Using Children's Books for French Language Study

As a supplement to our French curriculum this term we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar in French. I borrowed La Chenille Qui Fait Des Trous from the library, and we have been watching it on YouTube weekly so the children hear it read with a good accent. What's nice about this book for beginning French students is that it has a fair amount of repetition. It also includes numbers from 1-5, the days of the week, and the names of several fruit and different kinds of food.



The only drawback to this particular choice could have been that it is not an exact translation (The title is translated back into English as The Caterpillar that Makes Holes). However, the vocabulary is simple enough that we haven't found it to be a problem.

It was so fun last week to hear AJ(2) on the couch with the English version of the book saying, "Look Mama! Un papillon!" He also likes pointing out "la chenille" on every page.

My choice for the second six weeks of our term was going to be Georges va au Zoo (Curious George Goes to the Zoo), but sadly it is not on YouTube. I'm not sure if I want to read it to the boys myself. I could do it, but my French accent is not that great. (My husband has told me that I put emphasis on all the wrong syllables, and gave me an impression of how this would sound if I did it in English. My confidence is gone!)

Does anyone out there have any good ideas for other children's books I can use in this way? We really enjoyed doing this with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I'd like to keep going.

Year in Review: Our Favourite School Books

JJ(7)'s Year 1 Books

Today I pulled out all our books from the school year just ended and stacked them on the table. What a good feeling it was to realize what we had read through! Most of these are part of Ambleside Online's wonderful curriculum for Years 1 and 3, with a few books added in for Canadian content and special interest, and a few books taken out to compensate for what we'd added in. Everything we read was narrated, whether by the individual student, or by both of them (or all three! My extroverted 4-year-old loves to take his turn narrating the readings we do together as a family.).

Some of them are books we will continue to read in the next school year (Probably. Plans are not set in stone yet!):
The Blue Fairy Book
Canadian Wonder Tales
Great Canadian Lives
Mathematicians are People, Too
The Story of Canada (Marsh)
The Story of Canada (Brown, Harman, Jeanneret)
Trial and Triumph

Some of them were books that we didn't complete. The term ended, and we moved on:
Children of the New Forest (SA(9) may yet finish this on his own.)
Hamlet by Bruce Coville
The Jungle Book
Just So Stories (One chapter to go...JJ will finish it on his own.)
Leonardo da Vinci by Emily Hahn (I suspect I got the wrong book in this case...it was very heavy for Year 3. We read through half, and moved on.)
Sebastian Bach by Opal Wheeler

But the majority of the books on the stacks were the ones we finished, whether together as a family, or separately. Because we did several Year 3 books together, I ended up taking out a number of the Year 1 books in order not to overload JJ.

SA(9)'s Year 3 Books

Together:
A Drop of Water 
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
Madeleine Takes Command
Pagoo
Pilgrim's Progress (We finished Book 2 this year)
Secrets of the Woods
Tales from Shakespeare (We did the chapters scheduled for Year 3 together.)

SA(9):
Bard of Avon
Our Island Story (He completed the chapters scheduled in AO's curriculum through Year 3.)
The Adventures of Marco Polo by Russell Freedman
The Heroes
The Princess and the Goblin

JJ(7):
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Paddle-to-the-Sea
The Aesop for Children


The Favourites

For fun, I asked all of them to choose their favourite school books. They each started with one, then thought of more they considered favourites. In the end I let them choose as many as they wanted. I also asked them to choose their least favourite book. JJ had no doubt about his pick, but SA assured me earnestly that really, he liked all his books, and his least favourite was still a good book.

SA(9):
The Princess and the Goblin 
Madeleine Takes Command
A Drop of Water
The Heroes
Sebastian Bach
Mathematicians are People, Too

Least Favourite: Leonardo da Vinci by Emily Hahn

JJ(7):
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Madeleine Takes Command
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Paddle-to-the-Sea
A Drop of Water

Least Favourite: The Story of Canada by Brown, Harman, and Jeanneret

MM(4) also insisted on choosing his favourite:
The Blue Fairy Book

And why not? I'll include my own favourites of the year. You'll notice some overlap with the boys picks...it's just such a pleasure to share books when they are loving them too. I was learning as much as they were.

Madeleine Takes Command
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence
Secrets of the Woods
The Blue Fairy Book
The Heroes

Canadian History: What We're Doing in Form 1

Since our main curriculum guide is Ambleside Online, which is American, I have had to figure out for myself what I would use for Canadian History. SA(8) is in Year 3, and JJ(6) is in Year 1. In our homeschool, I combine some subjects and do some separately. Canadian History is one we combine right now. With SA, I simply followed AO as written until near the end of grade 2, beginning our studies with British history and starting a separate stream of Canadian history when European explorers began to arrive in the New World. With JJ, I have reluctantly departed from the British history (I do love it, but there is only so much time and energy to work with) in order to begin with Canadian history in his Year 1.



This was my process:

1. I determined the time periods we would study each term by aligning them with Ambleside Online's history study. I then wrote a list of people and topics to study each term.

End of Year 2:
Christopher Columbus
John Cabot

Year 3, Term 1: 1509-1598
Jacques Cartier
First Nations
Marguerite de Roberval
Humphrey Gilbert
Martin Frobisher

Year 3, Term 2: 1598-1685
Sieur de Monts
Port Royal
Samuel Champlain
Etienne Brule
Settlement of Acadia
Poutrincourt
Charles and Marie de la Tour
Jean de Breboeuf
Jesuit Missions
Annaotaha
Founding of Montreal
Maisonneuve
Jeanne Mance
Marie de la Peltrie
Heroes of Long Sault
Bishop Laval
Intendant Jean Talon
Les Filles du Roi
Fur Trade
Coureurs de Bois
Radisson
Grosilliers
Hudson Bay Company

Year 3, Term 3: 1685-1759
Iberville
Frontenac
La Salle
Madeleine de Vercheres
La Verendrye
Thanadelthur
Eunice Williams
Noel LeVasseur
Acadian Explusion
Boishebert
Seven Years' War
Wolfe
Montcalm
Battle on the Plains of Abraham

2. I gathered my resources.

Spines:
The Story of Canada by Edith Louise Marsh (published 1913)
The Story of Canada by George W. Brown, Eleanor Harman, and Marsh Jeanneret (pub. 1950)
Great Canadian Lives by Karen Ford, Janet MacLean, and Barry Wansbrough (pub. 1985)
Other Living Books: 
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence by Esther Averill
The Dreamers by Thomas Head Raddall (for the short story "The Dreamers")
Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill
Evangeline and the Acadians by Robert Tallant
Drummer Boy for Montcalm by Wilma Pitchford Hays

3. I read the spines and decided what I'd use for each topic.
If this sounds unnecessarily complicated, that may be the truth especially since this is only elementary school! The problem is, none of the spines I've found so far are "perfect." Marsh's Story of Canada is unquestionably a living book, by one author, well-written, full of interesting details to bring history to life in the imagination. But so many things are left out of the story! Does this matter? I really can't answer that. Maybe time and experience will tell, neither of which I have yet. Also, I have really been trying to determine if I prefer Marsh or Brown, Harman and Jeanneret, and part of my process has just been using parts of both and seeing how narrations go, etc. It may be that with future children I will just choose one. I also realize the path I've taken is only usable because I'm reading it aloud to accommodate my Year 1 student. If I only had the Year 3 student, I suspect I would give him Marsh to read on his own, supplemented by a few stories from Great Canadian Lives.

