What is it about Five In A Row?

[tinkhs]

I have seen this mentioned all over the boards, but I can really tell what is so special about it. Please tell me why you enjoy it so much. :)

[Free Indeed]

For my family it helped my children love to learn, and love books. They found enjoyment in the snuggly couch learning time. They loved the stories. It is so simple, yet so effective. I copied this from their website in case you had not seen it, because for me it really is true:

Five in a Row is more than just a set of lesson plans. It's an approach to learning that will forever change how both you, and your children view education, books and teaching.Five in a Row isn't a product to be advertised, sold and marketed, but rather a secret to be shared with your best friend. Explore this website, explore the message boards and ask questions. You'll receive honest, real-life answers from other moms who have successfully gone before you on the journey of homeschooling. Other programs have elaborate philosophies and glowing educational objectives, but Five in a Row has the solid testimony of 50,000 moms who have discovered what works- and what doesn't. Five in a Row produces extraordinary results... for ordinary moms... in the real world."

 

FIAR is a savoring of books. It uses real living books to teach your children. For me, it was just a perfect fit. :D

[ouzel]

We used FIAR in the early years, but only on a few of their chosen books. It really gave me ideas and methods about reading and discussing any book we picked up.

[twoxcell]

I'm really not sure. I bought one of the guides used a couple years ago. I was only able to find a third of the books at my library. Some of the books were ok, but my kids grew board of reading the same one over and over, and the activities were not very exciting. That was just my experiance I know many people who love it.

[HomesteadMommy]

Our family loves FIAR! :001_smile: Its our children favorite program. They love curling up on the couch together to read the story every day. The lessons for each day are fun and the kids really remember the lessons. I find that even our 6 year old will start talking about books we read and the lessons we did 2 years ago. One of my favorite things about it, is it's so easy to teach an age range at the same time.

[Stellalarella]

I loved it for my little children last year. I intended it to be schooling for my 6yo dd, but I found that FIAR drew in my 4yo and 3yo as well. We read our FIAR book everyday before naptime. I found that over time, my young children began to notice more details about other books. They also would ask more questions about books, in general. My husband also noticed this development in our children.

We enjoyed reading the same book each day. I agree with the statements that SWB makes in her book, TWTM, and also in her audio lectures--young children love repetition. Repetition is healthy and appropriate for young ones.

Here is one story about FIAR from our family.

As we were driving through Oklahoma last winter, our children saw a giant structure erected by the side of the road--a big tower. My four year old exclaimed, "Look, it's the Eiffel Tower!!" He was so excited because earlier that year we had read about Madeleine and in the process, studied the Eiffel Tower. One day we had done a short, but fun art project on the Eiffel.

The three year old was not to be persuaded, however.

"Hey! That's NOT the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is in FRANCE!"

 

So, in a nutshell, that is why we love FIAR.

We found FIAR to be a gentle, loving way to introduce our children to wonderful stories and a bigger world.

[rose_king]

As we were driving through Oklahoma last winter, our children saw a giant structure erected by the side of the road--a big tower. My four year old exclaimed, "Look, it's the Eiffel Tower!!" He was so excited because earlier that year we had read about Madeleine and in the process, studied the Eiffel Tower. One day we had done a short, but fun art project on the Eiffel.

The three year old was not to be persuaded, however.

"Hey! That's NOT the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is in FRANCE!"

 

So, in a nutshell, that is why we love FIAR.

We found FIAR to be a gentle, loving way to introduce our children to wonderful stories and a bigger world.

 

:lol::lol:

Proud Parents! :tongue_smilie:

[Sunshine State Sue]

We used FIAR in the summers in the early years. We only did 3 in a row because I worked 2 days/wk back then. We enjoyed reading the stories and doing the activities. It helped both of us to pay close attention to the books. I remember one book that was done in charcoal drawings and our subsequent attempts to draw with charcoal. I would never, ever have done this on my own. This is just one example of the many and varied activities presented.

 

FIAR helped me to educate my son in a way that was not natural to me, but certainly was beneficial for him.

[Satori]

We also did FIAR as 3-in-a-row (not 5). The books we rowed we had a blast with and those memories will never be forgotten. Unfortunately, we just don't have the time (or energy) to implement FIAR as I did in the beginning.

[tinkhs]

Did you buy the books? I see people have had problems finding them at the library. Also which one would you suggest for my kids together?

[Plink]

FIAR is a wonderful warm hug rather than a teacher's manual.

