New Domain

I'm very excited to have my own domain for my musings & mutterings. I have imported my blogger content and will be posting more soon. Please visit me at: http://crossingthebrandywine.com/

Pearls from Planning: Bible Studies

So I sit here, planning the next term. Yes, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. But I actually enjoy planning and my husband was home to corral kids today, so today it was!

I love having Ambleside Online's pretty plan to work with. Last term we didn't do the Bible lessons in the schedule. I decided I want to do AO's suggestions, at least for my kids in year 2 and year 4. (I'm still not sure on my eldest.) But I struggle to figure out the line between family devotions, personal devotions, and Bible knowledge as a school subject. When you homeschool everything just blends together.

I should mention I love the topical Charlotte Mason pages. I ended up on the "Knowledge of God" page, and found some real pearls.

Charlotte on a Child's Personal Devotions 

Doing Devotionals Regularly
It's important to develop the habit of regularity in devotional time. A mother may not always be with her children, but I've seen children who are more determined about doing their devotions on time when they're away from their mother because they know that's what she would want, than they are when she's with them. One four-year-old friend of mine said, 'Mommy, I always worship idols.' 'You do, Megan? When?' 'When I say my prayers to the chair.' It's wonderful for all of us to get into the habit of 'saying our prayers' at a specific time and in a specific place. Wherever that may be, it will become like a holy place for us. Whether it's a chair, the side of the bed, a little prayer table, or, best of all, the mother's knee, that place will play a major part in guiding the child's soul to develop a habit of devotion. While I'm on the subject, it's worth mentioning that children's prayers, even for school aged children, shouldn't be left until they're so tired that they nod off before they're finished. After evening tea [or dessert?] is a good regular time for prayers if it can be managed.

The Habit of Bible Reading
The habit of reading the Bible should be established when the child is young enough that his Bible readings need to be read aloud to him. This presents a challenge because the Bible is actually an entire library, and some of its books and passages aren't suitable for children. Many parents get around this by using little compilations of devotional Scriptures. But I'm not sure this is such a good idea. I think that a narrative teaching of the Scriptures is a lot more helpful for children than the isolated texts chosen to stimulate morals and spiritual devotion. The Bible Society publishes [at least, they did in 1904 when this was written] inexpensive copies of individual books of the Bible. Those are a nice resource for parents. A child who's old enough to enjoy reading for himself would probably love reading through the whole book of the Gospel of Mark or another book of the Bible little by little as part of the morning devotion, using a nice copy of the book. (Volume 3, Chapter 13)

So the habit of daily devotions is very important, Charlotte encourages us to:

• Have a regular time, and not too late, so he isn't sleepy.
• Find a specific place, a good place to start is on mother's lap.
• Start young, before the child can read on her own.
• Don't preach, rely on the narrative teachings of the Bible instead of pointed devotionals.
• Have the child read little sections from a whole book, with a nice Bible to read from.

My Implementation: 

• Andrew, my 7 year old, is listening to me read from the Golden Children's Bible. He started a Bible journal on his 7th birthday. Anna, who is 4, usually listens in.
• Jonathan (11) and David (9) are much more independent. So far the Children's Bible Reading plan here (updated weekly) has been a success. David is reading Joshua. Jonathan was reading in Genesis, but has told me he wants to read Romans, so I'll have to either break it down for him, or show him how to break it down on his own. They also each have a Bible journal.

The issue right now is we need to make devotions an everyday habit, not a school day (aka a day that mother is organized) habit. But there are hints of progress.

On Teaching the Bible in Schools

Charlotte taught the younger students (6-12 year olds) both from the Old Testament (historical books) and the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke).

Between the ages of six and twelve, children [using Paterson's book] cover the narrative stories of Old Testament Biblical history, and the Prophets as they correspond to the lives of the kings. The teacher begins the lesson by reading the passage from Paterson's book that illustrates the scripture reading. For example,

'This story takes place on the battle field in the Elah Valley. The camp of the Israelites is on one side of the slope, the big tents of the Philistines are on the other slope. The Israelites aren't huge men, but they're agile and clever. The Philistines are huge brutes, stupid thick-headed giants. Samson used to play tricks on them and make fun of them long ago. Both sides are agitated,' etc.

