Review of Ambleside Online's Composer and Artist Studies

 This is what we did this year for art and music appreciation: Ambleside Online's artist and composer studies.  These are free Charlotte Mason artist and composer studies online, grouped by school year and term.  

Artist Studies

Composer Studies

Ambleside Online has a rotation schedule for both artist and composer studies.  Each school year is divided into three terms, with one artist and one composer studied in each term.  For this school year, we studied the art of Duerer, Caravaggio and Delacroix.  For composers, we listened to the music of Beethoven, Vivaldi and Chopin.

What we did...

For composer study, I would just find the week and composer on Ambleside Online's website and click on the next song in the list.  If we were supposed to listen to Chopin's Nocturne in E-Flat, I would click the link (which leads to Youtube) and play the music for my student while he sketched or colored with markers.  We listened to one piece of music each week.  

For artist study, I did the same thing.  I went onto Ambleside's website, found the term and artist and clicked on the next painting.  I would usually magnify each painting and we would look at details like brushstrokes, how well the artist painted hands, how accurate the animals looked, etc.  My son decided that Caravaggio wasn't very good at painting horses, so we discussed that and other things he noticed.  We did an artist study maybe once a week.

Did we like AO's artist and composer studies?

YES!!  My son particularly enjoyed the artist studies.  Listening to Chopin and Vivaldi as he was sketching/drawing was also a very pleasant way to do art.  

Ambleside Online's artist and composer studies are simple, free and an enjoyable way to cover art and music appreciation. 

We're FINISHED!!!: 3/20

Fourth Grade is in the books! 

The fourth grader has finished:

• spelling
• artist studies
• composer studies
• his readers
• Bible
• science
• handwriting without tears
• French

He went from an early 2nd grade reading level (he is severely dyslexic) last summer to a late 4th grade reading level (as of an informal reading assessment last week) in just one school year.

We are going to finish the rest of the read-alouds from Sonlight D over the break.  But, we are officially finished with fourth grade!!

Now, for a giant break.  We will pick back up again with full school sometime in June.  Now's the time to go to the zoo, take field trips, play outside, etc until June when it becomes unbearable hot and crowded everywhere (when the schools let out).

The 12th grader will officially graduate as soon as finals end for her college classes.  

We are going to the ZOO!!  

Homeschool Day 3/19

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• Bill of Rights, Why It Matters to You
• The Skippack School

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• We completely finished spelling!!  (All About Spelling 2)
• Cursive
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Homework for her college classes

Homeschool Day 3/18: Finished two more subjects (Artist and Composer Studies)

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Skippack School
• The Bill of Rights, Why it Matters to You

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• The Littles
• All About Spelling 2
• Cursive

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Fine Arts

• We completely finished Ambleside Online's Composer and Artist Studies for the year
• Artist Study
• Delacroix's "The Lion Hunt"
• Delacroix's "Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable"

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Working on her homework for college classes

Homeschool Week 3/17: Almost Done!!

 We're almost finished with our school year and go down to a shortened schedule for April and May (we will only do Math and finish our Sonlight books).

4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Skippack School (we are really enjoying this book)
• The Bill of Rights, Why It Matters to You

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• Cursive
• All About Spelling 2
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Fine Arts

• Artist Study
• Delacroix's "Hamlet and Horatio in a Graveyard"
• Composer Study
• Chopin's "Opus 28"

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Mathusee Stewardship
• College Classes

Abeka's Understanding God's World (4th Grade Science) Review

 Here's the textbook: https://www.christianbook.com/understanding-gods-world-grade-4/pd/339415?event=Homeschool%7C1000800

I bought this on a whim last summer at Mardel (a store here in Texas that carries homeschool curricula), because I couldn't decide on science.

We only used the textbook, but there is a STEM Activities Book, a Test Book, a Teacher's Guide, Flashcards, etc available from Abeka to make a more "complete" science program.  

I found the science textbook and the mini-labs/demonstrations in the textbook complete enough for a fourth grader, but I'm also used to teaching science.

The textbook is broken into three major sections:

• Science Foundations - scientific method and some basic physics
• Life Science- plants, animals, ecosystems
• Earth and Space Science - rocks, energy, weather, space

The textbook has a really nice, colorful Field Guide to Trees, Flowers, Birds and Insects in the back of the book.  There is also a glossary.  

After most of the lessons, there are mini science demonstrations and activities that you can easily do at home.  There was a star constellation activity, an ecosystem shadow box activity, multiple physics demonstrations, bird-watching activities, activities about the water cycle, etc. These activities always used everyday household items, were simple to do and not very time-consuming.  It's fourth grade.  Why overcomplicate science at that level...

I am embarrassed to say that I am actually sad that we finished this textbook.  My 9 year-old and I really enjoyed this book and the activities.  He especially liked the chapters on space, the Sun, ecosystems, and birds.  I think the section on birds was his favorite.  He enjoyed making the ecosystem shadow box.  We enjoyed using the Merlin Bird App in conjunction with the bird unit.  We took some nature walks at the park and used the Merlin app to listen to the bird calls.  The app can identify which species of bird is "singing."   

