FIAR How/Why

[aprilsblessings]

For those of your who used Five In A Row and LOVED it could you tell me.....

 

Why/What did you love about your time with it?

 

How did you use it in your family? (Just the TM, extra books, extra activities, etc.)

 

TIA!:D

 

 

Edited to add:

 

I guess I am looking for more what "you" have done that you loved your time with FIAR. I understand there are many ways to use FIAR I wanted to know from families who loved their time with it specifics of their experience. Does that make sense??:001_huh:

Edited October 26, 2011 by aprilsblessings

[sweetpea3829]

Following your thread...lol. I just posted a similar thread last week.

 

We are expecting our FIAR order to arrive tomorrow. I'm not sure I'm going to start it right away (with the holidays coming up, I know I'll be busy, plus we have two birthdays that sandwich Christmas), but I'm still looking for ideas and am excited to get started when we do.

 

I'm anticipating that FIAR will be a platform for us, from which we will launch into longer unit studies. Perhaps not this first time through, but as my kiddos get older, I can see using FIAR as a base to expand upon for literacy-based unit studies.

[aprilsblessings]

Following your thread...lol. I just posted a similar thread last week.

 

We are expecting our FIAR order to arrive tomorrow. I'm not sure I'm going to start it right away (with the holidays coming up, I know I'll be busy, plus we have two birthdays that sandwich Christmas), but I'm still looking for ideas and am excited to get started when we do.

 

I'm anticipating that FIAR will be a platform for us, from which we will launch into longer unit studies. Perhaps not this first time through, but as my kiddos get older, I can see using FIAR as a base to expand upon for literacy-based unit studies.

 

LOL - I will have to look for your thread!:lol:

[Ummto4]

You can use FIAR conversationally, or you can add on lap books, notebooking activities, craft, etc. You can go deep or you can just touch on a topic.

 

It all depends on your kid's age and interest.

[aprilsblessings]

I guess I am looking for more what "you" have done that you loved your time with FIAR. I understand there are many ways to use FIAR I wanted to know from families who loved their time with it specifics of their experience. Does that make sense??:001_huh:

[KristenR]

We never did the lapbook route for FIAR. My girls were rather young and they were more into physical activities versus coloring, book making, etc.

 

We used FIAR for quite a few of the books but I would always look online to see what other families did with their rowing experiences. I loved reading blogs where you could see the activities in action. I found lots of fun add-ons to add to the regular FIAR suggestions.

 

In prepping I would read the TM and pick the activities that I felt would appeal and resonate with my kids. Then I would do some additional research online and find anything I might want to trade out or add to. I wouldn't always use a full 5 days. Some of the books we did on a three day schedule.

 

I blogged about a few of our FIAR experiences here. Feel free to check it out. I hope it helps.

 

Even though we never finished all the books in Fiar we were very Happy with our experience with it.

[buram]

I love the directions it takes us in that I didn't expect or never would of planned. I love that it can be short or long depending on what's going on and interest level. I love that I decided to make it work for me this year not the other way around which means we do not HAVE to read the book five times. Most of all I love how much my girls remember from it. They don't remember everything but what they do remember they know well. We all have good memories of most of the books covered. I love how FIAR seems to make her interest in learning soar like nothing else has. I love that I can choose from multiple activities / discussions and not be stuck with just one thing. I love that I was able to check out volume one from the library to know if it was right for me or not. It is not right for everyone.

 

You asked what was loved about the curriculum and those are some of the things I love. There are things that I didn't like too but not enough for me to stop using it. Also my daughter begged to do it again this year. :001_smile: This all may not be the specifics that you were looking for but I hope it was helpful anyways.

[aprilsblessings]

We never did the lapbook route for FIAR. My girls were rather young and they were more into physical activities versus coloring, book making, etc.

 

We used FIAR for quite a few of the books but I would always look online to see what other families did with their rowing experiences. I loved reading blogs where you could see the activities in action. I found lots of fun add-ons to add to the regular FIAR suggestions.

 

In prepping I would read the TM and pick the activities that I felt would appeal and resonate with my kids. Then I would do some additional research online and find anything I might want to trade out or add to. I wouldn't always use a full 5 days. Some of the books we did on a three day schedule.

