A Day in the Life of Ambleside

7:55 AM    The entire school assembles in the main hall.  The students sing a hymn or contemporary praise song and then recite the pledge to the American flag.  A morning prayer closes this brief gathering and the students go to their classrooms.

8:15 AM    Following the youngest Ambleside students into the kindergarten classroom, we find a comfortable room with a big sunny window, green plants and an antique armoire full of beautiful books.  The students quietly sit down on their cushions in a circle around the teacher's feet to hear a Bible story about Daniel.  They're hard at work.  "How do you think Daniel could be so brave when he saw all those lions waiting for him?" asks the teacher.   "He knew God would be with him, no matter what," one student answers confidently.

Meanwhile in Music, class begins with the teacher singing a greeting to each first grader in a different tune.  They listen carefully, each answering the teacher in song.  Today students will continue work on the harmony of a song to be sung at an upcoming concert.  These young students are learning to sing parts and perfect their pitch.  Music instruction is part of the required curriculum in all grades.

10:22 AM  A group of eleven 3^rd and 4^th graders are scattered around their room, which resembles a local habitat for butterflies.  Each student scrutinizes a specimen or part of their habitat such as a blossom or fern.  "Oh, there's the Gulf Fritillary," says one student.  Paint brushes in hand, they mix watercolor tones painstakingly. "I think this green is a little too yellow," says another. The paintings are labeled and specimens described.

In the 5^th and 6^th grade classroom, students are learning about the earth's atmosphere and how vapor becomes rain.  After reading and narrating orally, they illustrate the cycle in their copybooks-- a permanent collection of their careful and creative summaries of the year's studies in Science.  On the classroom walls we see beautifully printed passages used for the student's dictation exercises.

11:20 AM  Students of varying grades eat lunch under the flower-laden arbor with their classmates and teachers.  After healthful lunches are eaten and cheerful discussions set aside, the students have time for jump rope, soccer, or just chatting with friends.  Students are also given 15 minute breaks throughout the day to release that pent-up energy and help them regain their focus in the classroom.

12:15 PM   In the junior high classroom, the eye is drawn immediately to the top of the wall where a timeline of people and events in history is laid out in pictures and text along a black ribbon that stretches around the room.  We find the teacher reading aloud Joan of Arc by Mark Twain.  Distractions are minimized principally by the riveting plots and vibrant, memorable characters of books which compose Ambleside Curriculum, but also by the realization that any student may be called upon at any time to retell what has just been read.        

1:00 PM    2nd grade students are concentrating on their reproductions of a Degas painting.  "Do you see how the slant of the line shows the distance of the figures?" the teacher asks.  The students work to duplicate the lines in the work as closely as possible.

2:10 PM    The 5^th and 6^th graders are reading aloud the journals of Lewis and Clark, and working to map out the explorers' two-year trek of uncharted territory.  With thoughtful curiosity, the students consider, discuss and relate the writers' main ideas, which they will then summari e in essay form in their notebooks.

2:50 PM    Its the end of the day. For the last 10 minutes, every student pitches in to clean up the school building with assigned chores.  Going home, as on most days, with little to no homework for the younger students, and a moderate amount (1-1.5 hours) for older students, the children are looking forward to playing outside, relaxing and spending time with their families.