Ugh, I literally just printed out hundreds of pages and sat down to take a break at the computer. Printed in black and white, draft format but still using up a ton of ink. Might be time to invest in the laser printer. I had forgotten about that option. Totally understand the printed-out on paper kind of thing. I need to be able to write on it, highlight, put sticky notes on it.

I am considering using this curriculum in the fall but want more than just a text book. We like lots of hands-on activities, supplemental literature, videos, web sites, etc. Is there anything already out there that would be good to use with this text?

My 3 year old gets read to 1:1 because he goes to bed first. Then we do individual reading time with the other two either downstairs or in our bedroom. They don't share a room but it's just more comfortable to snuggle up on the couch or in our big bed. If they don't want to listen to the book their sibling chose, then can go play quietly until it's their turn. I do love the 1:1 time. My oldest has been enjoying the Harry Potter series and we've been reading that for several months at bedtime. I enjoy it, too, so it's a nice bonding time for us.

Thank you! My son loves these and can't get enough of them.

Ah, thank you! I wonder why the blog button wasn't working. Will try reloading it on my blog and see if that works. Thanks for finding this!

I was going to direct you to a blog that hosts a FIAR blog roll of a ton of great blogs out there full of FIAR activities but I see that it is gone! Such a shame. Does anyone know what happened to it? I can't think of the name of the blog or blogger that hosted it off the top of my head. I have some FIAR posts on my blog, too. A really great FIAR blogger is Rivka at Tinderbox. Angela at Satori Smiles has some awesome FIAR posts, too.

I think in the order that you do it is fine for the ages of your kids. Will you be going back through history again in a few years? I would focus more on chronological order then, when they are older, and more likely to retain that part of the info. For a first run-through of history at preschool/kindy/very early elementary ages, I just want them to have fun with it, become familiar with the concepts, and get excited about history (vs. thinking it is boring). Just my approach, though. We are pretty relaxed about it.

Volume 1 will keep you busy for a while. Lots of great selections. It's really all you need but if you want more choices, then take a look at Volume 2 as well. Both are appropriate for that age group. Have fun! We just love FIAR! :)

Do go and read Farrar's excellent overview of the program on her blog, as mentioned above. It really clarifies the components of the program.

Hahaha, "double foruming", that's funny, Farrar. And, hey, you were at the conference in Richmond? Wish I would've known. Would love to have met you in person after commenting on each others blogs for, what, almost 2 years now? :-)

We are super relaxed with kindergarten here. I used this year to get to know my daughter's learning style, so if she was really resisting something, I backed off and just took note that maybe she wasn't ready for that or maybe that wasn't the best way for her to learn it. Much of her day is spent playing. She participates in history and science, once a week for each, with her older brother. We read a few minutes in the morning and again at bedtime. We don't do calendar every day. Sometimes she is super focused on it, other times not, but it has worked fine. She knows months, days of the week in order and can fill in a blank calendar when I give it to her. We do a lot of different things for handwriting. Sometimes it's a workbook, but mostly it is making birthday cards for family members, writing to her pen pal, making a grocery list, that type of thing. If she is super engaged in a craft or some elaborate pretend play, then I don't worry about the schedule for the day, because I know she is learning a lot from what she is doing. But that is just us and what works in our family. Everyone is different. I say, try the schedule you've set up, you know your child best, but be very flexible and willing to adjust to her learning style, and even her mood for the day. This is the time to make learning fun for your child. One more comment: Five in a Row is so fun! It may take different times each day. And you may want to adjust the rest of your schedule, like when you are doing math with your FIAR book, skip your other math stuff that day. Go down the rabbit trails that you find with FIAR. For example, with Madeline, my daughter became fascinated with all things French so we got more books out of the library, some French language cd's, made some more French food, etc., etc.

I will say that I had to buy a different 3-hole-punch to be able to punch through the laminated copies but the first 3-hole-punch I had was kind of a cheap one, only one or two pages at a time. The new one is heavy duty, 20 regular pages at a time. It has no problem punching through a laminated sheet. Also, you can buy different thicknesses of laminated sheets so if you have trouble with one, try a thinner kind. Great idea with the comb binding, too. That is going to be my next fun purchase for myself. :D

I don't know the difference. I've read both but didn't notice anything that really stood out, but I read them about a year apart. You could probably call Peace Hill Press and ask them. They still sell the original version. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/originals

This is totally a difference between night people and morning people, I think. I sometimes wish I was a night person, because then I could get so much more done when my kids are asleep. My husband is a night person but I don't think it would ever occur to him to clean at that time of day. Or most other times of day. Oh well.

Hee hee, I just responded to your post on another forum about this but since I am also curious about what people have to say about this curriculum, I'm going to :bigear: here as well. Elfknitter, I'm not stalking you, I swear. :tongue_smilie: