I use AmblesideOnline in our homeschool, and I appreciate the chart-format schedules that are provided for each year. Before I use those schedules, though, I modify them to make them work for our family. Here are some samples of a shortened version of my edited schedules for a few different years to give you an idea of what these look like. (The samples show only a few weeks of each term so as not to violate AmblesideOnline's license by reproducing the schedules on another site.)
Two terms of Year 1
Year 2 chart
One term of Year 3
Another Year 3 chart
Year 4 chart
Another Year 4 chart, just Term 1
Two terms of Year 5
Another Year 5 chart
Year 6 chart
Another Year 6 chart
Year 7 chart
Year 8 chart
Year 9 chart
Another Year 9 Chart
Yet Another Year 9 Chart
One More Year 9 Chart
Year 11 chart
Briefly, I follow this basic process to prepare the schedules for the term ahead:
I download the art prints from the link at the bottom of the term's art schedule on the AmblesideOnline Art page and send them to a copy shop (FedEx Kinkos, Office Depot, or anywhere else that makes color copies) to be printed. (I generally upload the file to the website and order the prints that way, then go and pick them up.)
I find the music for the composer study.
I buy the folk songs and burn them to a CD to play in the car.
I print maps for our history and geography and sometimes even for
literature. Remember that in each Forms area (under AO Curriculum Help) of the AmblesideOnline forum there's a thread stuck to
the top that has links to the map threads for each year, where you can
find the links you need.
I make sure we have copywork and grammar at least sort of figured out.
I add to the chart for the term, after the table for that term, the recitation passages that student will be learning.
Then I adjust the chart schedule.
I make sure all the subjects/activities we want to cover each day or week are listed.
I group together weekly subjects that seem to fit together in content
type or difficulty. Sometimes I change this later to balance the
workload across the week, but this is where I start.
I look at each grouping of subjects to see how much work each week in
the term will have. I really want only four assignments in any
particular grouping each week, although older students might have five.
Occasionally I'll shift an assignment from one week to another to
balance out the load.
I then create a checklist.
I list all the weekly work in one column and every weekly category plus all daily work in another column. The second column should all be checked off each day, and one item from each section of the weekly column should be checked off each day. This isn't as necessary now that we've been doing this so long; generally my kids can work off of the chart, but at first this made the schedule easier for them to manage.
Example Checklist for One Term of Year 2
Example Checklist for Year 3 (includes checkpoints)
Example Checklist for Year 5
Example Checklist for Year 7
Example Checklist for Year 10
I hope this helps to encourage you if you're having trouble visualizing
all this. It does take a little time, although terms 2 and 3 are always
easier than term 1 and each successive year I get better at this.
(Updated on 7/29/2020 to correct links that had changed.
Updated on 6/5/2023.)
It's lovely to see how someone else does the scheduling. I also make a checklist, but I don't include the exact reading for that day. We pick and choose from the AO schedule.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Yes, my checklist is flexible and does not specify the reading for each day either. It only points out how many categories to do each day.
DeleteHi Kathy! I'm trying to put together a checklist for my Y3 and Y6 and I'm having trouble figuring out how yours are divided. Is the left column weekly? Do they pick one item under each heading in the middle for daily work? Sorry, I feel like I should be able to figure it out but my brain is fuzzy. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe left column is daily. (Sometimes that daily column is really *two* columns because there are so many items.) The right column is weekly. They pick one daily item from each weekly heading to do daily.
DeleteDo you do any of these together? Morning time? Tea time? Just trying to wrap my brain around it all. You rock!
ReplyDeleteNo, most terms we do not do any together work. My crew works better separately. On occasion, we have done things like Plutarch and Shakespeare (the full plays) together. Some people combine the Shakespeare retellings or Parables from Nature or Pilgrims Progress and do those in a morning time.
DeleteHow do you facilitate picture study and composer in a single student setting? What is the expectation for those?
ReplyDeleteMy 4th grade student is in AO 3, but I think he needs to be on grade level for the language arts progression regarding grammar, Latin, and written narrations. Do you have a chart for AO 4 that you’d be willing to share? Thank you!
Picture study can be as simple as spending a minute or two closely studying the picture, then turning away and describing everything you remember.
DeleteFor composer, we usually put a YouTube recording of a performance, where we can see the performers, on the TV while we continue working.
There's a link to a Year 4 chart in the post above.
Thanks Kathy! I re-read my question about picture study and realized I wasn’t very clear. What I meant to ask was, how would a student complete this task on their own? Or did you do this particular task with the student? Thank you!
DeleteMy students usually study the picture on their own and then come to me to narrate. But it's really a short process, so it would be easy to work it into a mealtime or other time when you're together and just give a minute or two for study, put the picture away, and listen to the narration.
DeleteKathy, what is Living Room for Year 7?
DeleteIt was a chore. :-)
DeleteHI!! Thanks for this helpful post! Since Yahoo has changed it's policies and we can no longer get the prints from the art print yahoo group - do you happen to have another suggestion that is as fast, easy and user friendly as the previous one was? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteBelow the schedule for each term on the Ambleside Art page, there is a link to a pdf of that term's art prints.
Deletehttps://amblesideonline.org/ArtSch.shtml
I tried to find the Forms area you mentioned above to print maps but am not finding it. Has the Forms area &/or the location of the map links you are referring to above changed or am I just missing it?
ReplyDeleteThat's the area in the AmblesideOnline forum:
Deleteamblesideonline.org/forum/
Hi ! Could you explain your process of the grouping of items under a category of weekly work? Why do you suggest only 4 items in each catagory(when there are 5 days in a week)? Do you skip a day and have 4 day week? Why do some have 5-6 items? You mentioned that you cross off at the beginning of the week, does that mean you cross off until there are exactly 4 items in each category? — why do the schedules change in year 3 sample, do those represent 3 different terms? And in year 7 , does it represent 2 semesters?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Im really trying to learn how to do this!
https://pineywoodshs.blogspot.com/2014/06/organizing-our-ao-year.html
DeleteThis post has links to most of my scheduling posts, in case you need to see more details.
* I only schedule a four-day week. The fifth day has other activities in it.
* The categories with more than four items have some items that aren't scheduled every week. I sometimes slightly rearrange these items so that I only have four assignments in any one week even if there are five or six books in that category.
* When I am talking about "crossing off", I am talking about the weekly/daily list for my kids. That list would have all five or six books in a category listed, so at the beginning of the week, I would look at that week's schedule and see which of those five or six books doesn't have an assignment for that week. Then I would cross of the books that have nothing assigned that week so that my kids would know that they do not need to do any work from that book that week.
* One of the Term 3 charts has just one term posted here. One of them has all three terms. But they were also for two different children at different times, so that's why they don't match. Term 1 isn't the same for both charts because I made different choices each time.
* It looks like I only posted one sample chart for Year 7. It's just one term, too.