Year 4

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Skip to Planning and Review for my first time through Year 4 in 2022 with M

2025-26 School Year Plan for AO4

This will be my second time through AO4. Em is in Year 4 and M is in Year 7

• Overview
• Weekly Schedule
• Bible
• History
• Biography
• Language Arts
  • Shakespeare
  • Literature
  • Poetry
  • Grammar
  • Recitation
  • Dictation
  • Copywork
• Foreign Language
• Geography
• Citizenship
• Science
• Nature Study
• Mathematics
• Art
  • Artist Picture Study & Architecture
  • Composer
  • Hymns and Folk Songs
• Physical Education

Overview

Though there are some basic similiarities with how I went through Year 4 with M and what Em will do, there are so many differences that I feel like I am planning for a completely new year I’ve never done.  I’ve swaped out multiple books, either because Em did them earlier or I found ones I liked better.  Also, Em is able to do much more independently than M did, so the daily schedule for Em’s year 4 looks a lot different than the daily schedule M had.  This is good news, because as Em is becoming independent, M still needs a lot of one-on-one help and read-a-louds. 

Weekly Schedule

Every week I will make a weekly schedule for Em to follow (see Planning and Scheduling for further details). I plan out what he will do independently and what he will do with me and make sure it can all fit into the school time allotted. This is not all of his work since we also spend 45-60 minutes in Together Time first thing in the morning (Together Time template here).

Bible

AO Bible Reading Schedule Here

Bible is split up into Together Time and Vespers and then by the time of the year.  This year we will cover the following:

2025-26 Bible Plan	Together Time	Vespers (see Liturgical Year for details)
Aug – Nov Ordinary Time	Finish up Ezra, Nehemiah, and Jonah ; Weekly Proverbs	Joshua
Advent	Hallelujah by Cindy Rollins	Advent Readings
Christmas	N/A (no school)	Christmas Readings
Jan/Feb	Special Study:  (TBD) ; Weekly Proverbs	Luke
Lent	The Sacred Sacrifice by Hannah Paris	Lent Readings
Easter	Job ; Weekly Proverbs	Acts
Jun – Aug Ordinary Time	n/a (no school)	Judges

Check Out the Other Guides pages for Bible Reading schedules (I’ll post them as I create them).

Sunday Readings during Vespers we’ll continue with Parables of Nature.

For Bible Memory, we work through one or two passages a term in Together Time.  I will use the suggestions from AO for Bible recitation for AO4 and AO7.

History

AO Booklist Here

We’ll continue on with TCOO.  For some chapters I have references (posted in Other Guides) that I found helpful when I went through it with M.  I will read these aloud to Em once a week per the AO schedule.  For George Washington’s World I have decdided to start reading one story per day in term 1.  When I read through with M, we did not make it through the book.  And there were often more than one story a day scheduled, which was a bit too much for M to handle.  One story a day (unless they are the really short ½ page ones) made for an easier day.  For M we used the WHAT COPY, but for Em I have purchased the revised editions by Donna-Jean Breckenridge.  I have been enjoying the updated readings so that I don’t have to do so much research and substituting language in like I did with the original version with M.

The note on timelines on the AO Year 4 page indicates to “keep a simple timeline” and the footnote says that Miss Mason recommended to start the Book of Centures at about age 10.  Em is definitly ready for one, but I’m wondering about the transition from his century charts and stickers. That timeline has really filled in and he likes looking at all the things that are close to each other.  I am wondering how he’ll feel about starting fresh in an empty timeline.  I didn’t do the simpler timeline with M, so this will be a first.  I’ll report back how it goes!

