various subjects, took daily nature walks and recorded their observations in notebooks, enjoyed art and music, cultivated and maintained good personal habits such as attention to detail, focused attention and consideration to others, and learned foreign languages. And, by using short lessons, they accomplished all of this (and more) by lunchtime so that they had their afternoons free for their own individual worthy pursuits.

 

The Charlotte Mason method uses living books with an emphasis on quality rather than quantity, narration instead of comprehension exercises or composition, copywork for handwriting, spelling and grammar modeling, nature observation as the primary means of early science, and literature, poetry, art and music to give children's minds beautiful ideas to feed on.

Edited July 15, 2011 by Kfamily

[AngelaNYC]

I agree with other pps that's it's how the books are implemented. AO is all about incorporating the whole CM method. I love the 36-week schedule which tells you what to read each week. After each reading the child gives a spoken or written narration. Artist, composer, nature, and poetry have schedules for each 12-week term. Copywork, history timeline and/or book of centuries, and mapwork all correspond with the day's readings. The only thing you really need to add in yourself is a math and foreign language program. You don't need any separate spelling, phonics, grammar, or writing programs. I use some sporadically as ds has mild dyslexia and could use some extra help. All in all though, AO used the right way is an incredibly rich and full education.

 

The whole reason behind AO is that people wanted to homeschool using the CM method, but found it difficult putting together their own plans. So in 1999 a group of women put one together, using lots of free online resources to make it accessible for everyone. Every now and then they tweak the list, but the method stays constant.

 

I suggest pulling up the Site Map page on the AO website and just start reading all you can.