There might be some discussion after reading this passage. Then the teacher will read the Scripture text and the children will narrate. The commentary merely serves as a background for their thoughts. Their narrations are usually very interesting. They don't miss even one point, and they add colorful touches of their own. Before the end of the lesson, the teacher brings out any new concepts about God or points of behavior that may have been included in the reading. She emphasizes the moral or religious lesson in a reverent, sympathetic way, and doesn't attempt to tell them how to apply it personally.

...[snip]... The New Testament has its own category. The same commentaries are used, and we use the same methods, reverent reading of the text followed by narration, which is often curiously word perfect even after a single reading. (Vol 6, pg 160-169)

So Charlotte recommends that a Bible lesson for the lower grades follow this order:

1. Read the passage from Paterson's book. (It seems one could retell the story with vivid imagery and appropriate background information if the commentary was not available or desirable.)
2. Discuss the passage.
3. Read the text directly from the Bible. (Charlotte would have used the King James Version.)
4. The children narrate.
5. The teacher highlights something from the reading, such as a moral lesson or a new concept about God.

Other Religious Teachings from Charlotte

The Catechism, Prayer-book, and Church History are taught in a similar manner, using appropriate texts. They provide an opportunity to sum up the church's doctrine, which is covered by preparing for Confirmation and Sunday services at the student's church. (also Vol. 6)

 For more details on how Charlotte taught the Bible in schools, I recommend the After Thoughts blog, where Brandy has two excellent posts covering the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now ...

I need to decide if I should combine the kids for our Ambleside Online Bible lessons. I'm sure the discussion would be helpful and we would all learn. But I'm really bad at getting group stuff done. On the other hand, last time I tried to split for Bible lessons as a school subject, I was overwhelmed and dropped them altogether.

One thing is certain, the more I read of Charlotte Mason, the more I am impressed by her insight.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things ...

Sometimes I get discouraged, I feel like nothing is going right. What is frustrating is I may not have a specific issue I can ask my friends (local or online) about. What I need is a new outlook. I might also need to eat a satisfying meal, have a nap, or just give myself some grace. But before I can do those things, I have to address my attitude & outlook.

The first place to go is the Psalms. I memorized Psalm 1 last summer, and it has been a blessing to me. Reading the Psalms is a great way to get my head and heart back on the straight path.

But sometimes I crave more specific advise for my life as a homeschooling mom. I'm not worried about enemies bashing down my gates, I'm tired of trying to get kids to complete work in a timely manner, frustrated because my 5th grader suddenly forgot what 8-3 is, and pulled by the magical lure of program X which will cure all your ills and wash the dishes. Again, nothing I need help with - I know the answers. Don't over schedule, work beside the kids, be patient, and beware of hype. I just need to find internal peace, and focus on the important things. These are my favorite blog posts for that, and I hope they will help you as well.

