If you’re visual, like me, you might look at AO’s robust weekly lists (or really, any CM-inspired program) and begin to panic. Everything is so rich and beautiful, but how does it all fit together? How can you organize it in such a way that your child (and you) can keep track of what you’ve done and what comes next?
Below is an example of how I have organized our own AmblesideOnline weeks since 2012 (I’ll show you the chart first and then offer an explanation beneath it). It’s worked so well for me that I’ve rarely needed to change it! I am indebted to members of the AO forum and countless other homeschool teachers who shared visuals of their own schedules/charts over the years, and as a result of seeing so many in my early homeschooling career, I imagine that this chart is probably a conglomeration of many other women’s ideas. I’m grateful for the generosity of so many who put ideas out on the internet, knowing they will be taken, tweaked, expanded, and lost to the original author. So here’s a gift back to you.
How I visually schedule a week of AmblesideOnline:
Click here for a larger, clearer view:
Download Here:
Year One Schedule Template | Word Document
A Bit of Background:
(Written 2016) I have four students in four different AO years, and (with a bit of tweaking) we’ve been using AO since the beginning – seven years, now! I began using this template with my older children when they were in 1st and 3rd grade, printing the charts each week, attaching them to a clipboard and hanging them on the wall. My boys have semi-outgrown this method, and now rely on the full-term downloadable charts found on AO’s site as their preferred way of keeping track of school work. But my younger children still need a weekly chart that they (and I) can easily reference, and that can be marked as progress is made. I love this template so much that I haven’t altered it since the beginning. 🙂
Note: I’ve written before about how we make AO work for us, and this chart is explained in more detail there. For the purpose of this page I will just give a basic explanation.
Explanation Of The Chart:
You see two columns, divided into five sections. Call them what you want, but here are the titles that have worked for me –
- Daily Alone: the daily work belonging only to the child, rather than to the family. One circle to be checked off per day as the work is done.
- Daily Together: the daily (or almost daily) work done together as a family – think, Circle Time, Morning Time, what have you. I try to hit these three times a week. You might want to do them less or more. Add or subtract circles to suit your needs!
- Weekly Alone: the weekly work belonging to the individual child, to be done alone or with me. These are items the child doesn’t tend to every day. (Some of this can be moved into Weekly Together.)
- Weekly Together: the weekly work done together as a family. Again, tasks not tended to every day. (Also might be part of Circle time, etc.)
- Reading: The child’s readings for the week. On this downloadable version I’ve included all of the Year One, Term One books for AmblesideOnline. The reading list (and the entire schedule) can be edited to match any term or year. (My actual Year One list will look different than what I show you here, because I tweak to suit our needs.)
How We Use The Chart:
- Add page numbers to reading list. Each week I look at the AO site (or a printed PDF) to see what books are scheduled. Beside the book title on my chart I fill in the scheduled page numbers, leaving a blank space (or the word “none”) where no reading is required. I do this on my computer, but it can easily be written in by hand. I also take note of any readings we might have missed and adjust my page numbers to match our reality.
- Mark off what the child completes. My elementary students love to check those circles! Each day we work to complete all our circles in the Daily Alone and a few from the reading list as well as at least one task from each of the other sections.
- Be okay with what doesn’t get marked off. The purpose of this chart is not only to keep us on track, but to help us visualize the “feast” AO has spread. We are not going to eat everything at the proverbial banquet table. In my house, what doesn’t get marked off in a week becomes the first priority of the next week, or simply (gasp!) is forgiven and let go. 😉
- Let the schedule be a servant. (We don’t exist to serve the schedule!) It’s tempting to add a million things to a chart like this (you will see my own personal touches that deviate from AO’s recommendations – Starfall, hugging Mama) but simplicity really is a key in a CM education. Cut back and back and back until you find a gentle yet rigorous rhythm, and then, if you must, play with adding other things in.
Your schedule is your servant, not your master. It doesn’t exist to be a source of guilt, but to serve you both as a tool, and as a mirror of reality. Learn from it, and wield it, but guard your mind so that you do not become enslaved to it. Let it be a reflection of your needs and your child’s needs, your strengths and your child’s strengths, your weaknesses and your child’s weaknesses. It’s a tool.
Other Suggestions:
- Add times lengths to subjects (you’ll see I’ve added a few as examples).
- Organize your schedule by time (minute, hour) increments – as in: 9:00 Circle Time, 9:30 Math, etc. (This doesn’t work for my family!)
