Home-Based Learning in Community
Home educators who complete the ASI Internship and Summer Institute may enroll their families in the Ambleside Homeschool Mentor Program, where they receive personal, comprehensive support in providing a home-based Charlotte Mason education. 

Personal Support and Expertise
Each homeschool family is paired with a master teacher. In 30, 1-hour conversations (telephone- or web-based) teachers offer parents support, instruction, inspiration, and elective oversight of children’s work. Teachers also provide assistance with scheduling and insight into particular homeschool challenges.  

Parents participate in 4 national conference calls with ASI mentors, gathering inspiration, honing instructional skills, and building relationships.

Custom Curriculum
Each family receives a personalized Ambleside curriculum with syllabus; scope-and-sequence; and mathematics, grammar, and reading exams.  

Each family receives access to the ASI teacher resource site. Used by Ambleside teachers around the world, the site contains a teachers' discussion forum; instructional archives; student work samples; material-ordering links; and much more. 

Cost
Annual cost: $4,000 per family. Includes all children in immediate family. 

Estimated annual materials cost: $350 per child. 

The Ambleside Homeschool Mentor Program places a strong emphasis on teacher training and development.

Prior to enrolling, interested homeschool parents should attend a 3-day internship and a week-long Summer Institute. Completion of both seminars is a prerequisite for Ambleside Homeschool Mentor Program eligibility. 

Training for Ambleside Homeschool Mentor families, beyond the Internship and Summer Institute, is available. For more information, please contact us.
 

The Ambleside method offers an optimal --but unique in both philosophy and practice-- approach to home-based education.  

Charlotte Mason, consistent with the personalist tradition, asserted that a child is created in the image of God. Thus each child is relational. As a child relates to people, texts, and the world, Mason inferred, he or she learns and grows most wholly.

Drawing on Mason's philosophy and practice, the Ambleside method is built on a relational model. Even though children think and work independently, they do so within the context of relationship.

In the homeschool setting, relational learning usually takes place as a parent and child(ren) give focused attention to the discipline before them. They cultivate relationship as they grow in knowledge and skill. 

This philosophy and practice are vastly different from modern educational systems. Working within the philosophy, consistently applying the practice, and cultivating a habit of reflective practice are all approaches and skills taught in the Internship and Summer Institute.

In addition to personal coaching and support and access to the Teacher Support site, you receive a comprehensive, thoroughly researched and tested curriculum package, custom designed for your students. It contains:  

• List and description of books, materials, and resources needed for each discipline.
• Sources for books, materials, and resources.
• Supplemental resources for handwork, Froebel Gifts, science observations and experiments, Bible, history, and poetry recitation.
• Daily sequences for spelling, mental arithmetic, grammar, composition, science, history, and citizenship.

Disciplines explored in grades K - 8 are listed below.

Kindergarten
Arithmetic, Art, Bible, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Froebel Gifts, Geography, Handwork, Handwriting, Literature, Music, Nature study, Phonics instruction, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Reading instruction, Recitation, Shakespeare, Tales and fables.

First Grade
Arithmetic, Art, Bible, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Handwork, Handwriting, History readings, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Phonics instruction, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Reading instruction, Recitation, Shakespeare, Spelling instruction, Tales and fables, Transcription and dictation.

Second Grade
Arithmetic, Art, Bible, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Handwork, Handwriting, History readings, Literature, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Phonics instruction, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Reading instruction, Recitation, Shakespeare, Spelling instruction, Tales and fables, Transcription and dictation.

Third Grade
Art, Bible, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Grammar, Handwork, Handwriting, History readings, Literature, Mathematics, Meal time, Music, Myths and legends, Nature study, Phonics and spelling instruction, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Recitation, Science, Shakespeare, Transcription and dictation, U.S. and world history.

Fourth Grade
Art, Bible, Citizenship, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Grammar, Handwork, Handwriting, History readings, Literature, Mathematics, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Phonics and spelling instruction, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Recitation, Science, Shakespeare, Transcription and dictation, U. S. and world history.

Fifth Grade
Art, Bible, Citizenship, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Grammar, Handwork, Handwriting, History readings, Literature, Mathematics, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Phonics and spelling instruction, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Recitation, Science, Shakespeare, Transcription and dictation, U. S. and world history.

Sixth Grade
Art, Bible, Citizenship, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Grammar, Handwork, History readings, Literature, Mathematics, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Physical conditioning, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Recitation, Science, Shakespeare, Transcription and dictation, U.S. and world history.

Seventh Grade
Art, Bible, Citizenship, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Grammar, Handwork, History readings, Literature, Mathematics, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Physical conditioning, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Recitation, Science, Shakespeare, Transcription and dictation, U.S. and world history.

Eighth Grade
Art, Bible, Citizenship, Composer study, Composition, Foreign language, Geography, Grammar, Handwork, History readings, Literature, Mathematics, Meal time, Music, Nature study, Physical conditioning, Picture study, Play, Poetry, Read aloud, Recitation, Science, Shakespeare, Transcription and dictation, World history.

At present, the Ambleside Homeschool Mentor Program serves families with students in grades K-8. 

History
The Ambleside Homeschool curriculum has been carefully designed and improved upon over many years. It draws on the work done by Charlotte Mason and the Parents National Education Union (PNEU), Mason's 6-volume work on education, and the PNEU timetables and coursework.

Philosophy
Curriculum is not simly a collection of materials and schedules for covering the materials in a set number of months. Mason understood curriculum as a link in the chain that connects to many other chains of cause and consequence.  She often exhorted the educator to envision the “growing person” who would grow in maturity with God, self, others, and the world through a broad and generous course of study. The Ambleside curriculum has been deliberately designed with the growing person in mind.

Practice
The Ambleside Homeschool curriculum combines “books and things” that are rich in ideas and provide instruction in both knowledge and skill. These ideas feed students' minds, enabling them not just to score well on a test, but to relate to and understand the world around them. The “books and things” that comprise the Ambleside Homeschool curriculum reflect how the mind works, how children learn, and how narrative language enhances retention.

Once introduced to Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and trained in the Ambleside method, educators will be able to identify live-giving, idea-rich texts and use them in numerous settings.

However, the Ambleside Homeschool curriculum coursework is built around specific, carefully researched material. To receive the full benefit of master teacher mentoring, ASI community, and curriculum preparation, use of ASI-specified material is recommended.

ASI selects the best texts and materials available, supplementing many texts with Ambleside guides and materials. Our staff intentionally builds curriculum with resources that are in print and readily available to purchase.

Though the list of disciplines may appear daunting at first glance, our broad, but carefully designed, curriculum is designed to both provide a feast of ideas, and to be a light yoke.

Internships, Summer Institutes, mentoring conversations, and ongoing teacher development all doevetail with the curriculum design to support you as you introduce your students to education as an atmosphere, a habit, and a life. 

The Ambleside Homeschool curriculum offers teachers the flexibility of introducing the same discipline across a range of ages and individual skill levels while still encouraging all children to grow in independent thought and effort. Most inspirational subjects are taught in group settings; disciplinary subjects are taught in both group and individual contexts.

Each family is unique, with differing levels of constraint or flexibility. However, in one typical Ambleside Homeschool family, school is in session Monday to Thursday from 8:00 to 1:30. Fridays, from 8:00 to 10:30, are set aside for independent work.

No, the Ambleside Homeschool curriculum is licensed for your personal use only. It may not be shared outside your immediate family.