• Cindy Rollins on Homeschooling the Freeborn. Do I want my children to have the education of a slave (focused on conformity and practicality) or of a free person (focused on truth and ideas for contemplation).
• Andrew Kern on Playing with the Puppies. Play with math, play with words, play with science - don't force definitions down the child's throat when they aren't ready and don't even care.
• Linda Fay on Ten Habits of a Happy Homeschool. Our habits lay the tracks for our lives. How many things are done without thought? Are those automatic actions helping us? Going into the holidays this particular area is my current focus.
• Colette Longo on Ten Ways to Simplify Homeschooling. This is one of the first posts that inspired me as a homeschooler. I was getting my feet wet and oh my, all the options. And I'm a book lover - I like shiny new words. Thankfully this post, my belief that small children should play a lot, and my small budget helped me to stay balanced.
• Andrew Kern on Teaching from a Place of Rest (post from Sarah which includes a video interview). Another post from Cindy. Andrew has also talked about this at the Well Trained Mind forum in the infamous Circe thread, called "The Thread". It's very long. You've been warned. But this is the thread that answered my unasked questions. And it covers much more than a state of rest.
• Sarah on Over-thinking Homeschool Methods. While I'm moving pretty solidly into the Charlotte Mason camp, I am so guilty of over-thinking. Oh, we need to learn math - which method, which program, spiral or mastery, hands-on or mental, etc. Look, it's time to start Latin - immersion or grammar based, whole lessons or half pace, should we supplement with A, B or both, etc. I would (and sometimes still do though I try not to) research things to death. I started with the world and sifting through everything, rather than starting from my principles, limitations and our personalities then ONLY looking at what fit into those constraints.
• Brandy Vencel on Troubleshooting with Charlotte Mason. She simplifies this so beautifully, and so respectfully. And you can just pick it up, insert the current issue - even if it's very vague, and come up with some steps to take.
• Auntie Leila on Order and Wonder (or what curriculum to use). I wish she would adopt me. Scroll down on the side bar for posts on where to start on your home, if that's part of the problem. (Raising my hand here!)

While I love the advice in the trenches from other homeschool moms, I especially prize the advice of those who have led the way and graduated children while remaining sane. :) So I read widely from Cindy Rollins and Auntie Leila. I always come away revived and ready to face my challenges with a smile.

Making Adjustments

We are currently working on week #6, nearly half a term down! There are always adjustments, plans have to change to fit reality. Other than formatting the boys' schedules (which will have to be another post), the adjustments so far have been fairly minor.

All the changes this year stem from one thing: independence. I need the boys to be as independent as possible. School cannot depend 100% on me. After much prodding from family, I've started to publish my books written during NaNoWriMo. So I'm moving to being a WAHM, and we've had to shift our schooling style a bit.

Without further ado, here are the losers (and replacement contenders) so far:

• (Week 5) MEP math has been replaced by the review books from Math Mammoth (eldest two), and if MM continues to work I'll purchase the yellow/green series for them. My youngest will be returning to Miquon, I really think he needs the hands-on, manipulative approach. I feel so guilty about MEP, I'm always saying how great it is (which is still true). But the week we didn't do MEP dramatically shortened our school days, everyone was more relaxed, no one was waiting for me, and I was less stressed as a result. MEP, I love you, and you are a great program. I've learned a lot. But with three school-aged kids I just can't do it. I'm also planning to use these simple daily review sheets, since Math Mammoth is mastery based. Oh, for the teaching aspect I have the Kitchen Table Math books.
• (Week 5) Van Loon's "Story of Mankind" for my eldest. There's just too much and I don't have time to help with background. My own education in world history is sorely lacking. He'll finish up "This Country of Ours" this term covering American history to the 1900s (he is doing a combo year 5/6).  I'd already planned to do modern biographies for terms 2 and 3: Beatrix Potter and Winston Churchill  I think that he and I will read "Story of the World Volume 4" by Susan Wise Bauer during those terms. So he won't miss any world history, it will just be delayed a bit.
• (Week 3) Serl's Intermediate Language Lessons has been replaced by KISS Grammar. I will probably add in some more writing: Nano's Young Writer Program, letters to grandparents (and other ideas inspired by the Brave Writer Lifestyle), perhaps some progymnasmata modelled after descriptions by Brandy at Afterthoughts. And more written narrations. KISS Grammar is free, printable and fairly independent. With Serl I either needed to be there, or to spend more money to buy the workbook style PDF (which would have forced the boys to write a lot more).
• (Week 2/3) Spell to Write and Read has been dropped [again]. It's good, and it has helped me as a teacher. But I don't have time, even combining the oldest two boys. Which really just makes them goofier and doesn't save much time. I think all the other homeschool moms who combine kids must be better disciplinarians than I am. Or they have a few kids that are calm. Youngest son will be following the Charlotte Mason reading lessons outlined by a wonderful blogger and the elder two will be doing studied dictation starting with Simply Spelling* (elder) and Delightful Dictation (younger). 