 

It isn't just the lesson plans presented in the manual, but the environment that the program creates in your home. Because of FIAR I don't teach my kids. I explore with them, learn beside them, and set aside time in our day to enjoy them as children, not just students.

 

Many other programs give you concepts to spoon feed to your children and ways to assess whether they received the information or not. FIAR, on the other hand, allows you to explore children's literature together and gain knowledge through it in the gentlest way.

 

AND it is extremely effective. We have learned more geography, language arts, and art through FIAR than through any other program we have tried.

 

Heart, heart, heart my FIAR!

Edited July 17, 2010 by LibertyH

[VBoulden]

I didn't "get it" at first either. What's the big deal about FIAR? It's just a list of books, right? I preferred to have plans and to SEE what we had accomplished. I still feel that way, but that being said..

 

We just read Make Way for Ducklings, a book on one of the FIAR lists, over and over last week and THEN took a family trip to Boston on Thursday to visit the Public Garden where the book is set.

 

We rode the swan boats and saw REAL baby ducklings trailing behind their moms and the boats and we saw duck island and took pics with the Make Way for Ducklings statue there. This made the book come alive!

 

Here's a blog post how I came to plan the trip in the first place.

 

http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/07/were-headed-to-boston-for-day-we-just.html

 

I will also have another post with pics of the actual trip on my blog tomorrow, July 18, 2010. You could come back and see those, if you want.

 

I don't think we will be able to take a trip for every single book on the FIAR list. That's not practical and not every book would even lend itself to a trip. This was an exception, certainly.

 

BUT, I have to say...

 

This book has became a PRECIOUS memory that our entire family shares now. We read it together leading up to the trip and then read it with Daddy under one of the willow trees after we had a picnic by the pond where the fictional Mr. and Mrs. Mallard swam. :001_smile:

 

This book was really something and the first on the FIAR list I really "took seriously." I think even if you don't use the FIAR all by itself, you could consult the book lists and read the books on it with your kids. That's what I did at first, but...

 

I will probably use the lists more and more now that I see these books can become and were probably created TO become meaningful to families in just these ways.

 

Everyone we passed at the Public Garden was saying "Mr." and "Mrs." before they said "Mallard." It's like the book itself has become PART of Boston's conscious. We were not the only ones celebrating that beautiful story that day. It was awesome!

 

I think I will use FIAR over and over now and look for ways to make all the stories come to life like that.

 

I mean, this is WHY we homeschool, right? ...To have precious learning experiences with our kids. I feel like I've finally found the soul of this homeschool experience. So... Yay! for FIAR! I think I finally get what all the fuss is about!:D

Edited July 17, 2010 by VBoulden

[Sherry in OH]

Did you buy the books? I see people have had problems finding them at the library. Also which one would you suggest for my kids together?

 

I bought most of books for Before and vols. 1-3. I like the convenience of having our own copies. A few of the out-of-print titles are very pricey. We'll either skip those or try interlibrary loan.

 

I would suggest trying books from vol. 1 first. Most of the titles in this volume are still in print.

[BatmansWife]

When my oldest two were little we did some FIAR and enjoyed it. But we didn't do it the way it was designed. We never read the story 5 times. We would usually read it a few times and pick out a few activities (usually the art ones) and the questions to get them to think. My kids fell in love with many of the stories (A Pair of Red Clogs is still a favorite). I wouldn't have even heard of many of those books if it weren't for FIAR, so we would have missed out on some good stories. We found many of them through interlibrary loan. I haven't really gotten into it with my youngest, I think mainly because we have sooo many books on our shelf already (including many that we got for FIAR when we did use it). I wouldn't have worked for me to use it as a complete curriculum.

Edited July 17, 2010 by ~AprilMay~

[tinkhs]

Thank you for all the responses. To give such long descriptions of the program speaks volumes for how much it has meant to you all. I probably have some of the books since I have Sonlight's two preschool cores. Those books are precious to us and to have activites to go along with them would be fun. Is it complete? Do I need to add anything else for a 1st grader? She's almost 7 and her sister I almost 5. I haven't decided what to do this year since I don't like Core K.

[bugs]

It's been six years since I did FIAR with my son (and wished I had done it with my daughter). I can't remember the name of all the books (except The Story of Ping :001_smile:) but I do remember choking up while I read each darn one aloud! Heck, I'd get teary-eyed even on day five! I did do a variety of the excercises that I thought my son would like. I was just a nice gentle school time with a first grader.

[Free Indeed]

The only thing you would need to add for a first grader is math and phonics if she is not already reading. I used copywork from the books too.

[Robin M]

We loved it because of the book choices and I bought all mine. We read them over and over again.