 

I blogged about a few of our FIAR experiences here. Feel free to check it out. I hope it helps.

 

Even though we never finished all the books in Fiar we were very Happy with our experience with it.

 

Thank you for your blog - that was very helpful and just what I wanted to know!!:001_smile:

[aprilsblessings]

I love the directions it takes us in that I didn't expect or never would of planned. I love that it can be short or long depending on what's going on and interest level. I love that I decided to make it work for me this year not the other way around which means we do not HAVE to read the book five times. Most of all I love how much my girls remember from it. They don't remember everything but what they do remember they know well. We all have good memories of most of the books covered. I love how FIAR seems to make her interest in learning soar like nothing else has. I love that I can choose from multiple activities / discussions and not be stuck with just one thing. I love that I was able to check out volume one from the library to know if it was right for me or not. It is not right for everyone.

 

You asked what was loved about the curriculum and those are some of the things I love. There are things that I didn't like too but not enough for me to stop using it. Also my daughter begged to do it again this year. :001_smile: This all may not be the specifics that you were looking for but I hope it was helpful anyways.

 

Thank you this was very helpful! I can see there is a lot to LOVE.:lol:

[Rivka]

I blog a lot about FIAR - see the link in my sig. I have the books we've done listed on my sidebar - click on a title to see how we studied it.

 

I like FIAR because it's full of little tastes of fascinating topics. I think it leaves children with the sense that the world is huge, and full of things that would be interesting to learn about. It stimulates their curiosity, and, because you're always moving on to something new, it doesn't exhaust it.

 

I like the way that subjects connect to each other in FIAR. I like that you can go where your interests lead you and delve as deeply as you like.

 

I like that it is not a "product heavy" curriculum. The emphasis is on learning and exploring, not proving that you know something by filling out a worksheet or something. (I know that lots of FIAR families lapbook, but that's something that they add on after the fact. I've never wanted to.)

 

I like that FIAR has good tagalong possibilities for my 2.5-year-old. Most of the lessons are over his head, of course, but compared to a paper-and-pencil curriculum there's a lot he can have fun with anyway.

 

I like that my daughter is learning to think more deeply about books, rather than just skimming them for the plot.

[fruitofthewomb]

We have only been doing FIAR for a short time but I love it. You can see how we row here.

 

We stick very close to the manual but I do add in some things I have found while browsing the web. I don't add in any worksheets or lapbooks. We integrate food in with our rows a lot. Sometimes daily :) But I am pregnant so food speaks to me!

 

PP said that it opens their eyes to a world that is bigger-I love that too. I love that my girls know about China, Russia, Italy, and France now-not because of a fact sheet kind of lesson-but because they got to know characters from those places.

 

I like trying to incorporate the culture of the story in our lives. For instance, when we rowed Papa Piccolo (which I blogged about) we learned a few Italian words that we used all week, ate an Italian meal (spaghetti-haha) by candelight, and had an Italian snack (nutella) one day. It was fun and made it feel closer and more real.

 

When we rowed Ping, my girls pretended they were ducks (spontaneously) and I was the master and they took turns getting the "spank" on the back. We played that for almost an hour one day outside. I would call "lalalalei" and they would waddle over to me quacking. Or one would "pretend" to be fishing and wouldn't hear me call. Loved it! We also went to the local duck pond and fed them bread and watched them turn "bottoms up" in the pond.

 

When we rowed When I Was Young in the Mountains, we ate beans and cornbread by lamplight (I have an antique oil lamp that my grandpa gave me before he passed away so I got to talk about him too which made me very happy). My dd great grandparents wrote their own When I Was Young stories for her which made it very special.

 

When we rowed Lentil, we watched Andy Griffith show and ate lemon bars and talked about what life was like in 40s and 50s. We also took a walk down our own town's Main St and compared it to Lentil's Main St. My DD now uses the word citizen frequently.

 

I have seen lightbulb moments where my DD6 really "gets" what the story is about. Not just "oh that was cute story".

 

I love love love the art. I have learned so much and the techniques she has learned have carried over into all her art projects.

 

I love that when someone asks what she learned in school that day-it is always about the FIAR book. Always.

