AO vs WTM vs BYL vs UM

What?  Here’s a glossary before we dig in to each:
AO = AmblesideOnline 
WTM = Well Trained Mind
BYL = Build your Library
UM = Ursa Minor

AmblesideOnline (AO/HEO)

AmblesideOnline is the Charlotte Mason inspired “curriculum” put together by homeschool-mom volunteers based on the original writings of Charlotte Mason herself.  AO provides “curriculum” lists and schedules for K-12th grade (Years 0-12).

Sample portion of Year 9 schedule (our modified schedule from downloaded version):

These book lists and schedules are full of living books and primary sources, many of which support a Christian world-view.  There are options to pick and choose from, so no one should feel compelled to use all of the recommended books.  

“House of Education” (HEO) is the upper level designation of AO.  As stated in their High School FAQ:

“It is not uncommon for high school students to begin HEO in Y7 and not in Y9. The course work involved and the amount of reading definitely merit the distinction of “honors” level.”

AmblesideOnline

While the younger levels of AO included a good number of science resources, at the Y9-Y12 level there is little science included.  It is intended that students use some type of science curriculum (Apologia is recommended; BJU is another suggested option) for the high school years, making sure to include lab science as required by your own home state.

What do we think?  

After using AO from Y0-Y8, we are ready to customize our education a little more.  Year 7 consisted of history from 800-1485 and Year 8 covered 1400-1688, and they both were heavy on British history.  After finishing these time periods, we realized we seemed to have missed out on the history that was occuring around the rest of the world. British history lays the groundwork for American history, so we understand why it was the focus; Sunshinegirl really enjoys history and wanted to spend more time on other portions of the globe.

Because of that, we felt we wanted to “redo” the time periods covered in Year 7 and 8 before moving on to American history, and staying with Michigan state “requirements”, we felt a year or two of “World History” would be a better fit.  We may pick and choose resources from AO to fit into our high school years, but we will no longer let AO be the spine.

One other note worth sharing is that AO is Christian in nature.  While we are mainline Protestant and worship regularly, we tend towards more secular resources.  This was another factor in many of the books we “skipped” in the past and the prospect of using AO going further.

Well-Trained Mind (WTM)

Well Trained Mind is not a curriculum or schedule per se, but Classical education suggestions based on the book “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” by Susan Wise Bauer.  This is a very helpful book full of ideas, book lists and direction for a Classical education (a methodology that supports the three main different “phases” of a child’s learning development – Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric – teaching them how to think and learn).

The book lists are thorough and full of rich literature and heavy in history, and the book provides sample schedules and expectations for the time to spend on each subject based on the age of the child.  The book does NOT provide a week-by-week schedule of what pages to read in which book – that is up to you.  

I do have to say that the Well Trained Mind forums are full of information on specific curriculum and books, and even though we haven’t directly followed WTM, when I have a curriculum choice to make, I check the forums for thoughts.

Susan Wise Bauer and the Well Trained Mind have written and developed books that support a Classical education, mostly focused on History and Language Arts.  We own a few of the history books (Story of the World, Vol 4, The History of the Medeval World and The History of the Renaissance World) which are fascinating and complete (and have SO much more information in them than a standard public school history textbook!).

What do we think?

The Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling is considered “somewhat” Classical, but does not follow the Grammar/Logic/Rhetoric stages directly.  For example, the Grammar stage (roughly elementary school age) is the time when children soak up facts and information, so a Classical education feeds that.  Feeds that?  Yes, with lots of memorization and language learning.  At the Logic stage (roughly middle school), students start processing those facts, and at the Rhetoric stage (high school) students analyze, debate, compare/contrast the information.  I was not a fan of so much memorization so early in education. I prefer the more gentle approach from Charlotte Mason — children are sponges that will soak up the information that is interesting to them; not what is force fed them.  I know, I’m probably offending someone, but I knew the memorization would not work for Sunshinegirl.

A classical education approach, specifically the lists in WTM, is rich in great literature and history resources, which I do 100% agree with.  At minimum, if you just want a list of “books to read before graduation” (or even “books to read” for YOU!), WTM lists are a great source!

Build Your Library (BYL)

I am not sure where or when I first found Build Your Library, but I think the first time I found it it was a list of books.  When I revisited the site during the winter of 8th grade, I found a wonderful list of books for each grade and the option to purchase a curriculum guide that provided daily support on how to use the books.  To be honest, had I found this prior to 8th grade year, I probably would have used the 8th grade year (it is very heavy on science and history of science, both topics we love!).

