The Ambleside Online curriculum includes The Story of The World by Susan Wise Bauer, so we’ll be using that, and I also am a devoted FIAR fan and we’ll be using some of that.

I don’t try to reconcile anything we do with FIAR to a curriculum that teaches things in a rigid chronological fashion. I think the books chosen for FIAR are also high-quality books and have merit on their own. Although CM seemed to dislike unit study overall, I’m not totally opposed to unit study, especially done in the lovely FIAR style.

That said, we might tie in a FIAR book because it already fits what we are studying. For example, I can see us re-visiting Paul Revere’s Ride while reading about George Washington in This Country Of Ours by H.E. Marshall. Often, however, we will “row” a FIAR book just because we want to.

I think children are able to take ideas and make connections when given quality material, so I don’t think it confuses the curriculum at all to do something from one time period when everything else is from another.

I hope I haven’t gone way off track of what you were asking. I just wanted to make sure I truly answered your question. I love something about nearly every teaching style out there, so I’m not close-minded to anything if it works to our good.

I’m sure you’re probably familiar with everything I mentioned, so I apologize for being so long-winded, but just wanted to let you know my line of thinking about the various teaching methods.

Lynn