Biography

See Biography Booklist Here

• As I have mentioned before, we are holding off on Trial and Triumph to possibly do it together in morning school later.  
• For Answering the Cry, I have scheduled all of the readings for Term 1.  I will do one reading per week for weeks 2-10. 
• In Term 2 I will read Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson in the schedule slot where ATC was. 
• In Term 3 when the scheduled slot for ATC and Heart & Soul is free, I will read aloud Young Readers Edition – Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Kathleen Van Cleve.  I have pre-read this and found it facinating and a revealing picture of the Washingtons and their friends and family.  There is one paragraph in Ch 1 at the bottom of pg 11  that I will probably skip because Em is so sensitive and not mature enough for the topic of rape.
• Though I did not really enjoy reading Poor Richard with M, I think it is a valuable story.  So, I will be reading it aloud along with the AO schedule.  The assigned readings are sometimes a bit long, so I have scheduled in two days of reading per week so we’ll finish in Term 1.
• As I did with M, I will be reading Abilgail Adams to Em for about 5-10 minutes every day so we can finish it over terms 2 and 3.  The weekly reading assignments are long, so splitting them up helps get through them. I’ve decided to do this as a read-aloud because this book is still a little above E’s reading level.  Also, I remember there often being things that we could stop and discuss for a better understanding of the culture.

Language Arts

Shakespeare

See Shakespeare Rotation here

This will be Em’s first year reading the full Shakespeare plays.  With that in mind, I have scheduled Love’s Labor’s Lost for Term 1 because our local Shakespeare in the Park will be performing it this summer.  I will read the Lamb’s version to M and Em before we see it so they are prepared for the story.  Then we’ll listen along with the full play in morning school during Term 1.  In Term 2 we’ll read The Young Reader’s Shakespeare: Julius Caesar a retelling by Adam McKeown, and then listen and follow along with the full play.  In Term 3, we’ll read Lamb’s retelling of Much Ado About Nothing before listening along to the full play.  

Literature

See Literature Booklist here

• I had decided not use Bullfinch’s with Em (at least for this year). I made it through a lot of it with M, but the retellings are so dry and full of references to literature that he had not read that both of us dreaded the readings.  And then AO announced they are scheduling in Norse mythology for AO4 and starting Bullfinch’s in AO5 using a new guide by Anne White.  So I can put off the decision on whether to have Em read Bullfinch’s for another year!   Since Em read through Children of Odin in Year 3,  I have chosen several other folk and fairy tale books to replace Bullfinch/Asgard to Athens this year.  I have not read any of these yet – I’ll write a review when I do.
  • American Indian Fairy Tales retold by W.T. Larned
  • An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales by Theresa Breslin (recommended by Read Aloud Revival)
  • A Bilingual Treasury of Chinese Folktales by Vivian Ling, Peng Wang, and Yang XI
• I have scheduled Robinson Crusoe for independent reading for Em to read along with an audiobook.  I listened to the story along with M and think Em is ready for it.  We’ll see how it goes. If he needs me there to help him understand what is happening, then I’ll take it out of the independent category.  I have scheduled for him to listen to the recording 10 minutes per day in order to finish it by the end of Term 2.
• In Term 3 I will read Rip Van Winkle, Sleepy Hallow and Paul Revere’s Ride to him.
• The other indepenent reading Em will do is to read Johnny Tremain along with an audiobook in Term 1 and then read Incredible Journey on his own in Term 2 and 3.
• Kidnapped will be read by Daddy at bedtime.

Poetry

See Poetry List Here

We do poetry in morning school, so we read from poets assigned to both years.  I alternate poetry and folk songs, so we only do poetry three times a week.  One day a week we will read the AO7Lite list of poems from the Oxford Book fo English Verse that is assigned to M.  I will use the document I created (see Other Guides) with the original and AO paraphrases side by side as well as the linked readings when they are available.  For the longer poems, I will split them over several days.  The other two days we will read from Em’s assigned poets.  I have substituted Angelou for Dickenson since we read a lot of Dickenson when M was in Year 4.  We didn’t get to all the Tennyson and Wordsworth poems the first time, so I’m keeping them.  

The schedule will be:  

• Maya Angelou for Term 1, 
• Alfred Lord Tennyson for Term 2, 
• William Wordsworth for Term 3

Grammar

For Grammar we’ll use Fix It! Grammar. M has been using it for two years now and I think Em will do well with it also. Since this is his first year doing Grammar, we will do one lesson a week. I put it in rotation with Latin so that one day I will do the lesson with him, and the next day he’ll do the independent work. The other days will be latin.

