Oct 11 2008
Ambleside Online – Complete Curriculum – and FREE!
Another curriculum that I considered using is Ambleside Online. It is a free (many of the books are online, and the schedule is free online.This curriculum uses some wonderful classic literature, is not as burdensome as it looks (so I’m told), and has many free resources for you to use (even a free math resource!) However, I don’t use it because, for us, it would have been too difficult to combine with my ages of children (but I’ve heard that others have done it just fine!).
If I were on a tighter budget, and even perhaps if I were just starting out (I have been with My Father’s World for 3 years…so I have 3 year’s worth of their curriculum packages already), then I would definitely have given Ambleside Online a try.
The following review is from The HomeSchool Library website:
Curriculum: Ambleside Online
Type: Complete Curriculum
Educational Philosophy: Literature - Charlotte Mason
Worldview: Protestant
Website: http://www.amblesideonline.org/
From their website:
Quote:
| Ambleside Online is a curriculum guide and booklist designed to follow Charlotte Mason’s method of homeschooling. Each year/grade has a list of books to lay out what resources will need to be collected or purchased, and an optional 36-week schedule to break the resources into smaller increments to help with pacing the books throughout the year. There is no fee to use the curriculum or website. Parents may use as much or as little of the booklists and schedules as they like. Some families follow it exactly as laid out, most tweak it a little here and there to use books they already have, or because they prefer another resource over the one listed. And some use just the Picture Study, Composer Study, and other similar components. |
Strengths: Free, comprehensive list of books and scheduling. If followed as laid out this would provide a good knowledge of literature, nature, and the arts.
Weaknesses: Challenging schedule, looks like it could be overwhelming.
Comments: I haven’t used this curriculum… but the Charlotte Mason approach has always appealed to me. I’m looking forward to comments from users.
Have you used it? Please share your thoughts and comments here.
