If you use AO (Ambleside Online)

[Abbeygurl4]

What does your day/week look like? I've looked at AO for years and have collected many of the books but I've never jumped in and tried it. If you follow CM pretty closely would you mind walking me through a typical day or week?

[Runningmom80]

Subbing

[Susie in MS]

I am not a CM purist. I am very eclectic, so keep that in mind. I do like much of what CM laid out, such as nature walks, narrations, copywork, living books. I don't beat myself up if we don't get art or composer studies done in any given week. I have a life outside of hsing which demands more of my life, so I do what I can.

 

I have my 2nd grader in Y1. Many people find that having their child wait till s/he is 7 to start Y1 works best for them. I found the same for us after I tried my dd in Y1 when she was 6.

 

Our day:

 

Before my dd and I leave for work we read our Bible lesson and 1 or 2 Ambleside readings. I have her tell me what we just read about (narrate). I usually try to do 2 small readings or 1 large. I just choose from what is listed on the weekly schedule.

 

Once we get to my employer's house I get my dd set up to do her independent work while I tend to my duties. This would be the math worksheet and her copy work based on the day's reading printed in the Y1 copywork booklet posted at the yahoo group. She will also illustrate her copywork, and add any additional details from the story that she wants to.

 

We also do other things when I have a break -- you can see in my siggy. We also go over Spanish vocab cards and may do a worksheet. If we have time we may play *go fish* with our Impressionist art cards. I don't follow the art schedule for this, and I don't have large art cards. Though these things would be nice, they are not practical for our situation. I have color cards for the birds from the Burgess Bird Book. We get out the birds we have read about that week and go over the all of the birds often so we can ID them.

 

If we have time left I have my dd read for about 15-30 mins .

 

We have read aloud time before bed, do nature walks and composer studies on the weekends IF we have time and the weather is good. I know what CM says, but I don't like fighting mosquitos to watch birds, squirrel, rabbits and plant life. We do enjoy these things thoroughly when we get to them.

 

My dd and I have enjoyed every selection so far and plan to do Y2 and maybe 3 and 4. I don't have long term plans to keep going with AO as I don't like many of the books listed for the older kiddos.

[Susie in MS]

I am shocked that you haven't gotten any other responses yet. There are several fellow AO moms here. I am hoping to get a peek into their days as well. So here is a bump. ;)

[Kfamily]

We don't use AO, but we do follow CM style methods. I can share what we do....

 

Younger dd:

 

Mornings:

Singapore Math

Independent Reading (on her assignment sheet....she has four books from which to choose and can give one oral narration and one written narration for whichever of these books she would like)

Handwriting

French (together) (most days)

Latin (not every day)

English (not every day)

 

Afternoons:

Literature (we alternate between D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and The Little White Horse right now and we'll follow the latter book with Anne of Green Gables and Evangeline...our literature includes narration work which varies in type and also includes some literary discussion)

History (we read from Our Island Story, A Child's History of the World and Poor Richard and then follow the first two books with narrations that are either written, drawn, orally narrated or discussed)

Science (RS4K Astronomy with books added, Physics kit with biography on Newton for now)

Golden Children's Bible

 

Independent Reading List for now:

My Book House volume #4

Otto of the Silver Hand

Girls Who Looked Under Rocks

Gone-Away Lake

 

Memory Work for Now:

The Lady of Shalott (Tennyson)

 

 

Older dd:

 

Mornings:

Algebra I

English

Latin

French (together)

 

Afternoons:

 

Ancient Humanites (Book of Ancient Greeks, Story of Philosophy, History of Art for Young People and literature beginning with Age of Fable and the Iliad)

Introduction to Physics and Chemistry

Old Testament

Tradtional Logic (to be started soon)

 

Both Girls:

Nature Study (The Magic and Medicine of Plants)

Arts (opera study next on Mozart's The Magic Flute and Rembrandt for picture study)

Plutarch (Brutus)

The Bible Through the Ages

[ladydusk]

I don't use Ambleside, but one of my favorite bloggers does. Brandy wrote some great articles at Afterthoughts.

[EthiopianFood]

Subbing.

[AngelBee]

Can't figure out how else to follow from phone....so subbing too lol

[EthiopianFood]

Can't figure out how else to follow from phone....so subbing too lol

 

Typical. ;)

[Mommyfaithe]

I will try... I used pretty much every AO year with different kids through the yEars....

 

I set up a grid that shows which subjects to cover which days...

IOW, math is 4 days plus hands on Math....so Mon-Fri have math ( Bible,spelling, copywork/dictation)....for those subjects I just have a line tonwritethe lesson # and a check box that it was finished.

 

For weekly lessons....or lessons that are shuffled within a subject ( Science includes a science book, a lab day, nature study, science biography....). I have a grid with 5 columns.....I lay out the name of each subject....

