Ambleside Online is an extensive K-12 curriculum based on the Charlotte Mason method. This means kids read real books rather than textbooks, spend time in nature, and are allowed time after school to pursue their own interests. The resources on the Ambleside website are completely free, as is membership in the support network. The authors are adamant that simply reading the books on these lists won't give your child a Charlotte Mason-style education, though: you'll need to thoroughly understand and apply her methods, which they've made available to users in free online e-texts via a contemporary-language translation of her 6-volume homeschool education series.
If you plan on using Ambleside Online, your first stop should be the FAQ section for information about the curriculum and basic instructions. Do not attempt to use this curriculum without first reading the FAQ's. Homeschoolers hoping to raise their children to be readers, as Charlotte Mason urged, owe it to themselves to take the first step in reading by looking over the instructions for the curriculum they plan to use. The FAQ section has all the questions that people routinely ask, with detailed answers and explanations collected from two years of responses to user questions.
This unofficial "year" is designed to be picked up at any point during Term 1. Since Year 3.5 is a transitional booklist, it lacks the historical chronology of the other Years. It should be implemented for students who completed Year 3 but need an additional year to get ready for the more advanced pace of Year 4. Depending on where you pick up, you may want to add books from Year 3's Free Reading List for literature to Term 1 (if you begin early in the term) or double up on The Story Book of Science and Home Geography to reach your beginning point. This plan uses almost exclusively books that are available free online, since many who find they need this plan will have already purchased Year 4's books and may not have a budget for another year of curriculum. A schedule dividing this work into 36-weeks is here.
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