Other changes: I am adding a little bit of Greek with Bluedorn's Hupogrammon  starting next week. The older boys will alternate Greek with Spanish (The Fun Spanish). We do some Spanish as a group, and their Spanish curriculum lends itself to an every-other-day format, so I think this schedule will work out well. I am also using "Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children" with my 7yo. I abandoned it before because there was too much writing - more than I think Charlotte used (she kept a brisk pace of 1-2 letters a lesson). But I've decided not to worry about doing every line. I've planned to go through the basic alphabet covering about 4 letters a week, focusing on quality work.

And we can't forget the winners! In alphabetical order:

• Ambleside Online - boys are in years 2, 4 and a 5/6 combo. So many lovely books!
• BRIEM Italic Handwriting - my elder two boys are doing the remedial copywork sheets featuring Alice in Wonderland, and they seem to be making progress. Next term they will use the book CM recommended: A New Handwriting and (hopefully) a Commonplace Book.
• Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. While we haven't been as consistent as I'd like, due to me assigning lessons to certain weeks we've done better than usual. How's that for a positive spin!! I need a system to note which lessons were missed so we can do them on break weeks. And I've had to let go of perfection on this book, and just do our best. It's all about wonder and exploration.
• Countryside Rambles - We've read the first two sections of "autumn" and I'm enjoying it. It's helped me see the beauty of fall that I would otherwise miss in my dread of winter.
• SALSA Spanish - love the videos, but need to work on the activities more. We are trying to push Spanish hard before we go South again this winter to camp -- we hope to use a bit of Spanish down there.
• Visual Latin. LOVE!!! 
• Wee Folk Art Preschool reading list. My daughter loves the books, and I love that they are generally found at my library. The books are so good I am trying to think of an excuse to start buying them. Is it too soon to purchase them for possible future grandchildren?

Going forward, I want to work on our group time. This is very important to me, but it seems to be forgotten or pushed aside. I love it when we sing together, I love reading the Bible with all the kids together. I'm hoping to habitualize our mornings and do Morning Time more consistently. I'd also like to start having an afternoon Tea Time, and I'm considering putting my 9 year old in charge of that. (He loves having hot cocoa or lemonade, snacks and poetry, and he actually pays attention to little details like what time it is!)

There are always adjustments. They've taught me to over-plan less, and I actually look forward to the changes.

* Simply Spelling is difficult to find online, but can be had by emailing the author. You can email her shoelacebooks AT yahoo.com for information.

God Is Good

Sometimes He has to remind me. I'm a bit stubborn! Amongst other good things in the last day and a half, this is what my husband and brother saw on the way to the jobsite today: a brand new baby deer. Kevin (my husband) doesn't think it was even two days old.

The little guy had trouble following its mama up the other bank, and after seeing it stumble around on the road my brother had to pick it up and place it up on the bank on the other side of the road. When they returned the mama and baby had wandered off. Hopefully the little dude strengthens up quickly, since it's nearly September.

(They really didn't want to touch the baby, but he was too wobbly to climb the bank and they couldn't leave him on the road. Always remember animals can bite! And they might not let go. My husband rescued a squirrel from a dog as a boy, and had a hard time releasing it! I just don't want anyone to think wild animals are cute and Disneylike. They are wild.)

2012-13 In Review (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

Why This Post: First, to remember what we did. And second, to take a small step toward correcting a problem among homeschoolers: realism. So many times we post our plans - I am very guilty of showing only my best self. Then we post pictures of our cool nature walk or the project the kids made -- the good stuff. Which is good.