- Organize your schedule by rhythm (this is what we do – we have morning work and afternoon work, set within windows between meals and snacks and naps).
About Narration:
- In our family, a child does not mark off a reading until it has been narrated (usually). I didn’t make a separate circle to check off narrations, but you can if you want!
About The Downloads:
- I have included a Pages document, and a Word document.
- Documents are fully editable. You can adapt this one download to any week, any term, and any year of AO or other CM-inspired program.
- Creating those circles: for a long time I used an annoying little image insert to make my checkbox circles. Then one day a brilliant woman on the AO forum said she uses a capital letter O instead of a graphic (hello, where has my brain been?), and that’s what I’ve done ever since. So if you need to add circles, just use that capital O. 🙂
Again, here is the downloadable version, in two different formats. Let me know if this helps you get things figured out. I’d love to hear your feedback and see the tweaks you make, or glimpse the weekly chart you end up creating yourself!
Year One Schedule Template | Word Document
Every lesson must have its own time, and no other time in this world is there for it. The sense of the preciousness of theme, of the irreparable loss when a ten minutes’ lesson is thrown away, must be brought home.
No talent, no genius, is worth much without the power of attention; and this is the power which makes men or women successful in life…Attention is no more than this – the power of giving your mind to what you are about.
–Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character, pages 31, 29
Ha!! Totally never thought to use an O, either!! Man, that’s much easier than those darn symbols! Thanks for sharing the tip – and your download! 🙂
Haha! It’s so obvious that it’s embarrassing, huh? 😀
It took me three read overs to realize what the O’s were for (Face palm)
Haha! I guess that probably is confusing! 🙂
Thank you for this!!!
What a lovely resource! Thank you for sharing. We are planning for our 6th year of homeschooling but our first with Ambleside Online. I finally feel brave enough to venture into that “realm”! Although, their lists and forms were making me nervous! Glad I found this!
You’re welcome. 🙂 I hope AO is a wonderful experience for you – it’s really gotten into our blood and has become a way of life for us. I’m so grateful for the women who have fleshed it into reality!
I saved your template and will be adapting and using it this year!! Thank you so much for this resource. I am not a naturally list dependent person but my daughter is so this will help us both!
So GREAT!! Thank you! (=
I’ve looked and looked for a schedule like yours. A wonderful lady in a homeschool group I’m in on FB led me to your site. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I laughed when I read your first paragraph, because that is me! I am very visual and was in full on panic mode! Your schedule has helped ease my anxiety and I can’t wait to make it work for us. (We are first year with a 12 year old, so the next task will be deciding where to start with him) Thank you again!!
You’re very welcome!
I love the “white space” in this layout. It’s inviting and looks attainable. Thank you. I am a planner addict so I have looked high and low. This is fabulous.
Thank you for saying that! I have to have the white space or I go crazy, ha!
Thank you so very much for posting this. I really appreciate it!
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Thank you! Starting year one this fall and trying to figure out our schedule- this makes my job so much easier!
I’m so glad! Thank you for leaving me a note!
Thank you for this! I feel like I’ve been preparing for the past 3 years to homeschool, waiting for my eldest turn to 6. I actually discovered CM, about a year and half ago, and loved the concept and it works so well with my personality. We have started some routines, and tried different styles (Montessori Practical Life stuff, unschooling, traditional classroom) on and off since she was 3-ish, but now that my eldest daughter is 6 years old (2020), I am feeling overwhelmed by the AO curriculum again. ( I also have a 4 year old who participates when she wants) However, this schedule break down seems so simple and do-able, so once again thank you! Is it normal to feel more pressure once they turn 6, or am I just anxious because the dream of homeschooling is becoming more real than ever since she’s 6 now?
I think it’s totally normal to feel more pressure once they turn six, because they are finally “school age” and we anticipated this milestone for so long. I know I dreamed and schemed pretty much my entire oldest child’s life about when we could start school, and it felt huge to finally put the rubber to the road. It’s a good anticipation! And it’s a good pressure! Once you get going though, it will probably become your new normal and the pressure won’t be so intense. You’ll figure out your rhythm, throw out some ideas you thought you’d do for sure, add in other things you never thought you’d do, and it will be a mixture of that as long as you homeschool. Kind of like parenting!
Thank you! I am just beginning Ambleside this year. I have two year 5s, 1 year 3, and one year 0. These charts are the most practical I have found to implement the program.
These are not downloading for me. Are the links still active? Thank you! 🙂
Hello Amy! I just checked on my end and the downloads work for me.