This Year in Our Homeschool: AmblesideOnline Year 4, Part 2

Last week I shared some of our favorite books so far in Year 4 of AmblesideOnline. This year my son is in Form II of Charlotte Mason’s programs, and as such, there are a few changes and additions to the curriculum. AmblesideOnline gives some suggestions for these subjects, but there are not specifics given for dictation and grammar. Here is what we are doing that is new.

New Subjects in Year 4

  • Shakespeare–Where in Form I we were only reading retellings of Shakespeare plays, this year we are reading full plays together. Instead of using the AO current rotation for plays, I decided to start with A Winter’s Tale because that is the one that I am already reading along with The Literary Life podcast. While we look at the text of the play, we are also listening to the Arkangel audio production of the play. Both of the kids love Shakespeare day, and so do I!
  • Plutarch–We are using Anne White’s lesson guide for Plutarch, and it worked out nicely that this year’s new study guide starts with Alexander the Great. I think it has been helpful for us to start in reading Plutarch’s Live with a historical person with which we are already familiar. Many moms are scared of Plutarch, but so far it really has not been that hard at all.
  • Dictation–In addition to continuing copywork for spelling and handwriting, this year we started studied dictation. Somehow I came upon a link to “The Dictation and Spelling Book” compiled by Mary B. Rossman and Mary W. Mills. Each week I write one paragraph out for my son to copy, and when he is finished with it, I dictated a few of the sentences for him to write out without looking.
  • Grammar–We are doing a very gentle, organic introduction to basic grammar concepts this year, also using the sentences from the dictation book. So far I have been teaching my son to identify nouns and verbs and the fact that every sentence must have a subject and a verb.

Charlotte Mason also recommended beginning Latin instruction in Year 4. We have not started that yet, however, both because I feel that we still need to shore up our modern language study and I need some more time to consider Latin curricula. I am not sure if we will begin Latin until Year 5 or even Year 7.

In my next post about our homeschool curriculum, I will share some of the resources we are using for the “riches” and other subject areas not directly laid out in AmblesideOnline. I hope some of you will find these posts helpful as they plan for your own new Year 4 students.

This Year in Our Homeschool: AmblesideOnline Year 4, Part 1

This year we are entering our fifth year of homeschooling and our fourth full year using AmblesideOnline as our curriculum. I realized as I looked back over my posts from last year that I never did write about AO Year 3, which is too bad because I really did love the books we read last year. It was a good, smooth year for the most part. But here we are in the middle of February, which for us means that we are finishing up Week 6 of Year 4. So I thought now would be a good time to talk about the books we are enjoying and looking forward to, as well as the additional curricula we are using for subjects not detailed in AO.

Favorite Books in Year 4

A few of the books we are enjoying most so far are the following:

  • Robinson Crusoe–even though the chapters are quite lengthy and the language a bit archaic, we are all (even the 4 year old) loving reading this famous classic together.
  • Story Book of Science–this is one of the books that I handed off to my son for independent reading, and I like that the chapters are short and that the science concepts are presented in a conversational format.
  • Minn of the Mississippi–after struggling with the first couple of Hollings’ books, we have really come to love and appreciate them. This one is absolutely jam packed with natural science and geography, and I think it is probably going to be our very favorite since turtles and the Mississippi River are both things we can actually observe for ourselves.
  • Poor Richard–although my son has had some trouble narrating from this book, he does seem engaged with and interested in the story of Ben Franklin. I think he actually is just enjoying reading it so much that he forgets to slow down enough that he can tell back the details.

I am also really looking forward to reading Abigail Adams, Kidnapped and George Washington’s World. Additionally, the free read list for Year 4 is excellent, and I am loving getting to read those together, too.

Next time I will talk a little about the new areas of study that we have now that my son is in Form II. I look forward to telling you all about them!