But I think we need a lot more posts of how those plans actually worked, the good, the bad and the ugly. And once in a while, I'd love to see posts covering "a day in the life of a real homeschool family". Where the phone dies so you don't hear your alarm, you discover you are out of milk which was a vital ingredient for breakfast, Edward punches Henry because "he was annoying me", your toddler dumps the flour all over the kitchen while you are teaching a math lesson, and then by noon - after 1 chapter read and half a math lesson total - you are ready to put a cartoon on for the kids so you can go beat your head on the wall while gorging on chocolate. Because I see forum posts from moms who believe everyone else has things together. And most of us don't. And yes, all those things have happened to me, even though the flour incident was a different day than the others. Names were changed to protect the guilty.

Overall: This has been a great year full of new things. I've learned that we love to sing together, that the old hymns and folksongs are worth learning. (And singing these hymns bring back memories, sadly our current church doesn't sing many hymns.) I learned that if it is on their list, it gets done. If I put it on a group list, it generally does not get done. (I'm working on that!) Oh, and I've increased my own knowledge about true education. In addition to pursueing the true, the good & the beautiful, and to playing with the puppies, I've deepened my understanding that it's not how much you know, it's how much you care.

A Choppy Beginning: We started with an undefined mix of things, and I was glancing often at Memoria Press. I didn't like their workbooks, but I loved their integration and their emphasis on recitation.

Then (cue dramatic drumbeats) Ambleside Online moved from a mailing list to a forum, and everything changed. I understand forums, and I can navigate them easily. Plus, there is zero guilt because they don't clog up my inbox.

So we switched to AO. The boys were 6 (Andrew), 8 (David) and 10 (Jonathan). Anna was nearly 3. I put my 6 year old in year 1 with my fingers crossed. He flourished. I started my 8 year old on pre-year 3 and my 10 year old on pre-year 5. While those combo years a very well done, they are a bit dated now and I started feeling like the history was too fast and that we were giving up too much literature & natural history. So after about a month I switched my 8yo to year 3 and my 10yo to year 4. I didn't catch up with every reading (we missed a few biographies and didn't get to all the poets).

Note: I'm not going to link the following books, if you'd like to look and possibly buy please visit Ambleside Online and use their affiliate link. (I've used books in Year 1, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5.)

What We Didn't Do or Only Partially Did: The schedule. We hit the right chapters in the right term, but ... yeah. AO has the new nifty & official chart schedules now, so I have great hope for next year. It's great to see all the readings on 1 page per term. Our mid-winter vacation to Nevada (after our late start this year) further cramped the schedule. The vacation was great - camping down South by Lake Mead instead of freezing in Montana. We hope to do it yearly, but we will have to do some school while there. Schooling in the hot August weather is ... too hot.

In the same vein, we also didn't stick to a scheduling program. This year I've used Homeschool Tracker Plus, Scholaric, Skedtrack, SCM's Online Planner, forms from Donna Young - especially her excel spreadsheet, Evernote, and various printouts or hand-written lists.

I know we only did about 3 chapters of "Parables from Nature" this year, we did read them as a family. (I think 6 are scheduled per year normally.) We did only a few stories from Shakespeare total (I think 2 from Nesbit and 2 from Lamb's). With my eldest, we didn't get to Plutarch or any "official" Shakespeare, though we did watch "Much Ado About Nothing" and went to a live performance of "Henry V". So we had positive exposure to the Bard.

We only did 1 term's worth of artist study, we went from singing the folksongs with printed lyrics to just listening a lot. We sang some, but it was harder knowing the words of the verses without them printed out. For composer study, we do recognize Figaro's song from "The Barber of Seville" and I'm trying to add another favorite "The Ride of the Valkyrie" to that list. We listened to a retelling of the Pilgrim's Progress instead of the real thing. But that retelling made a big impact on the boys, so we will be listening to the full dramatized audio this year.

We had huge issues with consistency in math. But I'm happy to say that teaching those MEP lessons finally seems to be falling into a groove. I've had a real love/hate relationship with MEP math, but the love side is winning. Plus, my eldest is doing year 6 this year, so next year he will go to pre-algebra and I'll only have 2 MEP lessons a day. Yay! However, we have been doing math all summer out of necessity. As a result, they all seem to grasp concepts well, but we need to work on mastery of facts (speed). So we will start doing as Charlotte recommended, and adding in a short, daily oral drill session.

