A Homeschooling Year for a 9 year old Girl - Ambleside Online Year 3

Portrait by Berthe Morisot 1886

Moozle completed Ambleside Online's Year 3 which covers the late 1400's-1600's (Renaissance to Reformation) about two months ago. She was eight years old when we started Year 3 but turned nine a few months later.
The scheduled books and time period of Year 3 didn't require much adapting for our Australian context but I did do some substitutions, additions & subtractions which I'll share in this post.

History & Literature

We used some of the chapters from This Country of Ours, especially those scheduled in Term 2, because of their connection with British History eg. Sir Walter Raleigh, the Cavaliers and the Pilgrims.

We skipped American Tall Tales and substituted A Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce & didn't do Pilgrim's Progress because I'd already used it as a family read aloud the previous year.

Shakespeare and Plutarch

Moozle has been listening in when I've done both of these with her older siblings for some years and this year she decided to try doing her own written narrations. I wrote about that here.

Just be aware that she's a girl and an avid reader and that the three boys above her wouldn't have done this in a fit. It was a pleasant surprise to me to suddenly have another child who loved to write as it hadn't happened for quite a few years.

I also started studied dictation with her around the time she started to write and have seen some improvement in her spelling which used to be woeful.

Natural History

Warrigal the Warrior by C.K. Thompson - as a read aloud

Wonderland of Nature by Nuri Mass - for help with nature study. We also use The Handbook of Nature Study and participate in the Outdoor Hour (see link on side bar).

Bush Stories by Amy Mack - this is out of print but I found a copy in excellent condition in a secondhand Aussie bookshop which sells through Abebooks. The book I have was a reprint done in 1983.

I read aloud Pagoo & Secrets of the Woods - natural history is a favourite topic for this young lady and she's loved everything AO has scheduled plus our Australian selections.

Food & Nutrition

This eBook is quite a good introduction to food and nutrition for a child especially if you are familiar with Nourishing Traditions as the author shares a similar view to those expressed in that book. I bought my copy when the author was offering about 25% off - I don't think I would have paid the full price of $19.95. But then again, I haven't seen much else on food and nutrition for this age group. There are 15 short chapters with a colouring page, which we didn't use, plus a word puzzle at the end of each chapter (she loves these). We didn't start the book until about half way through the year so we're continuing with it in Year 4.

The Body Book for Younger Girls

I used this book as a framework for talking about puberty and the changes girls go through as they approach this time in their lives. The book is quite well done and is written for girls of 8 years and up to read on their own. I read it aloud and skipped bits and pieces that I didn't think were applicable - nothing inappropriate but just unnecessary for her at this stage (bras, boys, tampons, body image).

The book covers pre-puberty and puberty in a practical and sensible way. It has 109 well illustrated pages and I spread it out over a few months. 

 

Instrument - Cello

After having piano lessons for a couple of years, Moozle started cello lessons at the beginning of the year. She has always wanted to play this instrument and is doing well. We started off renting a cello but when she outgrew that one we decided to buy one secondhand. Hopefully, she won't outgrow this one too soon. This is one drawback to starting stringed instruments with younger children. We have four different sized violins that one of her older sisters went through. We didn't have to worry about that with our children who played the piano.

Highland dancing

Moozle entered her second competition a few weeks ago. At her first competition she knocked the swords as she danced. That instantly disqualifies you so she had to stand in 'first position of arms' until the other dancers had finished. This time she won first place in The Lilt and second place in The Swords, which delighted her no end.

Highland dancing competitions are quite challenging in that you gave a group of dancers on stage - there were six for most of the dances at this last competition. The dancers are in various levels so you could have a ten year old dancing alongside a 20 year old. They often have different steps to their dances and they are all dancing at the same time with a couple of judges watching their every move. They have to really concentrate on what they are meant to be doing - a good test of their attentiveness.

Timeline

 A very simple one:

We use an extra large spiral drawing book just to keep everything in the one place. At some stage I may pull the pages out and connect them all up in chronological order. She's marked in our Plutarch men in another section.

Geography

Charlotte Mason's Geography book. There is a link to it on the AO website.