Brown, Harman, and Jeanneret's Story of Canada is much more comprehensive than Marsh. I was very optimistic about it as I began the year, but I have been finding its style a bit uneven (possibly because of the multiple authors?). It has lovely narrative sections, but also some fairly dry sections. Altogether, it is more driven by the important facts and doesn't have all the lively details that Marsh includes. Still, I like comprehensiveness, and when I compare this book and Marsh side by side, I often find myself choosing this one because it tells me more.

Great Canadian Lives is another book that suffers from multiple authors, but I am finding it invaluable. Using only the biographies that are well-written (sadly, there are several that are not), I have been able to include people that the older spines leave out, particularly women and First Nations people.

4. Each term, I made a weekly plan. 
(Marsh=The Story of Canada by E.L. Marsh; BHJ=The Story of Canada by Brown, Harman and Jeanneret, GCL=Great Canadian Lives)

Year 2, Term 3 (beginning when AO begins American history)
Christopher Columbus: Marsh p. 7-13
John Cabot: Marsh p. 13-18, BHJ 5-11 (There was surprisingly little overlap between the two.)

Year 3, Term 1: 1509-1598
Weeks 1-12
We simply read and narrated Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence (click the link for my review and the schedule we used). We did not bother with the spines, partly because this wonderful book took all the time we had allotted to Canadian history (and possibly a bit more), and partly because we hardly needed to add anything else. The additional topics I had planned to cover in Term 1 got pushed to Term 2. (First Nations, Marguerite de Roberval, Henry Hudson, Martin Frobisher)

Year 3, Term 2: 1598-1685
Here's where it gets messy. I'm just recording it here as what I did, not necessarily as what I recommend. Having said that, it was a good term, and I was learning as much as the children were. In general, I substituted specific tribe names or "First Nations" for "Indian" as I read, and we discussed any issues that came up after reading and narration.

Week 13 First Nations
The Mound-Builders: Marsh p. 24
First Nations of the Plains and of Eastern Canada: BHJ p. 23-27
Reference: BHJ p. 34 for a map of First Nations tribes

Week 14 First Nations, continued
Pacific First Nations: BHJ p. 28-29
First Nation Inventions: BHJ p. 29-32

Week 15 First Nations, continued
Effects of White Colonization: BHJ p. 33-36
First Nations Beliefs and Legends: Marsh p. 27-30
Note: BHJ talks about the Residential Schools on p. 37. Obviously, since it's such an old book, it doesn't have the knowledge and perspective about them that we have now. This may be an appropriate place to add some discussion of this issue. If anyone knows of a living book suitable for children on this subject, please let me know!

Week 16 First Nations, continued
Dekanawida and Hiawatha: GCL p. 10-11
Inuit: BHJ 38-42

Week 17 Explorers and Sea Dogs
Marguerite de Roberval: GCL p. 22-23
The Sea Dogs: GCL p. 24
Martin Frobisher: GCL p. 26-27
Henry Hudson: GCL p. 30-31
Note: We chose "Frobisher Bay" by James Gordon as one of our folk songs this term in honour of Martin Frobisher.

Week 18 Sieur de Monts, Port Royal, Samuel Champlain
BHJ 44-46 (...pound)
Marsh 32 (During the summer...)-33
Champlain: BHJ 48-52
Note: I also read "The Dreamers," a short story from Thomas Head Raddall's collection The Dreamers as a free read to supplement this week's lessons. Raddall (1903-1994) was a writer of Atlantic Canadian historical fiction worth keeping an eye out for. Though the short story I used was perfect for my elementary-aged boys, most of Raddall's work is probably more suitable for high school.

Week 19 Champlain, continued
Champlain: BHJ 48-52
Etienne Brule: GCL 46-47, BHJ 53 (In 1615...)-55

Week 20 Acadia, Poutrincourt, LaTour
BHJ 69-74, GCL 64-65, GCL 60-61

Week 21 Brebeuf and Jesuit Missions
Father Le Caron and the Recollets: BHJ 56-57
Brebeuf: Marsh 39-44
Annaotaha: GCL 55

Week 22 Ville Marie
Maisonneuve: BHJ 61-63
Jeanne Mance: GCL 54
Marie de la Peltrie GCL 58
Heroes of Long Sault: Marsh 45-47

Week 23 Laval, Talon, Coureurs de Bois
Bishop Laval: Marsh 47-48
Coureurs de Bois: BHJ 82-84
Jean Talon, Filles du Roi: GCL 70-71

Week 24 Quebec, Radisson & Grosilliers
A Visit to Quebec: BHJ 87-92 (Free Read)
Radisson & Grosilliers: BHJ 93-100

Note: We also read Evangeline and the Acadians as our bedtime free read during Term 2, although the Acadian explusion fell outside the time period we were studying. This was to prepare ourselves for a planned field trip to a local Acadian museum in early April. It was a wonderful living book, and I was surprised at how deeply all of my boys (aged 4-8) were interested in it. Normally, our bedtime free reads have been fiction, but non-fiction is clearly just as popular here! As a result, we will probably spend a little less time on the Acadian explusion in Term 3 than we might otherwise have done. Please also note that this is by a Louisiana author and the last half of the book focuses more on the settlement in Louisiana than the Acadians who returned to Atlantic Canada. This is not a huge issue (the two are very connected), but if you use this book, you will probably want to learn more about the Acadians in Canada today.

Year 3, Term 3 (1685-1759)
We are just beginning this term, so this is not tested. Along with this plan, I am also planning to read Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill (substituting for The Landing of the Pilgrims in the Ambleside Online Year 3 curriculum).  For this reason, this schedule omits Madeleine de Vercheres. I will not be scheduling Madeleine Takes Command strictly, as it is a long book (longer than the one I'm substituting it for). I will use it as a school book for the term, scheduling weekly readings and narration, and then finish it off as a free read when the term is over.