I added some books from year 5 for my eldest son after Christmas. Of those, we didn't get to "George Washington's World". We did read most of the relevant chapters in a "Child's History of the World", but GWW was too much for me. I'm one of those kids who was good in school and had American history every year. And I don't seem to remember many details. Looking back, I/we should have read the chapters in CHOW first, as a general overview, and then tackled GWW. But hindsight is 20/20.

My eldest and I also missed "David Livingstone", parts of the "Storybook of Science", and the "Christian Liberty Nature Reader 5". I will have him use these for independent reading since we are progressing nicely with "Dancing Bears". I dropped "The Incredible Journey" as well. I'll post an updated plan for Jonathan's 6th grade year soon.

What We Did Do: BIble - with some trial & error. We tried AO's new Bible reading plan, but went back to the boy's choosing their own devotional readings. I did accomplish the year 1 readings with my youngest son, and next year we will follow the year 2 (Genesis & Matthew) Bible schedule, but do it as a family. It was just too much for me to add, especially since I was using Greenleaf's Guide to the Old Testament instead of the Patterson-Smyth commentaries, which meant I had more lessons (though they seemed to be shorter). I did discover JC Ryle's commentaries, so we will be using them for the gospels.

Masterly Inactivity / being Outdoors - The kids have done great. Our camping trip down South meant we missed much of the cooped up indoors weather, and they've been having a great time playing & building things outside. I need to get out more, which I plan to will do after this post.

English - Even though we didn't follow "the plan" in some ways, my older boys improved their handwriting (you can read it!) and everyone is doing a great job with oral composition (narrating). So I'm calling this a win. My older boys did do enough Latin to cover an adequate amount of English grammar. (I'm calling Latin a win too, even though we are changing programs on Latin for 2013-14.) Oh, and Jonathan is doing great with Dancing Bears. (Why didn't I buy it two years ago!??!?!)

We visited a museum devoted to the native tribes where we were camping (and I forgot both my sketchpad AND my camera!). We also experienced a completely different biome in the high desert of Nevada.

All the stuff we partially did in the previous section? It all went great. The real culprit was that lack of consistency, when added to a late start plus a longish mid-year vacation, made it hard to get everything done.

Year 1 - Andrew LOVED his readings. Especially "Fifty Famous Stories Retold", "The Burgess Bird Book" and "Pinocchio". We had an extremely good year, and I am especially pleased with his progress in narrating. Thanks to the BBB, he is able to give a good description of birds that he sees.  We got behind of 50F Stories, so we are still reading "Viking Tales". I've enjoyed reading stories with him.

Year 3 - David has really grown this year. He's my child most like me, so sometimes we butt heads. He is a great reader though, and it has been such a blessing to have him reading most of his own books. I had him follow along with Librivox for history books and "Heroes", so that he would hear the names properly. I gave him an MP3 player, so he listens to & follows the text with the "Jungle Books" (scheduled) plus other free reads. He and I will make it a point to read some books together next year, because I think it's important that I spend time with him. Plus, he tends to read quite fast, and a few of the books should really be read slower.

Year 4/5 - Jonathan is a strong auditory learner, and really does well with audio books. He (and I) have learned a lot about science and the process of invention. He loves "Robinson Crusoe" and still compares all other books to it. We've also enjoyed the biographies - many things "Ben Franklin" did my son would do as well - tinkering, making things, helping people. He's also enjoyed "Abigail Adams", and I think the perspective of a woman in the male-dominated time of the revolution was the perfect choice for AO's year 4. Instead of the biographies adding flavor to the history spines (like "This Country of Ours"), I find that the spines add background to the biographies. I wish I had read more biographies in school!

All things considered, we read a lot of great books, we saw new things, we played outside, and we enjoyed poems, works of art, music and the Bard. We had a good year.

