Joy to the World! A Christmas Carol Songbook!

Hey there friends and merrymakers!
I hope you are all enjoying the days leading up to Christmas by basking in the Light of lights...

...only 7 more days!

I've compiled a little book that might be helpful (or just plain fun) with Christmas carols and other holiday songs in Spanish and English (with chords).  My budding musicians are aspiring to actually sing with AND play for the church with their fellow Sunday schoolers this year, so it became necessary to have a chord book with both languages (the chords have different names in Spanish too, sorry English chords only).  Plus, I wanted one!  Then I got to thinking I bet there are more people out there that might be looking for this very thing... and so, here you have it!  :)




{Right click here to save .pdf to your computer}


Oh, and it's formatted so that if you print it out booklet style (or whatever your computer calls it) the English/Spanish should be face to face so that the Spanish is on the left, English on the right when you have it open. ;)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, 

and a Blessed New Year to you all!   

PS. I know it may be a teensy weensy bit late getting this posted, but hey! you'll be REALLY ready for next year!  and you can always make up for lost time by singing each song three times a day, at every meal, in both languages, in rounds and 4 part harmony... every day from now 'til Christmas!  ;)  Of course, why stop then?!  OKAY. alright. enough already...

Planning around life.

Well, I'm just pulling my plans together for Term 2 (we started the year early and have to continue on - see note below :), and I've come to realize that the sample weekly list I posted a few days ago was REALLY complicated looking!  hahah!

I guess I'd just gotten used to looking at it since I'd been using it for over a year... but today as  I started subbing this term's information into the boxes... whoa!  I could hardly look at it!  With the cute fonts here and there, it was much too busy.  So, I've renovated and made something a LOT more plain... as well as legible. ;)  I thought I'd put it up here in .doc format and that way if there's anyone doing a AOy6 or AOy2, maybe you could even tweak it to work for you?  Well, regardless, I'm putting it here for my own use... I'll always know where I can find it when I need it!  :)  Also, the list shows how I keep track of multiple students using different years.

Here's what the new format looks like...



Click here to download a copy.

Notes about how I organize:
*I am easily overwhelmed with information overload!  To help with this, I categorize the readings by subject and assign each subject a day (for example, Tues=History, Wed=Literature, etc.).  I do this in order to have a daily checklist.

*I've worked out a daily schedule that we follow loosely, this has been essential for maintaining order around here.  Just to get my head around it, several years ago, I used Managers of Their Homes for working through that.  Our schedule undergoes almost constant tweaking.  Regardless of how I plan, our days are rarely regular.  And we're okay with that ;)

*A daily checklist helps me to easily see the things that need to get done.  When something doesn't get done on the assigned day we move it neatly into 'catch-up' day and don't worry about it a bit until then!

*I re-vamp our weekly list often (as you may have noticed) at the beginning of every term.  I sub in all the readings for that term into the list with page numbers and print off copies for my own use as well as for my older boys.

Keeping it real:

This term includes a good amount of disruptions to normal living as there are two more river trips planned before the end of the year, we'll have guests for several weeks and then will be packing up (putting everything in storage) and moving (across the country to Trujillo).  Then crawling on top of each other adjusting to life in a tiny apartment (for a couple of months... yay!) as well as traveling to and around the US (we may be in Term 3 by then...)  ALL while trying to finish the school year.  heheh.  Life has a way of getting kind of complicated sometimes. (My husband wrote a cool article about our life in missions here.)  At the moment I feel kind of overwhelmed about how it will all work out, but I'm sure it will all work out...


The cool thing is, as homeschoolers we are able to roll with the punches!  We can be flexible!  We can work with what we're given.  Isn't that one of the best perks of teaching our own kids at home?    

I will be finishing my Teaching Reading series this coming week (I've been SO enjoying my study of it). I hope you all will continue to comment and add anything I forget!  Also, make sure to link up in the comments if you've blogged any CM reading lessons so that we can all find them and learn from you!

how to go weekly...

How to make a weekly list using the Ambleside Online curriculum...

