It's spring, and for me that means planning for a new school year!
This coming school year, 2025-2026, I will have a 5th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader, so I wanted to detail how I plan a homeschool year with Ambleside Online. (And let me forewarn you that this is going to be a very detailed post!)
We have used AO now for 5 years and every year I use it, it gets easier to plan. I feel sad at times that the disorganization of their website and the poor SEO of their forum discourage people from using the curriculum, because the curriculum itself is truly wonderful. But it is a free curriculum, so we personally will keep using it!
If you are brand new to Ambleside Online, check out my getting started with Ambleside Online blog post.
First Steps to Planning an AO Year
The first thing I do is print out the schedules from the Ambleside Online website for the years I will be teaching (Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5) and read through all of the footnotes.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is to read the footnotes on the website! This process helps me familiarize myself with what Ambleside has scheduled for each subject, for each year.
Creating a Curriculum Overview
Next, I open up a blank excel document and start to make a curriculum overview. I list out every subject in the farthest left hand column and every student year across the top. Then I fill in and list out the books that are scheduled for each subject by student.
This helps me visually see which subjects we will teach as a family, like folk songs, nature study, hymn study, and composer study and helps me see which subjects I may want to combine (if any) between 2 of my students.
My family usually combines some free reads, Shakespeare and Bible, even though Ambleside lists these separately by year. It is so helpful to see it all at a glance!
Gathering Ambleside Online Books
I then go through my bookshelves and make a list of the books I will need to purchase.
This is when I start to see any tweaks I want to make or books not on the AO list that I want to use. I like to pick up books and curriculum at used book sales or when I am out thrifting so sometimes I will make a swap for a similar book we have on our shelf.
For example, in 2025-2026, I won't be using the artist they have scheduled since I found some artist picture study portfolios from Simply Charlotte Mason when I was thrifting. We will use three that I have rather than purchasing new artist prints that coordinate with the AO artists assigned for the year.
I use this time to make a list on the right side of my curriculum overview excel of what books or curriculum I need to purchase. I look up their prices online to see what I can expect to spend for the year.
Going Through AO Files
With the curriculum overview I'm also able to see what tasks to be done before the year starts. This usually includes printing off copywork and recitations from the Ambleside Online Facebook group files and printing the folk songs and hymns for the year from the AO facebook group files as well.
There are other moms who put together some beautiful, free resources in that group. I usually spend a few hours (when watching a show or something) searching the files for relevant searches such as "Year 5" "Y5" "2025-2026" searches and saving everything that comes up into a file on my computer. Then I can reference these as I get deeper into planning. I usually reference my old folders as I plan a year for a second (or third) time when my younger kids go through it.
Curriculum Research & Purchasing Books
I try and wait until the spring to buy my books because there are a few really excellent curriculum book sales in my area but I also like to check the Ambleside Online Buy/Sell Used Book Sale Facebook groups like this one or this one.
I usually need to research resources for some of the subjects Ambleside leaves open ended like foreign language, Latin, nature study, and map drills. This I highlight in yellow on my curriculum overview so I can more easily see what needs to be done.
My favorite way to research resources is by searching in the AO Facebook group and watching YouTube reviews/unboxing videos. Then I can get a really nice sense for a resource before I purchase it.
Lastly, I will buy any remaining books I have left or see what I can check out from my public library, local homeschool libary or church library. (Yes, my church has a library, and yes it is awesome! We find many picture books, missionary biographies and more there!) There are many Ambleside Online books that are found in the public domain and free in various places online as well.
Creating a Homeschool Schedule
Once I've gathered most, if not all, of my books for the upcoming year I sit down and make my excel planner. It essence, I am taking all of the schedules from the three AO years I am teaching and putting them into one place.
On the left hand side I put all of our book titles or subjects. For the most part, if the subject does not have a specific page or reading, like math or copywork, I just put the name of the subject in the left hand collum. If it has a specific assignment then I will write the title of the book.
Across the top I write all of the weeks for the term (Term 1= Weeks 1-12, Term 2 = Weeks 13-24 and Term 3 = Weeks 25-36). Then I cross reference my Ambleside schedule and plug in what is scheduled for that week.
For example, in Year 1 in Week 1 my student will read Chapter 1 of Paddle to the Sea. So I find the book title and plug in the assigned reading. 
For any of the daily work I put 5 bubbles to cross out each day (for us this is Math, Copywork, Reading/Phonics, Bible and Poetry/Recitation).
It looks very fancy when I'm done because I color code it but it's really quite simple. Most of the titles are abbreviated so they can all fit onto one page in the excel.
When I go to teach a week, I usually count all of the readings we need to do in a week (because with Ambleside Online you're not reading every book, every single week) and divide by 5 days and see how many subjects we need to accomplish each day in addition to our daily work.
Creating a DIY Homeschool Planner
Because I'm extra, last year I took this excel document and made my own planner. I included all three term schedules, the curriculum overview document I made and many of the other helpful documents I printed off from the Ambleside Online files. 
This included free read check lists (so I can keep track of which books each of my students has read), some cheat sheet notes from the Ambleside Cheat Sheet Creation group (for any books my children are reading independently), and many other pages I made in Canva, like student goals planning pages, meal planning pages, habit trackers, and places for my commonplace notes. 
I printed most of these documents out on cardstock to make the planner thicker and bound it using this binding machine. I love having everything together in one place! You could make your own with something as simple as a three ring binder!
If you're a visual person, check out my Instagram highlight on making my own DIY planner.
Final Homeschool Planning Steps
This may be self explainatory, but the last things I do when planning an Ambleside Online school year as pull out all the books we're using for the first term and arrange them on an easily-accessible shelf.
I gather fresh notebooks and supplies (the best feeling!), bind the copywork, recitations, folk songs and/or hymns that I printed off from the Facebook group and download any AO book titles for our Yoto players.
Many AO books are in the public domain so have audio recording easily accessible. We find a lot of the playlists already made for Yoto cards from yoto.space on the public domain tab.
Planning with Ambleside Online
Now, please hear me and know that you don't have to do any of this if you don't want to. You could print off the AO schedules and get your books and practically start the next day.
I nerd out about homeschool planning, so this works for me, but I know that this style isn't everyone's cup of tea. I do get asked a lot about my planner and how I make it so wanted to give you an inside look. If I missed anything or you have questions, be sure to leave a comment! Thanks for reading!
