Name: ICHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-07T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Bourbonnais, IL

Tagged: Ambleside Online, AO

This topic has 16 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 2 months ago by mommyshortlegs.

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September 22, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Heather
Participant
Hi, I am looking into using AO. Until this year it had always intimidated me, but I am figuring out how the schedules work and it doesn’t seem so tough. It might have to do something with the fact that I’ve finally figured out what we need as a family after trying so many different CM and CM dabbling resources for so many years.
My question is for those of you who have used AO. I would have a child in Y2, a child in Y3 and a child in Y7. Besides not keeping everyone together for history (I will still keep them together for Bible, Music, Art, Shakespeare), what are the negatives you have found about AO?
Thank you!
September 22, 2014 at 2:36 pm
MeadowWay
Participant
We used it for our two daughs bout 7 yrs ago, they are 8 yrs apart in age, so we did indeed use two different levels. We stopped after 1 yr. and I am sorry we didnt stop sooner. Its just I ( notice it was I ) wanted to say we gave it a good run . My daugh literally had dark circles under their eyes from the extensive reading list and they felt that is all they did, read, read, read… Going from one book to the next. Never feeling they had time to digest what they read. I also question the book selections. Duplicating what was used in a school 100 yrs ago doesn’t make it better, not to mention many homeschoolers live in different countries, so studying history pertinent to that country’s heritage doesn’t add up. I can’t help but wonder, if CM herself would be using those same books in the now,( certainly in 100 yrs there have been some good living books that are worthy of their print! )not to mention, had she suspected her “curriculum” would have taken off exponentially beyond the walls of her schools. I think the very thing that living ideas can accomplish can be our demise when we allow them to replace our ability to think and decide for the components of our families.
I have incorporated many many CM methods and philosophies over the years , I do not use SCM per se, but I cherish what is here and the work that Sonya Schaefer does because she isn’t so dogmatic that her curr, is the “way” she extends to you some choice selections that align with the methods of CM that are valuable to pursue for the child, and then she gets out of the way. I don’t know SS personally, but I did have the opportunity to peruse her table at the CHAP convention this spring , I asked her a few questions and she said ” you don’t need anything here, just keep on doing what you are” she recognized and respected an individual who had caught onto ” living” and was able to appropriate it for their homeschool journey.
One last comment : would you duplicate a culture or lifestyle that was in the bible to attain a more fitting spiritual understanding of the bible,? Would you read only books of those times in the original languages?
May you be blessed in your journey
Kk
September 22, 2014 at 2:54 pm
Sue
Participant
I know people who have used AO faithfully and love it, and I have also heard it is a very rigorous curriculum. Rigorous is not all bad nor all good, so I am following this thread out of curiousity, especially after reading MeadowWay’s response.
I do have to say that I love perusing the book lists on AO.
September 22, 2014 at 4:02 pm
suzukimom
Participant
We are using AO right now, with modifications to remove some American history and add in Canadian History (being Canadian.)
I have one in Year 4 (with dyslexia), one in Year 3, one in Year 1, and one in Year 0.
The only real Con I find to AO is that right now all my kids are unable to read their books independently, so it is a lot for me. We do use a fair number of audiobooks to compensate. I generally go through a bit of a panic attack as I plan for the next year – and our first month or so is always a bit rocky as we work to find our rhythm.
