Little House Learning Co. — Planning

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...

What is Ambleside Online?  From their website, amblesideonline.org "AmblesideOnline is a free homeschool curriculum that uses Charlotte Mason's classically-based principles to prepare children for a life of rich relationships with everything around them: God, humanity, and the natural world." Ambleside Online is essentially a free book list and schedule for each year of formal education, starting at age 6, for history, literature, poetry, geography, and science. They also include information about artist study, composer study, folk songs, and hymn study. You have to pick a separate curriculum for math and foreign language.  The tricky thing about AO is that you...

Here's something you should know about me--I love planning! I also consider homeschooling to be my job of sorts, so I spend a lot of time thinking about, prepping for and planning our homeschool, especially in the summer months when we're off.  Whether you're planning your first year, are already a planner like me or just you wish that you were, here is a step-by-step look at how I plan our homeschool year. Homeschool Planning 1. Decide on a Curriculum: First I assess what grades I'll be teaching and decide on what curriculum we will be using for the year. I call...