Come into the garden with me…
and let’s talk about Ambleside Online.
Will I be using it?
Yes, I will be using Ambleside Online.
And that was the answer to the first question in my mind.
The second question required just as much thought, if not more, to find an answer to.
What year of AO will I place Michaela in?
I had to look at several factors:
- This past year was Michaela’s first year homeschooling and thus it was a big transition year for us. We did a ton of fun field trips and nature studies. We did lots and lots of playing. I wanted it to be a gentle transition year for her so that she’d want to homeschool again the next year. The point here? I don’t want to turn around and put her into something this year that totally overwhelms us both.
- While I believe that her education was acceptable in public school, and that her education was acceptable this past year at home, I am keenly aware that she is not used to narration, just as she is not used to a steady diet of challenging classics and “living books.” Last year was our transition year into homeschool. This next year will be our transition year into Ambleside Online.
- She technically is entering 6th grade. She will be doing 7th grade math. But her reading level — and this is key — is right at grade level. That’s all. So I need to be careful not to place her in a year with books that are too demanding. I have no doubts that Year 5, and even 4, will challenge us.
- Ambleside Online says right in their FAQ section, about one-third of the way through the page, in the section At which Year/level should I place my child?, “An Ambleside Online ‘Year’ does not mean ‘Grade’ as it would in public school.”
So those are the facts. Yesterday, armed with the facts, and the booklists for years, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, I went to The Homeschool Gathering Place to start looking at books and trying to decide for myself, which year do I choose?
I think handling the actual books, looking at the content, and imagining yourself assigning reading from them is a good way to get a feel for which year to use. I also think that having the child read from some of the books will give you an idea if they are able to do the reading on their own throughout the year. This latter suggestion has been mentioned in the support group as well.
Pulling books from the shelves for various years and leafing through them, I got a sense that Year 5 would be a good start for us. Year 4 and even 3 have some wonderful books as well, and I’m sure they are even challenging, but I wouldn’t want to put Michaela so far back that she felt bored or demoted. And as I mentioned, she’s a grade-level reader, so I want us to go forward, not backward!
Probably what tipped the scale for me was a statement on the Year 6 Booklist about year 6 being the transition year between childhood education and the education of the upper years, and as such the subject matter being more mature.
Year 5 it will be.
The third step was to start buying books.
Note: The two books in the foreground don’t have anything to do with Ambleside. They are just a couple I picked up while out. Ken, I found a used copy of Spelling Power! I like the way it looks. Joseph and I are excited to finish out the summer with it, and I hope Joseph will continue to use it even after he’s been handed his diploma. 
Be still my heart, I bought a new copy of Lessons at Blackberry Inn! It’s the sequel to Pocketful of Pinecones. I started reading it this morning. I found a used copy of Handbook of Nature Study. I went ahead and bought the Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 5.
I also found a beautiful copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, which I am going to have Michaela read aloud to me, so that we can work on her reading skills the rest of the summer. We will begin to practice narration.
As for buying the books, I love nothing more than a beautifully bound, hardback book that I can hold and smell and love. Do you love the smell of a book? I love books. Hopefully I can find many of them used to save us some money.
Now that I’ve chosen what year we’ll be using and started accumulating the books, I will print off the Weekly Lesson plans for Year 5. I will start thinking about how to best set up our daily schedules, looking at what days work best for us as far as the weekly lessons and how we’ll set up our school days.
I will continue to read the Home Education Series and the Ambleside’s FAQ, making notes for myself in my homemade CM notebook. I’m enjoying reading the daily digest from the Ambleside Online Support Group and getting to know the people there.
One last thing. We’ve got some chapter books that we’ve accumulated through the years that aren’t that great. I’ll be weeding out to make room for better books. I won’t be getting rid of too many books, mind you, but some!
I’ll close with a quote on really paying attention to our children, understanding what they mean and how they learn and how best to guide them to be useful men and women.
Nothing is trivial that concerns a child; his foolish-seeming words and ways are pregnant with meaning for the wise. It is in the infinitely little we must study in the infinitely great; and the vast possibilities, and the right direction of education, are indicated in the open book of the little child’s thoughts. ~Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Volume I
Happy Thursday!
Lynn
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
I just realized you are in my area due to the store you were at!!! I am a part of a CM homeschool group if you are interested in coming to one of our meetings let me know, I LOVE it!!! We meet once a month in Raleigh! Email me for more info if you are interested
Sounds great Lynn!