Week 25-26 Iberville
BHJ 101-107

Week 27-28 Frontenac
GCL 80-81
Marsh 55-62

Week 29-30 La Salle
BHJ 113-121

Week 31 La Verendrye
BHJ 124-127

Week 32 
Thanadelthur: GCL 90
Eunice Williams: GCL 94
Noel LeVasseur: GCL 95

Week 33 The Acadian Explusion, Boishebert
The Acadian Explusion: Marsh 67-69
Boishebert: GCL 98-99

Week 34-36 Seven Years War, Wolfe and Montcalm
GCL 101
Marsh 70-78
Note: I also have a living book about the Battle on the Plains of Abraham called Drummer Boy .for Montcalm by Wilma Pitchford Hays. I will probably read it as a free read to supplement these lessons. It is historical fiction, but based on the life of the author's own great-great-great-grandfather.

I have written out my plans here in great detail partly as a record for myself that I can refer to when my younger children reach this stage. I hope some of it is helpful for you, too! What are you doing for Canadian history in Form 1 (Grades 1-3)? Please share in the comments.

Show and Tell: The "Schedule"

I use the term "schedule" loosely in my homeschool...being tied to the clock does not work well with babies and toddlers in the house! However, we do have a routine, and I have found it helpful to post our "average day" on the wall so the children know what to expect.

In keeping with my habit of pinning our school activities to normal household routines that always happen no matter what (meals and snacks, for example), I have divided our chart into smaller charts. Somehow it seems slightly less overwhelming that way too...

 

This routine is very similar to our routine last year, except that this year, I have a new Year 1 student! I have planned to do several lessons together with my Year 3 student (the Morning Time and Tea Time routines are done together), but I still need about 45 one-on-one minutes with JJ(6). That's 10 for math, 10 for phonics and reading, 10 for piano, and 15 for beginning narration.

 

When I total it up, total school time for my Year 1 student is 2 hours and 15 minutes, and for my Year 3 student is 2 hours and 30 minutes. This does not include our "Morning Time" routine, but it does include our relaxed "poetry teatime" routine and 20 minutes of Phys. Ed. and play in the middle of it all. For me, of course, the total is more like 3 hours and 45 minutes. I hope that will decrease a little if SA(8) gets more independent with some of his lessons. 

 

I am trying to get most of the work done in the morning so the afternoon can be much more free. I will be trying throughout to do as much as is reasonably feasible outside, even during the morning.

 

We have been having a break from screen time this summer, and I will continue with that as long as the weather is nice. In the winter I will probably return to our usual allowance of screen time at 4:00.

 

Keep in mind that this is only my plan! No doubt it will evolve over time as we work it out.

 

How do you organize your school days?

 



Show and Tell: Maps for the New School Year

I'm sure a lot of you do the same thing as we do: go back and forth from the dining room table to the couch, to the backyard to do your homeschooling. We have a normal-sized house, adequate but not expansive ...no space for a dedicated room for homeschooling here!

I had an idea this year for all the maps we need for our lessons. I put a tablecloth on the table, laid out the maps, and put a clear vinyl tablecloth (from the dollar store) on top of it all.

I'm finding the vinyl tablecloth a little thin and will be looking for one of a bit heavier weight, but I think the idea will serve us well. I may also look for some clips to hold it all in place. The vinyl has been sliding a little bit, though the tablecloth underneath and the maps stay in place remarkably well.

 

Most of the maps are outline maps, unlabeled. We will write in the names of the places as we read. The map below is one of Newfoundland, the Maritimes, and part of Quebec for our study of Jacques Cartier this term. I also have maps of Canada, Europe, the Great Lakes, the Exodus from Egypt, and the Mongol Empires of 1200-1480 AD. All of these relate directly to our lessons coming up this year.

 

For the maps themselves, I searched online for maps in the public domain, saved them, and sent the files to Staples to print them in the format I requested. Most are 11x13 on cardstock. 11x13 was the largest size I could print before the price jumped from 89 cents to $14.99, and I thought cardstock would be a bit more durable than paper. If you are using Ambleside Online, I realized just after I did all the work of finding maps that the forum there has links for all the maps you might need!

 

We also have a world map and a Canada map on the wall next to the table to give context to these smaller maps.

 

What about you? How do you use maps in your homeschool? I'd love to hear how everyone else does it!

Deciding What to Combine in AO Years 3 and 1

As we begin this coming school year, SA(8) will be in Year 3 using Ambleside Online, and JJ(6) will be starting Year 1. I also have two preschoolers: MM(4) and AJ(1). I think I mentioned last time that planning for two official students seems like a huge thing for me. (Feel free to smile, you moms of many. Some day I will be where you are.) This process of deciding what to do together and what to do separately is a personal one. Some people combine, some don't, some just combine a few things. This is just my plan...it is prescriptive for no one but me!


Pre-Reading...The First Step When Choosing What to Combine
I started my planning by pre-reading week 1 of Year 3. Pre-reading is becoming more important now as I plan to have SA read more of his lessons on his own. (Narrations will still be oral, of course.) I am hoping to keep a few weeks ahead of him if I can. I take notes in my bullet journal that I can refer to as we set up the lessons...names to introduce, places to find on our maps, and words to define so they don't bring him to a screeching halt in the middle of a lesson (I try not to do more than three per lesson...many words are easily understood from their context.). I also jot down sentences that might be good choices for copywork.

Besides these things, pre-reading the first week of lessons before even beginning to think about scheduling allowed me to easily see which books might be good options to do with SA and JJ together, which books SA can probably read on his own, and which books I should continue to read aloud to him.



Some Obvious Things to Combine
There are some things that we have been doing together all along, and we will not change that. These things are:

• Bible reading and narration (JJ will just begin to take his turn narrating along with SA.)
• Pilgrim's Progress
• Bible, hymn, and catechism memory work
• Poetry reading and memorization
• Folk songs
• Picture study (again, JJ will begin to take his turn describing the pictures)
• Music appreciation
• Drawing lessons
• Nature walks
• Chores
• French
• Handicrafts

These things already have a place in our routines, and it will not take much to add one more "official" student to the mix.

Readings I'm Planning to Combine
This takes more thought. In the first place, having JJ participate in some of SA's Year 3 lessons means taking away some of the Year 1 lessons in order not to overload him. We might be able to circle back to some of them in the future, but it's hard to leave out books that I loved reading with SA in Year 1.

In the second place, I have been seriously thinking about beginning JJ's Year 1 with more of an emphasis on Canadian history, and less of an emphasis on British history. Canada is his own country, and he naturally has more of an interest in and relationship with Canada. I listened to the History podcasts (episodes 11, 12, 14, and 15) from A Delectable Education a few months ago and was quite convinced that learning about their own country was the way to go in the early years of a child's education. This actually works quite well when it comes to combining, as SA is just beginning Canadian history now in the AO history rotation.