 

And I love that (after pledge, prayer, and devotional) our school day starts off with all 3 of my girls and I on the couch, reading a really good book. It makes me feel like I am not just rushing to try to get the next thing done, I really get to stop and enjoy the moment. Most of the things we do with FIAR are those kind of "soak this in" moments. But I try to keep it light and short. For us, it is the fun part of the day.

 

I am so glad we chose this for this year!

[aprilsblessings]

We have only been doing FIAR for a short time but I love it. You can see how we row here.

 

We stick very close to the manual but I do add in some things I have found while browsing the web. I don't add in any worksheets or lapbooks. We integrate food in with our rows a lot. Sometimes daily :) But I am pregnant so food speaks to me!

 

PP said that it opens their eyes to a world that is bigger-I love that too. I love that my girls know about China, Russia, Italy, and France now-not because of a fact sheet kind of lesson-but because they got to know characters from those places.

 

I like trying to incorporate the culture of the story in our lives. For instance, when we rowed Papa Piccolo (which I blogged about) we learned a few Italian words that we used all week, ate an Italian meal (spaghetti-haha) by candelight, and had an Italian snack (nutella) one day. It was fun and made it feel closer and more real.

 

When we rowed Ping, my girls pretended they were ducks (spontaneously) and I was the master and they took turns getting the "spank" on the back. We played that for almost an hour one day outside. I would call "lalalalei" and they would waddle over to me quacking. Or one would "pretend" to be fishing and wouldn't hear me call. Loved it! We also went to the local duck pond and fed them bread and watched them turn "bottoms up" in the pond.

 

When we rowed When I Was Young in the Mountains, we ate beans and cornbread by lamplight (I have an antique oil lamp that my grandpa gave me before he passed away so I got to talk about him too which made me very happy). My dd great grandparents wrote their own When I Was Young stories for her which made it very special.

 

When we rowed Lentil, we watched Andy Griffith show and ate lemon bars and talked about what life was like in 40s and 50s. We also took a walk down our own town's Main St and compared it to Lentil's Main St. My DD now uses the word citizen frequently.

 

I have seen lightbulb moments where my DD6 really "gets" what the story is about. Not just "oh that was cute story".

 

I love love love the art. I have learned so much and the techniques she has learned have carried over into all her art projects.

 

I love that when someone asks what she learned in school that day-it is always about the FIAR book. Always.

 

And I love that (after pledge, prayer, and devotional) our school day starts off with all 3 of my girls and I on the couch, reading a really good book. It makes me feel like I am not just rushing to try to get the next thing done, I really get to stop and enjoy the moment. Most of the things we do with FIAR are those kind of "soak this in" moments. But I try to keep it light and short. For us, it is the fun part of the day.

 

I am so glad we chose this for this year!

 

Wow! Thank you for this - this is exactly what I was wanting to know.

[Tmhearn]

I am a huge FIAR fan!

 

We started with my dd when she was 4. She's 7 now, and my ds is 4 now. We are rowing the books for the 4th time now. I love that you can design a curriculum with the books to suit your needs. I have grouped the books according to animal habitats this year. Previously, we grouped them according to season. I know some people like to group by country.

 

We strive to read the book 5 days but usually only get to it 3-4 times a week lately. I used the manual a lot the first 2 years, but now I'm pretty familiar with the books. I use http://www.homeschoolshare.com for most of my printables. We enjoy lapbooking. So, we do try to work a lapbook in on some of our favorite titles.

 

We do stick to the FIAR "schedule" pretty closely. On Monday we color the story disk and stick it on our wall map. We also color a flag, if possible and stick it on the wall near the map. Tuesday is a Language Arts activity. I would write for my dd at 4 if the activity seemed fun. Art is Wednesday. Thursday is Math. And Friday is Science.

 

Looking back at my dd's lapbooks from several years ago always cracks me up. And both kids enjoy taking their lapbooks out to review periodically.

[lovintolearn]

http://delightfullearning.blogspot.com/search/label/FI%E2%99%A5AR

[woolybear]

Two more very helpful fiar blogs:

 

http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com

www.allofakindfamily.com

 

Here's our story. I've just decided to use fiar. I do not have the teacher's manual yet, but am starting based on what I know from homeschoolshare and blogs, and the fiar forums.