Scheduling "The Story of Inventions" Second Edition

My book, which is the second edition of "The Story of Inventions", does not match the Ambleside Online schedule. I have 2 extra chapters, and the order of my chapters is different. (The book is also called "Great Inventors and Their Inventions". The author is Frank P. Bachman.)

Another person had the same issue, and made a forum post. But no one seemed to have an alternate schedule. Last year with my eldest we just read straight through, in a willy-nilly fashion. I decided for my next child, who will read independently, I needed to be more orderly, so I matched the second edition up to AO's 36 week schedule.

AO's schedule & order with second edition chapter numbers:

• Ch 1 (2) James Watt and the Steam Engine
• Ch 17 (3) Robert Fulton and the Steamboat
• Ch 18 (2) George Stephenson and the Locomotive
• Ch 2 (2) Invention of the Electric Engine and Electric Locomotive
• Ch 5 (2) Invention of the Spinning Machines
• Ch 6 (2) Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
• Ch 7 (3) Elias Howe and the Sewing Machine
• Ch 8 (2) Cyrus McCormick and the Reaper
• Ch 9 (3) Henry Bessemer and the Making of Steel
• Ch 11 (2) John Gutenberg and the Printing Press
• Ch 12 (2) Samuel Morse and the Telegraph
• Ch 13 (2) Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone
• Ch 3 (1) Thomas Edison and the Electric Light
• Ch 19 (1) The Wright Brothers and the Airplane
• Ch 14 (1) Nikola Tessla, Guglielmo Marconi, and the Radio
• Ch 15 (1) John Baird and the Television
• Ch 20 (1) John Holland and the Submarine
• Ch 21 (1) Goddard, Von Braun, and Rockets to the Moon
• Ch 16 (1) The Invention of the Computer
• Ch 4 (Not Scheduled) Enrico Fermi and the Atomic Age
• Ch 10 (Not Scheduled) Henry Ford and the Automobile

Ambleside Online has this book scheduled over 34 weeks, and only 2 (relatively) short chapters are left out. Which should have been simple. Unfortunately, going in book order broke chapter 7 about Elias Howe over Christmas break, and caused chapter 13 on Alexander Graham Bell to be split between terms as well. To fix that I allowed two weeks for chapter 7, instead of three weeks.

Second edition, in book order, over 35 weeks.

1. TERM ONE (weeks 1-2) James Watt and the Steam Engine
2. (weeks 3-4) Invention of the Electric Engine and Electric Locomotive
3. (week 5) Thomas Edison and the Electric Light
4. (week 6)  Enrico Fermi and the Atomic Age
5. (weeks 7-8) Invention of the Spinning Machines
6. (weeks 9-10) Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
7. (weeks 11-12) Elias Howe and the Sewing Machine (This chapter was originally spread over 3 weeks.)
8. TERM TWO (weeks 13-14) Cyrus McCormick and the Reaper
9. (weeks 15-17) Henry Bessemer and the Making of Steel
10. (week 18) Henry Ford and the Automobile
11. (weeks 19-20) John Gutenberg and the Printing Press
12. (weeks 21-22) Samuel Morse and the Telegraph
13. (weeks 23-24) Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone
    
14. TERM THREE (week 25) Nikola Tessla, Guglielmo Marconi, and the Radio
15. (week 26) John Baird and the Television
16. (week 27) The Invention of the Computer
17. (weeks 28-30) Robert Fulton and the Steamboat
18. (weeks 31-32) George Stephenson and the Locomotive
19. (week 33) The Wright Brothers and the Airplane
20. (week 34) John Holland and the Submarine
21. (week 35) Goddard, Von Braun, and Rockets to the Moon

I hope this can help someone. Of course, this isn't as nice as AO's schedule, where stopping places are marked. Usually a quick glance through the chapter headings will make a stopping place apparent, Since my second son tends to read quickly, like his mother, I'll probably place an over-sized sticky note to remind him to stop.

I'm almost done customizing the AO grid schedules for next year, I just have to put the finishing touches on David's schedule. I am so thankful that AO has their schedules both as a list and a grid. I find both formats helpful.