So here are the books I'm planning to do together in the first term:

• Pagoo (leaving out The Burgess Bird Book for JJ's Year 1. But I think I may come back to it, possibly when MM starts Year 1 in two years.)
• Trial and Triumph (I'm planning to add this to our breakfast circle time, in rotation with Pilgrim's Progress and selections from Paterson-Smyth's commentary on Exodus. If I was doing Parables of Nature, I'd add it to this rotation, but I think I'll skip it again this year.)
• Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence (A wonderful Canadian living book - will review soon! This actually has quite a few pages, and I'll regretfully have to take out both Benjamin Franklin and Our Island Story for this term.)
• Tales from Shakespeare

Deciding Where to Plug Combined Readings into the Routine
For me, it makes the most sense to add these readings to activities in our routine that we're already doing together. Trial and Triumph will be added to our breakfast circle time (We have two circle times...Breakfast for Bible-related things, and Tea Time for poetry and art.). Pagoo, Cartier, and Shakespeare will all be added to our Tea Times.

This is as far as I have gotten in my planning. The next part is even harder... deciding how and when to do the lessons that will be done separately. Stay tuned!

Embracing Routine

A Charlotte Mason education is an abundant one, with its feast of living books and ideas and "extras" that are not extras (Poetry, composer study, art appreciation, and nature study, to name a few.). This is one of the things I love most about it. It's also the thing I find most taxing as an organizationally-challenged mom of four boys aged seven and under. 

The thing that as helped me the most in these early years has been establishing learning routines. There are things that everyone does every day, no matter what. Eating meals comes to mind. I began by pegging my learning routines to things that were already established routines in our home. The After-Breakfast routine of scripture, singing, and prayer was the first routine, and happened every day after breakfast starting when our children were tiny. The Bedtime Reading routine was added when our oldest was about two or three. Then a couple of years later came the Poetry Teatime routine. Later still, we added our Lesson Time routine to the end of Poetry Teatime. Having these routines in place as I've been using Ambleside Online has given me a place to plug in what seemed an enormous feast of learning, and it has not been as overwhelming as it might have been if I had had to set it all in place at once.

Sometimes we homeschool moms have a tendency to read blogs and check Pinterest out. When we do, we find so many wonderful ideas! We want to do them ALL. We want to do them NOW. We start today with several of them, and are discouraged when some of the good ideas don't stick, or when we find we've dropped two or three of them after a few weeks. We compare ourselves to people who seem to be doing it all, and we forget that nobody does it all, especially not all at once!

I want to encourage you to slow down. Yes, you can implement all the wonderful ideas. But take some time to build them into your life. Lay a foundation of the most important things. Set them into your day as a "this is what we do every day no matter what." When that routine is solid as a rock, choose some other important things to add. Once you have some foundational learning routines in place, you will have a place to add the wonderful ideas you come across on Pinterest, and they will stick for as long as you want them to.

 

The After-Breakfast Routine

This routine has always been in place in our home. My boys call it “Read-and-sing-and-pray.” We read a passage from the Bible, we sing a hymn, we pray together. When SA(7) was about five or six, I began to add to this, and it became a “Circle Time” of sorts. First I added a Bible passage to memorize, then later (in Year 1) I added his Bible narration. This year (his Year 2) I added a reading from Pilgrim’s Progress as well.

 

The Poetry Tea Time Routine

This routine began sometime when SA was five and JJ was three. In the beginning, I set the table with tea and snacks every day, and we read poetry. The end. They loved it. Over time, I’ve grown more lax with the tablecloth and tea every day…I discovered that they don’t really love tea so much now that the novelty has worn off, and that tablecloth got spilled on Every. Single. Day. However, we do still always sit down at the table with our snacks and drinks and poetry books at about 10:00 or 10:30. It’s our signal for the school day to begin. (I am hoping to do better with the tablecloth and hot drinks again this year... So far so good.) Starting last year we have done poetry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with art appreciation on Tuesdays and music appreciation on Thursdays. I have added other things to this time as well at different times --instruction in sol-fa, French, drawing --in short, any learning I’d like to do together as a family. 

 

If you've been reading around the internet about "Circle Time" and "Morning Time" or even "Morning Basket" you will notice that the two routines I just mentioned are our "Circle Time." We have found that dividing it in two like this is a very practical option when children are young and have a hard time sitting still.

 

The Lesson Time Routine

This routine began when SA was five with a short reading lesson and a short math lesson or game immediately after our Poetry Teatime. In Year One, it expanded to include math, two readings with narration, copywork, and piano practice. Now in Year Two, the readings with narration have become slightly longer (20 minutes each), and we've added an independent reading and narration (this one is still short at 10 minutes). I have also added some time this year with JJ(5) for reading instruction and math, and for reading aloud to him.

With little children in the house, sometimes it's hard to do lessons at the same time every day. I have found that it helps to have a lesson time routine in which you do your lessons in a certain order, no matter what time you manage to start. That way, the children can at least develop an expectation of how much work there is to do daily.

The Bedtime Reading Routine

The bedtime routine is very simple. The boys get ready for bed, and my husband or I read to them for about twenty minutes. There is no narration, no expectation of anything from them. This routine is completely for the enjoyment of books together as a family. In the beginning, I always did the reading, but lately my husband has begun to read as well when he's home on time. I often choose from the Ambleside Online "Free Reads" for this purpose, while my husband tends to choose more widely.

 

These are the routines we've built in our family so far. I know our routines will continue to change as the children grow older. I expect that your routines will look different than mine. I truly believe that the important thing (if you want them to last!) is to build them one at a time, not all at once.

 

 

 

P.S. I'm still hopeful that someday I will manage to find a cleaning routine that works for me... (Just a little reminder that I don't have it all together, despite these routines that are working well!!!)

 

P.P.S. I apologize that I've been so quiet lately...my internet is still not working consistently. Now that I have Word on my computer I'm hoping I'll be able to write there and just copy, paste, and post in moments the internet is working. Still, it's a challenge, so I'll just do the best I can under the circumstances.

 

A Timeline that Works for Us

This is not a beautiful timeline, I admit. It has no timeline figures. It is small, the width of a wall map, with an inch for each century. Its people and dates are jotted down when we please with the pen that is at hand. It works for us, though, and I plan to make one for each of my children when they begin Year 1. This was my first try, for my first student...I'm sure future timelines will become successively more orderly and beautiful.

This particular timeline is also known as a stream of history chart. I began this one a year and a half ago when Jen Snow shared the idea on her blog. She had worked out the idea from Laurie Bestvater's The Living Page, which referenced a Parent's Review article describing such a chart. The chart referenced there was intended for older children, and was to give an overview of major events in all of history.

My chart has been adapted for our own use with younger children. It does not differentiate between major and minor historical characters or events. That will come later, as what matters now is their vivid impressions of the people of history. Whenever we have come to know someone well in our lessons (whether through history, or picture study, or music appreciation, or even free reading), we add that person to our timeline.