You have so piqued my interest in this whole thing.. I do have a question though. We tend to start our new school year at the real new year- January. Not for any real reason.. that’s just when the timing works out best for us. I notice there is a lot of support through the Ambleside Online site. Would we be too out of step wit the rest of the gang to benefit from the dialog etc over there?
I’m thinking of *possibly* transitioning Noah over in January… possibly.
Trinity Mommy, thank you so much for dropping by and leaving a comment. Your blog is beautiful. Thanks for the info about the group too. I’ll definitely be in touch.
Emily, I am really excited! Is C ready for pizza?
Diane, I think anyone could benefit from the conversations on the support loop. Just know that most of the messages are specific to using Ambleside and not necessarily just general Charlotte Mason questions and answers. In the past I have felt overwhelmed with all the info, but now that I’m committed to using Ambleside, I am just loving every single message and page and really soaking it up.
Lynn
Lynn, This is wonderful! I enjoyed reading your thought processes. And I agree that gentle is good. Challenge is wonderful, but overwhelming is NOT.
I admit I was so envious when I clicked on the HS Gathering Place. What a wonderful shop! We use Spelling Power. It works well for my daughter.
We have a cat named Oreo and we have one rabbit!
Lynn, I am enjoying reading about your conclusions.
We just started using Spelling Power three weeks ago and so far I love it. The kids love that they don’t have to study and practice words they already know and I love the ease of it.
Jimmie, thank you for the confirmation. It is so tempting to choose something just because it seems “grade level,” but I want to choose what we’ll be happy with. I love having the Homeschool Gathering Place close by! Everyone needs one. And I’m so happy to hear good things about Spelling Power. The lady in line behind me had not had good success with it, but I said I’d try it anyway.
MamaHen, thanks so much. Again, I’m so happy to hear a good Spelling Power review. I think it’ll be good for Joseph and I’m just glad Ken pointed it out to me.
Lynn
Good Morning Lynn,
I am getting a late start on my day, but wanted to ask a question.
As a Homeschool Instructor would individual lesson packets for books being read and ideas being explored and studied be of benefit?
I keep having the reoccurring thought that having a prepared guide might assist parents in aiding guided reading and suppling ideas, discussion questions, writing prompts and possible culminating projects to feel more confident and save valuable planning time daily. I have looked over the book list and have a head full of ideas! A website, downloadable copies, idea exchanges, …! I would love your input. Being a new student to the world of Homeschool education I’m not sure this isn’t already available in one place. Again, I’d love your input.
Talk to you later,
Diane
Hi
I’ve really enjoyed reading your thoughts. I’ve joined the yahoo group
Looking at it for James – in a gentle manner. He loves nature study
Love Leanne
What… no FIAR????
I’m sad. ; )
I enjoyed seeing your CM notebook.
Heather W
Diane M, what you describe makes me think of unit and literature studies and there are many of those available, some free and some for purchase. There are websites where people exhange ideas and over time a lot of information will build up, making quite a nice resource for various books and subjects. A really nice unit study site is Amanda Bennett’s site: http://www.unitstudy.com/ Are you talking about something like that? One of the sites where peopel share ideas is http://www.homeschoolshare.com
I hope that helps. Homeschool curriculum is a huge market, but it’s very competitive these days.
Leanne, I’m really excited about it, but I’ve been thinking about it for awhile.
Heather, dear, you know we’d not abandon FIAR.
I think there’s plenty of room to work it in. We worked from Volume 4 last year, so it’s onto Beyond this next year! I like that Ambleside is structured and offers a booklist and weekly lessons. I need that since I work, but as I mentioned I wanted room to be creative. With the free reading and room for biographies, go-alongs, etc, I think we’ll enjoy doing Ambleside and Beyond together. I’ll be sure and post more as I get the details worked out of how our weeks will flow.
Lynn
Hey Lynn, that is great about the Spelling Power. You need to let us know how it goes. We loved it and hope it helps.
This year is our first year of homeschooling. We decided to home school because my youngest daughter was getting left behind at school. We have be do this for a month and realized I need to change something. My kids just wiz right through the text books and are not retain anything. Im also looking for a program that with help my yougest daughter read a bit better. I found ambleside and it sounds like what I’m looking for my oldest daughter wants to be an author so this program would be great and she loves, loves, to read. My youngest daughter this will be challenging, but I know she can do it. My youngest daughter is in 3rd grade and I have decided to put her in year 2. My oldest is in 7th grade and she has a 12 grade reading level so she will be in year 7. I’m excited to start ambleside.