Recitation

AO Recitation options and Shakespeare recitation

This year I will combine recitation with Em and do it in morning school.  This makes sense for us since I already combine poetry and Bible and Em will be joining us for reading full Shakespeare plays this year.  We will work on recitation together twice a week and they will work on it independently the other three days.  The peices I have chosen are:

• The Cuckoo Song from the Oxford Book of English Verse
• A piece from Love’s Labor’s Lost Act 1 Sc 1 from the AO Shakespeare Recitation page
• Break, Break, Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Praise of Women by RobertMannyng from the Oxford Book of English Verse
• The True Knight by Stephen Hawes from the Oxford Book of English Verse
• Several Julius Caesar quotes listed on the AO Shakespeare Recitation page
• I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
• A to be determined passage or two from Much Ado About Nothing.

Here is a document with all the recitations for the year.

Dictation

We will continue using The Modern Speller by Kate Van Wagenen during morning school.  I switched to this in term 1 of last year and it’s been helping improve M’s spelling.  I included Em because I felt he was ready to start working on his spelling.  As before, I’ll have both M and Em do this in morning school with one new lesson Mon-Thurs.  They will review and practice the lesson in independent time and then I will do a dictation lesson with them on Friday using the new words.  While M is still catching up with spelling, and Em is just starting dictation, I think this is a good option.  I hope to move to picking passages from their reading in the next year or so.

Copywork

Em will continue choosing a short passage to copy from his daily readings. He learned cursive last year, so I will have him do the copywork in cursive.

Foreign Language

As suggested by AO, Em will start Latin this year.  We’ve had success with the Getting Started / Keeping Going with Latin books with M, so I’ll use the same for Em.   There are You Tube lessons by the author and pronunciation helps that have been a great resource.  I plan on working through one to three lessons per week.  The books include 10 practice sentences for translation in each lesson.  For M, I transcribed each of those lessons into a word document with space for him to write his translations.  So I will use those for Em as well.  This sounds like a lot of work, but it kept me accountable to learning Latin along with M.  As I transcribe the sentences, I read through the lesson and practice translating them myself.  

If he continues to show interest, we will continue to have Em learn sign language with the Lingvano App.

Geography

See Geography Booklist Here

Each year we choose a continent (or one year, the State of California), to work our way through in morning school.  We cover the map, physical features, history, original peoples and/or current peoples, and sometimes mythology or folklore for each country on the continent.  This is where map questions are in our schedule.  We’ve spent a year on Africa, a summer on Australia, two years on the U.S.A., and one year on California and South America.  I used Heritage Mom’s Amazing Africa!, and I’ve posted my guides for U.S.A., California, and South America in Other Guides. This year we’ll go through the U.S. Territories, the Carribean Islands, and Central America.  As I complete them, I will post these studies in Other Guides.  

When I read Minn of the Mississippi to M, I was disappointed.  We had enjoyed Paddle, Seabird, and Pagoo, but this book did not measure up.  It was hard for M to follow the readings, even though I read them to him.  To be honest, it was hard for me too – there are so many passing references to historical things and events that it sometimes took me a minute to figure out what he was saying.  So, I decided to find a new book about the Mississippi that would be more interesting.  I chose La Salle of the Mississippi by Ronald Syme (archive.org) which describes the adventures La Salle went on to be the first European to travel from Canada to the mouth of the Mississippi.  I have written a study guide (see Other Guides) with chapter summaries, maps, timeline info, and resources that I will use as we go through the book.

The other AO geography selections Em participated in when we went through them with M, so there is no need to do them again. You can see my Year 4 & 5 Geography topics guide on the Other Guides page.

Citizenship

See Citizenship Rotation

In Term 1 and 2, Em will read Stories of Rome.  Instead of moving into Plutarch, he’ll read these first, just like M did (though I read them to M).  I wrote up summaries with maps and references (see Other Guides) and I’ll be following the 24-week schedule.  I’ll use the summaries and maps during his oral narration time.