I began by entering my dates and my husband's dates on the chart. Next, I added the children's grandparents. I also put Jesus' dates on the chart. Then I left it open, and added whoever captured our interest. Laura Ingalls Wilder was an early addition.

The greatest benefit having such a timeline has been seeing the children's enjoyment of the connections it makes between the people they have learned about. They like seeing that Mozart lived during George Washington's lifetime. They know that William Longsword, Duke of Normandy ("Little Duke" Richard's father) and William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, are not the same person, because they occupy different places on the chart. Today we added Canadian artist Tom Thomson to our chart. We noticed that we now have three people on our chart who died in 1917: Tom Thomson in Canada, Edgar Degas in France, and Buffalo Bill in the USA.

Next year I will take this chart down and put a new, clean one up for JJ, who will be in Year 1. I am thinking of making SA a timeline in a notebook at that point (He will be in year 3.).

I know you're looking at this and thinking how crowded and messy it is! When I do it again, I am considering being content with a smaller range of years. At this young age, I don't think the children appreciate that aspect of it, anyway. A smaller range of dates will allow me to make the spaces between centuries a little wider so I can fit the people in more neatly and we can see the relationships more clearly.

If you want to make a chart like this, it is easily done with a piece of Bristol board from the dollar store. Cut a wide strip, make a line down the middle, and mark each inch and label it. It's that simple.

Keeping My Balance: What I Learned from AO Year One

Some things just have to be learned through experience. I knew that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. And yet, somehow I became consumed with getting through all the Ambleside Online readings and ticking all the boxes on my weekly checklist. I got so busy with "life" --the broad curriculum of living books -- that I began to neglect the other two-thirds of education: the atmosphere of our home and the discipline of habit.

Charlotte Mason compares the education we offer our children to a feast of ideas. A feast is a joyous meal, beautiful and satisfying. A feast is not meant to be crammed down one's throat. And yet I sometimes felt like I was dragging my oldest son to the feast to force feed him every day. I needed to stop and take stock.

At a conference this year I heard Sonya Shafer present a basic introduction to Charlotte Mason and her ideas. One of them was "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." Shafer compared this to a three-legged chair. It was such a simple idea, and yet it arrested me. I thought of my last year of homeschooling and realized that my chair was unbalanced.

I know, everyone has bad days once in a while. But my interactions with SA were beginning to be characterized by conflict as I tried to pull him through his lessons each day. I had to realize that this new conflict in our relationship was becoming the atmosphere that was educating my child. I also had to realize that a few new good habits formed could change the dynamics completely.

A Charlotte Mason education is not about making sure all your curriculum's boxes are ticked. Curriculum is a tool in your hands as you educate your child. It is not your master. It is okay to slow down or even stop to deal with another aspect of your child's education.

I was not ready to hear this idea when I first read Christy Hissong's post on Scheduling for Peace at Afterthoughts last year. She quoted Nancy Kelly: "Keep cutting back until there is peace in your home." At the time, I skimmed over it and vaguely thought, "But how would I get everything done, then?"

I didn't really get that Ambleside Online is meant to be only a tool to help me implement a Charlotte Mason education. I know, it says it right there on the website, in bold letters, explained several times! I seem to remember Charlotte Mason saying that even a good method can be turned into a system, and that's what I was doing. I was crossing all my AO checkboxes, but I was losing my balance.

I'm sure this is a lesson that I will learn over and over again. I know what to do now, though. In the midst of a multitude of details of education in daily life, I need to keep going back to the principles I believe in. I need to ask myself, again and again over the course of this homeschooling life, "Is what I'm doing true to my principles?"

Practically speaking, this has meant that I have slowed the pace down a little now at the beginning of Year Two. I am trying to be more mindful of good habits that need to be formed, one at a time. I am more conscious of the atmosphere in the relationships within our home.

Some of you are reading this and wondering how I will get it all done now, how we will read all the books, how we will get through all the curriculum. My answer is that it doesn't matter quite as much to me now. We will continue to walk through it at the pace that works for us. We will probably not skip much...how could we miss any of these wonderful books?! It may be, though, that in the end we will not end up completing all the years AO offers, and that will be okay.

This is the lesson I learned as a homeschool mom from Ambleside Online Year One:
Don't let the need to get everything done rob you of the balance of atmosphere, discipline, and life.

The Books of Year One: Our Journey

We have been using Ambleside Online for our main curriculum. We try to follow Charlotte Mason's principles and methods in our homeschool. Practically speaking, this means we try to "lay a feast" of wonderful, living books, books filled with ideas, not just facts and information. We then require "narration" (telling back) so that our children assimilate what they read (or hear read aloud, in these early elementary years). Ambleside Online helps by providing a (free!) book list for each grade based on the curriculum used in Charlotte Mason's own schools. For me, this has meant that I don't have to come up with good books for narration on my own, but can cheerfully get on with homeschooling.

SA(6) has only three weeks left of Ambleside Online's Year One. It has been a good year. He began to learn how to narrate at the beginning of the school year, and has come a long way. There were times when narration did not go well at all, but overall his ability to narrate is excellent when he is willing, and he is usually willing. I am amazed now when I think how many books we have read together this way, and thought I would share our impressions of our books, including anything we might have learned along the way. 

The Aesop for Children by Milo Winter

This book is like training wheels for narration. The stories are very short and easy to narrate. It's one of SA's favourites. We narrate from two different books every day, and I usually choose this one when our other narration of the day is particularly challenging, to provide a bit of balance between easy and difficult readings.

Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling

This book has been an absolute pleasure from beginning to end. It has also sparked a few "virtual field trips" on YouTube...once to Sault Ste. Marie, and once to Niagara Falls and the Welland Canal.

Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin

This is a book of stories and legends from history. We used an online version (also for Viking Tales, An Island Story, and The Burgess Bird Book) and I would not do that again. I really felt that the lack of a physical book hindered a relationship with that book. For example, if I ask him now what his favourite book of the year was, he will not mention one of the online books. Narrations from these books were always "narrations from the computer" to him, while physical books would be requested by name. In the future, I will try to have physical copies of all the books.

Viking Tales by Jennie Hall

This is a book from the third term of Year One, and I'm still not quite sure what I think of it. It is well-written, and provides a vivid picture of Viking life (definitely a living book!). What I'm not always sure how to deal with is the very different values the Vikings had. Their gods, their Valhalla, and their love of war are all presented matter-of-factly and uncritically within the story. I find myself especially concerned about their version of courage, which gloried in violence and had no fear of death because of the false hope of Valhalla. And I am not finding myself particularly well-equipped to discuss this with SA without being preachy (He hates it when I talk too much!). And yet I don't want to reject the book. This really is the way the Vikings were and how they thought. I still have a lot to learn about how to discuss issues that arise from the readings. I would love to hear what more experienced moms have to say about this!

