2018-19 in review

The girls had a very successful year and completed Years 5 and 7 with Ambleside Online! After posting my last review of the previous year, I feel much less frazzled and overall much happier with how the year turned out compared to last year this time.

For our Circle Time sessions in the morning, I had set out to accomplish quite a bit but it took me an entire term to realize that it was not going to work with the younger kids needing so much attention. I was listening to a podcast or reading something that reminded me that the younger kids are just as much a part of our school as the older ones who are actually doing the work. It's not like I can expect them to sit still for long or explain to them why they need to be quiet, so instead of fighting with the situation in frustration, we made a switch that saved our school from extinction. We included the younger kids as much as we possibly could. I didn't really want to give up my quiet time during the afternoon nap but it was the only way we could make progress and make it all work. 

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So, this is what I did (and maybe it will help those of you who are reading with younger kids underfoot!). This is just what works for our family!!! Every family is different and has to find their own rhythm, but I often get asked how we manage to accomplish anything with little people running around, so here's how we manage: 

8:15am  Louisa works on Math (Teaching Textbooks) and Kailyn practices the piano.

8:45am  Morning Circle Time: we worked on Bible memory verses every day and did a loop rotation through singing hymns & folk songs, learning Spanish via DVD, and workout videos on YouTube. {This works because the little ones can (and did!) start to memorize Bible passages with us, they love singing together and they LOVE the Spanish DVD and the workout videos.} This all takes place in about 35 minutes worth of time.

9:25am  Louisa takes the little kids outside to play. Non-negotiable unless it is in the single digits or pouring rain... this enables me to read any books with Kailyn that need to be read and discussed together (like:: Oliver Twist... I really struggled with this one!!).

9:55  SWITCH- Louisa comes inside and Kailyn takes over outside. Louisa and I can then read aloud the books that are better done together.

10:30am  Everyone is inside and given a snack. The younger kids were so much happier with this morning routine because they didn't feel neglected, they were included, and they got fresh air! It's amazing what fresh air can do. At this point, the older girls take off to a quiet corner and finish their independent reading and come narrate to me wherever I may be. I occupy the younger kids with drawing, playing or reading during this time.

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11:30  We wrap up morning school time (meaning, clear off table from all the books) and get ready for lunch.

Lunchtime usually includes listening to our composer piece. This year, we studied Hildegard von Bingen (medieval), Nicolo Paganini and Claude Debussy. After lunch, Kailyn would work on math (Teaching Textbooks) downstairs in her room and Louisa practiced the piano.

1:00pm Younger kids are all down for a nap at this point and our Afternoon Circle Time is held in the lovely quiet of having only two children awake. During this time, we read our Bible passages aloud and narrate (switching between OT and NT), we read poetry, review past Bible memory passages and we rotate through Composer study, Artist study, copywork, dictation, grammar, theology reading, Plutarch, Shakespeare, drawing exercises, Commonplace Book entries, Book of Century entries, a weekly watercolor narration from a previous reading, Nature Journal entries and work in their History Notebooks. These are not all done every day, of course, but on a loop schedule.

2:00pm The girls are free to continue with any remaining schoolwork that didn't get accomplished yet or if they are done (usually Louisa was by this point) then they have a Free Reading list they choose a book from. I only required them to read 30 minutes off the Free Reading list each day- sometimes they read much more than that. We also would work on handicrafts about once a week during this time, especially if the kids were still napping and all was quiet.

One thing we all really enjoyed this year was the addition of Handicrafts with some friends! We were so glad to host 2 families at our house once a month for a combined effort of working on cross stitch and quilting. I planned the activities and they came during naptime - 4 extra kids- but it was perfect and worked so well for all of us, plus we got to know our friends better!

We plan to do the same next year as it is really a blessing for all of us.  I didn't take a picture of any cross stitch projects that were completed but the girls (and other kids!) learned a lot and each finished one project. The doozy was a quilt project that took us about 4 months to complete- not bad with only meeting once a month! The girls had really been wanting to make a quilt so we gave it our best effort and I really let them do all of it on their own. The most I did was the binding for Louisa (which is the very last step but such a pain to do!!!) Anyways, here are the girls' finished quilts:

The quilts are big! They love them and have them on their beds :)

Here are a few pictures of the girls' notebooks from this year.

[ from L to R: History notebook, science journal and nature journal


Science notebook entry


Nature Journal entry


History notebook entry

They each kept a Science notebook, Nature Journal and a History notebook for the entire year. The Science notebook includes written narrations or drawn narrations from their readings, as well as experiments drawn that they did. The Nature Journal is entirely up to them as to what they include but they have to do at least one entry per week. The History Notebook houses all their written narrations, timelines, and drawings of important people from the time period they are studying. It can also include maps, favorite quotes or important speeches. Both girls did such a good job on their history notebook - it is a major accomplishment as it covers work from the entire year. They probably spend 15 hours or so on it (min. 30 minutes each week).

And here are some of Kailyn's :


History notebook, Nature Journal and Science Journal

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History notebook entry

History notebook entry
History timeline entry in notebook

I asked the girls what their favorite books were from the year and Louisa said This Country of Ours (which really suprised me - she must enjoy history more than I realized!).



But if I had to guess, I would say that she also LOVED studying Geology and reading about George Washington Carver and Teddy Roosevelt (biographies). We read this one from AO and learned a great deal and have a new respect for a president I didn't know much about.

    

And these were some of Kailyn's favorite books from the year (she was studying the Middles Ages):

   

All in all it was a great year and I am encouraged by their continued desire to learn. The AO selections are so challenging and wonderful that Steve and I are completely jealous that we did not have the chance to learn the same things at their age! I feel like now I am truly getting an education and I appreciate it so much more because of the quality of the books we are reading.