Curriculum Review

Okay, it's been a month since I started homeschool using the Ambleside Online Curriculum. To be honest, I feel overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done, but I'm so grateful for moms over the AO groups that support me and giving me advice generously.

So, taking their advice, I decided to take it slowly for Andrea. I did make some changes to Andrea’s course of study. I took away readings that are too “heavy” for her and substitute with another “lighter” but good readings. Since then, school was easier and the children enjoyed the read-aloud stories better.

Course of Study

Bible:
• New Living Translation, Contemporary English Version
• Mother Stories from the Old Testament
• Mother Stories from the New Testament

Recitation:
• Scripture, Poetry, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Reading/Phonics/Spelling:
• Word Mastery (Florence Akin)
• McGuffey’s First Reader (William Holmes McGuffey)

Penmanship:
• Copy work from Scripture and Aesop’s Fables
• Cursive handwriting (she asked for it and did very well)

Languages:
• Bahasa Kita Bahasa Indonesia 1 (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional)
• Chinese (online course at Livemocha.com)

Math:
• CIMT-MEP Primary Year 2

Indonesian Social Studies:
• Ilmu Pengetahuan Sosial Untuk SD Kelas 1 (Dep. Pendidikan Nasional)

Citizenship:
• Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan Untuk SD Kelas 1 (Dep. Pendidikan Nasional)

Geography:
• The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air (Jane Andrews)
• First Lessons in Geography (James Monteith)

World History:
• Fifty Famous Stories Retold (James Baldwin)

Natural History/Science:
• Among the Farmyard People (Clara D. Pierson)
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children Ch 1-36 (Thornton Burgess)

Poetry:
• A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson)
• Favorite Poems of Childhood (edited by Philip Smith)

Literature:
• The Aesop for Children (Milo Winter)
• The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children (Jane Andrews)
• The Sleepy Time Tales (Arthur Scott Bailey)
• Beatrix Potter’s Series (Beatrix Potter)

This is why I love homeschooling, it's individual, and I can adjust it to suit my children's learning style and capability. No homeschool is exactly the same... and that's the beauty of it.

The Schedule

This is what I plan to do when we start our school. I hope it'll work just fine for us. I know I may have to be flexible and try not to keep a tight schedule. I don't want to rush the children if they weren't ready for the next reading. The most important thing is their comprehension, not how many books they have read.

Daily Subjects:
Bible: one chapter
Recitation: poetry and Bible verse
Math: next lesson
Indonesian language: reading, grammar, and vocabulary
English: reading/phonics, grammar, and vocabulary
Penmanship: copy work each day
Narration: after each scheduled reading
Literature: Just So Stories (Monday), Aesop’s Fables (Tuesday), Parables from Nature (Wednesday), Nine Tales (Thursday), Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (Friday)

Weekly Subjects:
Monday: Indonesian Social Studies (IPS) & Citizenship (PKn)
Tuesday: World History & Geography
Wednesday: World History & Natural History/Science
Thursday: Science (IPA), Nature Studies
Friday: Composer & Artist Study, Chinese

School Routines:
Morning Lessons (Field trip once a month may take the place of this)
Family Devotion: Prayer, Praise & Worship, Bible reading
Phonics with Brandon; Andrea: penmanship/copywork
Math with Andrea; Brandon: penmanship (just 2 letters/day)
Math with Brandon; Andrea: piano practice with Dad
Read-alouds with Andrea; Brandon: free play (quiet games)

Fruit Break
Poetry (and poetry memory work)

Morning Free Time
Move laundry
20 minutes cleaning up, one zone
Children help, play outside, crafts, toys, etc. independently
Mom prepares lunch

12 noon Lunch
Help Mom clean up
Review Bible Memory
Rest time

Afternoon Lesson
Monday: Indonesian Social Studies (IPS) & Citizenship (PKn)
Tuesday: World History & Geography
Wednesday: World History & Natural History/Science
Thursday: Science (IPA), Nature Studies
Friday: Study Club (in the morning); Composer & Artist Study, Chinese (in the afternoon)

Afternoon Snack
With a story for Brandon

This will be my guideline on how our days will be, so once we started, I may have to adjust and tweak it to suit the children better.

