Guest Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Does anyone use their Bible supplement and do you like it? Are most of the books pretty easy to find at local libraries? I bought BFIAR for my son (at age 4) and it wasn't a good fit. I hear people talk about FIAR, though, and it sounds so...serene. And lovely. I am contemplating trying FIAR for dd (and ds!)....talk me into it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I'm not one that can "talk you into it" but I'd go to a store and flip through it first. I am doing BFIAR with my tot boy this fall (he'll be 2.5yr)...and I was wanting to do FIAR because I hear about it on here quite a bit..and when I went to the store to thumb through it...I wasn't 100% sold on it. I'm still getting FIAR for my girls to do together this summer...but I'm not going to implement it into our full on schooling as we have found the curriculum we enjoy. I'm basically getting FIAR for the reading aspect and the art activities that follow it and the bible part during the summer when they won't be in Awana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RachelFlores Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Just to give you a different point of view, I tried FIAR (for about two months) and it was not a good fit. Mainly, it was not a good fit for MY teaching style. Dd liked it, but I found myself very stressed doing it. I couldn't just open and go, I felt I had to add to it which led to hours of planning for each week which led to stress and then we wouldn't get to some stuff which led to more stress and then I found changing books lacked contiuity for both me and dd. It just wasn't a good fit, especially for my first time homeschooling. I still think the program is really great, I love the idea of it, but it isn't for me. We still like the books listed, they are great books. Some of them are out of print and hard to find, others are very easy to find. If you are going through your library you will have to be flexible on which book you do each week because it will based on what you can check out. I did get the bible supplement and used it for one of the books we read, but I, personally, didn't find it that usefull. I know some people love this program and I totally understand why, but make sure it will fit with you and your children first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Does anyone use their Bible supplement and do you like it? I have not used the Bible supplement. You can view a sample lesson at the Rainbow Resource website http://www.rainbowresource.com/pictures/007917/1296252158-1559610 Are most of the books pretty easy to find at local libraries? It depends on your library system. Most of the titles are in print and easy to find used. Some of the out-of-print titles are $$$. I bought BFIAR for my son (at age 4) and it wasn't a good fit. I hear people talk about FIAR, though, and it sounds so...serene. And lovely. I am contemplating trying FIAR for dd (and ds!)....talk me into it! I started using FIAR when my sons were 4.5 and 2.5. So far it is working well. We "row" two or three books per month. I select a few lessons to cover each week. If a lesson seems geared toward older students, I either modify it or skip it. I am not worried about covering all five subjects each week. I do try to do one hands-on art project based on the book. I include a lot of supplemental read-alouds. This allows me to choose some at each boy's level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandaceC Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 We have loved FIAR in our home for many years. :) I do a lot of planning with it - finding go along books, crafts, etc. But the planning of extras is fun for me! (I know, I'm weird.) :D I have a category for FIAR on my blog if you are interested in seeing kind of what it looks like in our home. :) Also, if you scroll down on this page you can click on particular titles that we've done over the years to see what we've done. I do like the Bible Supplement, but it's kind of one of those things that doesn't "make" FIAR in my opinion, so you could use it and it's good, but if you don't have it, FIAR is still great. Basically, with my kids, I would take one of the scriptures listed for the FIAR title and use it for copywork or to memorize or just discuss as 1 of our lessons for the week!! I personally feel that the FIAR volumes 1-4 are much more FIAR-ish than Before FIAR. Before is great for parents of little ones who need suggestions and help on preschool-ish type ideas, but the other volumes are just more the heart of FIAR, just in my opinion. :) HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Thank you, Candace - I am going to go check out your blog right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyD Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 (edited) I used FIAR for pre-K last year; it was fantastic, but I (mistakenly) thought I needed 'more' for K. After one semester of trying different things that were OK but just not all that inspiring, we recently went back to FIAR and now I wonder why I ever decided to stop in the first place. We will definitely do FIAR for the rest of this year and at the moment I'm planning to continue at least through 1st grade as well (I'll decide about later, later). We do not use the Bible supplement (not Christian) and supplement with math and handwriting. But the FIAR approach to social studies, science, and art is working beautifully for us -- it's just enough structure that I feel as though my children are being introduced to new things every day, but not so much that I worry about crowding out more organic learning processes. And the 3yo can join in quite easily, which is HUGE. Edited January 28, 2011 by JennyD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Does anyone use their Bible supplement and do you like it?Are most of the books pretty easy to find at local libraries? I bought BFIAR for my son (at age 4) and it wasn't a good fit. I hear people talk about FIAR, though, and it sounds so...serene. And lovely. I am contemplating trying FIAR for dd (and ds!)....talk me into it! I use the Bible sometimes. At times I find it good and at other times I don't really see the connection. But like the pp, I don't let the supplement form my opinion of FIAR. It is great without it. Neither my dd nor I liked B4, but we thoroughly enjoy FIAR. Most of the books are not available at *my* counties' libraries. But I am in the woods. Most people find the in print ones very easily, and with only a little work can find most of the oop ones with ILL. I am one of those people who add to it. That is just who I am. But due to extenuating circumstances in my life right now, we are gonna have to take a break from FIAR for a little while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buram Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I did Before FIAR last summer with my daughter and we both enjoyed it. We started doing FIAR vol 1 in Sept and we are still enjoying it but there are weeks that don't go as well as others. I thing the regular FIAR is different from the before but I don't know if it would be enough to meet your teaching style. I have had to make changes to make it work for us but I thing I would need to do that with any curriculum. My daughter does not like to hear the book five days in row. I know that is an important part but it is not worth the fights. Sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough but I find that later my daugher really is learning so much and about topics I would never of thought to cover. I was able to buy some of the books at the beginning of the year any our local library has had most of the other ones. We have a very good library system. I was able to check out FIAR vol 1 from our library before I bought it, maybe it is available at your library. I have not used the Bible Suplement. Here is my blog if you are interested. http://stainstickrequired.blogspot.com/ I hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Neither my dd nor I liked B4, but we thoroughly enjoy FIAR. SO good to know!