Preparing for the Fall

I have spent the past few days getting my schedule ready for next year. Last year we used AmblesideOnline for our core, and we are doing the same this year. We really enjoyed getting into a more Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum, and I feel like this is where we will stay.

To plan our year, I started out by choosing which years we will be using from the AmblesideOnline site. This year my daughter will follow Year 6, and my son will follow Year 4. There are different reasons why we chose not to combine both kids in one year, and I will go into that on another post.

To get everything lined out, I made tables in MS Word with five days across the top, and each subject down the left side of the page. I made separate tables for both children, although some areas are the same for both of them. This way, they will be able to see their weekly chart and tell how much they need to do for the day.

Here is a small shot of what they look like:



AmblesideOnline gives you the suggestion of work that should be completed each week of the program. I spaced things out so that Mondays and Fridays are light days, and Tuesday - Thursday are our heavy days. This will work out best with the schedule of outside activities we are planning. I also added a tweak based on my experiences last year. Instead of 12-week terms as AmblesideOnline suggests, I fit everything into 11-week terms. This gives us a catch-up week if we need it, or a field-trip week.