Beginning Our Ambleside Online Journey (again...)

Yesterday was our first day using Ambleside Online this year. I realized when talking about how we were starting something "new" with friends that it isn't exactly new. We did use the AO book list for Year 1 back in Nebraska... right before life get crazy. In many ways I loved it. I remember those days fondly. We had our dedicated homeschool room and life felt like it made sense. (Or, more likely, it was crazy but hindsight tends to soften the edges of memories.) It was during this time that I fell in love with the teachings of Charlotte Mason. The Mason Jar podcast was also my first introduction to the Circe Institute, but I will write more about them another day.

So, anyway, I am not entirely new to Ambleside. However, I had decided several times since moving that I was not going to use their curriculum again. The website is clunky and I am a very visual person when it comes to planning. So, every time I would go consider using it I would decide it wasn't going to work for me.

Then, last week, we hit a wall in our homeschool. I had been trying to get through the remainder of 2019 using the online curriculum that has served us well through the messy transitions of the past year. I knew it wasn't what I wanted, but I couldn't afford the curriculum I had decided that I desperately wanted to use. There have been plenty of struggles with having Aiden use a screen for school since we have been more settled, but I thought we could make it. It turns out I was wrong.

I am not entirely anti-screens. I recognize the value of some managed use of technology for education. However, I homeschool my child because I want to teach him myself. So, for our family, continuing to use this online program was causing strain. I notice a big difference in behavior when there is a lot of screen use, even if it is for school.

I loved how much Aiden was learning, and how he could share really cool things with me each day. I think there are circumstances that make this kind of learning a good thing. I am certainly thankful for how it has served us in the times when we were without a home of our own, and while I was dealing with some pretty intense depression as I adjusted to life here in Missouri. It is just time for us to find our new "normal" now that we are (hopefully) more settled here.

I am pretty sure I had planned to talk more about our first day than go on and on about what led up to it, but apparently that is not going to happen today! Ha! So, I am going to wrap this up and say "to be continued" for now. I do really want to start blogging here again more consistently, but I have to make sure it all works into the life we are building here so it will be more free writing like this for a while probably. It does definitely feel good to be writing again... I have missed the sound of keys tapping as I process. It is good to be back.