Explore His Earth - Moozle loved this book and I posted our schedule, with videos and other things we used as we read through it here. (We skipped most of the activities suggested in the book.)

Updated to add: We also did Marco Polo: His Travels and Adventures, by George Makepiece Towle and used The Adventures of Marco Polo by Freedman for mapwork.

French

Free resources we used are here.

Music & Art Appreciation

As I've tended to do all along, we mostly studied different artists and composers to the AO term selections.

Moozle read Hildegard's Gift by Megan Hoyt and listened to a couple of Hildegard's compositions but we didn't spend a lot of time on her music.

We did spend a few months on some Spanish composers, which was wonderful and I chose some pieces that featured the cello and other stringed instruments.

Marc Chagall was an artist she enjoyed.

I posted some of the folksongs related to the Year 3 time period here.

Handicrafts

English paper piecing - this is the current project which might eventually turn into a cushion.

Another sewing project in the past year was this bag holder. 

She enjoyed trying her hand with some basic leather work & is keen to do some more projects.

Memory work

Scripture - we all do this together. Which reminds me - I need to update our list and put it up on my pages index at the top of the blog.

Poems -  Poetry is another area I often tweak to better suit our situation and interests. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, The Eagle by Tennyson and The Arrow & the Song by Longfellow were some that Moozle chose to memorise on her own. My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, an Australian poem, is one that she enjoyed also.

This is a poetic narration she did based on a story form The Jungle Book:

Some of the free reads that we don't have were substituted with Australian titles:

Verity of Sydney Town by Ruth C. Williams - this is a better fit for Year 5 historically but I added it because I thought Moozle would enjoy it more now than leaving it until later and the setting is an area we are familiar with.

Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

The Australian Twins by Daphne Rook

The Bush Boys by James Tierney

Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery - I added this as a night-time read aloud because I love the story and Moozle kept asking me if she could read it. It's a wonderfully rich book and I'd always planned to read it aloud to her at some time as I'd done with her older siblings years ago.

Updated to add: I was intrigued by some references the author made to the sword Chrysaor and an Elizabethan poem and finally found out some things about them recently.

Devil's Hill by Nan Chauncy is out of print but if you find it it's a good fit for this age group.

Ambleside Online Years 3 & 9 - Jacobite Folksongs

In the third term of AO Year 3 Our Island Story covers some Jacobite history. We've been listening to the song below, Ye Jacobites, which was re-written from the original by Robert Burns in 1791.
At first look it seems Robert Burns was anti-Jacobite but I've read a few opinions about whether or not this was the truth. This blog has an interesting perspective.

Here is an audio of the song plus the words written by Burns and the original version.





The Massacre of Glencoe, which occurred in 1692, is covered in Our Island Story. I use the song below (sung by Alastair McDonald) for older children as it also fits in Term 1 of AO Year 9, but have a look at the words here to check its suitability.

Oops, my apologies. Just realised I didn't include it here when I first posted but I can't get it to load now. It's here and it's the one we like best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yYjG6nUwyc

Another version is this one but it's not a great video and there are a few misspelled words:





The Jacobite Heritage is a good place to browse if you're interested in anything to do with the Jacobites.

Ambleside Online Year 3 - Shakespeare, Plutarch & Poetic Narration

A few months ago I shared some of Moozle's written narrations inspired by Plutarch. Since then she has continued to do a written narration once or twice a week and has branched out a little from the letter form she started with.
The  first one here is still in letter form but was inspired after our weekly reading and listening to Twelfth Night, which we finished about six weeks ago.

This one was a 'news report' she wrote after we'd read a lesson from Plutarch's life of Crassus. Some poetic license was taken in the 'Consul Spiro Maximus Nero' addition - Spiro and various derivatives of said name have been popping up in all of her Plutarch narrations, regardless of whether the characters are Roman or Greek.

This one was done this morning. She's been keen to do a poetic narration and she asked if she could do one after reading a chapter of Our Island Story. I thought she'd be so intent on making it rhyme that it wouldn't make much sense but I was surprised when she came up with this: 

  

I shouldn't have been surprised because she's been listening to poetry for years and absorbing rhythm, rhyme and the beauty of words and that should translate into her writing at some point but I wasn't expecting it at this stage. Just as I wasn't expecting her to get anything much from Plutarch, either.

