As our 2022-2023 school year draws to a close (only some readings/classes left as we slowed down over the summer, but didn’t stop completely), I thought it would be interesting to dig into our curriculum. A year of homeschooling, talking about what has changed, what we like, what works and what doesn’t! A sort of “How It Began vs. How It Went: The Homeschool Edition,” if you will.
We’re kind of all over the place at the start of this homeschool year, which makes sense since this is Sophie and Sam’s first full homeschool year. It took us a lot of time to figure out what course we wanted to follow, and it required a lot of learning by doing, figuring out the right course, a lot of trial and error.i stumbled across Ambleside Online, a free course that really resonated with my soul and our family. At the beginning of the year we were just trying and picking in Ambleside and various places (Peace Kindergarten, naughty vanguard, American Girl History, goodness and beauty, ETC). I keep coming back to Ambleside after a lot of praying and thinking and looking at all the material because living books are so rich and beautiful, it’s a very anti-textbook mentality because you retain more from the real Informative stories with introspective and memorized facts that go in one ear and into the other. I don’t know about you, but maybe I’m personally a victim of my own education, but I make sure my kids get a rich and wonderful education.
Ambleside Online
So, we were a little bit behind on the actual annual plan, and we decided later on to fully support the Ambleside plan. Sophie is in first grade (basically first grade), but you can figure out where your child fits in. That’s the cool thing about homeschooling, there really isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach and you can find where you should be. Our schedule was more expedited than is typical this year, so we caught up with our second year in the fall. So we’ll be going to school over the summer and we really like it and it’s part of our daily routine anyway so it works well with our family. We read a lot of good books (there are year and theme lists on the website) and they are all good. Our family reads free books before bed and we absolutely love it.
There will be new ones every month people sing Sing, enjoy, learn, and a new hymn. I just make a playlist with them and play them throughout our days. My children and I learned them through simple play. They are all so great and there is so much to learn about these old songs, so much history and sweet connection to the past. It connects a part of you to the past, which is very important because we learn a lot from the past. Through these songs, I feel closer to my heritage, imagining my great-great-grandparents sitting and singing together. so sweet.
We have an exam at the end of each term (totally optional!), but there are Exam questions on the website, would be nice to walk over and see what she knows. We keep it light and fun, just sit on the couch together and I just ask her questions about the word, her favorite bible stories, fairy tales, and it’s amazing how much she remembers and really remembers her. Glad to see this worked and she retained so much! The whole philosophy of learning is Charlotte Mason, which is to read the living book, tell the story through the living book, and after each scheduled reading, the child narrates it back, or narrates what was read. This is great for sticking you and keeping you. I also like the idea of the test questions being to see what the child knows, and what they don’t know/do wrong. Even better for retention and confidence!
Links to the books we use at Ambleside, which I consider our “spine”:
our island story
Aesop’s Fables
blue fairy tale book
Retelling of 50 Famous Stories
allegory of nature
that’s the story
viking story
handwriting
For handwriting, we love The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Notebook. She really loves it and I love that it contains art and I take it out every day for her to work on her own.
we also love draw now write (she’s my little artist, so especially love this one)! super fun. Teach a simple tutorial on how to draw something, and then teach some sentences for copying. complete!
handwriting without tears Another great one!
math
For maths we use the Good and the Beautiful grade 1 for 1st grade with a box of teaching aids, we loved it this year and we got grade 2 next year. This is a spiral course that requires constant review rather than mastering a concept and moving on. Make the curriculum work for you – don’t be a slave to the curriculum! There is a review page for each section, I will only use this because it works for us. If she needs extra review, we spend more time and sometimes if I know what questions she has, we skip the review or just select some questions from the review page so as not to overdo it. Do what’s best for you and your kids!
We also add Fred’s life. It’s a series of maths told in story form that’s engaging, quirky, and most of all, fun! When we “do Fred” she actually enjoys doing math and so do I! highly recommended! Check to see if your library has it, as it can be very expensive.found it on amazon here!
Read aloud
Reading together before bed every night has become part of our family culture and I absolutely love it. We always have a family reading aloud, thanks in no small part to the AmblesideOnline lessons and book lists! They’re stunning and filled with great stories that shouldn’t be missed! This year, our family read: little house in the woods, farmer boy, little house on the prairie, Pinocchio, saint george and the dragon, Winnie the Pooh, Pooh’s Corner House, Paddington, Sarah Wizard’s Tale, peter panand a favorite—— Charlotte’s Web. Everything is cherished and loved by all of us! I’m always excited to start a new book together.
Yo! So be it! The first year is coming to a close, and we feel good about what we’re doing and where we’re headed! I’ll be back soon to share our course selections and plans for next school year!
Western Europe
