Five in a Row or something else?

[anabelneri]

Hello!

 

After reading through some threads, I've decided to give Five In A Row a chance. We tried Madeline last week and this week we're doing The Story About Ping. I really like delving into these lovely stories, and I also like that it's really laid back.

 

The trouble I'm having is that there's a bit of mismatch between what my daughter reads in her free time and the FIAR choices. For example, she read (and was excited about) The Lightning Thief last week. There was such a discrepancy between her interest in talking about Madeline vs. about Percy Jackson.

 

I know that FIAR has a couple "beyond" books, but besides that, is there anything that is similar that would address more complicated books? I'm almost ready to try to apply the FIAR ideas to Percy Jackson and do a day of the geography discussed, architecture, ancient Greek deities, etc. I'm hesitating because I don't have great ground to stand on when it comes to discussing the literary merits of the book.

 

What have you used? Are there any programs or systems that do this?

Thank you!

[lisak]

You might take a look at homeschoolshare: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/levels.php This link is from the unit studies tab. We used FIAR for quite a while, then used this website.

 

Enjoy,

Lisa

[Jenny in GA]

Second the use of homeschool share. Not only do they have many many units there for all ages and levels, BUT they have great resources to go along with every Five in a Row read. We ALWAYS use their materials to go along with each FIAR

 

We love FIAR and have used it for two years. BUT, frankly, I don't think I would like it that much if we used nothing but FIAR itself. There just wouldn't be enough to it, IMO -- even though the author and most FIAR followers swear otherwise.

 

We use not only the maps and other resources from HSS, but also a lot of the idea in the FIAR archive forums. They list good "go-along books," and other activities. For example, we made an Eiffel Tower out of legos when we did Madeline. For Who Owns the Sun, we got one of the go-along books about simple machines and did the experiements in that book.

 

Another suggestion -- use Volume 4. While volumes 1-3 are for ages 4-8, Volume 4 is geared toward about second through fourth grade, I believe. I'm planning to use that next.

 

Good luck!

[Tracy]

I think that you will find that after doing just one volume of FIAR, you will feel much more empowered to create your own unit studes based on your own literature choices. We are nearly done with Vol. 2, and I have found a lot of repetition of ideas, especially in the language arts and art areas.

[Irishmommy]

Also, if your child is wanting more, you can always try Vol. 4 titles. If you want to do other titles such as PJ, I'd try HSS. I do both FIAR and HSS titles!