...notice I use my AO list to note groceries, and new guitar chords I'm learning too ;)

I need lists.  I need to see what needs to be done, as well as be encouraged seeing what's been finished!  Lists are wonderful!  However, if the list is too long, or too boring, or poorly organized it does me NO good.  I make lots of lists, but the one I use absolutely MOST often is my AO weekly list!  :)


Get a hold of the Term Schedules:

First of all, we are spoiled rotten because of the files AmblesidOnline is coming out with VERY SOON (*edited 4/9/2013) for EVERY AO year in both .pdf and .doc format! You will be able to find all these schedules at AmblesideOnline.org or on the forum. I print a copy of the entire year for my Homeschool Planning Day every year and use it extensively in my planning throughout the year.

The same information is available on the AO site for every year.  You'll see the pages for the booklists and the schedules for each year.  But, that long list is SO overwhelming for me... having to find my place each week, and oh me oh my...  I'm so thankful for the Term Schedules!

Here's an idea of what you'll be looking for in minuscule version :)

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Basically, what we have here is all the AO subjects/readings for year 2 plotted out by week (horizontally), and books/subjects (vertically).  In a lot of cases it even has the readings broken up.  Sometimes not, it depends on the book because there are different versions available, so you can easily just count the pages in your book and evenly divide it up over the term.

I used to just have a print out of this glued to my forehead handy at all times and crossed everything off as we read/narrated.  It has blank fields for you to add in assignments for math, language arts, foreign language, handiwork, etc.  This was a really easy way to go in year one and two even.  But increase the number of children = the result is more complicated...

SO.  I personally need to limit what I see.  Too much information leaves me feeling quite swamped and overwhelmed.  Which leads me in the direction (finally) this post is supposed to be going; the need for a weekly list.

Converting to a weekly list:

The idea is to basically just transfer all the information from one week at a time from the Term Schedule (or from the AO Schedules online), to fit our daily routine.  I fill out this weekly list each term so that I have 12 weeks done ahead of time.  This is my main task each Homeschool Planning Day.  Transferring the information to a weekly list, counting off pages, filling in the assignments for the other subjects, etc.

If you need help figuring out, or putting order to your daily routine, I highly recommend Managers of Their Homes (MOTH), which was vital early when I was first beginning juggling of days. :)

My weekly list incorporates time frames that normally (hah!) work for us... but we are SUPER flexible.  It's there as a guide, nothing more.  Mainly, I work from the following schedule as a list of what I have to accomplish that day.  Here's an example (sorry it's not super clear).



You'll notice the little checkboxes!  These help me keep track of what everyone's doing and done.  :) I'm such a listy girl :)  Basically, a LOT of the information on this list is just transcribed from Judy's Term Schedules pictured above. I put in every assignment and every reading, the exact page numbers so that not only they know what to read, but I know what they're reading (so that I can stay ahead in the readings, if desired, and so that I can know what they are to narrate).

Every 4 weeks I print off the two older boys and myself a booklet of 4 weeks worth (4 pages) of their weekly assignments.  I print it off using booklet format on my computer and it ends up looking something like this:

Imagine that middle gray as a fold ;)

Of course, I had to go and make a fun version for my seven year old girl to check off her assignments as well, here's a peek at hers (she doesn't have all the page numbers on her assignments because for the most part, we're still doing most of her readings together out loud... they are detailed out on the weekly list pictured above):



Now, I could go on FOREVER about my routine, schedule, weekly list... but I'll stop and see if there are any questions.  If there are, I'll be happy to elaborate  ;)  If not, I'll be satisfied knowing that this post covered everything you wanted to know about how to make a weekly list for multiple children doing Ambleside Online!!   heheh.  ;)

I did make a blank weekly list that someone may be interested in using as a guide in making your own weekly list... it's here:

(right click the image and select Save As... to save the full-size pdf file to your computer)
and here's a zip file of the pdf and doc version :)

Composer: Beethoven - free download

whoops!  I forgot to put this on the last post...
I made a Beethoven coloring sheet:

download it here

(right click and 'save as...' or click on the link to print it off)


Enjoy!