1 Aug 2012

AO5 Schedule

Hello Lovies.  I'm so sorry I've been absent without leave.  Jemimah and I have been beavering away on school in order to get AO5 Term 2 finished by the end of this week.  We've managed it too.  Hurrah!

For the first time in our homeschool journey we're not taking a break between terms, but are instead moving straight into Term 3 next week.  Before you harass me for being a bad mumma, however, let me remind you that we did take  a three week holiday to SE Asia midway through this term, and so we haven't really been working 12 weeks straight without a break.  I would not like to be thought of as harsh and uncaring.

We're hoping to make a head start on Term 3 because in only a few short weeks I'm off to Europe with my mum, leaving Mr PD with sole parental responsibility for our daughter for almost a month.  Jemimah and both agree that it is much more desirable for her to take a couple of weeks holidays then, since independent work for four weeks would be quite a strain otherwise.

The good side of all this is that it has forced me to actually finalise our AO5 schedule.  I've posted it here for those of you who like to follow along with us.
Year 5 Schedule

AO5 Term 3 covers the period of time between Federation up to and including WWI.  It is not a very busy time in Australia's history, this 20 year period, providing us with the opportunity to add in not one but two books on the war.  One of these, of course, has to be Elyne Mitchell's novel about my grandfather, The Lighthorsemen, but the other is a fascinating little novel by Methodist minister, Joseph Bowes, called The Aussie Crusaders.  Bowes, a minister in NSW and Queensland for almost fifty years, was a prolific writer of books for boys, including a number of war stories.  In this one, Major Jack Smith and Sergeant Jock M'Thirst are captured by Bedouins and then Turks and are present at the fall of Gaza and Jerusalem.  It is a thrillingly exciting book with much apparent accurate research.  I'll write a review once we've read it.

Other highlights include biographies of Beatrix Potter and George Washington Carver, along with the conclusion of our bio of John G Paton.  Literature includes Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Goodbye Mr Chips and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Every term of Ambleside Online is a goodie, but this one is shaping up to be extra fine indeed.

There is a happy jig happening here.

13 comments:

  1. You do find some goodies, Joseph Bowes sounds intriguing.

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  2. Great to hear from you, and your term 3 sounds exciting indeed! xxx

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  3. "bad mumma"? NEVER! you are a super mum Jeanne and congratulations on becoming part of the AO auxiliary!

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  4. Thanks, Rosemary. It is very exciting.

    I'm hoping I'll see you in the Aussie/NZ forum. It will be great to see how others are Australianising AO.

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  5. Oh, horrible mommy! jk of course. Sounds like a great plan - and with a break in term 2 and one coming up in term3, I'm sure you won't burn her out!

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  6. Yes, for sure Jeanne, I'll see you over in that new forum when it opens up to everyone:)

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  7. Argh! I keep asking people to come and visit me there and nobody has! My little forum is so cold and lonely with only me sitting there!

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  8. oh really! sorry I thought it was only open for those volunteering to be 'testers' for now? I'll go back and read the emails and see what I need to do to join up. Don't want you to feel lonely! :)

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  9. It was the comment about 'talkative people and not lurkers' that scared me off from signing up:) I'm there now! :)

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  10. Hi Jeanne,
    I too felt that I didn't fit the profile being a bit of a lurker.
    I'll sign up too, hopefully I'll be able to make a contribution. Maybe the purpose should be a bit clearer and more people would visit.

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  11. Looks lovely Jeanne. :)
    I love that we have the freedom to play around with our schedules like that - so we can live life, keep learning and have fun ... all at the same time! Happy travels to you. :)

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  12. Hi Jeanne,
    Thanks for the AO5 post.
    I'm still very interested in your suggestions as I plan to use many of them but in a less stuctured way. Lucy says she can't bear not to read all the way up to nearly our times in An Island Story. She wants to read about her Queen, Queen Elizabeth. She was upset to see she wasn't in the book. That's one of the reasons why I love CM's ideas so much. Lucy is so engaged with the characters/personalities in history

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  13. AO5 for us next year! Thanks for all the ideas! We have bought most of the Australian books you have used. Thanks so much for doing all the hard work.

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