Reflections on Y6 and Y8 with Ambleside Online

I can't quite wrap my mind around it, but we are done with school! We just finished Year 6 and Year 8 with Ambleside Online and it was fabulous. I feel like I also learned a ton, right alongside them!

Watercolor Narrations from Y6 & Y8 over the past few weeks

I will start with Year 6 first - Louisa turned 12 years old mid-year and this year was a great stretch for her. The workload increases a bit starting in Term 2 with additional readings and more challenging books. 

We really stuck pretty close to the curriculum - I had to change a geography reading because we had already completed Halliburton's Book of Marvels (we replaced it with Hillyer's Child's Geography of the World); and I added in two additional science books spread out over the year. The first addition was a Human Anatomy coloring book (she just colored and narrated) and the other was Fabre's Book of Insects. She had a hard time appreciating The Sea Around Us once she found out that Carson is an evolutionist. This tainted her reading and she tended to dislike the book in general after figuring that out, even though we talked through it. She is a very literal child and if she feels like she can't trust what the author is saying in one part, she doubts all of it. This is a quandary that I'm not sure how to deal with. 

Some of Year 6 Term 3 books

This year, she began a science notebook (written narrations and illustrations), a history notebook (written narrations, maps, drawings, etc for the time period) and a Book of Centuries. She does a fantastic job drawing in her BOC. This child would probably be fine if I assigned her 10 written narrations each week. She doesn't mind it and prefers it actually but I choose to use it sparingly to give her hands a break. She also can be very creative with her narrations and will often surprise me with a poem about an insect or some such thing. :) 

Math has been a struggle for us and I feel that is mostly my fault. I won't go into details but we are switching things up for the summer (yes, I make the kids do a light math program over the summer) and see if we like this new curriculum. She needs to have a parent do it with her, so this will keep us all accountable and hopefully, comprehension will trump guessing at correct answers.

Anyways, I have linked the photo above to be taken to the Masters Books site where you can read more about their Charlotte Mason inspired math program. I can try to remember and do a review of it when we are finished. 

Here are some photos of her artist drawing, history notebook and Book of Centuries from the year: 

Louisa (Y6) John Williams Waterhouse drawing

Year 6 Book of Centuries

Year 6 History Notebook

Year 6 History Notebook

Year 6 Science Notebook Entry

Year 8 - Kailyn (14 yrs old) enjoyed the challenge of this year. It went smoother than last year as the workload is about the same but the books are meatier, for sure. Years 7-8 are such a big transition from the elementary years! The books are so robust and would even be appropriate for any high-schooler. 

Year 8 Term 3

We did all the AO book selections except that I had her read a different nature study book (we already had Edwin Teale on hand instead of Susan Cooper), and I am saving Fearfully and Wonderfully Made for Y10. The only other thing I changed was to focus the sciences more term-by-term instead of all throughout the year. We had already read Adventures with a Microscope last year so we focused on Botany this year (using Sabbath Mood Homeschool's study guide) and I am saving Napoleon's Buttons for Y9. Instead of Napoleon's Buttons, I added in an architecture slot to the Science schedule. Architecture definitely qualifies as Science, so we used Architecture by Gladys Wynne  and Filipo's Dome by Anne Rockwell (so good!), along with a few supplemental reads that she enjoyed. She has expressed interest in Architecture as a field of study, so I thought this would make a good start to whet the appetite. 

Year 8 Term 3

Kailyn also wanted to learn Greek with the goal being to read the NT in Greek. So, she started her third language this year. In addition to doing Visual Latin II with Dwane Thomas online, we do a bit of Spanish together and now we have added this independent study of Koine Greek to her schedule. I have slotted 15 min/twice a week for this- sometimes she does more if she wants to; she is doing very well considering it is all independent study and she is self-motivated. I looked at quite a few different Greek programs before picking this one. I asked Steve what he thought because he took 2 years of Greek in college, and he really liked this program.  She completed the Greek Alphabetarion prior to beginning Volume One (link here).

 

This is a ton of foreign language but right on track with what CM had her students doing at this level. It seems like a lot to us Americans, doesn't it? 

Here are some examples of her drawings, History Notebooks entries, Book of Centuries entries and a Science entry in case you are curious:

Kailyn's (Y8) Waterhouse drawing "The Lady of Shalott"

Year 8 Book of Centuries

Year 8 History Notebook

Year 8 History Notebook

Year 8 Science Notebook Entry

Overall, I am really proud of the girls and how hard they worked this year We are doing Exams this week and then will officially be done!