August 23, 2012

The Rest of AO Year 2 Plans

See the official AO Year 2 plan in my previous post, along with Bible and Shakespeare plans.  Now here's the rest of the story!  You can also see some of what we are doing on Pinterest.

We are already nearing the end of Week 3 (will post tomorrow), and I still haven't finished blogging my plan.  Thank goodness my planning and implementation powers are better than my blogging power. :)
 
The only other difference in Week 1 was that Tree in the Trail took longer to get through inter-library loan than I had hoped, so I didn't receive it until the end of Week 2...and it is due back in early September.  The official schedule has one or two chapters a week scheduled, so I will speed that up.  We will get through chapter 6 this week, and I will try to do at least 4 chapters next week (about 1 a day should be doable).  This is a geography book about plains Indians hunting buffalo (so far).  The chapters are short, and he is doing a great job narrating.

Week 2 introduced most of the rest of the books we are using this term.  (Click through to see the weekly AO recommended schedule).

We are using Child's History of the World (CHOW), and it is written differently and more personal-ably than any other history text I've seen.  I like it so far, although it is strange to be starting it at chapter 47 instead of from the beginning.  So no Synge or  Story of Mankind for us this year.

The Little Duke is a great little book, and we are both enjoying it.  I forgot to only read 1/2 a chapter this week, though, and we were both wondering how much longer I had to read!  So, next week will be a little lighter, LOL.

We are using a free version of Burgess Animal Book that an AO user (J. Elliott) formatted for this particular schedule, and added pictures.  Its great!  I converted it from doc to pdf and uploaded it to Google Drive, if you would like to use it.  (I just put the pdf files into iBooks and read on the iPad.)  This is written in the same style as the Burgess Bird Book we used last year, and introduces different types of animal and how to categorize them (taxonomy).

Understood Betsy is historical fiction, similar in feel to the Little House on the Prairie series.  After 2 chapters, I'm not yet sure what to think about it.

For poetry class, I purchased the Kindle version that AO's advisory has put together.  We read a new poem each day, and re-read the previous 4.  I had never heard of Walter de la Mare, but I am enjoying his writing.

4 comments:

  1. I haven't read your other post on this but Understood Betsy gets much better after the first chapter or so. Don't give up yet:) my dd didn't like the first chapter at all but both her and I loved it later and we were sad to finish it a couple of weeks ago. In fact I just did a blog of sorts (very briefly) about it.

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  2. So, why do you start on chapter 47 of your history? Do they have the one book broken down over several semesters/years or does Ambleside follow a rotating cycle and you all happen to be at that part of the cycle?

    We do a four-year history cycle, so this year we are on Modern History (1850-present). I just incorporated Piper in where I already was in the cycle with Bailey. She was a little disappointed that she will have to wait until next year when we start with Ancient History again to study mummy's and pyramids, but then she perked up when I told her we would be covering Abraham Lincoln before Christmas.

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  3. Here is AO's info on History: http://www.amblesideonline.or/History.shtml,
    and here is the part relevant to your question:

    "Q. Why does the schedule skip some sections of A Child's History of the World and also The Story Of Mankind?

    A. The entire texts of CHOW and SOM are not scheduled -- only those chapters which fit the chronological progression. While this is not the common practice today, CM did use texts in this way. A child might begin reading about history from one book, but when he moved into a higher form, he would be reading the next part of history from a different book, probably picking it up in the middle. You may use either CHOW or SOM, or both, depending upon your students' abilities. In general, CHOW is for younger children and SOM is for older, but Ambleside leaves that choice with the parents. "

    And now here is the link to the history sequence/chronological progression: http://www.amblesideonline.org/History.shtml#sequence

    I know the classical curriculum uses the 4-year cycle - do you consider yourself classical? So cute how Lincoln perked up Bailey, and that she was disappointed not to learn about mummies this year. Only a homeschooler :)

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  4. I just stumbled across your site and thank you so much for sharing all of this. I have one more question. Would you mind sharing your adapted Weekly list for yr 2? It is hard to read from the picture. I hope it is not too much trouble as this is an older post. Could you email it to me at demiati(at)gmx.net ? That would be very helpful. Wishing you all the best and greetings from Austria, Birgit

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