An Island Story by H.E. Marshall

This is a wonderful story of British history. However, it is from this book that I learned the value of prereading the stories myself before reading them with SA(6). We were gaily going along through our first term when I ran into chapter 5, "The Story of a Warrior Queen." It was the story of Boadicea (I had heard of her name, but knew nothing about her.). At the end of the story, she poisons herself and her daughters in order not to fall into the hands of the Romans. Marshall's retelling even has a heartbreaking moment when the younger daughter asks, "Must I drink it, mother?" It was just too much for me. I thought, "Why am I reading this with my six-year-old?" If I had read the story beforehand, I would have skipped it. As it was, the significance of that moment seemed to pass right over his head, and I was thankful. Just so you know, this is the only issue I have had with this book in the entire year. It really is a great book. I just share this because it taught me to pre-read and make sure what I was reading with him was suitable for us.

Benjamin Franklin, Buffalo Bill, and George Washington by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire

We loved all of these books. They are so well-written and beautifully illustrated. We noticed connections between Buffalo Bill and Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose books we were reading as our bedtime stories at the same time. (They overlap on both map and timeline.) 

Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula

We found this church history book very challenging in the first term, so much so that I decided to substitute a biography or two by Simonetta Carr in the second term. We found the Simonetta Carr books also a little bit difficult to narrate at this age, and very long for the purpose. So the third term, I decided to try again with Trial and Triumph, beginning with Saint Patrick. To my surprise, SA had no problems with it anymore, because he had grown both in his ability to understand and his ability to narrate. I learned from this not to give up on a book if it doesn't go well at first. 

The Burgess Bird Book by Thornton Burgess

This was another book that did not go well in the beginning...for SA or for me. He found the narrations challenging because they had a lot of conversations and not much action. I disliked the book at first because of the anthropomorphism of the birds...assigning human-like motives to their actions. I also didn't like Jenny Wren as a character --sharp-tongued and quick to take offense --and she was in every chapter at first! However, we kept at it, and SA got better at narrating. I got used to the style and had some relief when Jenny Wren wasn't in every chapter we chose anymore. I wouldn't say it's our favourite, but I do feel we've learned a lot about birds from it. We always went to allaboutbirds.org to learn more about the birds we read about and to hear their songs, and that was always a favourite activity for SA.

James Herriot's Treasury for Children

Just lovely, what can I say? 

Parables of Nature by Margaret Gatty

This was one of our more challenging reads, and was especially difficult in our first term. In our second term I switched to the modern paraphrase, and that went a little better. The third term, I went back to the original book. To be perfectly honest, I still don't love this book. I find it so very wordy! I can (and do, sometimes) skip whole paragraphs without missing any of the story. However, SA does seem to enjoy it, as long as I don't make our sessions with it too long. (This is a temptation for me, as the chapters are very long.)

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

This book surprised me every time. Even when I started to realize this about it, it still surprised me. I would preread it and think, "There is no way this narration is going to go well." And then I would read it aloud, and it would be wonderful. SA could narrate better from this book than from any other. When we started in term one, I was a bit worried about the made-up words. (Should I define them?) But before long, I just relaxed and enjoyed them...it's really all about the sound of them as you read them aloud. We had so much fun with this playful book.

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb

This was our most difficult book. Ambleside Online offers another Shakespeare option by Edith Nesbit called Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare. We tried both the Nesbit and the Lamb options, and decided to stick with Lamb, though its vocabulary was much more challenging. I felt that Nesbit condensed a little too much, and Lamb was more interesting. Through all our readings, I had to remember to keep it as light and enjoyable as possible. After all, this is SA's introduction to Shakespeare. We would roll a dice to take turns narrating, I would draw little pictures to keep things straight. I would keep each session short. I would borrow the Bruce Coville book from the library for the story we were reading if it was available (and it almost never was, ugh. I may have to buy a few of those.). I had intentions of reading and memorizing short selections from Shakespeare for our poetry teatimes, but that didn't happen. Maybe next year.

The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

We love the stories of the Blue Fairy Book, though this book has also been a journey from the beginning of the year to the end. When we bumped into the first scheduled story in term one (Beauty and the Beast), we had not done any long readings with difficult vocabulary yet. The first narration did not go well, and I wasn't sure if it was just too difficult. But in time I learned to read through the day's reading myself first, explain any difficult words before beginning, and take a turn or two narrating myself to show SA what I expected from him. By the end of the first term, it was going well, and now at the end of Year 1, it is one of our favourites. I really feel that the expansion in SA's vocabulary from the beginning of the year to the end has been largely thanks to this book and Tales from Shakespeare (though all the books played a part).

I still have another post in me about Year 1...maybe next week. Meanwhile, if you're interested in any of the books above, you can go to the Ambleside Online Year One booklist for links to free online versions, audio versions, and Amazon.

How I Keep Track of My Homeschool (AO Year 1)

We just started Ambleside Online Year 1, Term 3 this week, and I'd like to share how I keep track of what we complete.

First, I have my checklist. I got this idea from Gina at My Ruby Slippers and adapted it slightly for our own needs. I print twelve copies of this checklist and clip them to a clipboard. When we finish a week, the top paper goes to the bottom and we keep going. I re-evaluate my checklist at the end of each term.  I ask what got done and what didn't, and why? I see if I want to add anything or take anything away.

This term, I assigned specific days to our weekly lessons. These lessons always seemed to be the ones to get dropped if things got busy (and things did get busy last term with the new baby and all...). Other than busyness, I figured out that the number one reason things didn't get done was because I didn't assign a time for them. So I did, and we'll see if it goes better this term.

You can see that our "Circle Time" is divided by a space on the paper, and that is because we do divide it in real life. It's hard for little boys to sit still for that long. We do the first portion immediately after breakfast, and the second portion during Poetry Teatime at 10:00-ish. SA(6) and I do our lessons together between teatime and lunch time. If there is anything left over, he knows it has to be done before he can have his screen time at 4:00.

(If you're wondering about those beautiful little squares, the font is Wingdings, press "Q".)

"

Underneath this top page on the clipboard, I have my Ambleside Online Year 1 weekly schedule of readings for narration. I check off each reading we complete there.

This term I'm trying something new for SA as well. I wanted him to start to take ownership of what work was completed. I stumbled across a great idea from Helena at These Irish Hills: The Learning Notebook! At his age, I write out what must be done, but he checks it off. I expect that in future years he will begin to set his own goals.

Of course, we are only a few days into this practice. I will check back in at the end of the term and let you know how it worked for us.

It's hard to track where all these great ideas came from originally, so I'm just crediting the people I heard them from, and sharing them with you as I use them. I hope they're helpful to you!

You may also enjoy my post Beginning with Ambleside Online.

Two More Reasons I Love Ambleside Online!