March 2019 Memory Work Plans

Here we are, marching into March already! I must say that February simply flew by around here, excepting the part of the month in which it seemed to rain for a week straight. (We did get over 13 inches of rain here in Middle TN in February, so I didn’t exactly imagine all that water!) I had to scramble to get this month’s memory work in order for today, though to be honesty, we won’t actually use it until next week. No need to start a new batch on a Friday, in my opinion! But I wanted to get it out semi-on time for you all anyway. I do want to apologize that this month there will not be a free printable, though. I have been thinking about the fact that several of the texts I am using this month are not technically in the public domain, even if they can be found online. So I am just going to link to what I can and leave it at that. I hope you enjoy learning some of these songs, hymns and texts along with your own family this March!

March Memory Work:

Prayer: a Morning Collect from The Book of Common Prayer
Hymn: What Wondrous Love is This
Folksongs: Leatherwing Bat, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Poetry: Spring by Harry Behn
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-13
Catechism: Questions 13 and 14 from the New City Catechism (children’s version)
Motto: Family Way #8 from Our 24 Family Ways

February 2019 Memory Work Plans

Hi there, friends! It is coooold in 80 percent of the continental US at the moment, and Tennessee is no different! But the end of winter is coming, albeit slowly. February marks that time of year in our lives when we are weary of winter and waiting for spring. It also frequently marks that tired time of the year for homeschool families when everyone just wants to quit. So I offer you some brand new memory work to liven things up a little bit!

If you have been following our memory work plans for a while, you may notice that this month’s Scripture memory portion is a lot shorter than usual. That is because we have started using the Scripture Memory System recommended by Sonya Shafer of Simply Charlotte Mason. I wanted to have time to be reviewing the passages we had already memorized without making that portion of our morning time together seem like a burden. As a result, we are probably going to keep our passages in the 1-3 verse range for a while.

February Memory Work

Prayer: God Be in My Head from The Sarum Primer

Hymn: Crown Him with Many Crowns

Catechism: Review Questions 11 and 12 of the New City Catechism (shorter version)

Motto: Family Way #7 from Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson

Scripture: Ephesians 4:29

Poetry: The Wild Flower’s Song by William Blake

Folksongs: Walk That Lonesome Valley, I Love You a Bushel and a Peck

Free Printable Plans

I am including a free printable version of these memory work plans for you all! I went back to the landscape layout for the smaller binder pages this month, as well as changing up fonts and doing a little embellishing. Let me know if you are using these memory work plans, and if you have any questions or suggestions. Until next time, have a happy homeschool day!

Day 28: Song #write31days2018

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that music and singing are important in our family. Not only is my husband a music pastor, but we both majored in music in college and have both led choirs of various ages. In our homeschool, as well, music has a prominent place.

Each day during our morning time, my children and I sing a hymn and one or two folk songs. We also listen to instrumental pieces by important composers weekly. My son has to practice piano every day, and I have also gotten back into the habit of practicing a couple of piano pieces daily!

Song is such an important part of our family culture. It expressed praise to our Creator. It gives us a creative outlet. It forms a basis for shared family memories. I don’t know what we would do if we couldn’t sing or play music together.

As I think on the importance of music in our home and homeschool, I realize that it is nearly the end of October. That means that it is time for me to get another set of Memory Work Plans posted here! So I will take this opportunity to share those as an addition to this post. We are going with a Thanksgiving theme, of course!

November Memory Work Plans

Due to the demands of writing daily for the Write 31 Days challenge, I am not able to offer a printable plan for download this month. I did include links to everything, though. I hope that next month I will be able to continue the printables, though. Thanks for understanding!

Prayer: For our prayer this month, we will be using Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “We Thank Thee.”

Catechism: This month we are reviewing questions 7 and 8 of the New City Catechism.

Hymn: The AmblesideOnline hymn for this month is All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name. We have not previously done this one in our homeschool, so we will be doing it as scheduled.

Mottos: We are learning Way #5 from Our 24 Family Ways (affiliate link) this month.

Scripture: Our scripture passage this month is Psalm 100.

Poem: Last month we learned the first two stanzas of “When the Frost is on the Punkin,”so we will continue and memorize the final two this month.

Folk Songs: I just realized that I mixed up the scheduled AO folksongs for October and November, so we will be learning “Freight Train” and “Over the River and Through the Woods” this month.