Years 9-10-11: First Year Booklist

AmblesideOnline Years 9-10-11:

Years 9-10-11 in Two Years: Overview

First Year Booklist
First Year Schedule

Second Year Booklist
Second Year Schedule

AO Curriculum Overview

As students mature, their reading material will present more challenging content, and may include strong language and more mature themes. We have placed footnotes linked in red beside those books that most parents will consider an issue. However, we cannot anticipate which content might be an issue for every family. We encourage parents to pre-screen material to determine its appropriateness for their child and family.

Note: These booklists and curriculum suggestions are incomplete without a thorough understanding of Charlotte Mason's ideas and methods. We cannot emphasize enough that you take time to familiarize yourself with her philosophy by reading her books.

If you're planning to use AmblesideOnline, your first stop should be the the FAQ for some information about the curriculum and basic instructions. Our FAQ answers all the questions that people routinely ask: AO's history scope and sequence, how to schedule your school days, how to do narration, and more.

Key: (What do all those symbols mean?)

Book titles are linked to Project Gutenberg (which offers free etexts in a variety of formats) or other online text when no Project Gutenberg text is available.

Asterisks refer to which term the book is used: * Term 1 ** Term 2 *** Term 3

β - manybooks.net, another free ebook site.
α - free etext at archive.org; newer books can be borrowed for one hour at a time.
(ChrBk) - purchase from Christianbook.com using AO's affiliate link.
K - free Kindle text from amazon.com.
(£amzn) - Living Books Press purchase using AO's amazon.com affiliate link.
($amzn) - book purchase using AO's amazon.com affiliate link.
(K) - Kindle purchase using AO's amazon.com affiliate link.
(£) - Purchase directly from Living Books Press with an affiliate link; save 10% with discount code: AOBooks
Λ - free audiobook at Lit2Go
Ω - free audiobook at Librivox ^[2]
∩ - other free audiobook source
^[0] - Click the bracketed numeral to view any notes about the book near the bottom of the page.
^[0] - red footnotes indicate a heads-up for parents about the title. We cannot foresee every incident that might potentially be an issue to every family, but we have red-flagged those that are commonly a concern.

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AO is an affiliate of Christianbook.com, which means that when you purchase from our (ChrBk) links, we receive a commission that helps with our costs.

AmblesideOnline is part of Amazon.com's Affiliate program. If you use the Amazon links, we receive a small commission which enables us to cover the costs of keeping the website and curriculum. Amazon links are identified like this: ($amzn) or (£amzn) or (K).

AmblesideOnline Year 9-10-11 Curriculum

Daily Work:

Copywork
Mathematics
Recitation
Science, such as Apologia
Physical activity - one option is Swedish Drill Revisited by Dawn Duran purchase

Weekly Work:

Current Events (Keep up with your choice of periodicals or blogs)
Dictation and additional writing assignments
Foreign language
Handicrafts
Music Appreciation, including composers, folksongs and hymns
Outdoor Nature Study
Artist/Picture Study
Grammar
One of Plutarch's Lives spread over each term
A Shakespeare play spread over each term

Weekly Readings

The following weekly readings should be broken up into daily readings in whatever way works best for your family.

Bible

OT: Judges; Ruth; 1 Sam; 2 Sam; 1 Kings; Eccl; 2 Kings; 1 Chron; NT: Mark; Acts; James; Gal; John 1-15. Psalms 106-150 and 1-29, Prov 1-24:16

Spiritual Formation

finish Saints and Heroes, Vol 2, by George Hodges α for church history, if you didn't use Trial and Triumph in Years 1-6: ch 13 Fox, ch 12 Wesley (in Weeks 2 and 3) ($amzn) (K)

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis α α α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K)
God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew and John Sherrill α α α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K)
or The Little Woman by Gladys Aylward and Christine Hunter α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) ^[1]

History

Keep a century chart and Century Book of the period studied. ^[tl]

