Ambleside Online Year 2 Term 1 - Exams
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Exams…something I didn’t think I would EVER do in these early years of homeschooling, but they loomed above me whenever my eyes glanced through the menu bar on the AmblesideOnline website when I went looking for resources. I didn’t get around (slash, didn’t ever really actually plan on doing!) exams last year, as it was just one of the many things that I wasn’t able to wrap my head around in our first official year of Ambleside. But, I gave it a bash at the end of our first term of Year 2 (we start our school year in January here in South Africa) and I’m SO glad we did!
First of all, I had to take away every preconceived idea of what an exam meant to me, and start ‘fresh’. I needed to put aside the worry and concern about how well my child would or wouldn’t do, and rather look at it as a way of realistically assessing her learning for the term. And, because we had just read the book Understood Betsy (Everly’s absolute favourite book so far) and had gone through Betsy’s own positive experience with Exams; when I mentioned that we would be doing exams too, Everly was so excited and would ask me every day if today would be her chance to ‘do exams’. What a thing! I never would have imagined such a scenario.
While prepping for our first set of exams, I (unfortunately), found myself getting very caught up in how ‘far behind’ we seemed to be when I read Celeste Cruz's post on her blog, Jouyous Lessons. We all know in our hearts not to compare, but reading that post hit particularly hard because before reading it, I felt as though we were SO far ahead and doing #allthethings and going above and beyond what most homeschoolers were achieving with their Second Grade (or Grade 2 here in South Africa) students. In retrospect, it was actually a very good lesson in maintaining a humble heart. I tend to get a little plucky about homeschooling (maybe it’s because us homeschoolers often feel like we need to justify our decision to homeschool in the first place. And therefore whatever we are doing surely must be far better than anything mainstream schools may have to offer…said with a very strong note of sarcasm for all my non-homeschooling readers and followers). In any case, it was a hard pill to swallow to realise that even though I thought we had aced Year 1 (click here to read), there is always room for improvement, and that I need to remain open & teachable, always. And now after that little heart check haha, let’s get back to the main point of this post, and that is exams in a Charlotte Mason homeschool.
Here is a lovely summary from the Ambleside website on what exams should be when following their curriculum:
"In general, the purpose of exams is to let the student show what they know, not what they don't know. The principle to use in shaping an exam for your child is: how can they show what they know?" -- Karen Glass
Karen also wrote a post about "What if my child doesn't remember?" on the AO Advisory blog. AO mom Celeste Cruz talked with Cindy Rollins about exams for The Mason Jar podcast. And don't miss Wendi's post about exams on the AO Advisory's Archipelago blog.
With the above in mind, I printed off the sample questions from Ambleside (click here) and changed a few questions to fit what we covered for Maths, and took out the bits and pieces we didn’t get around to doing. This is another helpful element to the exams; they reminded me of the things that I need to include going into Term 2. For us ,these were things like Recitation, Second Language Study & Hymns. It seems to be a common thread that the Riches (the diverse & enRICHing elements of a Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum that go beyond traditional academic subjects. These include picture study, composer study, nature study, Shakespeare, hymns, folk songs, poetry, and more. The term "riches" signifies the many ways the curriculum aims to nurture a child's love for learning and appreciation for beauty and wisdom) always get pushed to the bottom of the ToDo list, and the more academic subjects always seem to take priority. I am aiming to be better at this going forward, and I’m trying to work out how I can include my younger children in the riches. I’m aiming to have these things happen during morning time/when we are all together and not just during official ‘school time’ for my oldest. I have found that meal times offer a good opportunity for Bible stories, poetry, folk songs and picture study.
I also used the voice recorder app on my phone (which was SO incredibly helpful as it also transcribed the entire recording which saved me a good few hours of time) so that I could then print out the questions and answers and pop them in her file for record keeping. I also wanted to keep a copy of this for myself, so that I can look back on her progress, not just throughout the year, but for memory’s sake later on.
I wanted to include my husband in the whole thing too (not just to remind him that we/ahem…I…made the right choice in the deicion whether or not to homeschool) but because it made it a little bit more special for Everly. She loved having us both sitting there with her. I asked some questions, and I had Dale ask her a few. By the time she had sung her favourite folk song he was finished, tears streaming down his face at how proud he was of her (sniff sniff, it was very special indeed). I was overcome with emotions too, and so proud of my little girl in her so-very-earnest re-telling of her stories, her beautiful singing, and her cheeky answer to the question about Nature Study…"We haven’t actually done any Nature Study” she answered in a matter of fact tone. I laughed out loud and told her that her life here on the farm is basically one big fat nature study lesson.
I went back and forth on whether or not include her narrations here, as I sincerely hope that no one reading this post ever feels like I did when I first read Celeste’s post on her first exams. But, I have decided that it might actually be helpful for someone. There aren’t many resources for South African homeschool parents written BY South Africans; and it might be inspiring for those would like to know more/find out more about what goes into a Charlotte Mason inspired education.
Also…just a note, I did not spend too long editing the transcript from the audio file of the exam, and so I’m sure there are a lot of bits and pieces in the below that may sound a bit nonsensical. I think my iPhone battled a bit with Everly’s very British, but still very South African accent, as well as her pauses, umms and giggles in between. Mostly I was blown away at the length of her narrations for even just one of the questions. I really expected a lot more “I can’t remember” and blank faces, as usually happens during our school day and her narrations there.
Now, I cringe a little when looking back at Everly’s handwriting in the exam, because this is definitely not a sample of her best work. We are using a lovely little 3 spaced/lined exercise book for her copy work (see image below). I’m including a sample of this alongside her exam piece because it’s important to note that the same child, on a different day (and in a vastly different state of mind…ie focused/cross/distracted/annoyed with their teacher aka mom) can produce some vastly different versions of ‘their best work’.
And here are a few samples of the Artwork she has done this term so far.
We followed tutorials for all of the below (tutorials are a really fun way of learning, while gaining skills…and it’s a bonus that the end result is usually, something very beautiful). And yes I know, every single piece of art that our children produce is beautiful, but it does help when there are a couple of really ‘frameable’ pieces in the mix of their collection of artwork.
Note to self…don’t laminate pastel drawings! While I LOVE to laminate my kids artwork, especially when displaying them around the house as those sticky little fingers love to hold and showcase their work to anyone and everyone; the heat just did not play nicely with the poor Squirrel below.
Even though I spent far too much in my head in the lead up to this first set of Exams, I’m so glad I plucked up the courage (this sounds a bit crazy I know, but I really did have talk myself off a ledge, and what also helped was a phone call to my mom for a pep talk…and she knows next to nothing about Ambleside/Charlotte Mason…but she did have some very practical and grounding advice). I’m so glad I didn’t put it off for another time/another year.
My advice, don’t think or worry too much about it, and just pick a day, announce your intention to your student(s), take out some pretty pens, grab your partner/nanny/other kids as audience members (unless your child would hate this idea and bottle up with an audience!) and start asking your questions. And if you find yourself a bit disappointed with how things go, use it as an opportunity to change things up in the next term (you’re free to add or remove things in your homeschool!) so that you’re reminded of the life giving beauty of a Charlotte Mason style education.
