Ambleside? Christine and others?

[Joanne]

I'm considering Ambleside. I like it for it's classical-ness and heavy emphasis on art(s). I like that it appears to be cost effective.......but I really like having *books* and not printed pages.

[DogwoodMama]

I love the Ambleside website, and one of these days I'm gonna have a lot of questions for Leslie. ;) :P

I'm going to print out their booklist for young children & use it as a guide as I build our library. :tu

[Leslie]

I'm considering Ambleside. I like it for it's classical-ness and heavy emphasis on art(s). I like that it appears to be cost effective.......but I really like having *books* and not printed pages.



A lot of the books Ambleside uses are classics that are pretty easy to find. And if you go to http://www.amblesideonline.org/BuyBooks.shtml there's a page that shows where to buy some of the books. A company called Yesterday's Classics is starting to publish affordable copies of some of Ambleside's books. You can see a list of what they've already got available on the page I posted.

[phermion]

that's a great link, thanks for sharing! :thumbsup

[rosesnsnails]

How do you use Ambleside online? We read the books, but isn't there more to it than that? I'm just not sure what to do with their list. :shrug

[Leslie]

How do you use Ambleside online? We read the books, but isn't there more to it than that? I'm just not sure what to do with their list. :shrug


I guess the short, simple answer is that you'd also have the kids narrate (to help them assimilate and articulate their reading), do transcription and dictation to learn to write, observe nature, and have cultural exposure to art and music.

Beyond that, it's assumed that people who use it are doing their own research to learn what else goes into a Charlotte Mason education besides just a booklist. It's all about inspiring a love of learning, developing habits that make life and right choices flow more smoothly, and becoming a person with conviction to serve others. The booklist is just one tool.

People who use the booklist are encouraged to also be reading Charlotte Mason's books. They're even being converted to a modern English version to make that easier.

[erinee]

I'm using Ambleside next year along with a few other things. I like the emphasis on really good literature, and we love to be outside so the nature studies are a great fit for us. I'll be using their recommendations for what to study when. I also like that it's cost-effective, and that pretty much everything we need is right there. We'll get as many books as we can at the library, and if we can't find them there, we'll go with printing out what's available online, or we'll buy some of the books that I think will lots and lots of use. We already have a lot of their recommendations, so I think it will work out well for us.

[Mamaka]

What helped me in getting my mind around the ambleside/CM method was looking at the booklists and schedules for each level. I'm a linear thinker that helped me see how they all the books and stories work together and where we would be going over the course of a year. Ambleside also recommends getting math curriculum, foreign language, etc and makes suggestions as to some good ones available.

[Booklover]

I like ti, and always intend to use part of it, but I can't figure out what level to start ds at. We would only use the literature portions anyway because we use SOTW for history.

[Micah]

We are using Ambleside..the group amblesideonline at yahoo is very helpful and they have a nice files section with great resources in it.

In order to use AO properly one MUST understand the CM philosophy otherwise it is 'just' a booklist and your child won't benefit they way intended.
HTH

[Leslie]

In order to use AO properly one MUST understand the CM philosophy otherwise it is 'just' a booklist and your child won't benefit they way intended.


That can't be said often enough. Even Charlotte Mason said it herself, that if she were to create a booklist/curriculum for people to follow, that without understanding everything else that goes with it, it would just be another booklist.

[ChristineG]

:) GREAT responses, so far!! I have a very crabby 16mo, so I can't stay long.

As for books vs. printed pages...I agree completely. When planning for a new AO year, the first thing I do is find the books that are not available online. Sometimes I get these used, sometimes I order them new, if used is not a possibility. Next, I take the list of online books and half-heartedly search a couple of favourite used bookstores locally for them. The ones that I can't find, I format (or use someone else's formatting, if this is already done...each AO year has it's own yahoo list for books that others have formatted.), print, and take them to Staples to have printed. I think you have Staples in the US?! Before I take them to Staples I make up a lovely, colourful first page with pictures and everything, using Print Artist on my computer. When I take them to Staples, I have them bind the books with a clear cover and a nice, plastic-y back and have them use spiral binding, not comb-binding. Spiral is a million times nicer, I have discovered. These 'books' aren't as quite as nice as the real thing, but they are a very good substitute. My 10yodd even brought our copy of An Island Story, the history of Great Britain, on our trip to PEI for pleasure reading!!! It was bound up this way (except that was before I used colour title pages!) and the format didn't deter her from toting it along. Printing off/binding books is quite cost effective and pretty convenient over searching used bookstores with a gaggle of children (as my dh's boss says!). However, I generally find that it still costs about $5-6 per book (Canadian $), so if I can find the book used for this much or less, I am better off to buy it. Anyway, all this to say, don't be put off too much by printing off books from the internet. Once you get the hang of it and learn to tweak them, it is a great way to have access to a whole myraid of great literature for cheap, cheap, cheap. :heart

[ChristineG]

In order to use AO properly one MUST understand the CM philosophy otherwise it is 'just' a booklist and your child won't benefit they way intended.
HTH


I was just at the AO website and came across this page that might be helpful in terms of this discussion. http://www.amblesideonline.org/New.shtml It is a fairly new page on the site dedicated to helping those new to AO figure out how to use it. One of the main sections is called, "Ambleside Online Will Not Give Your Child a CM Education" meaning just what others have already said, that you must understand CM philosophy and put that into action as you hs your children. Simply reading the books will be great, but nowhere near the liberal education that CM promotes. Anyway, this page is helpful for pointing people in the right direction in terms of researching and implementing Charlotte Mason philosophy.

Well, gotta run. As per my lifelong habit, I actually have to lead a portion of our CM support group meeting tomorrow night and I have not prepared, yet! Good thing my section is on "Education is the Science of Relations" and not training in the habit of preparedness or anything!! :O