The reading of poetry will:

 '...accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour.'

Home Education by Charlotte Mason

Science Videos & Schedule for A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth by Ann Voscamp

I've just finished reading this book to my 9 year old. The book is pitched to the younger child in the way the author writes (Ambleside Online has it listed as a Geography option for Year 3) but my son read it when he was about 11 years old and enjoyed it and I learnt quite a bit myself when I read it to Moozle as it goes into quite some depth in places. See here for an excerpt.

There are 11 chapters and I spaced each chapter over two weeks, occasionally three (chapters 8-10 were quite detailed), reading a few sections per week and she narrated after each section.

We skipped the writing suggestions (Postcards Home) and most of the activities except for those Moozle decided were interesting enough to warrant an effort and I added in some videos.

This is an outline of what we did.

Chapter 1

Short & easily done in a week.

Pg 9-11; 12-13

Countries & coastlines (but sadly no Australia!) 

Earth from space:

Chapter 2

Pg.19-20; 21-22; 23-25

Meteors & shooting stars at the Science Channel - quite a good video but there are links to other videos & an ad beforehand as well so preview first.

Atmosphere song:

Chapter 3

Pg. 31-33; 33-35; 35-37

Auroras seen from the north of Scotland. This is spectacular:




A very good explanation of what causes the above, especially for an older child:

Chapter 4

Pg.43-45; 45-46; 47- 49; 49-50; 51-52

Sheppard Software have some free online map activities which are great for all ages. Some of them are quite difficult but with a bit of practice you'll know all the Chinese provinces and other random information that might just be useful one day...

Chapter 5

Pg.57-59; 60-62; 63-64; 65-66

Activity pg. 71-72

 

Learn about rip currents, how to identify them, avoid them or how to escape if caught in one. We had a holiday last year and swam at an isolated beach which had some strong rips and we spent some time looking for the safest places to swim. I never knew how to identify rips and I was caught in one when I was in my teens - very frightening, not to mention highly dangerous. If I'd had this information at the time I would have known what to do.

The moon & tides:

The Gulf Stream - a bit of history here. Benjamin Franklin was the first person to map the Gulf Stream:

Ocean currents & Salinity - simple visual explanation:



Chapter 6

Pg.73-76; 77-78; 79-80; 80-81

An explanation of the seasons:

Chapter 7

Pg. 91-93; 94-96; 97-99; 100-101

This video on earthquakes is very good but I only let my daughter watch it up until 2:10 as it has footage of a little girl crying as an earthquake occurs and people being swept away by tsunamis later on. It has a great view of the San Andreas fault line and it would probably be fine for an older student but preview first.

Chapter 8

105-107; 108-109; 109-110; 111-113

Activity pg 116-117 & 118

Good explanation of plate tectonics for children:



Chapter 9

Pg.119-122; 123-125; 126-128; 128-129

Volcano Adventure is a great book I'd recommend while we're on the topic of volcanoes.

Activity pg 133-134 - the results weren't spectacular. Last time one of the boys made a volcano in the sandpit and it was impressive.

Cinder, composite and shield volcanoes & how they are formed:

Geysers - what they are and how they erupt:

Rotorua Geysers, New Zealand. Rotorua has been called The Sulphur City and the geothermal activity permeates the area with a distinctive odour. The colours of the rocks, terraces and water (a beautiful intense aqua in places), around the area are stunning.





Chapter 10

Pg.135-137; 138-140; 140-141; 142-144

Globe Unwrapped shows how a globe becomes a map (the website is slow to load).

Chapter 11

Pg.149-151; 152-153; 153-155; 156-159

Longitude, Latitude & Prime Meridian:



We were trying to work out time differences when my husband was overseas for work.
How come where Dad is it's Wednesday and he's just about to go to bed and it's Thursday lunchtime here??
These videos were helpful:





The concept of different times in different places takes some mind bending so this video might go over the heads of younger children and would be better for an older student: