Book Selection for AO 6

Ta da!!

Doesn't it look lovely?

This is our AO 6 Book Box that I went and put all of their initial books into, to get us started with AO for Phebe and Hannah.  I've also got some other little goodies in there as well.....  as backups, as next in line, as substitutes.

Phebe is 11 and Hannah is 9.

This is how I scheduled all the books and what nots:

The AO Box doesn't keep the Bible, Maths, or LA.  They'll be separate, but they are in the daily program as you can see above.  We're keeping their current Bible and LA because they like them, they're half way through the yearly course, and because we can - it's easier this way.  Next year, there will be a bit of a jump to a formal grammar though.  I can see it on the shelf from where I'm sitting, but I'm keeping it a secret until next year.   For Math, both girls are in Saxon 7/6.

But, what IS in the AO Box??

So happy you asked!

{ On a Monday...... }

We shall be spending some time with Guerber's Greeks.  To Greek ourselves, or not to Greek ourselves?  That is the question.  We'll start with it, and see how it goes.

And a character forming book called, Dear Princess.  The chapters are reasonable, not short, but not long either.  I like that they address behaviours required to become a princess.

For literature, we have Rob Roy.  There's no rush, so I envision this book taking the remainder of the year to finish.  That's my goal with this one - to start and finish it.

{ On a Tuesday...... }

Each week they'll read a whole Magic School Bus chapter book.  There are various titles in the set that we have, but it should be enough to keep them busy to the end of the year.

We also have the The Shy Platypus.  I have a few titles in this series, so we'll be able to move into those and other 'Australiana' as the year goes as well.

And of course, a good staple to any homeschooling shelves:  Augustus Caesar's World.  Both girls have already made a good start to this book, so now we shall just continue.

{ On a Wednesday...... }

A couple of chapters from a Synge book.  They've already started on these too, so now we'll just continue.  I love Synge.  Beautiful and easy to read History chapters.  There are 5 books in this series and I highly recommend them for all your littles.

Watership Down makes the list early.  Chloe finished it recently, and loved it.  So it is with the utmost of confidence I schedule it in for the other two girls.

And for architecture I've decided to let the girls have Building.  I can't wait to see how their notebooking goes with it.

Shakespeare and Plutarch..... they'll be in hot pursuit following Chloe with the books that she's using.

I've actually put finding a good set of Plutarch books on my wish list because at some point in time we are going to need to jump a little higher than this, but in the meanwhile this is the perfect starter.

Shakespeare is one of those iffy type of subjects, isn't it?  Not particularly useful to us Christians.  At the moment I have Milton lined up with Paradise Lost directly following this children's version of Shakespeare.

{ On a Thursday...... }

Science has always been an enemy.  At the end of the day I decided these old and obsolete school texts would lend themselves more akin to how I'd like to see Science handled.  We're going to start with Life Processes.

Each chapter is set out in a similar fashion:  Information, illustrations, a summary, and most importantly, not too many questions.

And because of how it's designed it's super easy to use for copywork,  or outlining, or doing notebooking pages on each topic.  

I also scheduled a lovely old collectable - Wild Life in Australia.  It has a lot of photos in the book, even if they are in black and white.

This book will easily carry us through a couple of years.

I LOVE double columns in books.

And A Child's Garden of Verses.  Who can go wrong with that?  Perfect for copywork as well.

{ On a Friday...... }

I would be entirely remiss if I didn't include a good English History.  I did have to toss and turn a little, as Britain and Her Neighbours were predominantly at the top of my list, but I decided to use what we're currently using with Chloe on a Friday.  We can always change it over at a later date, if we so desire.  That's why I've kept The History of England, by Arnold Forster.

I love how the author wrote his book this book.  Before each chapter he gives a timeline of people and events, and there are tons of illustrations and maps throughout.  Highly recommended, it's free online, you know.

For Geography - it appears that AO6 includes walk abouts with Livingstone.  It was providentially fortunate that he was just sitting on my shelf.  So, we may as well.

And what would the week be without Bacon?  Yep, so I decided to have him along for the ride also.

AND..... finally, the notebooks.  They'll also use lined exercise books for their copywork and written compositions, but on the days they read and journal they have their notebooks.

Looks ambitious, doesn't it?  All of AO is entirely ambitious if you ask me.  It's the Robinson Curriculum on very strong steroids.

And..... I haven't forgotten about life skills, hand crafts, sport, and out of doors.  They'll happen naturally, of course.

End of May Update on Charlotte { 6y 9m }

Here's where Charlotte was roughly by the end of May.  She's currently in Grade 1 according to the public schedule, but as you'll see, homeschooling has allowed a little more wiggle room to accommodate her more appropriately.

{ Bible: }

Charlotte has continued with her character copywork and is now at the end of Creativity.

Don't forget that you can pick up this workbook for FREE on the blog here.

{ Math }

In the maths department Charlotte is making exceptional gains.

As of posting this particular photo, Charlotte is actually past the 40th lesson and has started official multiplication in all earnest.

{ Reading } 

She is thoroughly enjoying reading her Rod and Staff Nurture reader.  There has been a hidden blessing in not doing too much in the way of Bible Stories with her previously to this.  As she reads each story for herself.... she is scandalised, captivated, entirely intrigued by the content of each story as she goes on through.  Not having those basic Bible story backgrounds already - it has shocked her at some of the content, and thus kept her completely interested in reading.

Here's a recent story that she's read.  Yep, this is considered Grade 1.  The story actually goes over to the next page.  She reads these out loud to me so that if there is any need for help or correction I am right there to address any problem immediately.

{ Science } 

We're having some down time with Science and keeping it light with a little detour on the Water Cycle.  I'll be looking to start a new topic soon though.

{ Penmanship }

Another thing that Charlotte has been regularly attending to this month was cursive handwriting.

{ History } 

We also continue with SOTW II.  I've moved it to Fridays so that we can be free to spend that read aloud time on Mondays and Wednesdays on another History book.

That other book or read aloud time is for this:

We're nearly finished......

And of course she is still working largely from Rod and Staffs Phonics and Reading workbooks.

{ Art }

To see Charlotte's Art, you'll have to pull up all the Art Monday posts.  I generally keep all the Art together.

* * * * * * *

Yes, so I just wanted to do a quick little update on where Charlotte was at this point in time.

Thanks for visiting.

Australian Insects

Ever since we started getting into Nature Study I have found that it has been slowly and a most steady winding road to new delightful discoveries.

When we took up AO for Chloe it suddenly went into massive overdrive, and has been producing an entire whole new world to us.

This week while out in the wild I found this particular little gem.  A general flick through the pages revealed a hidden nugget of wealth.

I've been living in Australia my whole life, and all this time I had no idea to the extent of our native insects, let a lone any other animal species.

It's like I was robbed for nearly 50 years and all of a sudden my inheritance is being sent back home.

How did I ever get through life without doing Nature Study??

I have so much to catch up on.

Anyway, back to the book:  it does have some colour plates, but it was the copious amounts of detailed lined drawings that really caught my eye. 

 Can't wait to include it in our schooling along the way.