The Age of Revolution, by Winston Churchill ($amzn) (K) volume 3 of History of the English Speaking Peoples; schedule here ^[2]
The Great Democracies by Winston Churchill ($amzn) (K), volume 4 of History of the English Speaking Peoples; schedule here
Miracle at Philadelphia, by Catherine Drinker Bowen ($amzn)
The section on George Washington from James Baldwin's Four Great Americans, online here.
Arguing About Slavery, by William Lee Miller ($amzn) will be continued into next year)

Short Stories

My Kinsman, Major Molineux by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1832; also here and here; from The Snow Image)
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835; also here) Ω
The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allen Poe (1839) Ω
The Overcoat, by Nikolai Gogol (1842) audio Ω Ω
A Simple Heart, by Gustave Flaubert (1877; also called A Simple Soul) Ω
The Grand Inquisitor, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880) Ω

Essays

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Art from Society and Solitude; Nature from "Essays: Second Series"")
Frederick Douglass (Reconstruction, An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage, My Escape From Slavery) Ω

Poetry

William Cowper and Phillis Wheatley (ChrBk)
George Gordon, Lord Byron (23 poems here)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning (some poems here.)

Copywork

Include selections from Shakespeare, the Bible, poetry and other sources. These selections may be the same ones used for recitation. Consider beginning a personal quote book.

Dictation

Do dictation regularly.

Grammar and Composition

Writers Inc, by Patrick Sebranek, Verne Meyer, Dave Kemper ($amzn) (OR one of the grammar options from an earlier year if you haven't done grammar yet)
The Book on Writing: the Ultimate Guide to Writing Well, by Paula LaRocque (will be continued into next year)
How To Read a Book, revised edition, by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K)

Recitation

Psalm 23; Isaiah 40; Romans 8; Matthew 5; James 1; 1 John 1
Shakespeare passages
a poem per term from the term's poetry selections

Foreign Language

Begin Latin if you've not started already OR continue with any previous foreign language studies

Geography

The Royal Road to Romance, by Richard Halliburton ($amzn) (K)

Citizenship

Ourselves, by Charlotte Mason (£) (£amzn)

The Universe Next Door by James Sire (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K)
Yuval Levin interview on The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of the Left and Right YouTube, 1 hour
One Race One Blood by Ken Ham and A. Charles Ware (Revised and Updated Edition) (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) The chapters are online at their website.
Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave by David Breese α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K)

Follow AO's rotation of Plutarch's Lives.

Government and Economics

Common Sense, by Thomas Paine β α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) Ω
Essays (from John Hopkins's Notions on Political Economy), by Jane Haldimand Marcet α
The Law by Frederic Bastiat or here ($amzn) (K) OR this 107-page pdf
On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill β α ($amzn) (K) Ω
A basic government book ^[3]

Current Events

Keep up with daily news (resource options here) and keep a calendar of events

Nature Study and Science

The Handbook of Nature Study α, by Anna Botsford Comstock (as a reference) (ChrBk) ($amzn)
Apologia science text ($earch) OR BJU Press Science
The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson ($amzn) (K) α ^[4]
Great Astronomers by R.S. Ball β α (£) (£amzn) ^[5]
Signs and Seasons: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy by Jay Ryan, ch 6-epilogue ($amzn) (CBD) ^[6]
The Microbe Hunters, by Paul de Kruif α ($amzn) (K) chapters 1-3

Follow AO's Nature Study Rotation of subjects.

Mathematics

Continue your math program; for some options, see this page.

Logic

Art

The Story of Painting, by H. W. Janson - Towards Revolution and part of The Age of Machines ($amzn)

Follow AO's Artist rotation; Picture Study helps on YouTube.

Music

Follow AO's Composer Study rotation.

Follow AO's Hymn Rotation.

Follow AO's Folksong Rotation.

