As we enter the final three weeks of our 2024-2025 homeschool year, I’m reflecting on the balance between wrapping up this year’s plans and getting ready 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 5:
We’ll continue using Ambleside Online for both kids this year. (See my Year 2, take two plans on the blog coming soon!) To see the full free curriculum booklist and schedule, visit Ambleside Online’s website.
Bible & Theology:
The Bible is read and discussed together as a family, and we will use 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.
One extra series or subject I am including for Year 5 is theology. A handful of moms I know recommended The Big Questions book series and after pre-reading them, I believe these are going to be an excellent resource for me to use to answer some common big theological questions kids (and adults) have as believers. While our main resource for answering these questions is found in the Bible, the author Chris Morphew gives aid to parents through these books on how to respond with a gospel mindset to our hearts’ biggest questions.
I plan to read our theology book series together and discuss the questions (found free on the goodbook website) once a week.
History:
AO Year 5 history covers 1800-1914, American and some world history. I made zero changes this year to AO’s Year 5 history. My daughter loved George’s World in Year 4 and is ready to get her hands on Lincoln’s World for Year 5.
Now that my daughter is older, I’ve decided to keep Trial and Triumph in our AO schedule for Year 5. They are short readings; I might even put this one on audio for her to use with a Yoto Player.
My daughter will continue to add to her book of centuries once a week from her readings, and we will use our maps to look up locations.
I will have her keep a blank map and mark locations, dates, and events for her Lewis and Clark readings.
I decided we would read other biographies and stories during the weekends, or when there’s space in the weekly schedule, from the same time period to give an even bigger picture of the times. Some of the books I’ve chosen so far are:
- The Journey of York: The Unsung Hero of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad
- Sacagawea
- Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman
Geography:
My children and I have loved implementing Charlotte Mason’s method for geography; reading about real people, their cultures, and about real places in the world. We’ve done this with not only living books, but also family road trips, mapwork, and videos of places.
In Year 5, my daughter will read through the Book of Marvels, discovering the wonders of the world. While we wish to see all these places in person, I’ll supplement with YouTube videos occasionally after each reading, and/or using this website often. She will also keep track of each location on a world map.
We will continue to use the Seterra app for free map drills each week. Right now, she’s working through the US state capitols.
Most of the recommended geography concepts for Year 5 will overlap with our Nature Study (brooks, rivers, oceans) so I plan to pull from our nature books, and Long’s Home Geography.
Science & Nature Study:
AO Year 5 Science topics are Biology, Earth Sciences, and Inventions.
I am still pre-reading Wild Animals I Have Known to ensure this is the best book for our topic.
We will use Great Inventors and Their Inventions this year, and as I pre-read I’m looking for Youtube Videos to further show these incredible inventions we have in the world.
There will be a science biography per term which I know my daughter will enjoy, as we were surprised by how much we loved Issac Newton’s biography from Year 4.
Our science biographies for Year 5 include:
Term 1- The Story of Madam Curie (Signature Book)
Term 2- Always Inventing (A Photobiography of Alexander Graham Bell)
Term 3- The Story of George Washington Carver (Signature Book)
For biology, I’ve decided to use Lisa’s (Ambling Together) Free Year 5 Anatomy Guide in replace of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.
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.
Lastly, I will be covering the topic of early womanhood, and sex education for a term with my daughter. The book I will read with her is Growing Up God’s Way for Girls. This book is age-appropriate for our home, but I may wait to read the last few chapters for another year or two as I know this conversation will be ongoing.
Literature & Reading:
We will follow the AO Year 5 schedule for all literature books. However, we will follow AO’s Year 2 Shakespeare rotation as a family.
I’ve found our literature selections to be the sweet spot for using audiobooks (usually free from Librivox) along with the physical book. My daughter will have the option to read on her own or use an audiobook alongside her book.
Age of Fable will be continued with the audio version alongside her following in the physical book. This has helped both her and myself when it comes to pronouncing names.
She will read a poem or two a day using Ambleside Online’s Poetry Rotation for Year 5, focusing on one poet per term.
Free Read selections from AO Year 5 won’t be narrated or required readings. Rather, having several free-read books on hand has helped me continue introducing great literature during independent afternoon reading.
Foreign Language:
Latin: We had a rough go with beginning Latin in Year 4. Nevertheless, I decided we would try Getting Started with Latin. It seems less teacher-intensive, and fairly straightforward in each lesson which I like. This curriculum has a free app and recordings that will become a daily practice for my Year 5.
Spanish: 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!
Citizenship:
We’re giving Plutarch another go. I picked up the Plutarch Project Volume One by Anne White and decided to commit to doing a lesson 1-2x a week, depending on the length of the lesson.
I’ve also picked up The Young Citizen’s Reader by Paul Reinsch and may start this one either in term 2 or term 3.
Language Arts:
There are four main components to our language arts for year 5: Copywork, Recitation, Spelling/Dictation, and Grammar.
Copywork comes directly from our readings of Shakespeare, poetry, or literature books daily. She simply writes down passages for about 10 minutes, using her best handwriting.
Recitation will be certain Bible Scripture passages I’ve selected from Simply Charlotte Mason’s free Scripture Verse pack using the ESV version. Recitations are done together as a family.
We are continuing with Spelling Wisdom Book 1 for dictation and spelling practice, and Fix It Grammar Level 2 for formal grammar lessons.
My daughter has just about wrapped up A Reason for Handwriting C, and I probably won’t purchase another handwriting book for her at this time. She gets in a lot of handwriting practice with copywork, spelling, grammar, and soon-to-be written narrations, so as long as I keep setting the standard for continued neatness, good spacing, etc., I think she will be just fine.
This year I plan to have her do 2-3 written narrations a week. She is already doing 1-2 written narrations at the end of Year 4, so this will increase just slightly.
I’m thinking about having her and I sit down at the end of the week and go over her written narrations together, and possibly red-line one or both of them with her to help further develop her writing skills.
Lastly, she will continue using typing.com for practice. She has been using it for a couple of years now, and it’s very easy for her to practice for 10-15 minutes a couple of times a week.
Math:
I’ve shared a full review of the new-to-us online math curriculum we jumped into last year, so be sure to check it out if you want to know more! With that said, we will continue to use CTC Math. I was so hesitant to start an online math program, but it has been such a good fit for my daughter.
Once a week, we will also work through Grocery Cart Math and do weekly math drills from The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series Book 2 to keep math concepts fresh.
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.
During the afternoons, my daughter will practice drawing using The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws. There are some free tutorials on YouTube from Wild Wonder Foundation learning to draw various nature elements or things, so we may include these once in a while as well to follow along with.
I also have The Nature Journal Connection playlist saved by John Muir Laws which might be something we include as part of nature journaling once a week.
And that’s what we have planned for Year 5! 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. As I’ve mentioned, I have already started pre-reading for Year 5 and I personally have found this year to be one of my favorites! I am looking forward to our year in Ambleside Online Year 5! Follow along our homeschool journey more closely on Instagram!
Feel free to drop a comment if you’ve done AO Year 5 already OR if you are also preparing for this year! I love connecting with fellow AO moms!
I love reading your plans, you seem so prepared and your love for what you’re doing is so beautifully obvious 😍 We’re doing most of AO Year 5 with my eldest this year and it is such a rich experience. Your additions and insights or so valuable, thank you!