 

THEN .....I go to the AO schedule and print it up....

As we do each part, I cross it off the list...technical, huh???? LOL.

 

AO has become so much more user friendly over the years....and there may even be a schedule or 2 of mine still in the yahoo groups .....

 

Just wanted to say, I love AO, either followed purely or as eclectic as it gets.....there were some years ( this one actually). Where I have used the format and not one of the books!!!! LOL!

 

I have also done years 7-10 for my own education.....not an easy task.....

 

Enjoy!!

Faithe

[Abbeygurl4]

I will try... I used pretty much every AO year with different kids through the yEars....

 

I set up a grid that shows which subjects to cover which days...

IOW, math is 4 days plus hands on Math....so Mon-Fri have math ( Bible,spelling, copywork/dictation)....for those subjects I just have a line tonwritethe lesson # and a check box that it was finished.

 

For weekly lessons....or lessons that are shuffled within a subject ( Science includes a science book, a lab day, nature study, science biography....). I have a grid with 5 columns.....I lay out the name of each subject....

 

THEN .....I go to the AO schedule and print it up....

As we do each part, I cross it off the list...technical, huh???? LOL.

 

AO has become so much more user friendly over the years....and there may even be a schedule or 2 of mine still in the yahoo groups .....

 

Just wanted to say, I love AO, either followed purely or as eclectic as it gets.....there were some years ( this one actually). Where I have used the format and not one of the books!!!! LOL!

 

I have also done years 7-10 for my own education.....not an easy task.....

 

Enjoy!!

Faithe

 

You use AO the way I'm trying to use it! I have a hard time plugging in my own books, I'm just never sure how many pages to cover.

[Abbeygurl4]

I don't use Ambleside, but one of my favorite bloggers does. Brandy wrote some great articles at Afterthoughts.

 

 

Wow! Great blog with tons of information from a very intelligent mom!

[anabelneri]

We're in our 3rd year of AO. I'm not a CM purist, but overall I'd say we stick to the CM way of life more than any other philosophy.

 

We're in Year 4, and dd is 4th-grade age.

 

Mornings:

MEP for math -- this year we're doing it as one big chunk, but in previous years we broke it into 2 20-minute segments

English -- dd likes FLL & WWS better than the more CMish stuff we tried, so that's what we're doing. We have also used MCT in a CMish way (small chunks, narration, etc).

French

Japanese (dd wanted this instead of Latin)

 

Afternoons:

We have the AO readings and our science divided out across the days, in what I'm calling "Weekboxes"; like workboxes but I only set them up once/week. There are only 3 or 4 weekboxes per day, except Wednesday which is park day so doesn't have any. I have a spreadsheet here where I've got the readings broken down into categories; it makes it easier to plan & set things up.

 

Monday: History, CA History (our addition), Geography

Tuesday: Science, Artist/Composer Study, Shakespeare

Thursday: Science, Literature

Friday: Art, Plutarch, Poetry

 

In the past we did Artist Study every other week, but it's working for us to do it weekly for 5 weeks, then switch to the composer. Usually we also have music from the composer on a CD that plays incessantly in the car (along with our folksong, hymn, etc). Also, we used to do Poetry at the breakfast table every weekday morning, but with my pregnancy I stopped being at the breakfast table as consistently, so I added it to the Weekboxes.

 

After all the readings dd either comes to me and does an oral narration, or she does an art narration. We've also started a "Book of the Centuries" which she'll also work on instead of an oral narration; there's a spot on the page for a description of what she read about.

 

For habits, in the previous years (pre-pregnancy) we were using the Accountable Kids system, and one of the cards that repeated morning, noon, and night was a "new habit" card. If she didn't do the new habit, she wouldn't get her ticket for that time of day. We have the new habit posted near her board, and I would also include readings that applied to her new habit to help her get a sense of what the goal was.

 

Oh, and also in previous we would also do religious stuff in the mornings. Sometimes we did Bible study, sometimes we would do different practices from our faith tradition. That would generally happen after breakfast, before other academics. Though we also spent half a year with it happening just before lunch.

 

It's probably also helpful to know that I do a lot of tweaking to fit our family. I use the spreadsheet I linked to above to give me a sense of what the lovely AO ladies have figured out as being a good amount of work for the grade level, and then I switch in a different book and aim for the same general amount of work. I generally switch the religious readings, the science, and sometimes the history (dd likes SOTW & I don't like TCOO).

 

The hardest thing for me is nature study. We spent an awesome year doing ocean/tidepool life (we live on a peninsula) but since then we've lost a lot of interest & momentum. I'm hoping to incorporate it more again after this baby is born and when Lil'un enters Year 1.

