How I Scheduled Year 4

 

This is my fifth time scheduling AmblesideOnline's Year 4, but Year 4 is a bit different this time than it was the other four times I've been through it.  Also, it's been several years since I've looked closely at Year 4, so this is almost a fresh look at the year.

This particular Year 4 student will be on the older end of the range because of a fall birthday.  Also, this student has great reading and writing, so that will impact some of my scheduling choices.  Other times I have scheduled Year 4 have looked different based on the needs of those students.

To begin, I visit the AmblesideOnline website (amblesideonline.org), found Year 4 on the By Year menu, clicked through to the Year 4 schedule, then clicked on DOC in the list next to Choose a Format.  This downloads a chart version of the Year 4 schedule in Microsoft Word (.doc) format.  I think this format loads into Google Drive more smoothly than the Open Office (.odt) format does (although Open Office is actually what I use on my own computer).  

Since I like to edit my schedules in Google Drive (merely for convenience and because all the other schedules are out there), I went to Google Drive and uploaded the downloaded file to the folder where I store my schedules.  It uploaded as a .doc, so I went to the file menu and chose Save as Google Docs.  Once that version of the chart saved, I deleted the .doc version from my Google Drive.  

I don't see anything in Bible that needs changing.  In History, the first issue I notice is that several readings are scattered around amongst the weeks, with gaps in between.  I want, if possible, to spread these scattered readings so that no two of them are scheduled in the same week.  CHOW and Answering the Cry for Freedom already don't overlap, so I can move the Trial and Triumph readings slightly to achieve my objective.  I shift them into Weeks 2, 6, and 11, and now I have no doubled-up assignments each week between CHOW, Answering the Cry, and Trial and Triumph.

I now have three assignments each week in the Bible category and three (or two some weeks) each week in History.

Storybook of Science has two chapters per week.  I insert a new row under that one and separate those assignments so each cell has only one chapter.  If I spread out the Gregor Mendel picture book over the whole term, that gives me four assignments per week in that section.  However, I don't think I need to spread the Mendel book over the term, so I will look for something else that could also fit there.  I decided to move Minn of the Mississippi down to Natural History, then spread out Mendel over a few weeks in the spaces where Minn isn't schedule.  That gives me four assignments most weeks (and three in some) in that category.

In Literature, I'm adding a row so that one chapter from Robinson Crusoe can go in each cell; it has two rows per week now.  For Shakespeare, I'm going to schedule Midsummer Night's Dream.  I generally start my Year 4 student in that play.  Some of my new Year 4 students don't do Shakespeare at all.  This one should be able to handle it, but we'll start with Midsummer because it's short and fun and not too complicated.  I will fill in exact assignments by Act and Scene.

In the Poetry row, I will put four 'O's in each cell.  That let's us color in an 'O' each day we complete that task.

I'll insert a row above Natural History for Math, and I'll put the 'O's in the cells instead of listing assignments.

I'll insert a row above History for Copywork, and I'll put 'O's in the cells there too.

(I'm working my way down the Daily/Weekly list, putting items in the main part of the schedule and deleting them from this part.)

Foreign language has been Spanish, and we'll keep that.  I need to think about how long we should spend on Foreign Language each day before I decide how to schedule my students's Spanish and Latin (which will be new for us this year).

Plutarch will fit nicely in History, giving us four assignments in almost every week.

I've added a new section called Enrichment.  In it, I've put Artist/Composer, Drawing, Sloyd, and Crochet/Sewing.  

It looks like the extra Geography readings take about 5 weeks.  There are exactly five weeks when Minn is not scheduled, so those Geography readings would fit neatly there.  But that means I have to find somewhere else to put Gregor Mendel.  The History section has some weeks with only three assignments right now.  I'm going to move Mendel up there, spread over three weeks.  That fills in my History section so all weeks but one have four assignments.

Now I'll add two rows to Natural History, one labeled CM's Geography and one labeled Long's Geography.  I will fill in cells with the chapter titles, inserted into weeks that don't have Minn assignments.

Only a few items are left on that second page.  I created a category called Miscellaneous and put Grammar, Map Drill, Nature Study, and Timeline in it.  Recitation will get its own row with four 'O's in each cell because we do Recitation every day.

Now I just have to add our Spanish and Latin work.  Oh, and select recitation passages.  I will work with my student to select a Bible passage, poem (from our term's poet), and a passage from our Shakespeare play.

Done!

After sitting with this for a few days, I'm making some changes.  I remembered that we needed Typing practice at least weekly so that eventually we can type the written narrations.  Also, we needed to have Written Narration as an item.  I cut out Crochet and made Sloyd/Sew our handicraft.  (We sometimes have sewing club, so on those weeks that's our handicraft.  Otherwise, it will be Sloyd.)  I originally thought I would put Typing into that Enrichment section, but then I noticed that Nature Study was in Miscellaneous.  Nature Study is a much more robust activity than the other work in Miscellaneous, so I moved it to Enrichment and put Typing in Miscellaneous.  Now I need to see how to include Written Narration, which I originally forgot.

The only category at this point that has fewer than four assignments per week is Bible, which has three most weeks and two in some weeks.  So that's the natural place to add Written Narration as a weekly assignment. 

Now, a couple of weeks later, I'm revisiting this schedule.  The additional subjects that are added in Year 4, such as Latin, Plutarch, Shakespeare, and Grammar, each require attention.  I am weighing cutting back on some of that so we aren't adding all of those in Term 1.  I think for my oldest I may have added them all at once, but my other kids eased in more gradually.  I am going to mull over this current schedule and decide how much to leave in for the first term.  

Looking over the schedule, I think I have spaced things out pretty well across our four-day week.  The only subject that appears to be a big addition is Latin, which I've scheduled daily.  Because of this particular child's bent, I don't expect Plutarch and Shakespeare to be terribly hard to add in, but we will see when we get there.  I think instead of cutting anything, I'm going to keep my expectations low.  For Spanish and Latin, we will strive to get to them daily, but just do very short lessons.  I may just do Mad Libs for Grammar in the first term.  This may be enough of an adjustment to allow us to ease into these new subjects.

You can see the first few weeks of our Term 1 here.