Folk Songs for this time period:
The Skye Boat Song
The World Turned Upside Down
Yankee Doodle
The Water is Wide
Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier
Robert Burns' poetry and music fit this era. One example: A Man's a Man For a' That
When Johnny Comes Marching Home, 1863
Buffalo Gals, 1848
Simple Gifts, 1848
Dixie, 1859
John Brown's Body, 1860

Health and Physical Education

Study nutrition
Keep fit: Learn and play a game (kick ball, tennis, croquet, ping-pong, softball, etc.) or folk-dance, or pursue other physical activity of your choice. One option is Swedish Drill Revisited by Dawn Duran purchase

Life and Work Skills

Work on useful skills such as budgeting, gardening, cooking, car maintenance, carpentry, etc.

Free Reading

Following is a list of books from the Lite Years that were not scheduled for this combined plan and should be consulted first for free reading. If you need more, consult the free reading suggestions from the AO booklist for Years 9, 10, and 11.

Year 9:

The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer ($amzn) (K)
The Story of Napoleon, by H.E. Marshall α ($amzn) (K) or The Boys Life of Napoleon, by Eugenie Foa OR The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson, by Robert Southey β α ($amzn) (K)
John Adams, by David McCullough (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) OR John Adams and the American Revolution, by Catherine Drinker Bowen ($amzn)
She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith β α ($amzn) Ω
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen β α (ChrBk) ($amzn) ($amzn) (K) DVD: ($amzn) Ω
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, also here β α Unabridged translation by R. Buss: ($amzn) (K) (ChrBk) Ω
The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Austin β α ($amzn) Ω

Year 10:

The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis β α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) Ω
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Alexander Brown; optional (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K)
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo β α (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) Ω One possibility: Family Radio Theater's dramatic audio ($amzn)
Invitation to the Classics, by Louise Cowan and Os Guinness ($amzn) (Purpose of, Importance of, Classics are not Canon, and all chapters from Jane Austen to Joseph Conrad)
How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer ($amzn) (K) The video series of the same title offers a strong supplement to the book. DVD: ($amzn)
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau β α (ChrBk) ($amzn K free Kindle edition may be missing segments)

Year 11:

Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain ($amzn) (K)
When Character Was King, by Peggy Noonan, 20 chapters ($amzn)
The World: Travels 1950-2000, by Jan Morris, formerly James ($amzn) (K) (brief non-graphic mention of the author's gender-change operation in chapter 18, titled "Casablanca." The chapter is very short and can be skipped or removed. Also some language on pg 233 and 242.) (Geography)
Our National Parks, by John Muir OR The Life of the Caterpillar, by J. Henri Fabre (Fabre texts with photos)
Invitation to the Classics, by Louise Cowan and Os Guinness ($amzn) (chapters from James Joyce to Contemporary Writers)
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald ($amzn) (K)

Footnotes

2. Note on Audiobooks: While links to audio books are added as a courtesy, Miss Mason's approach to grammar and composition is heavily dependent upon the children receiving an immense amount of visual exposure to the written word over many years, so parents should exercise extreme caution in how many audiobooks they use each year. Our brains just work differently when we see the words.

For children who have difficulty reading, one solution is to have them follow the audio version along in a written text.
Librivox free audio is done by volunteers, and some are better than others. Heidi Nash has a list of some favorite Librivox readers. Be aware that apps, including Librivox, that have clickable ads can open a browser and allow children unfiltered access to the internet, even when browsers have been disabled by the parent. There are options: either download mp3 files from Librivox and listen without the app, or only install the app on a parent-controlled device. Librivox has a pay option to turn off ads.

Cindy Rollins did a Circe Mason Jar podcast that included the role of audiobooks with difficult books. There's an archived copy here.
(Back)

Timeline: At this age, students should be keeping a Century Chart and Book of Centuries. Students at this level in the PNEU schools made summaries of dates and events, referred to maps as they read their history, and made century charts. Instructions for making your own timelines and charts are included in these Parents' Review articles: Book of the Centuries; Teaching Chronology; The Correlation of Lessons. For more details about the why, when, how of keeping CM timelines (and other notebooks), we recommend Laurie Bestvater's book, The Living Page ($amzn). Two Book of Centuries options: (£) (£) (Back)