Science

See Science Booklist here

• I have scheduled the Storybook of Science for twice a week since some of the readings are a bit long.  This should keep us on the AO schedule.
• I am replacing Madam How and Lady How with Isaac Asimov’s Guide to Earth and Space.  It has 111 short chapters, so we’ll spread it over two years just like Madam How.  We’ll read 1-2 chapters each week.  This will give us flexibility so that on weeks we have an outing planned, we’ll skip the second reading. 
• I’ll read the George Mendel picture book to Em in Term 1 as scheduled.
• Em will read the Newton biography independently in terms 2 and 3.  I have written a summary of the chapters (See Other Guides) that will help me follow along with his narrations.

Nature Study

See AO Nature Study Rotation

We do nature study object lesson and/or observations one or two times per week plus a nature lore book once per week in Together Time.  This year we will be covering the following topics:

• Term 1: Reptiles
• Term 2: Brook, River, Ocean (though more of an emphasis on ocean, ocean life, and tides)
• Term 3: Garden Flowers / Weeds (Though I’m reserving the right to switch to succulents)

All my nature study schedules with object lesson ideas and observation helps are located on the Nature Study page.

Mathematics

Em has been doing well with Saxon math for the past two years, so we will continue.  In Term 3 of year 3, he started Saxon book 5, so we’ll finish that up and move on to the next level.

Art

AO Artist Info Here and Music Info Here

In morning school there is an art/music slot in the schedule, so each day of the week we will do either artist study, Lumen, Architecture, Composer, or Sound to Song.

Artist Study

This year we will study Pissaro in Term 2 and Jean Honorē Fragonard in Term 3 from the AO schedule and the studies from A Humble Place.  In Term 1, I have chosen Georgia O’Keefe.  We will be visiting Chicago in the fall and since we’ll get to see the many O’Keefe paintings on view there, I decided to spend the term on her.  I created a plan for this that will familiarize us with the paintings we can see (See Other Guides). I have also decided to spend the several weeks of Term 1 before our trip to Chicago familiarizing ourselves with some of the more famous paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago.  My plan for this is on the Other Guides page. 

Since there are not twelve paintings in a term, we also will also take a look at the ones by the same artists that are available for us to view in local museums (LACMA, The Getty, The Huntington, Norton-Simon).  And we’ll have some flexibility in the schedule for weeks we take a day to go to a museum.

We will also work through the next Lumen volume from Goldberry Press.  We add this in once per week.  There are not 36 lessons in the book, but again, we’ll have flexibility in the schedule.

For Architecture this year we will read through Mosque by David Macaulay.  As we did with Cathedral last year, we’ll read a small section every week-ish.  See Architecture page for a study guide on both books.

Composer

This year we’ll study Joplin for Term 1 (using the resources from Heritage Mom), Mozart for Term 2 (using either this short book  – read aloud on You Tube – and/or the Tillberry Table study) and Term 3 we’ll do Mendelssohn (using the Simply Charlotte Mason study).  

Composer is on the schedule for once per week.  During that time we either read from the book/study guide about the composer or we listen to a peice.  I also put the peices in our “composer study” playlist that we sometimes have playing in the background.

This year I decided to add in the “From Sound to Song” study from ThistleandBiscuit.com to help us understand the elements of music better.  We’ll be working through this study one time per week.

Hymns and Folksongs

We will continue to work learn new hymns and folksongs along with the AO rotation and use Hannah’s lovely YouTube postings at folksandhymns. I support her on Patreon and receive a monthly email with an mp3 of the music and a pdf of the lyrics. It makes my life so much easier! And with the mp3 I can create a playlist of hymns on my phone so we can listen to all our AO songs.

The monthly hymn is added to our family hymnal that is used during our Vespers time in the evenings (See Liturgical Year for how we have family readings and singing each evening). The folk song is learned during Together Time in the morning. We usually sing the current folk song twice a week and pick an old one to sing on Fridays.

Physical Education

Em joined a Little League team last year, and will continue with the Fall and Spring seasons for this year.  He enjoys practicing his catching, pitching, and hitting skills in his afternoon free time.  He has also been watching his brother build muscles and has started to try to build his as well by doing strength building exercises.