Homeschool Day 3/13

We completely finished two subjects today!!!! 

4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Apostles - we completely finished Bible as a subject
• The Bill of Rights, Why it Matters to You
• The Skippack School

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• All About Spelling 2
• Cursive
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Abeka's 4th Grade Science - we completely finished SCIENCE!!

• National Geographic's "Solar System 101"
• National Geographic's "Exoplanets"

Fine Arts

• Just the Facts Book 2
• Alfred's Group Piano course Book 2

12th Grader/Early College Student

• College classes
• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics

Homeschool Day 3/12

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Apostles
• The Bill of Rights, Why it Matters to You
• The Skippack School

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• Cursive
• All About Spelling 2
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs
• We learned how to make a graph/chart with graph paper

Science

• The Sun
• Youtube video: "National Geographic: Sun 101"

12th Grader/Early College Classes

• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics
• College classes

Homeschool Day 3/11

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Apostles
• The Bill of Rights and Why It Matters to You
• The Skippack School

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• Cursive
• All About Spelling 2
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Abeka's 4th Grade Science

• Navigation and the Stars
• We worked on using a compass

Fine Arts

• Drawing with art markers

12th Grader/Early College Student

• College courses
• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics

Homeschool Day 3/10

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• A Child's Introduction to Poetry
• The Apostles
• The Secret of the Sealed Room

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears Cursive
• All About Spelling 2
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Abeka's 4th Grade Science

• The Constellations

Fine Arts

• Piano practice

12th Grader/Early College Student

• College courses
• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics

Curriculum Plans for 5th Grade 2025-2026

I originally planned to continue with Sonlight, but the fourth grader is asking to go back to Ancients again.   He's specifically fascinated with Ancient Greek history.  I looked at the next Sonlight level that starts with Ancient History and it's HBL G, which is way beyond his age range (he's only 9 and that level is written for late middle school/early high school).  

My Plan is to give The Well-Trained Mind a try again (we've used this before).

Here's my hopefully final plan (subject to change).

Also, the 12th grader graduates in May, so she will be in college with the older three.  I will only be homeschooling one for the first time ever.

Bible

• The Action Bible
• The Action Bible Devotional

Math

• Continue Life of Fred (he will finish the elementary series this year)
• Wild Math 4

Language Arts/Reading

• Readers based on interest
• All About Spelling 3
• Handwriting without Tears Cursive (the 5th grade book)
• Language Lessons for the Elementary Child Book 1

Literature, History and Geography

• The Story of Civilization, Book 1
• Ancients, myths, classics, etc - literature and history booklist from The Well-Trained Mind
• Geography from A to Z 
• Countries of the World Coloring Book
• Famous Figures of Ancient Times
• Memorize 3-5 poems, narrations, learn to do a 1-level outline

Logic

• Cat Crimes (board game)
• Mindbenders Book 3
• Red Herring Mysteries

Physics and Technology 

• Books and science kits suggested in The Well-Trained Mind
• Real Science 4 Kids Physics
• Max Axiom comics
• MIT's Scratch, Cubelets from the library
• Year 2 of Crunch Labs

French

• Continue French with Mr. Innes

Fine Arts

• Study ancient art with The Arts: A Visual Encyclopedia
• Drawing, clay modeling, painting
• Story of the Orchestra
• Continue piano
• Start ukulele

Homeschool Day 3/6

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• A Child's Introduction to Poetry
• The Apostles
• The Secret of the Sealed Room

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• All About Spelling 2
• Cursive
• The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Abeka's 4th Grade Science

• How movement determines time
• We worked with a flashlight and globe to demonstrate seasons and days/nights

Fine Arts

• Composer Study
• Chopin's Etude in E Major
• Artist Study
• Delacroix's Entry of Crusaders

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics
• College courses

Homeschool Day 3/5

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• A Child's Introduction to Poetry
• The Apostles
• The Secret of the Sealed Room

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• The Littles
• All About Spelling 2
• Cursive

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Abeka 4th Grade Science

• The Solar System
• He worked on some science homework for class

Fine Arts

• Piano practice

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics
• College courses

Homeschool Day 3/4

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Secret of the Sealed Room

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• The Littles
• All About Spelling 2

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs

Abeka 4th Grade Science

• The Wonders of the Night Sky
• He worked on some science homework from his outsourced science class

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics
• College courses

Homeschool Day 3/3

 4th Grader

Sonlight D (history, Bible and literature)

• The Secret of the Sealed Room - we're almost finished and it's getting to the good part!
• A Child's Introduction to Poetry
• The Apostles

Sonlight Readers 3 + Language Arts

• All About Spelling 2
• Handwriting without Tears Cursive
• We started The Littles

Math

• Life of Fred Dogs
• Addition with Math Dice

Abeka's 4th Grade Science

• Fossils in Rocks

Fine Arts

• Drawing with art markers

Extras

• Ballet class
• He worked for a long time on his health and anatomy homework from an outsourced class

12th Grader/Early College Student

• Mathusee Stewardship
• ASL Basics
• College courses