A Sample Week: Year One Week Two

This is not the official Ambleside Online reading list. I have taken a good deal of liberty with arranging, rearranging, deleting, and adding. For the AO list, please visit the Ambleside Online homepage. Also, some of the books are really for Punkin :)

Our schedule this week will still not include all of our subjects, but we will be getting closer to the full schedule. This week we will be adding the following: daily penmanship (copywork), recitation/memory work, math, drill & dance, phonics and reading with Shug, brushwork, Spanish & ASL, and handicrafts. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Most of these "new" subjects are not everyday, though. Also, remember, those CM lessons are short! :) Here we go...

Monday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - yeah, right. Little Dude was up several times again last night... definitely teething. I heard the alarm, but I turned it off and rolled over. We started lessons after 9:30am. Our latest morning yet. BUT, we did get everything but poetry done. No biggie, we aren't on a poetry schedule anyway. We'll just read some tomorrow :)

Bible* - Genesis 12:1-6

20 minutes of chores after breakfast* - actually more like 30 minutes today

Copywork* - Shug practiced d,b,and r and SweetP wrote the first verse of Psalm 150

Recitation* - Psalm 150:1-3

Took a 45 minute break outside around 10:45am. The rain stopped and it was nice out, even though it was cloudy. Found the largest stinkbug I've ever seen. He was on the trunk of one of the plum trees. Put him in a magnifying container and SweetP drew him for her nature notebook. Also found an unidentified cocoon on the sugar maple. Orbette (our "pet" orb weaver garden spider) made the most perfect web this morning. All our cold-blooded friends were moving a bit slowly this a.m.

Math* - 2 pages from FFrogs. Also, talked about sets and different set combinations totaling 6.

Drill and Dance* - What great fun! Reviewed "Forward and Back" and how to "swing" a partner. Dancing the Bastringue.

Took a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood after lunch and before nap. Girls were able to get fairly close to a Killdeer. He screeched so loudly when he flew away. Everyone jumped :) Picked fuzzy grasses, queen anne's lace. Empty lots have their advantages :)

Read Milne at lunchtime* - this was before nap, Eeyore lost his tail

Mother Goose rhymes before nap* - this was after nap

Monday (P.M.):

Among the Forest People - Chapt. 2* - great book, excellent narrations today...often in a British accent, lol. Must be from The Secret Garden and B. Potter :) Or maybe I tend to read Milne with a touch of an accent???

Livingstone biography - Chapt. 2* - Shug joined in this week

Phonics Pathways* - ummmm, not sure what we're going to do with phonics this year. I tried to figure out where Shug was in the PP book (in terms of reading skill) and she's at the end. I don't want to begin spelling with her yet, though. She's only 5. Maybe we'll just read together until I notice trouble words. Need to think more about this...

Brushwork* Used tube paints in primary colors. Explored mixing to get secondary colors: purple, green, orange. SweetP even came up with a really lovely brown by mixing purple with some green.

Poetry - Missed this today.

3 more books for Punkin - May not get these in today. Plan on playing outside most of the evening. It's bee-u-ti-ful out there right now! :)



Tuesday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! This is getting funny. We did not start by 8am. When is it considered giving up and when is it considered adjusting to reality???

Bible* read from Vos Bible storybook about Abraham leaving home

20 minutes of chores after breakfast* more or less

Copywork (from Phonics Pathways)* Gave SweetP 6 words for her copywork. She will copy them again on Thursday and will have them for dictation on Friday.

Spanish/ASL* Lyric Language CD - "Roll on, Roll on, Pretty River!" We rock out in the van to this song :)

Folk song "Turkey in the Straw" - Had a great time listening to this in the van with my sis. We went up mom & dad's house today, so we made the most of the van time. We listened to this song several times, but also listened to other folk songs. "Shenandoah" has been a favorite since early this summer.

Little House in the Big Woods at lunchtime* read this to Joy in the p.m. while Sam read Damon & Pythias to the older two.

Poems to Read to the Very Young before nap* read outside while Joy rested on a cushiony lounge chair in Mom & Dad's backyard. Also sang nursery rhymes to her :) She eventually moved inside, but still never napped. Not a good away from home napper.



Tuesday (P.M.):

Reading with Shug - still trying to figure out what we're doing. I gave her some copywork this morning from PP.

Aesop - The Boy Who Cried Wolf (CBOV)* Read it on porch steps with the two oldest. Very strong narrations.

George Washington - D'Aulaire, 3 pgs.* The girls really like this book :) Read it in the swing in parents' backyard. Nana narrated, too :)

Poetry* from Poems to Read to the Very Young today instead of the usual book

Handicrafts - didn't happen. Decided to let the girls ride bikes all afternoon instead.

Damon & Pythias - w/ Sam*

3 more books for Punkin - didn't happen. She rode her bike a lot today and after we left Mom & Dad's we took Sissy home and wound up having dinner at Heather & Brian's house. It was getting close to bedtime by the time we were home. I did read all of the poetry book this afternoon, though, and a good bit of Little House to her. She's doing well with it. She likes the pages with the pictures best, but she's listening intently. Somehow the first chapter always seems strange with a very little one. Gutting deer and hanging them in trees and all that. I think it bothers them less than I think it will, though ;) Maybe, just maybe we can start lessons by 8am tomorrow. I'm going to bed now!



Wednesday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - Now I'm laughing.

