Why I’ve decided to Use Ambleside Online

Last week I talked a little bit about my love for a Charlotte Mason philosophy of education and how we intend to use her methodology in our home. If you haven’t yet, you should definitely read that post first.

As promised, I’m going to begin sharing a bit at a time about what we’re using in our home. We’re just starting on this journey, but I’ve put a lot of research and thoughtful planning into what we’re doing. This definitely is one of my hobbies and one of the things I enjoy most.

Last spring, after already spending way too much time planning out exactly what I was going to do for school this year, I discovered Ambleside Online. Actually, it’s a place I’d been before and I had always been a bit confused by it. This spring, it all clicked and I began realizing what a beautiful plan it is.

These women have worked incredibly hard to develop a curriculum which pretty closely follows the exact books they used in the Charlotte Mason (PNEU) schools. They’ve contextualized it to America (Charlotte Mason was British) and our modern day a bit (She lived 100 a century ago), but they do use some of those same books. In short, it’s a treasure trove for finding all of the classic books you should read with your children and when you should read them – which is exactly what I was looking for. They only choose books which achieve an incredibly high standard of literary quality. And they provide all of this information free of charge. It’s amazing.

Anyways, as I was saying I’d already developed my plans for school before discovering Ambleside Online. Initially, I just used it as a resource and incorporated a couple of their Year 1 books into my plans (not a recommended way to do things obviously – but I already had made my plans). As I learned more about Charlotte Mason and Classical Education, I understood more and more why they use the specific books they do in their Year 1 curriculum, and I - one at a time - incorporated pretty much all of them.

Visit here to see the books we’re using in our homeschool this year. Keep in mind as you’re browsing that we also add music, art, memory work, math, copywork, foreign language, and nature study to what you see here. And we’re done by lunchtime every day! How is this possible, you ask? Watch for my future posts.

Seriously, the number one reason we're using this curriculum is because these books are just. so. good. I'd encourage you to check some out at the library to see what I'm talking about.

Note: Because my daughter is an avid reader, I've been able to add some more American History biographies. We've also made use of 2 old fairy tale books I already had on my bookshelf from my great grandparents rather than buying new ones. I'll go into detail about all of that soon. Stay tuned for my thoughts on history and science as well.

Also, if you're wondering how to make use of that book list, there's a 36-week schedule available here.