Y1: 2024-2025

This is my daughter E’s first year of formal lessons!

Up till now, she has been learning how to read using Logic of English’s Foundations curriculum and beginning the study of mathematics using RightStart Mathematics. We loosely followed AmblesideOnline’s Year Zero read-aloud suggestions and she has spent a full six years of “quiet growing time”.

This year we are again adapting AmblesideOnline (AO) to our family. Year One is very gentle, and gives children the opportunity to practice the habit of attention and the art of narration. Below, I share our family’s plans for each subject area and you can find the entirety of Year One’s book list at the AO website for your own reference and use.

[T]he people themselves begin to understand and to clamour for an education which shall qualify their children for life rather than for earning a living. As a matter of fact, it is the [person] who has read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary training, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing plans, or keeping books. The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will [she] both fulfill [her] own life and serve society.

—Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education, p. 3 (emphasis in original)

Philosophy

• Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury—This is a beautiful journey into Zen Buddhism. We will read two-to-four pages once or twice per week.
• The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett—I plan on reading from the various sections every two or three weeks.
• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy—We will use this after Big Panda.

History

AO Year One History Books

• E will be learning about Prehistory up to the Norman Conquest of 1066 CE.
  • A Child’s History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer—We will be reading select chapters from the beginning, which are not covered under AO’s schedule.
  • History Free Reads will include The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, Amazing Evolution, When the Whales Walked, and When We Became Humans, among others.

Geography

AO Year One Geography Books

• E followed along with us for Paddle-to-the-Sea, so we will use Tree in the Trail spread over the year.
• Draw the USA by Kristin J. Draeger—The map work with Tree is light and focuses on the American Southwest, so we will add this book to round-out the geography of the USA. She will complete a few pages every week.

Biography

AO Year One Biography Books

• We will aim to complete each scheduled book in six-to-seven weeks, allowing us to add books that are a compliment to those selected by AO.
  • Term One: Dear Benjamin Banneker by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Term Two: Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons by Gwendolyn Hooks
  • Term Three: Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story by S. D. Nelson

Literature & Tales

AO Year One Literature & Tales Books

• We will be using the secular Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson.
• I am looking forward to reading the fairy tales, many of which I only know the disneyfied version.

Poetry

AO Year One Poets

• We will be following the selected poets and schedule.

Language Arts

Language arts scope and sequence for Form I

Copywork & Spelling

• E will continue to practice manuscript.
• We will continue to utilize LOE’s method of Spelling Analysis daily.

Phonics

• Having completed LOE Foundations, E will continue to read for fluency practice from the recommended Free Reads and other books and review phonograms. We may cover more advanced phonograms in the later terms.

Narration

• This is the first year E will be required to provide a narration for every lesson. She will have the option of retelling orally, through acting, or via drawings (among other ways!).

Recitation

AO Year One Recitation suggestions

• I have not yet committed to recitation. We may use Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

Foreign Language

AO Year One Foreign Language suggestions

• E is interested in American Sign Language and we may explore it as an option.

Nature Study & Science

AO Year One Nature Study Books

• We are using the Burgess Animal Book this year, together with the Peterson Field Guide Coloring Book of Mammals.
• During morning time we will be working through the following books:
  • The Spring of the Year / Summer / Winter / The Fall of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp
  • My Year by Roald Dahl
  • Eyes and No Eyes by Arabella Buckley

Mathematics

RightStart Mathematics

• E completed Level A in May, so we will be continuing Level B this year.

Art

Artist / Picture Study

AO Artist Rotation

• For Term One, we will have Georges Seurat as our focus artist. In Terms Two and Three we will follow the 2024-2025 artists. I am really looking forward to Albrecht Dürer!

Drawing

Drawing Textbook by Bruce McIntyre

• This is a simple little book with pictures for you to draw and expand. It focuses on different drawing techniques, such as foreshortening and shading, and you apply them to your (simple) drawing.
• We also have What to Draw and How to Draw It by E. G. Lutz.

Brush Drawing

Brushwork: Elementary Brush Forms by Marion Hudson

• We will use this together with H as a foundation for learning brush strokes.

Music

Composer Study

AO Composer Rotation

• We will follow the schedule after we complete 2023-2024’s Term Three opera studies.

Folksong Study

AO Folksong Rotation

• We will follow the AO schedule and listen to several different recordings of each folksong.

Instrument Study

• We will not be doing any formal lessons of an instrument for the first term, unless E requests it.

Health & Physical Education

AO Physical Education Suggestions

• We will continue our daily family walks with visits to the neighborhood playgrounds throughout the week.
• We have many body encyclopedias that are always available whenever a question comes up regarding bodily functions or structure. Using a reference book or picture makes conversations easy.

Handicrafts

Origami for Beginners: The Creative World of Paperfolding by Florence Temko

Picture It in Cross Stitch Today by Jo Verso

• Last year we bought a couple felt animal “sewing” kits and E liked the easy seam sewing. We will step it up this year with cross stitch, though felt and needle are always available.
• The origami book is very easy to follow and may be something E can complete on her own once she learns the basic folds.

Free Reading

AO Year One Free Reading Books

• I will select some books off this list for our family bedtime read-alouds. The majority of the easier books E has already read, so I will have to look for additional books.

What are your plans for this year?