This year has had the most tweaks of all the AmblesideOnline years we’ve done. That’s partly due to the nature of the AO offerings which leaves much scope for picking and choosing and partly because I’m modifying the content for our Australian situation. I also dropped some of the Post-Modern & Worldview books that were scheduled for others I preferred or that I already had. By this stage most of my students had decided in which direction they wanted to go when they’d finished learning at home. Miss 17 is unsure apart from the fact that she’d like to do something related to art – but not teaching it or studying art history.

We’ve had similar scenarios with a couple of our sons who considered a musical career but decided to do something else to earn their bread and butter. Music still plays a large part in their lives, so I think it was a good decision. Anyhow, we usually add in some external study or preparation in Year 12 and in the past, this has included SAT exams (English & Maths) and Open University subjects if a certain degree is in their sights. This also may give them some credit when they start their Uni degree which is something to check out. E.g. one son did an IT subject and a daughter did a couple of teaching subjects related to their degrees which they used as credits. This helps to give them a reduced workload during their first year at University. We don’t use the usual HSC mode of gaining entry to Tertiary education, so these studies are among the options for a Pathway to University for home educators.

Miss 17 has just finished a short online course Academic Survival Skills via Newcastle University and has been accepted into Open Foundations next year. These are both free. A student has to be turning 17 in the year they plan to study. Open Foundations allows the student to study an area before deciding on a degree and they offer a good variety of subjects: Art, IT, Science, Maths, Education and History, for example, and may be studied face to face or online. Details in the link.

At this stage we are continuing with Maths. I swapped to MathsOnline earlier this year and it’s been working well. Some books still to be finished for Year 12 are:

The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis

A Traveller in Rome by H.V. Morton

Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks

The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne

Destined for War by Graham Allison

Paul for Everyone: Part 2 by Tom Wright

Extra books added this year that she has finished and that I don’t think I’ve mentioned before are below. I haven’t required narrations as they are her choices – suggested mostly by one of her older brothers:

Conspiracy by Tom Phillips & John Elledge

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

Jensen’s Format Writing – this was helpful for her Academic Survival Skills studies. I used this book with two of my sons but thought that the Payne book I mentioned above would be better for my daughter.

I’d like to add An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West by Konstantin Kisin. We watched John Anderson interview him some months ago & we both enjoyed hearing his story. There’s a review of the book on the John Anderson website but I haven’t got a copy of the book as yet so it may not happen. (Another review here) She’s a fast reader and prefers literature and mysteries so it’s been good to see her interest in reading nonfiction increasing. It helps that her brother takes an interest and loves talking about the books he’s reading, which tend to be about government/politics.

Other goings on:

Weekly orchestra rehearsals with an end of year concert in early December.

Involved in playing cello for Christmas services.

Last month she did her first ‘proper’ swimming competition – a 5km open water swim – I feel exhausted just thinking about it but she completed it in just under the time she anticipated. It was a fast race with some National swimmers, one of whom was of Olympic standard. It was more of an experience than anything else and she took it in that context.

Swimming out to the starting point…