1. Yesterday I was reading (to my 6-year-old) the legend of how Merlin brought the Giant's Dance from Ireland to England to form Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. The thought crossed my mind that AO is already filling in gaps in my education...and this is only year one!

2. Having the wonderful list of living books AO recommends for each grade is a huge blessing to me. You see, it can be intimidating to go from a vague idea of what a living book is, to always choosing living books for your children. Using a list like this, you gain an experience of what a living book is simply by using them constantly. I realized yesterday that almost all of the books I am using with my grade one child are books that a person of any age would enjoy and learn from. I'm sure that the level of difficulty goes up with each grade, of course, but these books and the information in them are not aimed at first graders...they are aimed at people. My fourteen-year-old sister is staying with me right now, and I know that her interest has been caught by the books I'm reading to my son. I know this because she has been finishing off the books on her own. (Tales from Shakespeare and The Blue Fairy Book, so far.)

Plans for Year 1, Term 2

I know I've been quiet this week. I have been busy planning for our second term at the same time as starting it. And since that's what I've been thinking about, that's what I'll write about.

Ambleside Online - This is our main curriculum. There were a few books last term that were quite challenging for us, and I spent quite a bit of time thinking about whether I should persevere with them, or find substitutions.

Burgess Bird Book was difficult for SA to narrate last term, and he frequently lost interest before our reading was finished. I think the problem was that all the ideas are conveyed in conversations between Peter Rabbit and different birds, and there is very little actual action. I too find this book hard to like because of the cutesy names and the way human attributes are ascribed to animals. I considered substituting the much more straightforward Bird Stories from Burroughs, but thought I'd give Burgess one more chance first. I had two reasons: Burgess gives quite a bit of taxonomic information...a child should end up with quite a bit of knowledge about which birds are related to each other, etc. Second, while the conversational style may be challenging for narration, perhaps it is a good challenge. As long as he is not completely frustrated by it, SA might grow in his narration abilities.
So this week we tried again. I chose to read about the cowbird, because we have had several of them at our feeder these last few weeks. The cowbird was also mentioned in Flute's Journey, a book SA enjoyed greatly last term. We looked up the birds mentioned in the chapter on allaboutbirds.org, and I printed off a colouring page for each of my boys. To my surprise, the narration went quite well. I did not have my timer on, and I think it ended up being a bit long. (He did complain towards the end...) I will therefore continue with this book for now, taking care to split up the readings if they are too long to complete within 15 minutes including narration. I will still consider substitution if he never gets any joy out of these readings, because in my mind, that would defeat the purpose. I want him to know and love...

Parables from Nature by Margaret Gatty was another challenging read last term, even using the modern English paraphrase from Ambleside Online. I am choosing to continue with it, perhaps making a little more effort myself in preparing for the readings.

Trial and Triumph is the one book I've decided not to continue with right now. I love church history myself, and I do want SA to be familiar with it, but I think it will go much better with this book if I wait a year. In the meantime, I plan to find some of Simonetta Carr's picture books to see if they might be more suitable for this year. I have also heard of the History Lives series and wondered if the writing style might be more accessible than Trial and Triumph. Has anyone seen them or used them?

We love all our other Ambleside Online books. Shakespeare has taken some getting used to, as I'm a complete Shakespeare newbie myself. After comparing Nesbit and Lamb, we've decided to go with Lamb. Nesbit was a bit too stripped down for us...narration did not go well. Lamb is very challenging for this age, but not unworkable. I draw little pictures as we go along to keep characters and places straight, and we usually take a week to go through a play. Narration often ends up being a collaborative affair between SA and me, but I'm confident he will grow into more independent narration. Our library has a few (too few) of Coville's Shakespeare retellings, and we will definitely be using them whenever we can.

Math - As our focus shifted to learning the new skill of narration last term, I found that far too often in math I was resorting to just setting a worksheet in front of SA, setting the timer, and getting on with it. This, despite all the wonderful things I've learned about math. It is time for me to repent. I am going back to the Miquon First Grade Diary. This wonderful book details all the math activities done in an actual first grade classroom in a Miquon school. I used it quite extensively last year. This time I will start in January of that book and use some of the ideas to allow SA to explore math concepts and figure some of them out for himself, something he dearly loves doing. I will also go back to using Family Math or Games for Math once a week, just for fun. SA is quite a bit "ahead" in his Miquon workbooks (Blue book, beginning of grade 2), so I'm going to relax quite a bit on the worksheet side, using them when they flow naturally from our regular lessons.

Phonics, Spelling, and Copywork - Since SA's reading took off, I have not paid much attention to phonics or spelling, choosing rather to simply have him read increasingly more challenging books. I do not regret this. However, I do think the time has come to encourage him to look more closely at the words. Normally this would be done in copywork, and later in dictation, but as SA is "behind" in learning to write (he is still working through basic letter formation), I would rather not tie his spelling to the (to him) hard work of writing words. So I have decided that we will play with word families using scrabble magnets on a cookie sheet this term. He has been enjoying that this week. We continue to do five minutes of copywork per day using Penny Gardner's Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children.


The "Extras" - Aside from poetry, which we enjoy every day, and music and art appreciation, which we do steadily week after week, these are the things I am most likely to slack off on in the course of a busy week. This term, I am hoping to post a weekly update about the things I am most likely to drop, just to keep myself accountable. (Keep in mind that I have a baby due sometime in the midst of this term, so we'll see how far we get...)
Handicrafts - My greatest weakness. We're doing finger knitting this term, possibly progressing to loom knitting. We started this week, and the boys and I enjoyed it a lot. We looked up the instructions on YouTube, which turned out to be very helpful.
Drawing - Another thing I am not so great at. I plan to continue using Drawing with Children, and at least sitting down with paper and markers once a week with the boys.
Nature Study and Nature Journalling - We actually do enjoy nature a lot, but with the cold weather coming on, and me not quite as energetic these days, I anticipate this might be a challenge. Our focus this term is weather and climate, and we've started a chart with clouds, wind direction, temperature, etc., for our nature journals this week.
Poetry - We continue to focus on A.A. Milne, and this term I plan to memorize a few poems again. We're starting with "Wind on the Hill" because SA has been wondering about where wind comes from and why it comes from different directions.
Music Appreciation - I want to listen to the Messiah during the next month and a half with the boys. Then we will continue listening to Handel for the rest of the term. We simply take a weekly break from our normal poetry teatime and watch some music on YouTube instead.
Art Appreciation - We will be doing our picture studies on some of Edgar Degas' paintings. We put him on our timeline this week, and found him on the map.

I haven't mentioned Bible or our Bible/hymn/catechism memorization because at our house, that's part of our everyday life and not really tied to our school days. I do have plans, though. We have begun reading and narrating from the New Testament, and will continue to steadily progress through the gospels. We do three questions per week in our children's catechism, and will continue with that, too. I have chosen a Christmas carol, a psalm, and a hymn for the next three months, and am planning to review all the passages of Scripture learned so far.We do well with memorization, but are not so consistent with reviewing what we have memorized.