 

We started this week with How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. First of all, let me say so far this has completely turned my hsing with my younger son into something so joyful. We were having a very meh year.

 

So, up til now this is what we have done:

--visited an apple orchard

--read the book several times

--placed geography discs (created by the woman from all of a kind family blog noted above) on map

--worked on reading using the discs

--did art project using pastels, drawing apples

--made butter

--sprouted wheat seeds

--go along books: Apples by Gail Gibbons, Apple Picking Time, Rain Makes Applesauce, The Giant Apple

--started scrapbook: only added map so far

 

Still planning to do:

--art project: painting street scene

--craft: apple stamping

--science: salt and evaporation

--science: learning about how plants get nourishment

--science: chart growth of wheat sprouts

--field trip: to farm to watch milking and collect eggs

--more go along books

--learn a little about each country

--add to scrapbook

--math: doubling, tripling, halving recipe

--Make apple pie!!

 

My ds is on the older side for this (he will be 9 next month) so this really isn't a lot for him. I plan to do this over two weeks. I am planning to get back to blogging, but there isn't any fiar there yet. Nor anything new in months.:001_smile:

[Susie in MS]

Oh my, we LOVE FIAR!!!! I started with my dd when she was 4. She is now 6 and we don't plan to stop anytime soon. We are on our third rowing of vols 1-3 and just recently did 1 book from vol 4.

 

I love that I can follow the manual just as it states doing one subject per day and it will be good. And I love that we can camp out with a book for as long as we choose if we find bunny trails that we are interested in.

 

Sometimes we add *parts* of lapbooks for dd's notebooking. She loves this and she will get the notebook out and go thru it on her own. Sometimes we added lesson extensions of science experiments cuz we can and we like it, but we don't have to if life has other plans.

 

I like that we are not spending a month or three on one topic, but each week (unless we choose otherwise) is a new adventure.

 

I love that my dd learns, and learns well with this approach. My 6 yo just about has plot down. I didn't know what plot was till I was in high school!

 

I love that we are not bound by someone else's schedule of certain books.

 

I agree with everything these ladies have said, and I could go on, but I will stop.

 

 

ETA:

Being able to choose which projects fit my dd is worth its weight in gold!

Edited October 27, 2011 by Susie in MS

[Tracy]

I loved it:

• For its simplicity. I never did a lapbook. I never used homeschoolshare.com. I never cooked. (Well, after dd refused to help me make the applie pie recipe in one of the FIAR books and then refused to eat the apple pie, I decided that cooking was not our thing.) It was almost completely open & go, and dd was so immensely happy with it.
  
• For the mapping. It gave my dd a great love of geography, which has stayed with her. We developed a little game we call, "Think of a Country," in which I give clues and she tries to guess the country I am thinking of. Two years later, we still play it. (But when I saw that most of the mapping was concentrated in Europe and North America, I did supplement the geography.)
  
• For the vocabulary work. There is a suggestion in the introduction to have the child look for unfamiliar words the first day, talk about what they mean, and that continue to look for them as you read the following days. My very verbal dd loved this activity and would often page through her list of words.
  
• For the flexibility. There were always way more lessons than you could possibly do in a week. The math and science not so much, but if I didn't like the math or science lessons, then I just did extra of the other topics.
  
• For the amount of information it gave my dd. I am not usually into curricula that have a feeling of randomness, but FIAR just stuffed so much into my dd's mind that she was able to make sense out of both as we did FIAR and later after we were finished. (For example, it was a wonderful precursor to a four-year history cycle.)
  

[aprilsblessings]

Two more very helpful fiar blogs:

 

www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com

www.allofakindfamily.com

 

Here's our story. I've just decided to use fiar. I do not have the teacher's manual yet, but am starting based on what I know from homeschoolshare and blogs, and the fiar forums.

 

We started this week with How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. First of all, let me say so far this has completely turned my hsing with my younger son into something so joyful. We were having a very meh year.