Build Your Library is Charlotte Mason inspired but, unlike AO, is secular. The book choices include the older classics but also include more recent titles, making it:

“A Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool curriculum, but with a 21st-century twist…”

Build Your Library

Without buying anything you have access to the book lists that link out to Amazon (or other sites), so in itself the site is a great resource for books.  When you purchase a guide (downloadable PDF), the guide includes the booklists; the lists helpfully note which weeks it is in use, which makes it easy to only purchase/check-out-from-library the books you need for upcoming weeks!  The guide also provides a week at a glance grid followed by daily tasks to complete (complete with vocabulary to look up and comprehension questions to answer).  This is a complete curriculum that covers most subjects: math and foreign language are not included.

As mentioned before, the booklists contain older classics and newer resources, and they seem to run the gamut of “difficulty”.  We purchased the Level 10 World History1 bundle for 9th grade, and many of the books are written for the adult level, which is what I would expect for high school.  They do include, though, some graphic books (comic books on serious subjects).

What do we think?

We are planning to try this for the first year in ninth grade, so I will have to update this after our experience.  (Note: We chose use Level 10 for ninth grade because of the World History and Biology it included.) I have gone through the first half of the year and made my plans, and while I love many of the books, some I chose not to use.  The World History spine and a few of the science books were comic book style, which I wasn’t crazy about.  I subbed those out for more standard resources.  I wanted to be a little heavier on classical literature, so I swapped some books out for more classical choices (e.g., we are used to doing three Shakespeare plays a year and wanted to maintain that, but BYL only has one Shakespeare title in Level 10).  I liked some of the books in Level 8 and Level 9 (which we didn’t do), so I also pulled those into 10, dropping some less-interesting books.  

What I am really looking forward to is the multi-media links each week.  History, Science and Art history all have weekly links to documentaries (YouTube, Amazon, e.g.) or Khan academy course videos that will bring these areas to life.  While Sunshinegirl is a voracious reader, she learns best using multiple resource types all supporting the same outcome – books, hands on, videos, and projects.  This part excites me the most this year (well, and the BOOKS….again, an amazing PILE OF BOOKS)!

Ursa Minor Learning

I stumbled upon Ursa Minor Learning in the winter of eighth grade, and I was greatly impressed with the book lists.  Ursa Minor states that it is a Charlotte Mason inspired secular curriculum based on history and science.  You got me there! History?  Yes!  Science?  Oh yea!  And it is free — each year from 7-12 is listed on the site with the list of books and resources.  There are no schedules or weekly breakdowns, so it is up to you to schedule out the resources as needed.

From what I can see it is VERY history and science based.  Each year covers both World and American history and various areas of science.  In Year 9, e.g., the student covers Biology all year, and then spends a term each on Medicine, Engineering, and Chemistry!  The science resources used are college level (Biology and Chemistry uses MIT’s OpenCourseware resources).

What we think

The lists of books are impressive (and secular), providing a challenge to both student and teacher!  I have incorporated some of the resources into ninth grade because they seemed so compelling.  

What I didn’t like from a homeschool-mom-trying-to-create-a-transcript is the variety of topics all covered each year.  I’d rather focus on one “science” and one history “time period” than cover disjointed topics throughout the year.  I don’t mind American and World history at the same time, and in fact I personally think that makes more sense, BUT, if we did both at the same time, I’d want them to complement each other and cover parallel time periods (they focus on different time periods in UM).

I think Ursa Minor was planning to provide weekly breakdowns of the readings, since it is mentioned and alluded to on some of the pages.  But from what I can tell they aren’t on the site.  It is still a very rich set of resources and a source for substitutes in our BYL ninth grade year.

Bottom line?

Each of the above is full of amazing living books that would provide a world-class education.  AO, WTM and UM are probably equally as challenging; UM and BYL are the most secular (though WTM could be, too).  BYL is the most “complete” curriculum when you purchase the guide.  AO and UM are totally free; WTM and BYL have aspects that are free.

Is one perfect for you?  Probably not, since one wasn’t perfect for us for high school.  I ended up creating a spreadsheet that compared AO, UM and BYL for each subject, and then highlighted the books in each subject we’d use.  Every child is different, and when possible, every education should be different.  

So I don’t feel bad eating alphabet soup (UM+AO+WTM+BYL) for high school!