Notebooking AO8 This Week

Chloe gave me these note booking pages.

Did you know that if you go looking for a Blue Wren in a field guide you won't find it?  Yep, that was us this morning.  In the end we discovered that they are called:  'Fairy Wrens'.

Here is our first official Australian Bird field guide.  I've been homeschooling for over 20 years and I'm only just getting to purchase a field guide now.  Ridiculous Johnny come late......, but better than never, I suppose.  We haven't had it long - nearly a week.  I will also be on the hunt for more field guides now.  

There are sooooo many illustrations.

And for the longest time - I have had a book called the  'Atlas of Australian Birds' sitting on my shelves, but that's just it, it's just been sitting on the shelves doing absolutely nothing for like, forever.  I had picked it up at a second hand thingy for a bargain price yonks ago thinking that it "might" come handy one day.  However, now that we are getting deeper into Nature Study and Ambleside - I'm super glad I kept it now, it almost ended chopped up for it's pictures and thrown out because of its size.  It's amazing how a book we don't think much about can suddenly turn around and be an absolute gem!

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This week I had her do her Geography on a map of old England - so that when she reads History of England she'd know exactly what and where the places they were talking about were.  

This morning she was reading about Olaf - and he ruled Mercia.  So by having this map available, it helped her to know where abouts in England that he ruled.  Makes it easier and more enjoyable with connections like that.

Nature Study AO8

Here are two of the nature study notebooking pages that Chloe gave me this week:

Basically she's reading a chapter from a book and then doing a notebooking page for them.

This particular one came from 'First Studies in Plant Life'.

This one came from 'Nature Studies in Australia'.

Both books are proving to be awesome books.

Today I have a little treat for you.....

found on Youtube.....

Enjoy!

The Molecular Shape of You

(Ed Sheeran Parody) | A Capella Science

AO8 Week 4 Update

Yes, so how's this AO thing working out?

I think it's working out pretty good at this point.  We still need to work on those oral narrations though, but like all things, one thing at a time.



I still haven't jumped her to a book for Geography though, hence the map work in her notebook.

Architecture...

 Plant Life....

Bird Life in Australia....

So yes, the notebooking is going pretty good so far.  

We completed a Geometry topic, and added some foldables like this:

I actually picked it up from a Geometry Bundle on TpT     HERE.....

I'm thinking of picking up some of the other bundles as well.

Her compositions and narrations need a little help, but so long as I keep asking her to give me information on what she's read, she should improve.

I am also finding that she is able to complete the work in a more reasonable time, so that is a plus.  

She's still really enjoying the French and has several lessons down on Mango { we have a subscription } as well as her french workbook.

We shall add Plutarch to our list next week on a Wednesday.

Her FAVOURITE current book to read is Watership Down....

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Here is our current tick list where everything is set out for the week:

AO8 Week 1 Wrap Up

Yes, so how did our FIRST AO week go?

There were so many first chapters this week, but I feel that it went pretty good for the most part.  In many ways it reminded me fondly of RC, but with a little broader application.

A hymn for copywork:

Additionally, I'm still tweaking some of the book order.  I think that next week will be better as I've tried to separate the History reads from the Science reads on alternating days.

This is her notebook page for First Studies in Plant Life.

We started Churchill and Arnold-Forster.  Both of them seem excellent resources.  I read the first chapter of Churchill to Chloe as a read aloud.  Then she read Arnold-Forster to herself, and I also went and read it myself too.  I learnt some things right there in the very first chapter.  I also loved the illustrations and the fact that the chapter opened with a key events and people listing.

Chloe's Architecture introduction notebook page:

Overall I feel this is much better for her than some of the other resources that we've been using previously.  Notably absent are the vocabulary, random worksheets, and the Greek.  Yes, the Greek went as I suspected it would.  She decided to do the French since it has to be scheduled for a few days a week.

When you ask for a map of Australia and it comes back with main roads on it......  She free styled her map of Australia too.

On the left we have one of her essay narrations from this week and on the right hand side she was doing some poetry copywork, The Man from Snowy River'.  She'll work on that poem for a few weeks as we also want to use it for recitation.  Francis Bacon is under the scissors.

Another thing that I also liked about the week was how we organised it in the box.  A lot of our books are pdf print outs.  They fitted in super nice in the box, almost like a filing system.  So it was easy to look through and pull out the required texts for each day.

My next task is to acquire some more AO books - in particular I am about to start sourcing more of AO7 so that I can transition Phebe and Hannah over the next year at some point.  And of course, I will also need to start collecting books for AO9 for Chloe next year.  So many books.  A lot of work, but what is work when it is fun?

Thanks so much for visiting.

Collecting Books for AO 8

I believe that I might now have THE most serious mind that I have ever had concerning AO... { Ambleside Online }

I've visited their website for YEARS picking up booklists and perusing their schedules... but when it came to actually committing to doing the curriculum I would chicken out every single time.  When you schedule over 25 items/books to rotate through each week one becomes altogether overwhelmed and entirely intimidated by it all.  Then, you also need to be able to source all the resources and books, yes, so there's that.  My third objection had been that I was fully addicted to my little worksheets - I feel I can mostly dispense with those for high school though, I hope.  So, as it were, I have never actually put my hand to attempting the curriculum as laid out per se, until now......  ha ha, I'm always the Johnny Come Late.....  

