ACADEMY PROGRAM | ourambleside

Academy at Ambleside
Youth in Middle and High School Years

Our Academy program embraces heart-based, personalized learning that incorporates literature and the arts into all areas of study. To us, education is a matter of creating and nurturing relationships with new ideas, different cultures, the natural world and with each other. Mastery is demonstrated not through quizzes and exams, but through project based learning.

“The question is not, -- how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care?... Our aim in education is to give children vital interests in as many directions as possible—to set their feet in a large room”

Charlotte Mason, School Education

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TUESDAYS

Humanities

We build relationships with cultures different from our own and with the men and women who have come before us through unit studies that incorporate literature, language arts, history, geography and the arts. We’ll explore (and create) art, music, and poetry and come to know other cultures through great literature and creative writing, the culinary arts, festivals, and other projects.

THURSDAYS

Science & Mathematics

Through nature studies and deep dives into the various branches of the sciences, we develop an appreciation and love for the natural world. We’ll get hands-on in nature and in our lab kitchen and learn about the lives of those who have explored before us.

There are no prerequisites for math studies at Ambleside. Instead, we focus on mathematical history, fascinating patterns found in the world around us, and people who have used the beautiful language that is mathematics to express ideas. We’ll also explore mathematical principles through hand-ons projects, games, and logic puzzles. Special units might also cover principles of personal finance and economics.

“Ashley has the gift of presenting ideas in a way that draws students in. You can see when she leads discussions that she values the thoughts of all of her students and she is able to validate and honor our comments in a way that let me know that my ideas mattered and were valued.”

Tammy, former student

Experiential Learning

During a portion of our day, students are mentored in designing and carrying out their own projects. Students are free to work independently or collaborate with peers using the resources available in our learning environments.

Students might choose to spend this time learning a new instrument or language, experimenting with watercolor, clay, photography or other mediums in our art studio, designing and carrying out science projects or engineering experiments in our makerspace labs, designing and caring for one of our many gardens, bouncing ideas off of one another in our writing center or any number of other activities.

STUDENT RECORDS

While more closely resembling Jo’s Plumfield in Little Men than an accredited public high school, because we dig deep into such a variety of subject matter, for diligent students who follow through with assigned work and personal projects, a year of study at Ambleside Academy can be comparable to the following high school subject credits: