We did it! We have reached the end of our Ambleside Online year 4/5, despite the fact that early on I fell out of the habit of documenting our school life. While I realize the awkwardness of starting something and not continuing it – especially when people reach out and want to know more! – there are times when things are best lived and the energy taken to document and update is best spent simple living.
At the beginning of our year I documented the plans for our Ambleside Online year 4/5. You can see that post here.
This post is an update to that.
Our year was different than I had anticipated. Back when I wrote our plan for the year I knew we had our trip to Nigeria planned – with a day layover in Paris – but I had no idea how much other traveling we would be doing in addition to that! The additional traveling changed some of our school format and plans. I wrote about homeschooling on the road and what it looks like for us here.
Some of the changes that occured due to travel played out in how things worked out in our home – for example, the glorious morning time around the breakfast table and organized morning schedule didn’t last long beyond the first few months of this school year. We have all, Paul included, commented on how much we have missed it, and it is a priority to work back into the schedule when we start our new school year and to figure out a way to sustain it when our schedule is haphazard. We are super great at handling upsets to routine and last minute situations … we aren’t so good at wheeling it all back in and getting back into a routine.
Throughout the year I maintained my simple approach to a planner, using just a clipboard and the weekly schedule sheets (one term per sheet) printed from AO. The boys had their own notebooks I had made them and I would write their daily schedule out each week. It worked really well, but my planning loving heart missed a bigger planner and I am going back to one this year. (A whole new planner! Free printables will be available shortly, in the meantime you can see what I have available here.)
The habit of weekly reviewing the upcoming weeks schedule and writing it out for the boys is something I always saw my own mother do for us kids (we were all homeschooled at one point or another) and one that has been a peaceful and gratifying experience for me. It’s true – I enjoy organizing. But more than that, I enjoy the peaceful flow that occurs through the week when the boys knows what it is they’re supposing to be doing.
The organizing of their week was really very simple. Ambleside Online offers a wonderful schedule that breaks down how much of each book needs to be read each week. Using that, I would simple write out how much of that they needed to read each day.
I would also note their daily work (math, copy work, studying their dictation, etc.) and which days were to be written narrations (I started this for year 5, and term 1 was 1 written narration/week, term 2 was 2 written narrations/week, and term 3 was 3 written narrations/week. This was a GREAT way to transition into it for us and I will be following this model this coming school year with my new year 5 student!)
The days I wanted them nature journaling, doing map work, updating timeline, etc were also all documented.
It worked really well to spend the time on Sunday evening making the plans and then, for the most part, they were pretty independent from me throughout the week. They obviously needed me for narrations, but this year there was a lot of independence as they referred to their own schedule books and worked on their own. It wasn’t seamless – I left them for nine days for a trip to Bolivia and it showed gaps within their understanding of following a schedule when mom isn’t around, but at 9 and 11 they are learning and doing great at that! I have high hopes we will transition to independent learning by college time. *wink*
Another system I have set up for the boys that did work seamlessly is their snacks, treats, and lunch. This runs like clockwork and saves my sanity. As a general rule break time is at 10, and they get a 20 minute break. The boys are allowed to choose the order in which they do their school, but in order to have their break time snack they need to have completed copywork and math. I have a bin of goodies they are free to choose from for their morning snack. I know many homeschool families are on tight budgets, so I will share this: my target price for their snack is .25 and I shop the discount/clearance foods at the grocery store and grocery outlets when we travel north, where they are more prevalent.
Lunch worked similarly – I minimized the options they had, but gave them free reign within that, to make their own lunch every day.
Our normal for easy lunches are an assortment of fixings for loaded corn tortillas, homemade pizzas, or omelets. Wesley has been really sick most of this year and we’ve had to greatly alter his diet, so that did complicate lunches a little bit. But sickness aside, the simple and routine of lunches made things REALLY easy.
Certain tasks were assigned a special treat – for example, we have a “wild man” snack jar (trail mix) that they are allowed a couple scoops of (in a bandana) that they take when they go outside for nature study and play. When they complete their timeline updates for the week they get a small candy treat. When we read poetry together we have a pot of tea and a cookie-type treat.
These little treats keep them motivated and on top of ensuring these things happen because they love their food treats!
I think our very favorite book for the three of us this year was Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels. It is so well written and so enticing in his descriptions of all the places around the world. I created a video companion for the Occident which you can see here – we found it was very helpful to give a real picture of the current condition of the places described.
A side note about the beauty this, and all living books, contribute to our lives – in May we found ourselves in Mammoth Cave National Park on a 4 mile trek far under the earth. A couple of college age guys behind us started talking about their next big trip – to Yosemite. A place we haven’t been to in person, but was a very favorite chapter in Halliburton’s book. A place we feel we know (but need to know better!) Anyways, it was a special moment to me to see that this book has taken my children to places they have not – and may not – ever see and yet it has given them a connection to the places that they can passionately share the beauty of with others. It was so neat!
Due to all of our traveling we opted not to do our beloved Feast for the Famous (see more here and here) each term, but rather to do it at the end of the school year. We’ve not celebrated it yet, but the boys worked hard to come up with the menu – using men and women from the books they completed over the school year to match with a food item and create a feast for us to enjoy together. Y’all! It’s my favorite thing ever. I love seeing which characters or events in their books make an impression on them and I for sure love seeing how their creative minds work to connect that with food. And each time we have done this we have enjoyed inviting friends to join us in our dorky homeschool food and book collaboration. We all missed it not happening each term, but with Nigeria and Bolivia trips coinciding with the end of the terms it was too much. So this year is a single year end Feast to cover the whole of the year, with plans to go back to once a term next year!
Here is what they came up with for this years menu, to celebrate year 4 and year 5 (some were additional books I added to the schedule):
David Livingston – Dark Chocolate hot chocolate (for deepest “darkest” Africa and the heat)
Gregor Mendel – Peas (… self explanatory)
Salem Witch Trials – curly pasta (to resemble witch hair)
Captain Kidd – biscuits with dried rice on top (to resemble pirate fare of hardtack with maggots)
The Incredible Journey – bear jerky, if we can find some – or – fresh spring water (Bear jerky because the animals were attacked by a bear. Spring water because they drank water … haha. original!)
Mary Slessor – Suya (a favorite Nigerian food)
George Washington – Icecream (his favorite food)
I am thankful for another completed year with our homeschool. A year that took us around the globe and around the USA. A year that introduced us to some beautiful books. A year that challenged us (I shared a little about the malaria here, but we have had non-stop issues since Christmas time between the malaria – which finally cleared in March – and then with the toll the drugs took on his stomach, which is our current struggle). A year that revealed our weaknesses and areas we need to develop.
But mostly – it was a year that showed despite ourselves and our lacks and insufficiencies the Lord is faithful and His mercies are new every morning.
Happy Summer!