 

HTH!

:)

[anabelneri]

Oh, I should mention about that spreadsheet -- the AO board switched up the science and geography books last year, and Years 1-3 on my spreadsheet don't reflect those changes. The assignments listed there are the old assignments. Year 4 should be current. I tried to fix the "Daily/Weekly & Books" sheet to match the new readings, though, because it helps me see what is coming up for my younger (though I liked the old assignments just fine... they tweaked it to encourage more nature study which is my biggest issue... hmmm...)

 

:)

[anabelneri]

Oh, yeah, handicrafts... I've had that scheduled in at various times, but let's just say that learning new handicrafts doesn't suit my daughter. Like massive screaming/crying episodes-type doesn't-suit-my-daughter. I've settled for handicraft exposure (I knit, crochet, sew, and generally make stuff almost all the time), and I support her interest in improving her drawing skills (that's "Art" on Fridays). She also has craft supplies available pretty much all the time.

:)

[Holly]

We use SCM instead of AO, but I do often visit to read more about the "extras". I need as many family subjects as possible with 4 kids, and AO doesn't combine as much as I'd like. You might check out SCM for some schedule ideas...They have lots of schedule examples and it would be easy to plug in the AO suggestions. As far as "jumping in", I've found it better to slowly work up to a full CM schedule. I've made an effort to fully switch over to CM methods (we'd been using many of her methods from the beginning). We are still working on getting it all in. I add a new CM element to our day and make it a priority before adding yet another element.

 

Our current schedule is to spend mornings on: scripture memory, morning devotion, Bible/history/geography, Latin, literature, P.E. and one or two rotating "extras" (poetry, character development, artist study, music, hymn, nature study, Shakespeare). These subjects are done as a family. I do have assigned days for each of the extras, but I'm too tired to type it all out. :blush: Poetry is twice a week, the others are ideally once a week, but we don't often get to all of them each week. The first non-rotating subjects are done daily.

 

For our afternoon subjects, we mainly work on 3Rs. They have 4 subjects scheduled each day. Possibilities are: reading aloud, independent reading, copywork, dictation, typing, writing, phonics, grammar, math games, and math. I try to schedule these to fit each of my kids. Some areas are scheduled each day and some are done 1-3x/week. This system has been working well. I know it's not CM to do so much in the afternoons, but my DC seem to do well with this schedule.

 

After 3Rs, we work on art, handicrafts, and science as time allows. My DC love to finish their day with science, so we often end with our reading and corresponding youtube videos. :lol: Some afternoons are too busy to fit this all in. If we are pressed for time, I try to cut out some of the extras throughout the day. Bible, history, phonics and math are top priority. Chores and laundry are squeezed in throughout the day, but it's difficult to get it all in. Lately we've been trying to get most of it done on the weekends.

[Jenn in CA]

This is the first year I've jumped in and actually used AO. I am using this schedule and it does a good job of showing how an AO day works:

 

https://amblesideonline.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=839

 

Scroll down to "Robyn's Master Planners for Year 1-8, in both pdf and excel format."

 

Finally the light bulb came on when I started using this. We're in Y2.

[Abbeygurl4]

We're in our 3rd year of AO. I'm not a CM purist, but overall I'd say we stick to the CM way of life more than any other philosophy.

 

We're in Year 4, and dd is 4th-grade age.

 

Mornings:

MEP for math -- this year we're doing it as one big chunk, but in previous years we broke it into 2 20-minute segments

English -- dd likes FLL & WWS better than the more CMish stuff we tried, so that's what we're doing. We have also used MCT in a CMish way (small chunks, narration, etc).

French

Japanese (dd wanted this instead of Latin)

 

Afternoons:

We have the AO readings and our science divided out across the days, in what I'm calling "Weekboxes"; like workboxes but I only set them up once/week. There are only 3 or 4 weekboxes per day, except Wednesday which is park day so doesn't have any. I have a spreadsheet herewhere I've got the readings broken down into categories; it makes it easier to plan & set things up.

 

Monday: History, CA History (our addition), Geography

Tuesday: Science, Artist/Composer Study, Shakespeare

Thursday: Science, Literature

Friday: Art, Plutarch, Poetry

 

In the past we did Artist Study every other week, but it's working for us to do it weekly for 5 weeks, then switch to the composer. Usually we also have music from the composer on a CD that plays incessantly in the car (along with our folksong, hymn, etc). Also, we used to do Poetry at the breakfast table every weekday morning, but with my pregnancy I stopped being at the breakfast table as consistently, so I added it to the Weekboxes.

 

After all the readings dd either comes to me and does an oral narration, or she does an art narration. We've also started a "Book of the Centuries" which she'll also work on instead of an oral narration; there's a spot on the page for a description of what she read about.