[CandaceC]

Many ladies have given some of the same answers I would give. :) FIAR showed me how I wanted my homeschool to look. I was fortunate enough to find it when my oldest was only 3/4yrs old and we've been using it since. I love that my kids memories or h'sing will be starting out on the couch, reading a Bible story, reading a FIAR book, discussing it and snuggling together. :D

 

If you want to see some of our favorite FIAR "rows" you can look at this link on my blog, scroll down a bit and you'll see "Five in a Row Favorites."

 

Some of my favorites for your kids ages are:

 

The Bee Tree

Salamander Room

Katy No Pocket (from Before FIAR)

Pair of Red Clogs

Ping

Peter Rabbit

Roxaboxen (vol. 4)

Truman's Aunt Farm

[HomesteadMommy]

Is it complete? Do I need to add anything else for a 1st grader? She's almost 7 and her sister I almost 5. I haven't decided what to do this year since I don't like Core K.

 

The only thing you need to add to FIAR is math and phonics. I do buy most of the books when I can. My kids love reading them over and over again. Since we'll be using them with multiple children I'd rather have them on hand then rely on our terrible library here.

One thing I do try and do is find a few fun books for the science or history sections. Like if doing the Salamander room, a nice picture/story book on frogs/amphibians is fun. We would read that together on our science day.

[Jennay]

Five in a Row has a way of getting to the heart of wonderful picture books and teaching life lessons in a gentle and enjoyable way. The art lessons and applied language art lessons are especially good. FIAR really explores the topics presented in a book and doesn't rush.

[ChrisOR]

FIAR was our introduction to homeschooling. My four-year-old daughter and I rowed books at home while my son was at kindergarten. It was so much fun and so educational, we decided to bring our son home for homeschooling beginning in first grade. Truly, it was the key to opening our eyes to homeschooling!

 

FIAR is all about encouraging children to love books, make connections, and retain what they know. For example, my children learned that WWII happened "all over the world" (also connecting this to the Narnia series, and missionary stories) and while they didn't learn the atrocities of that era at the tender age of 6, they did learn the resourcefulness, courage, and compassion ordinary people demonstrated out of need.

 

I'm looking forward to when my third child is 5 years old, and we begin rowing all over again. I will enlist the help of my older children so they can review (relive lessons) while they learn how to plan.

[ALB]

One thing I love about FIAR (besides the booklists, which are wonderful), is the enthusiasm that comes across in the manual. As Jane Lambert is offering suggestions about possible activities/ topics to explore, I can sense her joy and excitement about introducing children to these things. It makes me excited to read through the possibilities, and I always add our own style to them. Sometimes I DO wish there was a checklist of daily activities so that I knew exactly what to do every day, but mostly I enjoy the freedom to be creative and do the lessons our own way.

Personally, I can see us continuing to use FIAR along with whatever else we use. We will be doing HOD this year, but I'll keep adding FIAR titles to our weeks whenever I can!

[Satori]

We bought all the books in Vol 1-3, except for maybe two that I couldn't spend hundreds of dollars for (out of print). I figure they're all great children's literature that we'd want in our library anyway.

 

We also have a FIAR listing of books we've rowed on the right side of my blog.

[mystika1]

Hi,

I am pretty much like everyone else here in that we love FIAR. It is a wonderful program. I can trust that the book titles are appropriate for my children. I never really had issues with getting the titles from the library but I did end up getting our favorites.(which ended up being 90% of the titles.):001_smile:

 

I recommend printing out the book list for each volume and going online to you local library website. You can easily search for the titles and know for sure before you purchase the volumes. I have all of the fiar volumes and the bible supplement plus holidays an even beyond fiar! I loved it so much I went out and bought em all.(my daughter is 7 so yes I did go overboard):D

 

One resource I used often was www.homeschoolshare.com It has wonderful printouts that go with each fiar title and more. Also, there are several people who blog that use fiar. This one http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/ is great. She has been doing this for a long time. I highly recommend you taking a peak into her day.

 

I hope this helps you,

 

Penny

[buram]

We have only started with B4FIAR and so far we are really enjoying it. It has been so easy to do this summer especially with all the other things we have going on (outdoor summer fun). My dd4 still talks about investigating dead trees to see what may be living in them and painted a dead tree last week on her outdoor scene painting. It all came from the Runaway Bunny. I didn't even notice the the tree that had fallen over in the picture but B4FIAR said to point it out to your child and discuss it. Now she wants to get a book from the library about tree diseases. We are starting FIAR vol 1 this fall and I can't wait.