The site can look overwhelming, and I find that if we get behind schedule I can start to get worried. That said, I find if I treat each AO week as a module and just finish one and start the next, that things work well. So far we have never ended the year more than a week behind my original plans…
Yes, a lot of the books are old (which is nice as many are available free if you have an ereader.) There are some that are NOT old. And most of them have been delightful.
My kids don’t seem to work well together, and when doing ‘family studies’ types of programs like SCM, there was always a problem if one of the kids was sick or uncooperative.
September 22, 2014 at 4:12 pm
missceegee
Participant
I the the ladies of AO have done a fabulous work in sharing about CM, her work, and her curriculum choices. I also think that AO as curriculum written can overly burdensome for many, if not most, people. There’s simply so much there! If you are a person who is confident in picking and choosing what works best for your family, then AO is a fabulous resource. If you are a “must check all the boxes and read every book” person, I’m afraid you will eventually burn out. Also, many of the AO selections are free online due to age which is a benefit, but there may be a newer book that would work as well or better. There’s more I can add, but I’m out of time right now.
September 22, 2014 at 5:54 pm
Bookworm
Participant
Love AO through year 6. Only downside IMO is separating out kids. Hated some of the choices in years 7 and up. Just hated them. There are better books. That’s where we ditched.
September 22, 2014 at 6:15 pm
suzukimom
Participant
I admit that I’ve only really examined AO up to year 6… not sure what we will do at that point….
September 22, 2014 at 7:23 pm
ServingwithJoy
Participant
I also felt that there were newer books that did a better job of igniting a love for reading in my younger children, but now that my oldest two are moving into jr high and high school level work, I am using the AO book list to round out our hand made curriculum. I would encourage anyone to learn the methods and put together their own plan whenever possible. Believe me, if have tried every curriculum package out there, and I have ended up tweaking and adjusting until it was un-recognizable! In the end, you are going to be the best judge of the books that appeal to your children and the pace you want to set for education in your home. We choose our foundation books and then I draw from the suggestions on SCM, AO, Veritas Press, Winter Promise, etc. to fill in the reading. We are also using some of the videos on http://www.kahnacademy.com. It works really well! If AO does appeal to you, just remember that it’s ok to adjust it to fit your family! At least with their program you won’t be spending thousands of dollars so you don’t need to feel guilty if you make changes!
September 22, 2014 at 9:44 pm
Janell
Participant
We have always struggled with the slow pace of some of the literature selections. (Who wants to spread Kidnapped out for 12 weeks….I read that suspenseful adventure in one night!) I love AO because it taught me the framework that I use today with my children. We pick a book from each category to read from daily: Bible reading plan, a devotional, plus a book for natural history (science or nature), geography, history, poetry, classic literature, and free reading. A lot of our choices are similar to AO, some very different.
September 23, 2014 at 9:12 am
Melanie32
Participant
We are using AO for the first time this year with my 12 year old daughter. We are using year 6 and really enjoying it so far. I have no idea what we’ll think of years 7 and up but Year 6 has been the perfect answer for us this year. I wanted something that wouold challenge my daughter without frustrating her and this has fit the bill.
However, I can’t even begin to imagine how my son would have responded to AO. It would not have been an option with him.
Pros:
Great book choices so far. My daughter’s narrations have improved dramatically.
I’m loving the science selections! It’s so nice to use living science books!
Most of the planning is done for me.
It’s so inexpensive!

Cons:
Many of the books are hard to find a hard copy of so alot of reading takes place on the kindle.
It can be overwhelming at first. I found the best method for me was to jump in and slowly incorporate things as we felt ready.
I don’t think the book selections fit a lot of kids learning styles. They are old and my son would have been really frustrated with only reading old books. He wouldn’t have found many of AO’s book selections to be relevant to his life. AO would have only frustrated him.

We have definitely tweaked AO to fit our needs. We don’t follow all their suggestions. We haven’t begun Plutarch yet and I haven’t decided if we will in the future or not. We follow our own Bible reading plan. We use SCM’s picture portfolios (which I LOVE!) and I prefer to follow Sonya’s advice concerning nature study, composer study, picture study, poetry, hymn study, geography and scripture memory. The methods are so simple and yet so effective. I heard Sonya speak in May and then was able to watch the SCM dvd’s during the summer as well. Her methods for these subjects have enabled our family to finally be consistent in these areas. I am so thankful. 🙂

September 23, 2014 at 10:08 am
Melanie32
Participant
Bookworm-I would love to get a peek into what you use after AO year 6. 🙂
September 23, 2014 at 7:18 pm
jenhorsfall
Participant
AO is a great resource HOWEVER it can be complicated. It does not necessarily move in chronological order in the younger years which was a bit confusing. Also, I feel that unless you are a seasoned CMer, it may be incredibly difficult to know how to put it all together. It does give you a general schedule, but when a person is new to the CM method of educating, AO can be very overwhelming. I suggest that if you use AO, be sure to take time and read through ALL the pages on their website, and especially read through and take notes on Charlotte’s book series. (A good idea to do anyway) I was going to use AO this year, but decided to go back to SCM because Sonja’s books, blog, forum and curriculum have been the most help to me. She has put the CM method together in an easy to implement format and I need that. Her prices are very affordable as well as having good quality classic books she uses. My boys really enjoyed and learned a lot from her curriculum last year. My stress has been cut down to almost nothing now.
September 23, 2014 at 11:57 pm
Betty Dickerson
Participant
I have three kids who are older now, but very close in age. I used AO as a “spine” for alot of subjects and then combined them all (the kids) for most of the subjects. It worked wonderfully!!! I tailored it to us. I did utilize and still do alot of the upper years books and I have loved them. We haven’t done every one of them though. This was before I found out about SCM. 😉 I wonder if back then SCM would have made things easier to teach them all together? I used Truthquest history back then too and that helped. I do think it’s easier to school everyone together utilizing Morning Time and keeping everyone on the same history and science–till highschool at least, though it did require alot of prepwork by me to plan all that out. That’s where SCM might be a better fit. As the kids entered high school it became impractical to try to keep them together and they began to school independently, and use online classes as well as dual enrollment. I still referred to AO for good books on Apologetics and Literature to keep them reading.
There is an 8 yr gap to my next child and she has adhd and dyslexia. I didn’t think AO would work for her and this season of life where I have even less time than ever. We tried to use it twice, once 2 years ago and then now. She is 10yrs old and I decided to try her in Y3 because Y4 is a big jump in what is expected. I spent lots of time on the forums (they have a special needs section in the forum). Many times there are choices of books for each category. These ladies helped me choose the books that would fit my daughter better. Then I decided which books we would not use (for lack of time). The website really is a treasure trove. There is a 36 week chart with each subject listed which is amazing. Then there is a weekly list of readings. I use them to make my own checklist. Yes, I get panicky when we fall behind like last week when we were all sick. But like sukimom said, if you treat each as a unit, it is helpful. Also, utilizing audio options is so helpful so that you can get alot done in the car.
This afternoon, my daughter and I finished our schooling by knitting and listening to Princess and the Goblin from Librivox (Andy deWinter reader is awesome!). This is school??? Both she and I are enjoying our school year!
My daughter had become so hardened to schoolwork. She cared for nothing but playing with Legos. She hated anything studious. This year things are so different. She is delighting in our school time. Her curiousity is being awakened. She is treasuring books. She told me today that she felt really happy–why is that? She made the connection that she is happiest when we have done our schooling and that has been AO.
2 years ago, I would have given you a different testimony when we tried AO with her but I didn’t do it with the right understanding. But now I am so grateful! The forum keeps me so encouraged. You can ask questions and get feedback and join in with people using it. It is really helpful and helps to keep me accountable.
That said, I still use alot of SCM’s resources like Spelling Wisdom, Living Math, Portfolios, etc… and I used to use the CM organizer when I was schooling many. You can’t go wrong either way. This forum is also so wonderful. Sorry this is so lengthy. Each side has their strength and you may find one of them fits you more during different seasons of homeschooling. So, don’t ever rule either out!!
September 24, 2014 at 11:12 am
Heather
Participant
Thank you so much ladies! This has been very helpful! I am going to start AO on Monday. It seems like the cons that were listed aren’t really cons for our family, which was what I was wondering. I need to separated mine. I have an older dd who will be in year7. She already works independently because she learns better that way, but my two younger ones work much at the same level and do well together always, so they will be in year 3. I’ve been able to gather resources so cheaply! I love all of the selections. I am especially excited about the years 7 and up…I think I will be doing Ambleside myself!
Thank you for taking the time to respond!
September 24, 2014 at 2:21 pm
MeadowWay
Participant
Heather
Maybe you can post back here periodically to let people know how it is working or what you have tweaked etc .
K