 

So, up til now this is what we have done:

--visited an apple orchard

--read the book several times

--placed geography discs (created by the woman from all of a kind family blog noted above) on map

--worked on reading using the discs

--did art project using pastels, drawing apples

--made butter

--sprouted wheat seeds

--go along books: Apples by Gail Gibbons, Apple Picking Time, Rain Makes Applesauce, The Giant Apple

--started scrapbook: only added map so far

 

Still planning to do:

--art project: painting street scene

--craft: apple stamping

--science: salt and evaporation

--science: learning about how plants get nourishment

--science: chart growth of wheat sprouts

--field trip: to farm to watch milking and collect eggs

--more go along books

--learn a little about each country

--add to scrapbook

--math: doubling, tripling, halving recipe

--Make apple pie!!

 

My ds is on the older side for this (he will be 9 next month) so this really isn't a lot for him. I plan to do this over two weeks. I am planning to get back to blogging, but there isn't any fiar there yet. Nor anything new in months.:001_smile:

 

Thank you for the links!

[ALB]

You have already had some great responses, but I'll chime in as well.

 

We rowed the books very closely to how the TM suggests, and always read them five days in a row. I know that's not always popular, but I actually like reading books over and over again :tongue_smilie:. We always put the story disks on the map, and focused a lot on geography (like making a flag for the country, coloring a map from a coloring book, listening to Wee Sing Around the World and making a food from that culture). We had fun learning about some different animals and other science topics along the way. We live overseas and have no English library, so I used books from our shelves as go-alongs and found you tube videos about animals. As a pp said, we LOVED the art exercises, and often did more than one of the recommendations. For most subjects, I chose to focus on just one activity and we kept it pretty simple.

 

We tried notebooking and lapbooking, and had varied degrees of success. Finally, I decided it was more age-appropriate for my dc to just "row" the book and not try to turn it into something more than that. If we were still doing FIAR now, I'm sure we would notebook much more.

 

I LOVE FIAR and we still dabble in it here and there since I have all the titles and all the manuals (well, from B4FIAR through vol.3 of FIAR). We started early and have rowed every book by now, and I just thought it was time for us to move on. Have fun with it!

[Stellalarella]

My kids love our FIAR books. Learning to love books is an important part of our education goals.

 

I love FIAR because it is developmentally appropriate for my little kids.

 

I love it because it works even when our history spine (STOW) gets too far above the littles' comprehension (Vol. 3 and 4).

 

I love it because they ask for it.

 

I also love the older book style FIAR manuals, (but I don't love the new spiral bound.)

 

:001_smile:

[aprilsblessings]

[quote name=

 

I love FIAR because it is developmentally appropriate for my little kids.

 

I love it because it works even when our history spine (STOW) gets too far above the littles' comprehension (Vol. 3 and 4).

 

 

:001_smile:

 

Thank you for sharing this is something I hadn't thought about but I have been needing something "age appropriate".

[aprilsblessings]

Oh my, we LOVE FIAR!!!! I started with my dd when she was 4. She is now 6 and we don't plan to stop anytime soon. We are on our third rowing of vols 1-3 and just recently did 1 book from vol 4.

 

 

There may be an obvious answer to this question but how do you re-row three times? Do you really find enough new information? Are you adding on/go on rabbit trails inorder to bring in enough new info?

[freeindeed]

For those of your who used Five In A Row and LOVED it could you tell me.....

 

Why/What did you love about your time with it?

 

How did you use it in your family? (Just the TM, extra books, extra activities, etc.)

 

TIA!:D

 

 

Edited to add:

 

I guess I am looking for more what "you" have done that you loved your time with FIAR. I understand there are many ways to use FIAR I wanted to know from families who loved their time with it specifics of their experience. Does that make sense??:001_huh:

 

We loved the book selections & the flexibility of FIAR. In our family, we "rowed" a book for two weeks (four days each week, total of eight days.) We used the TM, the Bible supplement, the cookbook, and the extras from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/five_in_a_row_resources.php. We read the entire book on some days & on other days we just looked at/read/discussed the page(s) referred to in the lessons.

I would decide which lessons & activities for the current book that I wanted to cover at the beginning of the week & then write out a schedule. That way I knew what to do each day.:)

We really enjoyed making the recipes from the cookbook, plus they were all DELICIOUS! We have some wonderful FIAR memories, and I can't wait to "row" again with my youngest child.