I was feeling OLD this morning, and I really needed to go slowly. I made spelt muffins and sent the girls out to play before 9am. They played for quite a while this morning. I thought of you, Amanda, and wondered if any of my neighbors were tsk tsking about the children being out ;) If I get reported, I have my proof! We really, truly did all of school today :) SweetP had a captive grasshopper for a bit and later came to me with grasshopper "scat" on the end of a dried shaft of panicum grass. "Look, Mama!" We did Bible and reading outside, then came in for copywork.

Bible* Luke 2:1-20

20 minutes of chores after breakfast*

Copywork* Shug did a review page from A Reason for Handwriting Book K and SweetP copied Psalm 150:1

Recitation* Getting Psalm 150:1-3 down fairly well

Math* Great math day. Did 2 pages of Funtastic Frogs, but the best part was combining different sets of frogs to total five. I would say something like, "Make five using three sets of frogs". Then SweetP would have to decide how to show five with three sets. She got excited when she came up with the answer. A set of 2 blue frogs, a set of 2 green frogs, and 1 red frog. Then we would say the math sentence - "2 plus 2 plus 1 makes 5". She made 5 in 4 different ways. We also discussed the meaning of "empty set".

Drill & Dancing* short today. We learned how to circle right and circle left and also how to curtsey :)

Milne at lunchtime* Piglet met up with a heffalump - one of my favorites

Mother Goose rhymes before nap* I recited some and sang some as I cleaned up after lunch, no book

*read The Seasons of Arnold's Appletree before nap

Wednesday (P.M.):

Reading w/ Shug * This was actually in the morning today. Decided to listen to Shug read through the first 3 chapters of Genesis over the next few weeks, about 10 verses at a time. When she came to a word she didn't know this morning, I wrote that word on a plain white index card. After the lesson, we put the index cards into a letter envelope on which I wrote "Kindergarten Sight Words". She ate it up :) Her sight words today, from Genesis 1:1-9, were "void" and "expanse". I noted that she could not sound out "void". Tomorrow, we'll be doing the Phonics Pathways lesson that covers "oi" words and words with the same sound. We'll go back to Genesis on Friday. We'll see how this works. She loves the idea.

George Washington - D'Aulaire, 3 pgs.* Getting exciting - French forts in the Ohio wilderness!

The Secret Garden - Chapt. 21*

Lapharp* Most of our time was spent tuning the things! They aren't perfect, but at least the songs are recognizable now. We'll get to a song or two later in the week. Each of the older girls played random little tunes for a bit while I laid Punkin down for nap.

Handicrafts - Nope, guess we'll start next week. We'll be sewing :)

3 more books to Punkin*



Thursday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - This is getting embarrassing. Good for my pride, I guess ;)

Bible* read from Vos story Bible

20 minutes of chores after breakfast* did about an hour of housework upstairs w/ the children

Copywork (from Phonics Pathways)* Shug copied "moist" (5x) and "point" (1x), SweetP copied her phonics word list again

Spanish/ASL* reviewed colors and numbers, began shapes - circulo, rectangulo, diamante, and triangulo

Cursive w/ SweetP* on dry erase board, writing our last name

Little House in the Big Woods at lunchtime* moved to evening while Sam does "A Laconic Answer"

A Child's Garden of Verses before nap* with all 3 girls

Thursday (P.M.):

Reading with Shug* did page 172 in PP, "oi" words

George Washington - D'Aulaire, 3 pgs.*

Paddle to the Sea, 2 pgs.* we did one page, that's what AO recommends. The three pages I did last week were enough to get the story sufficiently underway. Today, with three narrations and some mapwork, one page was enough. We have a large laminated map of the U.S. on a bulletin board and we are following Paddle along with blue pushpins :)

Brushwork - ditched it for a nap for Mama and some after nap time outside

A Laconic Answer - w/ Sam*

3 more books for Punkin*



Friday (A.M.):

I still want to try to start lessons by 8:00am! - I'm going to quit writing this ;]

Bible* Psalm 150

20 minutes of chores after breakfast*

Dictation, SweetP only (then, cat, cap, rock, kiss, kill, sock - starting easy), Shug copied "point" 4x

Spanish/ASL

Math* adding 3 sets to make 5 or 6. Wrote and discussed "plus" sign. I placed 3 sets of frog counters on the floor and SweetP wrote the math sentence on a dry erase board. For example, "3 + 2 + 1 is 6". She did three sentences that way. Showed how the order of the sets does not change the total number, "2 + 1 + 3" is also 6. Then, I wrote a math sentence or two and SweetP placed the sets of frogs out.

Drill & Dance - no dice today. Mama's working on a headache. I'm glad we finished what we did.

Milne at lunchtime - no Milne, but we read Oxcart Man and Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

The Little Red Hen at lunchtime*

Friday (P.M.):

Reading with Shug* she read Gen 1:9-19, stumbled a bit on "seasons". We talked about words where "s" is pronounced like "z". Wrote these words on dry erase board for her to read. Added "seasons" to her sight word envelope.

Geography (continents mapwork)* SweetP took off on this while the 2 other girls napped and I fed Little Dude his peas. We have a blackline dry erase map of the world. I gave her the words "Africa", "Indian Ocean", and "Atlantic Ocean" so she could copy them onto their proper places on the map in dry erase marker. Baby was still chowing away, so SweetP kept asking me how to spell different continents. By the time I finished feeding Dude his babyfood, SweetP had labelled, Africa, Antarctica, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Greenland (made sure she knows this isn't a continent), North and South America, and Asia. This sort of thing is right up her alley. She loved it :)

Handicrafts - did brushwork instead

The Secret Garden - Chapt. 22*

3 more books for Punkin*