AmblesideOnline Year 1

Here's a glimpse of our first year using the Charlotte Mason Education and Ambleside Online Curriculum.

AO Year 1 Schedule

Loop Schedule

This is how our day looks like (don't mind the misspelled word, hehe). I learned about Loop Schedule from my friend Jona and it has been very effective for us. Though I wish I'll be more faithful in following the scheduled time because honestly, I don't (Haha). There are changes every now and then due to some interruptions along the way. But I made sure to stick with short lessons (20 minutes per subject except for copywork which is 10 minutes) and narrations after reading.

Our Morning Basket includes the 4 B's (Bed, Breakfast, Bible, Bath) and Hymn. Here are the Hymns we studied for this year:

Term 1
"Silent Night"
"O Come All Ye Faithful"
"O God Our Help In Ages Past"

Term 2
"May The Mind Of Christ My Savior"
"Guide me Oh Thou Great Jehovah"
 "I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art"

Term 3
 "He Leadeth Me Oh Blessed Thought"
"It Is Well With My Soul"
"Be Thou My Vision"

Perhaps we do not attach enough importance to the habit of praise in our children’s devotion. Praise and thanksgiving come freely from the young heart; gladness is natural and holy, and music is a delight. The singing of hymns at home and of the hymns and canticles in church should be a special delight; and the habit of soft and reverent singing, of offering our very best in praise, should be carefully formed.

But the duty of praise is not for occasional or rare seasons; it waits at our doors every day. ~ Charlotte Mason

For the list of Recitation and Memory Work, you can read it here.

Bible
We followed the scheduled Bible rotation in Ambleside Online and at the same time, "Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here" by Apologia Press.

Math

We are using Singapore Math for our Math curriculum. We borrowed books from our friend since it's too costly to purchase an entire set.

History

Since my son is fond of drawing, I was encouraged to have him do a Drawing Narration. He enjoyed it very much though the downside is, it is very time-consuming. Sometimes, he will finish it the next day because he wants to put more drawings. So, I do not encourage doing this every day, during free time maybe.

Drawing Narration of Our Island Story

We made sure to have our own timeline for history as well. I used two timelines, one is a drawing timeline and the other one is an accordion for the list of all people and events we discussed along the way. I got this idea from Gina Guerrero-Roldan of Our Living, Learning Children.

Drawing Book of Centuries

Accordion Timeline

Vikings Invasion

“It is a great thing to possess a pageant of history in the background of one’s thoughts.” (Charlotte Mason, Vol. 6, p. 178)

Geography

Paddle-to-the-Sea is one of our favorites for this year. We enjoyed following Paddle's journey.

Science

My son drew some birds from Burgess Bird but eventually grew tired of it. But that's ok with me, he can always do it on free time and just for leisure, not really a requirement.

We also used Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day by Apologia Press and here is our Ocean Box:

A post shared by RomelEvelyn Marfa (@qarah_moments) on Aug 15, 2017 at 4:51am PDT

I guess this will be my last required busy work for my child.

Copywork

I love how the method is helping my son to improve his handwriting.

We are also learning Spanish as Foreign Language using Duolingo. We picked Spanish since there are thousands of Spanish loanwords used in our Philippine Language.

Riches is one of the things I need to get serious with. We often neglect to do this part especially if we are running out of time or in case I have chores to do. Hopefully, I'll be more faithful with this next year.

For our handicraft, we did yarn weaving in a cardboard loom, check it here.

Nature Study

If we cannot go far, we usually do nature study in our front yard. We were growing calamansi, chili, oregano, and tomato.

We also do indoor nature study. We used some photos of insect that we had on the laptop.

Here are some of our nature finds, this is not really much but it reminds me to do nature walk more often.

"Children should be made early intimate with the trees, too; should pick out half a dozen trees, oak, elm, ash, beech, in their winter nakedness, and take these to be their year-long friends."–– Charlotte Mason

You can also check my compiled AO Chronicles of my kids here.

Here are my son's favorite books from this year:

Other books not in the picture:

Our Island Story, Burgess Bird, Blue Fairy Book, Red Fairy Book (we read them on e-book). Paddle-to-the-Sea, James Herriot and Pinocchio (books were borrowed/currently borrowed by another friend).

He really loves our readings for this year and we are both excited for more!

We are grateful to God for leading us to this generous and rich curriculum. Thanks also to Charlotte Mason for her legacy and to all who created Ambleside Online. Our homeschooling journey has never been this exciting!