As we enter the final week of our 2024-2025 homeschool year, I’m reflecting on the balance between wrapping up this year’s plans and preparing for the next. After five years of homeschooling, I’ve learned that planning ahead—sometimes months in advance—has helped me enjoy the time away from formal lessons even more, and enjoy the time, presently, with my family, knowing everything is in place for the year ahead.
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2025-2026 Homeschool Plans for Year 2:
This will be my second time through Ambleside Online Year 2 and I’m looking forward to it with my son! To see the full free curriculum booklist and schedule, visit Ambleside Online’s website.
Bible:
Similar to what I’ve already shared in our Year 5 plans, we will read the Bible and discuss/narrate together as a family, using AO’s Year 5 reading schedule starting with 1 Kings (Old Testament), and the Gospels, beginning in Matthew (New Testament). We do a handful of family devotionals already in the evenings, like this one, and this one, so we will continue to implement them in our weeks.
History:
AO Year 2 covers 1000 A.D. to the Middle Ages, which I think my 7-year-old boy will love! I made zero changes to the AO Year 2 history reading schedule, and I’m including Trial in Triumph, unlike postponing it with my daughter years ago.
We will start a simple history timeline with names and dates as we read.
We will continue with the practice of oral narrations after each reading, and I may have him illustrate a narration or two from time to time. My son gets more distracted than my daughter does, so I am counting on our short lessons and habit training of attention to keep us moving along with our readings.
Natural History & Geography:
For AO Year 2, we will read the Burgess Animals Book all year. I’ve decided to put this one on a Yoto card and listen to the audio version with our Yoto Player while he colors a free coloring page of the animal we’re hearing about. The free Ambleside Online FB group has lots of resources available for this book in the files, which I might pull from time to time, such as a realistic photo or find a YouTube video of the sounds or homes of these animals.
AO Year 2 geography selections were not a favorite the first time through with my daughter. However, after much consideration, advice, and even mulling through other book options, I decided we would carry on with C.C. Holling’s books with my son for numerous reasons. I purchased a Beautiful Feet Books map for Tree In the Trail (we actually liked this one the first time through, but I want my son to make his own connections to the living ideas without my opinion getting in the way). I will find a world map to follow along with Seabird online.
Along with regular weekly map drills using the Seterra app, my son will draw the US map using our Draw the USA book.
Nature Study:
For nature study, we will continue to follow AO’s nature study rotation, but I have not concluded our resources yet. Usually, I use a combination of ideas from The Handbook of Nature Study, library books we find on our topic, and free Ambling Together guides. Nature study is a subject we do as a family, so I think this year we may do it on Fridays or Sundays.
Literature & Reading:
We will follow the AO Year 2 schedule for all literature books, excluding Parables of Nature, which I’ve chosen not to use at this time. We may use an audiobook for Understood Betsy, Wind in the Willows, and Robin Hood, stopping to narrate along the way.
I will read a poem or two a day using Ambleside Online’s Poetry Rotation for Year 2, focusing on one poet per term. I plan to read his poetry aloud a few times a week but may decide to use poetry readings as his reading practice at least once each week.
Additional reading practice resources I’m using:
- Explode the Code Books 2 & 3
- Free and Treadwell Reading Literature Primer book
- Let’s Get Turtles by Millicent E. Selsam
- Tony’s Birds by Millicent E. Selsam
- Terry and the Caterpillars by Millicent E Selsam
- Plenty of Fish by Millicent E. Selsam
- The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick
- Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff (Harper & Row Publisher)
- Red Tag Comes Back by Fred Phleger
Copywork & Handwriting:
I will continue to create free handwriting pages from handwritingpractice.net. If he’s not practicing on a handwriting page, he will copy down a passage straight from one of the day’s readings on lined paper.
Foreign Language:
We are going to do Flip Flop Spanish and try See it and Say it: Whole Family Spanish Level 1. I just purchased the digital box rather than the physical one, and I plan to put the MP3 files on Yoto cards for daily practice. My kids have loved learning simple words and phrases on a whim using free YouTube videos in the mornings, but I am ready to make things a little more formal. Let’s see how it goes!
Math:
We will be using CTC Math this year. I’ve liked using the platform for my oldest, and because we will already have access to all the math levels (you get access to all grades/levels after purchase), I figured I would have everyone use it.
You can read my full review on CTC Math right here.
Art & Music:
We will continue to use AO’s rotations for artists, composers, hymns, and folksongs. I like printing my artist prints from A Humble Place and printing them to display all at once on our wall through each term.
I like to intentionally leave off the titles of the artworks, and while my children and I are studying and observing them, they come up with their own titles and guess what they might be titled. At the end of focusing on one artwork for about two weeks, I will reveal the artist’s title.
Afternoons:
Year 2 has a similar load of readings per week as Year 1, which means we will be done with lessons by lunchtime. Afternoons will be free for playing, going outside, house chores, reading rest time, crafts, drawing, and physical exercise. I do not schedule any of this in Year 2, other than establishing expectations for completing chores before the end of the day, and our daily rest time in the afternoons.
And that’s what we have planned for Year 2 (take two)! I always hold our plans loosely, knowing there will be things we may need to adapt and pivot as we move through my plans in real life. Because I’ve gone through Year 2 before, I don’t plan on pre-reading any of the books again. I’m looking forward to our year in Ambleside Online Year 2 with my son! Follow along our homeschool journey more closely on Instagram!
Feel free to drop a comment if you’ve done AO Year 2 already OR if you are also preparing for this year! I love connecting with fellow AO moms!
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