I've visited a few AO blogs very regularly over those years as well, even though we didn't use it.  Books are a high attraction.  In fact, you will still find after all these years links to Oh Peaceful Day and Journey and Destination from my blog here to there.  So if AO interests you, they are my first two go to's; they are also Australian.  These two ladies in particular have been huge encouragements over the years.  I also sought out some of their recommended books to put on the shelves. Naturally, they were the first two blogs I turned to when I wanted to get serious about implementing AO these last couple of weeks.  And of course, the main website and forums too.

Now that we are putting our hands to high school.... I am finding current school texts altogether repulsive.  No real purpose except busy work and wasted time with a mediocre and general education at best.  I am innately abhorring them, well, except the Math surprisingly.  This might be the very year for that remedy.  Thus it brings me to face AO once again...  

{ To Churchill or Arnold-Forster }

Before I continue, I must tell you that we Robinson pretty regularly.  We also have some classical education background as well.  I am hoping that by having those types of things in the backpack that the transition will be easier than had we not had them.  So I don't think we'll drown.  We might splash and thrash a little, but we won't drown.

At any rate, I am sure that you are at least curious as to know how much of AO we'll have to start with, whether its full or lite, which books we will use, and what will it look like in practice? 

I am hoping to toggle between lite and full until we get our feet solid. 

{ Bible }

Let's move from a workbook to just reading the scriptures all by themselves.  Yep.  Pretty novel.  

OT: 1 Samuel

NT: Matthew
Psalms

I haven't added a devotional to begin - if all goes well I will slowly and incrementally add more books as we go along.  Also wondering if you want to know chapters etc... as well?

{ Math }

This will remain the same since it's working.  Chloe is currently working from Maths Quest 8, Maths Online, and we'll be adding in some Foldables because she's just started a unit on Geometry and I think having some interactive notebooking will be fun and useful for those formulas.

{ History }

Churchill

History of England

Makers of History: Elizabeth

Now, I don't know which history would be better for us, so I put both of them in and we'll try it out for a few weeks to see which one trumps.  Also, because we haven't done Churchill yet, at all, I am thinking perhaps we should just start at Volume One, instead of Two as per AO 8.  See, keeping it lite.....  :)

{ Literature }

Marshall's English Literature

Watership Down

Westward Ho!

Now, I do own a bound hard copy of Utopia, but I don't know.... I've read some of it but I'm not entirely sold on Chloe being ready for it just yet.  She could be, and I may add it in when I do the next portion of the schedule.  I'll think about it.

{ Geography }

I haven't been sold to AO long enough just yet, so she'll still be stuck with a textbook until I can settle on what we shall do.  I imagine it won't take long to remedy as I am going to pull down Lay of the Land today and check it out.  :)  Another thought I had was a country jump through - Using Geography of the World and doing a notebook page and drawing.

{ Science }

Great Astronomers

The Wonder Book of Chemistry

First Studies in Plant Life

We'll actually pick up the Wonder Book of Chemistry after I flesh out a couple of Science Foldables and what nots that I need to dispense with first.  And guess what?  I just found The Various Forces of Nature by Michael Faraday ON my shelves.  Wondering where he might fit in?  

{ Nature Studies }

Nature Studies in Australia

The Handbook of Nature Study

{ Citizenship }

Ourselves

Francis Bacon

Oh! What a happy find Ourselves is.  I've had Charlotte Mason for donkey yonks, but just having the books doesn't mean that you read everything in them.  ha ha, so yes, I envision that I will be reading right alongside of Chloe, especially for this one.  I have seen Francis Bacon before but now we shall be serious with him.

{ Hymn }

Yes, we'll be picking up a new little Hymn each week.  I sort of thought this would work super well as one of her copywork portions too.

{ Grammar }

There is a very good reason that I keep those CLE workbooks and the grammar is one of them.  So they will stay at present.  I suppose I could add Grammar Land for pure fun.  That is on the shelves.  :)

{ Poetry }

Classic Australian Verse

{ Art }

Drawing

Picture Study

Handcrafts

We shall just continue with our group Art as we do each Art Monday, but at some point we will also start including the picture study.

{ LOTE }

Elementary Greek 1

First French 1

They schedule these in for several days, if not all five days of the week.  Not sure how this one will go....  we might end up doing French as the predominant subject and she might even let me put Latin on the table in place of the Greek.  ha ha ha, this could get interesting.

{ Shakespeare }

While he's only a weekly, and we've actually visited with him in the past, I'm just going to put Lambs Shakespeare on the table as it will be an easy transition while we get the rest of the round robin going.

{ Plutarch }

Another weekly.  We've also visited with a couple of lives previously over the years, but I want to pretend we have a clean slate with him.  So I pulled down my Penguin Classic to use this time.  I can still go and use Anne's notes as well. 

{ Music }

Great Men of Music

I think we need to find the cord to the keyboard and get that back up and running as well.

* * * * *

Somewhere along the line we will also need to add things like:

Mapwork / drills

Book of Centuries

which shouldn't be too hard since the Arnold History book has dates and key events.

Some free reads too

* * * * *

If you are feeling a little faint, I want you to know that I am too, and possibly a little nauseated as well.

I am doing this against my naturally compliant personality towards governing bodies that want me to do things not really worthy of our time.  I don't like to step out of my comfort zone, but I feel lead to do so at present.  Good-bye secular public school, I am going to do my best to keep Chloe away from your clutches, for as long as I can.