Andrea - Year 1 with Ambleside Online

Phew! Finally, I managed to finish the lesson plan for Year 1. So, this is how I plan to use the Ambleside Online Curriculum combine with our local subjects:

Course of Study

Bible:
• New King James Bible, CEV (really want to get the NLT version, though)
• Mother Stories from the Old Testament
• Mother Stories from the New Testament

Recitation:
• Scripture, Poetry

Reading/Phonics/Spelling
• Word Mastery (Florence Akin)
• McGuffey’s First Reader (William Holmes McGuffey)

Penmanship:
• Copy work

Languages:
• Bahasa Kita Bahasa Indonesia 1 (Departemen Pendidikan Nasional)
• Chinese (online course at Livemocha.com)

Math:
• CIMT-MEP Primary Year 2

World History:
• Trial and Triumph (Richard Hannula)
• Our Island Story Ch 1-21 (H.E. Marshall)
• Fifty Famous Stories Retold (James Baldwin)
• Viking Tales Part 1, Ch 1-11(Jennie Hall)

Indonesian Social Studies:
• Ilmu Pengetahuan Sosial Untuk SD Kelas 1 (Dep. Pendidikan Nasional)

Citizenship:
• Pendidikan Kewarganegaraan Untuk SD Kelas 1 (Dep. Pendidikan Nasional)

Geography:
• Geography Book – Book 1 (Charlotte Mason)
• The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air (Jane Andrews)
• First Lessons In Geography (James Monteith)

Natural History/Science:
• Handbook of Nature Study (Anna Botsford Comstock)
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children Ch 1-36 (Thornton Burgess)

Poetry:
• A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson)
• Poems Every Child Should Know (Various Poets)

Literature:
• The Aesop for Children (Milo Winter)
• Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (Edith Nesbit)
• Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling)
• Parables from Nature (Margaret Gatty)

Fine Art:
Composers:
Ludwig von Beethoven (1810)
• Piano Sonata 8 (Pathetique) Opus 13
• Piano Sonata 14 (Moonlight) Op 27
• Symphony No. 3 (Erocia-meaning 'heroic') Opus 55
• String Quartets opus 59, no.1-3 (Razumovsky Quartets)
• Piano Concerto 5 (Emporer) Op 73
• Symphony No. 9 (the one with Ode to Joy at the end) Opus 125

Antonio Vivaldi (1730)
• Gloria (choral work)
• The Four Seasons
• Trio Sonata in C major, RV.82
• Plus 3 concerti - Maybe one for violin, one for guitar and one for a woodwind instrument such as oboe or bassoon.

Frederic Chopin (1840)
• Op 09 no 2 Nocturne in E flat maj
• Op 10 no 3 Etude in E-maj
• Op 10 no 12 Revolutionary Etude in C minor
• Op 21 Piano Concerto number 2 in f minor
• Op 28 Preludes no's 15, 20 and either 16 or 17
• Op 53 Polonaise in A flat, Heroic

Artists:
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) Italian Renaissance
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1498, woodcut
• Self-Portrait in a Fur Coat, 1500, lime panel, Pinakothek, Munich
• A Young Hare, 1502. Watercolour and gouache on paper. Vienna, Austria
• Altarpiece of the Rose Garlands, 1506, oil on panel, Národní Galerie, Prague
• Praying Hands, 1508, brush and ink, Vienna
• The Knight, Death, and The Devil, 1513-14, engraving

Caravaggio (1571-1610) Italian Baroque
• Rest During the Flight into Egypt, c.1595, Rome
• The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1598-1599. Oil on canvas. Princeton, NJ
• The Calling of St. Matthew, 1599-1600 San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
• The Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1600-1601 Rome
• Supper in Emmaus, 1606. Oil on canvas, Milan
• The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1608-1609. Oil on canvas. Messina, Italy

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) Romantic
• The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople, 1840, oil on canvas, Paris
• Portrait of Frederic Chopin, 1838, oil on canvas, Paris
• Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard, 1839. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris
• The Sultan of Morocco and his Entourage, 1845, oil on canvas, Toulouse
• Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable, 1860, oil on canvas, Paris
• The Lion Hunt, 1861. Oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago

Nature Study:
Term 1: Wildflowers
Term 2: Birds
Term 3: Mammals

Additional Books For Free Reading:
• The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
• Minnie’s Playroom (Francis Forrester, Esq.)
• Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
• King of the Golden River (John Ruskin)
• Elsie Dinsmore’s series
• Beatrix Potter’s series
• Little Prudy (Sophie May)
• Nelly’s First Schooldays (Josephine Franklin)
• Little Susy's Six Birthdays (Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss)

Now, all I have to do is to break it down into weekly schedules. It's quite overwhelming the first time I downloaded the schedule from the AO site. I was afraid that I won't be able to carry out the excellent education Charlotte Mason was talking about, but now I'm confident that I can do it. I'm so excited I can't hardly wait to start school. LOL!