- Page 1: How I plan for the year
- Page 2: How I plan for each week
- Page 3: An overview of our weekly schedule
- Page 4: How I organize
How I plan for the year
In the winter and spring months I start thinking about the next year. I look at the word document schedules on the Ambleside Online website for the years I will need for the next year. I edit the document to add the dates for the weeks in the header, remove books I won’t be using and add items I will be using.
Throughout the winter and spring I start pre-reading and finalizing the books I’ll be using the next year. This is when I do research into the books and how others have used them. I read the footnotes for the AO year at the bottom of the page – these contain helpful tips on how to execute the schedule. I poke around in the forum – I usually find this somewhat overwhelming, but I have found valuable resources there – especially when I go in looking for something specific. This is where I find resources such as A Humble Place, From the CM Trenches, and Our Cooper Nest most helpful as women who have gone before me and can help me along.
Also in the spring I have to decide which books to purchase and in what format. This decision includes deciding which ones I want to own and which ones I want the charter school to purchase for me (and which I will have to return when I am done with them – after Em uses them), and which ones I will check out from the library. I also look to see if the book is available on open library / archive.org if it’s an older book that is difficult to find. Sometimes I choose to use the free online version when we are going to be using the book for only certain chapters. Some books I will might want a kindle edition or an audio version as well.
Because we use a charter school, I also have to include state requirements into our planning. So far that hasn’t been too onerous. If it does, we may reconsider using the carter school. For now I just have to look at what is going to be required for the state and make sure I can cover it. Sometimes this means adding in extra readings or separate math lessons. NOTE: we are no longer using the charter school as of Fall 2024.
I create guides to the books I’ve pre-read when I know it will make it easier for me once the school year starts. This serves a three-fold purpose: as my narration so I can remember what I’ve read ; as a reminder of what each chapter or section is about for jogging my memory for the narrations and re-caps ; and as a place to store other resources that might be helpful with the reading such as links to maps or videos or photos. I post these guides on my Other Guides page.
Part of the planning process involves figuring out what I can combine for each of the two years we’ll be in. This includes the obvious lessons such as composer, artists study, and singing. But I have found with my boys that I can combine geography, some basic math concepts, foreign language, biographies, and some science as well.
In the summer months I make sure I have all the 36 weeks filled in for each item and make sure I have all the resources I need for each. Here is where I scour the Ambleside Online forum and Facebook pages in search of any helpful tips for the years’ readings. I fill in the blank rows of the AO schedule with all of the details for the subject such as artist and composer, nature study, math, grammar, foreign language, etc.
When the 36-week plan is completed, I use it to create a weekly template for the year. At this point I finalize what work we can do together, what work can be done independently and what will need to be done with me.
Further details of the annual planning will be discussed on the page for each year (see the planning menu in the header). How I plan for each week is on the next page.
Ambling Together 