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 FIAR was amazing for us while we did it. I just didn't seem to have the ambition to make it amazing every month for my daughter, and once I found WTM, FIAR fell to the wayside. I still hope to utilize some of FIAR, just not as intensely and creatively. We just did one of their books this week in fact. I thought I'd offer up my blog so you can see the fun stuff we did do a few years ago with FIAR though: http://satorismiles.com/category/fiar/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MangoMama Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Just to give you a different point of view, I tried FIAR (for about two months) and it was not a good fit. Mainly, it was not a good fit for MY teaching style. Dd liked it, but I found myself very stressed doing it. I couldn't just open and go, I felt I had to add to it which led to hours of planning for each week which led to stress and then we wouldn't get to some stuff which led to more stress and then I found changing books lacked contiuity for both me and dd. It just wasn't a good fit, especially for my first time homeschooling. On the contrary, FIAR is supposed to be able to be used for what it is. Besides adding in phonics for younger children; adding in a writing program and a math program (was there something else?) for older kids, then FIAR can be used by itself. (FIAR uses applied math, but most people want their children to have an actual math curriculum.) Unless one wants to, one would not have to add in any extras and a whole lot of extra planning per week. However, I love to plan (I feel weird if I don't... LOL), so I'm always looking for extras to do, go along books to add, et c. We didn't 'find' FIAR until later, so we didn't use BFIAR so I can't comment there. We also do not use the Christian supplement as we are secular. We :001_wub: FIAR!! Candace, your blog is FANTASTIC!!! Thank you so much for sharing all of your wonderful ideas and projects! I'll be spending a lot of time there tonight. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 FIAR didn't work for us at all... and of course, I didn't realize it until I'd purchased all of the books and supplements. :glare: We just couldn't get into reading the same book over and over again. The book lists are good, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the actual curriculum. I bought the Bible supplement, but never used it. Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrapmom3 Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 We are enjoying FIAR, but don't use the bible supplement. We skipped some books that I just thought were not a good fit. I have been able to find most books through my local library or ILL. FWIW, our FIAR time seems to go much smoother when I just stick to the manual and a go along or two. The four volumes cover such a huge range of topics that I allow several extra weeks in the year for rabbit trail studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnL Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 :lurk5: Thanks for asking about this. I've been thinking we would do FIAR for my youngest next year. He turns 5 on 9/13, so he will be a young Kindergartener. We used FIAR for my older son a little. We liked it but I wasn't sure it was enough, and we just kinda moved away from it. But I like most of the books (the ones I've read, so far) and my youngest loves for me to read to him. He is inquistive and imaginative and he begs me most days to "do school". I'm pretty confident he will love FIAR, and we will probably have my older kids hanging on while I do this with my little guy. So if we do FIAR, add in letters & phonics, and then do numbers and MUS Primer, that will be a great Kindergarten. And mama gets to enjoy reading/snuggle time with my little "cling-on"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandaceC Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Thanks for the blog compliment, Mango Mama! :) I do think that people should still give FIAR a look even if they don't enjoy Before. It's just very different... A few things I wanted to mention after reading some of these posts... We do not usually read the book 5 days in a row. :tongue_smilie:But we still love FIAR! We generally read the book on Monday (or when we're starting) and maybe 1 other time during the week...so don't let that be a turn off. Some people love that, but you don't have to do that to be a FIAR family. :) Also, you can definitely pick and choose books! In the 4 years we have done FIAR, there are still a few titles we have never done...just cause I wasn't interested or couldn't find it, etc. I am now re-rowing our very favorites with my son for his K year...that is fun, too, because some of them haven't been read/rowed in 3-4 years!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbosh237 Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I find we use FIAR a little differently. We will use a book for a week or two and then do something else for a week or two, and then come back to FIAR. We really enjoy using it. Reading it over again doesn't bother me (or DC) at all because we do it anyway with any library book we bring home. They are always wanting them reread every night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buram Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Candace, I am glad to hear that you do not read the book five days in a row also. It almost made us leave the curriculum in the beginning. I am glad we stayed with it and changed it to work for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrub Jay Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 We really enjoyed FIAR for preschool (last year). I blogged most of the activities we did - you can check out the FIAR tag or each individual book title tag if you're interested. (Oh, and no, we did not use the bible supplement since we are not Christian, so no opinion there). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjbucks1 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 We LOVED FIAR. My dd read the books long after the program (when she was 7-9). It does require planning, but I did all of it at the beginning of the year, which then made it "open and go" for me:). I love that you can pick the books and the activities each week (some weeks we did more than others). I loved mapping the books (especially with "How to Eat an Apple Pie and See the World"). My oldest will be in 9th grade next year, but I can't wait to use this again with my youngest. It is a FUN curriculum :D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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