1. The Little Woman, 1970, is Gladys Aylward's own story in her own words, with a focus on God's provision and power. Some may prefer The Small Woman by Alan Burgess, 1957, also published under the title The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, in which Gladys Aylward told her story to Burgess, a BBC reporter, which is the detailed account of how she went from being a parlormaid in England to being a missionary in war-torn China. Parents/teachers may want to pre-read some parts, due to descriptions of violence. The Burgess book gives a detailed impression of China. His book is out of print, but there are seven copies at archive.org which can be read online for an hour at a time. α Another very good option is A London Sparrow by Phyllis Thompson, 1971. α ($amzn) It follows Gladys Aylward's own book, but fills in details taken from her letters as well as interviews with those who were close to her, providing a sense of Gladys Aylward as a person. It chronicles her life all the way to her final days in 1970. (Back)

2. Churchill: A History of the American People by Paul Johnson (ChrBk) ($amzn) (K) is an option, although its focus is on the US. If you choose to use it, we provide a weekly schedule for Years 9-10-11 in Two Years. (Back)

2a. Salem witch trial transcript: These links are suggested; feel free to choose more (or to choose differently):
Letter From Rev. John Higginson to His Son Nathaniel Higginson
Letter of Deodat Lawson
Court testimony of Sarah Bibber
Court testimony of Mary Osgood
Letter To John Foster
Notable people: Tituba, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather

Optional: these links from the same website might be added:
Trial transcripts: John Alden
Susannah Martin
Letters of Governor William Phips
Petitions from Relatives of Prisoners
Laws Passed
Reversal of Attainder and Rest
Brief article with linked names.
The Salem Witch Trials were a blight on our history, but the fact remains that they stand out because of the rarity of witchcraft executions in the Colonies, and their comparatively late date (although Switzerland executed a witch in 1892). In the Colonies, 40 people were executed for witchcraft, half of them in the Salem Trials, and one of the key judges later repented and expressed his deep sorrow for his role in the executions. In England, there were nearly a thousand witchcraft trials from 1552 to 1722, and roughly a quarter of those ended in executions. Scotland tried nearly 2,000 in the same period, and even Switzerland had nearly 400 witchcraft trials in this period with nearly a quarter of the accused executed. Southwestern Germany executed some 3,000 during the same time period.

If you prefer a book option: The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson, a Landmark book ($amzn) (K) (Back)

3a. US Constitution: If your student needs help, you might look at something to read alongside the Constitution. One suggestion: this paraphrase printed as a side by side parallel - The Constitution Made Easy by Michael Holler ($amzn) ($amzn) (K) (Back)

3b. The Federalist Papers: These are a series of articles written over a nine-month period explaining what the authors of the U.S. Constitution intended in an attempt to win over Americans so they'd pressure their state representatives to ratify the U.S. Constitution. These four are scheduled:
No. 10 - Divisive Party Factions
No. 39 - Republican Principles
No. 51 - Proper Checks and Balances
No. 68 - Electing the President; The Electoral College
Mary E Webster has very lightly paraphrased all of the Federalist Papers. ($amzn) (K) Joshua Charles paraphrased most of them into very readable modern English and published them with Glenn Beck as The Original Argument. ($amzn) (K) There is also a paraphrase available online of selected Papers here. (Back)

3c. Wilberforce's 1786 speech, and Pitt's 1792 speech: This is scheduled over two weeks. You can either do Wilberforce's shorter speech one week and Pitt's longer speech the following week, or divide the entire thing in half. If you have Houston Peterson's Treasury Of The World's Great Speeches (1954), Section Seven, beginning on page 212, has both speeches (Pitt's is abridged) with a bit of introductory material. There are multiple copies online at archive.org. ($amzn) We suggest that a book of famous speeches such as the above treasury ought to be in every homeschool library. Or, you can download a Word/.odt document of the speeches. Ω (Back)

3. A basic government book: High School students will need to earn credit for basic government. This material can be done in Year 9, 10, 11 or 12. Some options:

Foundation for Freedom: A Study of the United States Constitution Workbook by Lars Johnson - This "workbook" is the text with review exercises after each chapter, which can be skipped. (ChrBk) ($amzn) Foundation for Freedom is an updated, full-color version of The Story of the Constitution, Second Edition by Sol Bloom and Lars Johnson ($amzn). Both appear to be the same book/workbook, but the newer one is in color. (Sol Bloom's original 1937 Story of the Constitution, which Lars Johnson used as a foundation for his own book, is online at Hathi Trust.) Because it was written in 1937, it stops at the 21st Amendment. Lars Johnson did an excellent job expanding and updating the Bloom book by adding concerns that weren't on the radar in 1937. He also wrote a chapter on limited government, checks and balances, and Biblical morality as well as a full-page explanation of each Amendment; Sol Bloom's book just explains each Amendment with a sentence or two. If you are in a situation where you need an online resource, the Sol Bloom text could work, but you should also seek out a source that explains why each Amendment was added and what it does.

Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution is a twelve-week online course offered by Hillsdale College with 40-minute streaming video lectures (or you can download the audios). You have to register with a login and password, but the course is free. After you register, "you can find out how to get a copy of Hillsdale's U.S. Constitution Reader, the essential companion to the course, which contains over a hundred primary source documents edited by Hillsdale's Politics faculty." The website says the course begins on Feb 24, but their FAQ says their courses are archived so you can start them at any time, and you can go at your pace.

Exploring Government Curriculum Package by Ray Notgrass (purchase from CBD)

The Everything American Government Book by Nick Ragone is an easy to read explanation of political terms (such as caucus, filibuster, bureaucracy, regulatory commission, judicial review, pork barrel spending, gerrymandering) with a minimum of bias. The author glosses over the Constitution, giving his interpretation of the key points, so this is not a substitute for learning what's in the U.S. Constitution. If you decide to use this book, we provide a schedule that divides it over either 36 weeks or 18 weeks. ($amzn) (K).

This 10-minute YouTube video presents a clear explanation of the difference between a republic based on law, and a democracy based on majority rule. (Back)

4. The Sea Around Us - chapters 1-11 are scheduled this year; chapters 12-14 will be scheduled next year in 9-10-11b. The Young Readers Edition adapted by Anne Terry White may be helpful if you can find it (it's out of print). It's about a third shorter and has illustrations. It can follow the same schedule, but two of the chapters have different titles: ch 2, The Pattern of the Surface, is called The Surface of the Sea; ch 10, Wind, Sun, and the Spinning of the Earth, is called Rivers in the Sea. AO links to a special edition that's in print, but it's not the Young Readers edition and it has no illustrations. If you're curious why The Sea Around Us is scheduled, The Guardian has an article that describes The Sea Around Us as "the first, and still perhaps the best science bestseller. . . The reader is immersed in a new and wonderful world, one where everything really is connected to everything else. This sense of the sea and all its constituents as part of an interrelated system infuses the entire book." The special edition we've linked "features a new chapter written by Jeffrey Levinton, a leading expert in marine ecology, that brings the scientific side of The Sea Around Us completely up to date. Levinton incorporates the most recent thinking on continental drift, coral reefs, the spread of the ocean floor, the deterioration of the oceans, mass extinction of sea life, and many other topics." ($amzn) There is some evolutionary content in the book, especially the first chapter. If your student already read The Sea Around Us in Year 6, a good alternate (but not replacement) is Carson's Under the Sea Wind, which follows the lives of fish, birds, and animals that live in or near the sea. α ($amzn) (K) (Back)

5. Great Astronomers is spread across multiple Years. This year: Term 1: Halley, Bradley Term 2: William Herschel, Laplace, Brinkley. Term 3: John Herschel, Parsons Earl of Rosse, Hamilton. A paraphrase is here. Or, there are briefer biographies online at MacTutor History of mathematics archives at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. They can be searched alphabetically. (Back)

6. Signs and Seasons: ch 6-epilogue this year. The book is cheaper from CBD. Field work is an integral part of this book. Field activities are included in the back of the book, so the field guide is not necessary. (Back)

Plutarch: Charlotte Mason recommended Thomas North's "inimitable translation." (Back)

Last updated Mar. 27, 2023

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