Edited November 1, 2011 by freeindeed

[aprilsblessings]

We loved the book selections & the flexibility of FIAR. In our family, we "rowed" a book for two weeks (four days each week, total of eight days.) We used the TM, the Bible supplement, the cookbook, and the extras from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/five_in_a_row_resources.php. We read the entire book on some days & on other days we just looked at/read/discussed the page(s) referred to in the lessons.

I would decide which lessons & activities for the current book that I wanted to cover at the beginning of the week & then write out a schedule. That way I knew what to do each day.:)

We really enjoyed making the recipes from the cookbook, plus they were all DELICIOUS! We have some wonderful FIAR memories, and I can't wait to "row" again with my youngest child.

 

 

Do you think just doing a google search would bring up a recipe to try? I guess I am wondering if the cookbook is worth the money. Thanks!

[freeindeed]

Here's a link: http://rainbowresource.com/product/sku/003596/ If you click on "More Views," it will allow you to read the table of contents and also a couple of sample recipes. The cookbook is definitely worth the money in my opinion.:)

 

ETA: I got a great deal for the cookbook on Amazon. It's older, but it looks to me like the only difference is the cover.

[Susie in MS]

There may be an obvious answer to this question but how do you re-row three times? Do you really find enough new information? Are you adding on/go on rabbit trails inorder to bring in enough new info?

 

Hi April,

 

The first time we rowed my dd was 4 yo. We usually only rowed a book 2-3 days and did only the very simple lessons. The next time around we rowed 3-4 days on average and did lessons that were a little more complicated and added a page or 2 out of a book like How People LIve. The 3rd (and some of the 2nd) rowings I added 32 page related topic specific books for science and geography when I have them. I also included hand writing of copy work related to the topics covered and just all around dove deeper. It really isn't hard to do. Not all of the books will we row 3 times as they don't interest us as much, or I feel we have covered the lessons well enough. Our rowings now last on average of 4-5 days and sometimes we expand the topics and go for 2 weeks. We also do random printouts from HSS as there is interest and add lesson expanders such as the projects listed in the FIAR archives and others. If I did FIAR only conversationally, and stuck with just the manual then I couldn't row 3 times.

[Pookamama]

Thanks so much for this thread! I have FIAR on its way to me and I'm getting excited about using it! :D

[aprilsblessings]

Hi April,

 

The first time we rowed my dd was 4 yo. We usually only rowed a book 2-3 days and did only the very simple lessons. The next time around we rowed 3-4 days on average and did lessons that were a little more complicated and added a page or 2 out of a book like How People LIve. The 3rd (and some of the 2nd) rowings I added 32 page related topic specific books for science and geography when I have them. I also included hand writing of copy work related to the topics covered and just all around dove deeper. It really isn't hard to do. Not all of the books will we row 3 times as they don't interest us as much, or I feel we have covered the lessons well enough. Our rowings now last on average of 4-5 days and sometimes we expand the topics and go for 2 weeks. We also do random printouts from HSS as there is interest and add lesson expanders such as the projects listed in the FIAR archives and others. If I did FIAR only conversationally, and stuck with just the manual then I couldn't row 3 times.

 

I get it now - thanks for explaining!!:lol:

[kolamum]

We used FIAR for 4.5 years with our eldest and less with our youngest. I honestly had hoped to use it longer with my youngest but the ages are so close that it's easier to keep my children together so we have in all most every way moved on.

 

We loved the simple approach to learning which left plenty of room for following all the "whys" and "hows" the kids wanted to know about. We did use FIAR as it's written in the manual but I added science on and found myself often skipping the art lessons. That was more so because art is not my strong point.

 

I loved, personally, how much children learned to love learning through using this curriculum. I loved that it gave them a gentle start in their beginning years. I love that even now they can look back and say, "Man I really loved that book because.." and truly mean it.

 

I think the gentle approach with literature opened up a world for us/them that might not have happened otherwise. All though, in all fairness I was considering using SL because I knew of it and liked what I saw, but then found FIAR. Honestly, I'd say they are competing curriculums. Not so much with being on the same level because I see them as totally different, but I will say that often those who love SL don't like FIAR and vice versa.

 

I happen to love both curriculums and am now using WP & SL because my eldest has outgrown FIAR and I chose, at this point, not to move int BYFIAR. :)