5 in a row for preschoolers?

[mohop]

Is anyone familiar with the Five in a Row curriculum? I am thinking about it (well, actually the "Before Five in a Row") for my 2-year old, just to give me some structure and ease me into structured home learning (I know she's still pretty young to really be concerned about any kind of academic structure for her). The literature-focused approach of the program seems pretty consistent with classical education models, and I like that it's pretty inexpensive.

 

Anyone have any experience or thoughts?

 

Also, we are a religious family, but not Christian, so I am also interested in knowing how Bible-focused the curriculum is (general stuff about God and teaching good character etc. is great to me, but I'd rather avoid investing in something that includes a lot of Christianity-specific doctrinal stuff).

[ALB]

We have used and really enjoy B4FIAR. I started when my dd was just 2, and we kept it simple but had tons of fun. At that age, it's less of a curriculum then a collection of great book-related activities. The books themselves are wonderful. The author is a Christian and I think there is a Bible verse segment with each book, but you could easily leave that portion out, since the vast majority of topics aren't really religious in any way. We actually didn't use the Bible part much, just because I was using something else for that.

[Mama2two]

We did BFIAR and FIAR for pre-school. We had a wonderful time and highly recommend it. I also agree it is easy to leave out anything biblical that you don't want. the books themselves are not overtly religious.

[Sherry in OH]

It is easy to leave out the biblical references in B4. Only two of the books are overtly Christian - If Jesus Came to My House and Prayer for a Child. For vols. 1-3 of FIAR, the Christian Character supplement is a separate volume. I did not purchase it.

[prairie rose]

We love FIAR here. As the others said, there are Bible verses for each story in B4FIAR but you can skip those and it's completely secular. FIAR Vol 1-3 has no religious content unless you get the Christian Character supplement.

 

However, if you are looking for structure, B4FIAR might not be much help. It's more of a collection of ideas to do when you and your child are in the mood to do some school. There are no lesson plans or daily things to do. FIAR has more structure but the earliest I would start that is 3yo and only if they have the attention span for it (only 1 of my 5 kids had the attention span for it at 3) B4FIAR is awesome for 2 - 4 year olds if you are looking for gentle learning ideas and activities but if you are looking for structure, you might be disappointed.

 

HTH

[give_me_a_latte]

We're about half way through BFIAR and we've really enjoyed it. Although I do wish we had started sooner. I supplement with the fabulous ideas at Home School Share (they have a page for each BFIAR book with activities and lapbook ideas....my son has LOVED these!). He's really picked up a lot from the activities, such as animal classification (nothing fancy..just mammals versus birds versus fish), songs, weather...

 

There is Christian content in the manual. I just ignore it. You can easily utilize BFIAR without it (except those two books mentioned by a PP....I think those are the only ones you may want to preview and/or skip).