Those are my plans. I have a baby due on January 26, so I have no doubt the plans will be modified. For now, though, it's full steam ahead!

Beginning With Ambleside Online

I have several homeschooling sisters and friends with children slightly younger than mine. Because I've heard similar responses from several of them when I tell them I'm using Ambleside Online, I've decided to dedicate a post to these sisters and friends.

The responses I can remember go something like this:
"I can't see my child being ready for the books they recommend at age six."
"I've checked out their website. It just seems like SO MUCH to do!"
"I have several younger children. I can't see myself having time to do all that reading aloud."

I am writing from the perspective of a fairly new homeschooler. We have been through one term of Ambleside Online's Year One. That's not very much experience, I know. I also write from the perspective of a mother with young children. My boys are six, four, and two, with another child on the way in January. Still, the experience we have had so far has been very satisfying, and I am convinced that it will continue to be so. It feels like home.

So here's how I would respond to the objections I mentioned.

"I can't see my child being ready for the books they recommend at age six."

To be perfectly honest, I would have had a similar objection a year ago. I didn't think my five-year-old would be ready for narration (telling back) of the challenging books recommended by the time he was six years old. But as it turned out, he was ready, and we began.

Still, even if he had not been ready, that would have been okay. We had a rich "kindergarten" routine that included lots of time outdoors, poetry teatime,  reading lessons, and math. We could have continued with that indefinitely until he was ready for the books of Year One. Depending on their children's readiness, many mothers do wait until their children are age seven or even close to age eight to begin Year One. I think it's important to realize that doing this will not put your children "behind." If children are doing work they are ready for when they are ready for it, and growing steadily from there, they are exactly where they should be.

It's also important to realize that the riches of nature, literature, history, poetry, and everything else are not tied to your child's reading level when you use Ambleside Online. If your child learns to read early, wonderful! But if he is behind in reading, even at an older age, you do not have to wait until he is caught up to begin to feed his hungry mind with a feast of ideas. Reading aloud and narration work just fine, even for the late reader.

"I've checked out their website. It just seems like SO MUCH to do!"

It is a lot to do. There is Bible reading and narration; hymn, Bible, and poetry memory work; picture study, music appreciation and poetry; readings and narration in history, geography, and literature; mathematics; reading or spelling lessons; nature walks and journals; copywork (for handwriting and spelling); foreign language; drawing and handicrafts. I would have been overwhelmed at the thought of it all even just a year and a half ago. And even now, I'm still growing into it. I have no doubt that I will continue to make adjustments as our family grows and I have more school-aged children.

Still, there are several things I can say to this, based on my experience.
1. Each of these many things are little things.
Many of the items I listed take no more than five minutes a day (all the memory work, copywork, foreign language) and none of them take more than fifteen minutes (math, narrations). Many of them become effortless when you work them into your habitual routine. Others can be done as infrequently as once a week (picture study, nature walks, drawing and handicrafts). I know, it is still a lot, but...

2. Each of these little things matter. 
There is no useless busywork here. Even the handicrafts are of the useful skill variety, done with real materials to make a real product of beauty or usefulness. All of the little things recommended, when done regularly over time, cause real growth in your children. I can almost see it happening. SA's vocabulary has grown immensely over the last year. He is asking "Why?" more often. He is recognizing references to composers and to poetry that he has come to know and love. To me, "SO MUCH!" is all worth it.

3. It is okay for you to grow into it over time. In fact, I recommend it.
I incorporated several of these things into our routine when SA was still only five, and they simply became part of our everyday life. First, I incorporated Bible reading and Bible and hymn memory work into our after-breakfast routine. This term, we just added five minutes of foreign language to that (still not terribly consistent with that, but as I just said, we're growing...). A little later, we began to have our poetry teatimes just to enjoy poetry and snacks together. This soon became a favourite part of the boys' day, and they would never hear of skipping it. Then this term, we adjusted what was already a routine to include picture study and music appreciation once a week.

Year One, Term One was still a big adjustment as SA began to learn narration (telling back from books that I read aloud to him). This really became our focus this term, and it became easier and easier over the term to fit in the three narrations a day required to get through the scheduled books. (One Bible narration was incorporated into our after breakfast routine, then two narrations from history, geography, or literature during his "lesson time.")

Still, I found myself neglecting some of the "riches" as we focused so heavily on learning this new skill this term. Foreign language did not really take off, focused nature walks became a bit less frequent, we did less math games and activities, and I didn't even begin to think about handicrafts (though I'm realizing now that my boys learned quite a bit from baking with me and with their Opa, who is a baker.).

Something like this will probably happen to you, too, to some degree. It has to be okay that we will not do things perfectly or even well at times. There will always be room to grow. My answer right now is not to deliberately neglect any of these areas (though I think that may be a legitimate option during some seasons of life...like new babies, or moving, or other crazy busyness), but to commit to grow into it over time. Gradually, I hope each of these things will become a joyful habit for us, because I know we will be the richer for every one of them.

"I have several younger children. I can't see myself having time to do all that reading aloud."

This too is a very real challenge. All I can say to this is that if it matters to you, you will make it work. And it does matter to me. But I will also be honest and say that I can't count the number of times my two-year-old was tearing around and yelling and making things difficult for SA(6) during his lesson time.  Sometimes we ended up cancelling the lessons until nap time. Other times I bundled the younger two outdoors while I hovered near the windows watching them and trying to do lessons with SA at the same time. It was not easy. Charlotte Mason said something about mothers doing wonders when wonders are required of them. I won't claim wonders, but we made it through. That was enough for now.

I should also mention that the Year One readings and narrations may not take as long as you think they might. Each reading/narration session shouldn't take much longer than 15 minutes (including both the reading and the narration). Longer passages can be divided up and read over several days. We found that two reading/narration sessions per school day (not counting Bible) allowed us to follow the schedule at Ambleside Online. Some "weeks" took more than a week, and some took less. We just progressed steadily through until we were done. We may have taken thirteen weeks rather than twelve, but we rarely did more than fifteen minutes per session.

I think the key here is to take things one day at a time, one term at a time. Don't borrow trouble. Try to deliberately build some good habits in your preschoolers, too. I know, this is easier said than done, sometimes. But this season with little ones underfoot will be shorter than we think.


We love Ambleside Online. Going through even one term has been a satisfying experience, even with our shortcomings. And yes, satisfying is the very best word I can think of to describe it. I felt that SA's mind was fed with ideas every day. I saw growth and development in many areas. It was all very slow and steady, and yet the progress was not imperceptible. And so, my sisters and friends, try it. I think you will find it worth your time and effort.