 

For habits, in the previous years (pre-pregnancy) we were using the Accountable Kids system, and one of the cards that repeated morning, noon, and night was a "new habit" card. If she didn't do the new habit, she wouldn't get her ticket for that time of day. We have the new habit posted near her board, and I would also include readings that applied to her new habit to help her get a sense of what the goal was.

 

Oh, and also in previous we would also do religious stuff in the mornings. Sometimes we did Bible study, sometimes we would do different practices from our faith tradition. That would generally happen after breakfast, before other academics. Though we also spent half a year with it happening just before lunch.

 

It's probably also helpful to know that I do a lot of tweaking to fit our family. I use the spreadsheet I linked to above to give me a sense of what the lovely AO ladies have figured out as being a good amount of work for the grade level, and then I switch in a different book and aim for the same general amount of work. I generally switch the religious readings, the science, and sometimes the history (dd likes SOTW & I don't like TCOO).

 

The hardest thing for me is nature study. We spent an awesome year doing ocean/tidepool life (we live on a peninsula) but since then we've lost a lot of interest & momentum. I'm hoping to incorporate it more again after this baby is born and when Lil'un enters Year 1.

 

HTH!

:)

 

This was VERY helpful! Thank you for posting! Your spreadsheet is awesome :thumbup1:

[Mommyfaithe]

 

 

You use AO the way I'm trying to use it! I have a hard time plugging in my own books, I'm just never sure how many pages to cover.

 

I usually set my timer for 15 minutes....lol. When it beeps, I find a good stopping point and have kids narrate. Sometimes youngest to oldest, sometimes I ask questions, sometimes there is a coloring page or map or other project....sometimes we just go over vocabulary and who we read about. The narration part takes about 15 minutes ...so we spend approx 30 minutes per subject per day. We do not do every subject every day...I am not that ambitious, and neither are my kids.

[Ellie]

 

BUNNY TRAIL ALERT :D

 

 

Afternoons:

Literature (we alternate between D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and The Little White Horse right now and we'll follow the latter book with Anne of Green Gables and Evangeline..

 

 

One of the three best books in the whole entire world. It's right up there with The Chestry Oak and Understood Betsy. :-) I named my French bull dog Wrolf, and I had two cats--littermates--that I named Loveday and Minette. :-) And I have two hardcover copies (I gave my daughters each a copy, as well) that came from England, one of which is a first edition. LOVE that book.

 

Did you know there was a Little White Horse movie? I didn't hate it the way I do the LOTR movies, but I don't need to own it. :-p

[Kfamily]

One of the three best books in the whole entire world. It's right up there with The Chestry Oak and Understood Betsy. :-) I named my French bull dog Wrolf, and I had two cats--littermates--that I named Loveday and Minette. :-) And I have two hardcover copies (I gave my daughters each a copy, as well) that came from England, one of which is a first edition. LOVE that book.

 

Did you know there was a Little White Horse movie? I didn't hate it the way I do the LOTR movies, but I don't need to own it. :-p

 

 

I love that you named your pets after the characters...I'll be sure to share this with my girls because they will enjoy hearing that! :)

 

My younger dd is just now nearly finished with reading it. We have seen the movie, and have it here for my younger dd to watch when she has finished the book. Her older sister has warned her that the movie version has some definite changes to the story in it. (And she was not a fan of these changes...lol..!) But, the movie is fun to watch after you've enjoyed the book first.

 

A well-loved copy lives here too, and I've always known that I would like to get one more copy so that each girl has one of their own to take into their homes. We love it here too.

 

We love Understood Betsy too! I think I need to find a copy of The Chestry Oak if you recommend this one too.

[Susie in MS]

This is the first year I've jumped in and actually used AO. I am using this schedule and it does a good job of showing how an AO day works:

 

https://amblesideonl...ead.php?tid=839

 

Scroll down to "Robyn's Master Planners for Year 1-8, in both pdf and excel format."

 

Finally the light bulb came on when I started using this. We're in Y2.

 

 

VERY helpful! Thank you!

[Nicholas_mom]

Scroll down to "Robyn's Master Planners for Year 1-8, in both pdf and excel format."

 

 

Hi, does any one know what Robyn means for "Physics in the Lab"? Is this a book?

 

Thanks for this thread. It is VERY helpful!

[VeritasMama]

In Year 4 Physics Lab in the Home is a science option. It is a book of science activities and experiments using everyday materials. Is that what it was?

 

I also wanted to mention that the AO recently made some changes to the curriculum for Year 2 and Year 3. They moved a book from Year 2 to year 3, and changed the schedule for the Natural history readings in Year 2. These changes aren't reflected in the Master Planner, so I thought I'd let you know.

[Nicholas_mom]

Thank you!