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Five in a Row


kye022984
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We are having a great time with it. I do have volumes 1-3 so we can choose our first year to be "around the world". So far we have studied:

China - The Story of Ping

France - Madeline, Mirette, The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, (and Zarafa)

Italy- Papa Piccolo and Little Nino's Pizzeria

Spain - The Story of Ferdinand

 

We will add books set in Japan, Russia, England, Scotland, Canada and US.

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Here is a great blog for FIAR ideas: http://delightfullearning.blogspot.com/

 

Homeschoolshare.com has a bunch of free lapbooks to go along with the FIAR guides.

 

My biggest gripe is the FIAR author has re-released the guides more then once but does not update them. Many of the books are very hard to find, some almost impossible (Andy and the Circus). You may be able to find some with your Librarys ILL but some you may not. I've been on the lookout for "The Giraffe That Walked to Paris", "Gramma's Walk", and "Andy's Circus" for a long time and haven't found a good price on them. They can go for over $100 but sometimes drop to $40ish. Now that being said I've been able to find most of the books.

 

The Five in a Row forum is a great resource (in some ways more valuable to me then the guides).

 

I really wish Bible had been included in the guides. All that being said I do plan on using FIAR as a supplement.

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I am planning to use it with my kids this year (same ages as yours) and we are so excited! I got volumes 1-3 so that I could pick and choose books that seemed a good fit for them since we're on the young end of the target age for the program. In each volume you'll find books that are younger and some with more mature themes. I have a list planned that I think we'll have a great year with!

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We are planning on using volume 1 this fall. We just got our RR box with all our books and I'm really excited to get going. the lessons look really fun. We also love cooking so I got the Cookbook too. We're ready for a fun year.

 

You'll have to let me know how the cookbook is. Is it a lot of processed ingredients or is it pretty whole foods based? I would love to throw the girls into some more cooking :001_smile:

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Thank you! I love the responses. When I looked into FIAR I really liked it's layout. The resources you gave are awesome too. I'm going to bookmark them all. My 7 year old boy might want to jump on board with his sisters as well ;)

 

Can anyone tell me how the cookbook and the Bible supplement was for them?

I'm looking into a Bible curriculum too but haven't found any I liked so far.

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Oh! I wanted to add too that I have been finding a lot of books on Abebooks.com

 

It's a used bookstore and they have vendors that include free shipping. The books are usually below the new price by 3-4 bucks!

 

Alibris.com is good too ;)

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I own the Bible supplement, and I don't think I'll use it much. I'm not one for bible curriculum with little kids, though. We just read the story bible at bedtime and say prayers.

 

We also aren't using the cookbook since we have too many food allergies here. I plan to stick pretty close to the manual and do very little found-on-blogs stuff. I think my kids would riot if I tried to introduce lapbooking. The topics in the manual are plenty for PK/K, IMO.

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Thank you! I love the responses. When I looked into FIAR I really liked it's layout. The resources you gave are awesome too. I'm going to bookmark them all. My 7 year old boy might want to jump on board with his sisters as well ;)

 

Can anyone tell me how the cookbook and the Bible supplement was for them?

I'm looking into a Bible curriculum too but haven't found any I liked so far.

 

Believe you me, your 7 yo is not too old for FIAR. :D

 

Cookbook:

Most of the recipes use whole foods plus stuff like flour and shortening. We have problems with excito toxins and gluten, but still have been able to use many of the recipes. Some recipes I can improvise.

 

Christian Character Supplement:

Basically teachers character like the name suggest. I don't consider it a Bible curriculum, just something to enhance the lessons in FIAR. For instance in Climbing Kansas Mountain you have verses that deal with kindness, parents caring for their children, becoming like a child to understand the Kingdom, prayer *daily bread*, beauty of nature, the word bread in the Bible, Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread and communion references. This is one of the more involved CCS rows.

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I thought my 7yo would like it! That's great. Hmmmm... I may get the Bible supplement and the Cookbook. I like the idea that the "Bible curriculum" incorporates character. That's always something that is valued to know in our home.

 

I'm including Bible this year as one of our "subjects" so, it sounds like it might fit the bill. The cookbook would just be a plus :) But I'm also trying to balance curriculum with finances this year :tongue_smilie:

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:001_wub: FIAR! And so did dd. I love the variety of lessons, because at that age, you don't necessarily know what their interests will be. I exposes the dc to such a broad range of ideas and subjects. Dd loved the mapping and the vocabulary study the most. We are starting up again with ds4 this fall.

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LOVE, LOVE FIAR... In August we will be starting our 3rd year with FIAR and it is BY FAR my dd favorite part of school. She talks about it ALL the time! My dd will be 7 in a few weeks and she is still in love with it! The great thing about FIAR is you can go as deep as you want with any of the subjects for a given book, which makes learning more "rich" IMO..:)

 

HTH!

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You'll have to let me know how the cookbook is. Is it a lot of processed ingredients or is it pretty whole foods based? I would love to throw the girls into some more cooking :001_smile:

 

We haven't cooked from it yet, but just glancing through it, everything seems from scratch. Only on occasion will it call for a can of something. All the recipes look so yummy. One week I'm looking forward is for Mike mulligan and his steam shovel. You'll Make Irish stew and Oat scones. Yum!

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I just started FIAR with a 7 yro and a 4 yro. We started with volume 2, because the titles seemed a little easier in that volume. It seems to be at the perfect level for my 7 yro, but it is WAY over my 4 yro's head. I'm thinking about waiting to do FIAR with the 4 yro (maybe next year we can try again).

 

Also, if you go onto the FIAR forums, they have alternate books that you can substitute for the books that are out of print. A couple of the books have related movies.

 

About reading the book 5x...so far, we get to 3x and they just don't want to hear it anymore. So, we may be doing Three in a Row. :D

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When my dd was 4 yo we did the 3 in a Row too. :D As she got older she wanted to hear the book each day, but we are all different. You can easily read the book on Day 1, 3, and 5 and still row all 5 days. I do agree with Jane Clair's reasons for the importance of reading all 5 days, but we have to do what works for our families.

 

starrbuck12, have you considered B4EIAR? It didn't work so well for my dd (why we moved on to FIAR) but many, many love it.

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We love FIAR! We started it when my oldest had just turned 5 and we plan to continue this year also. She will be 7 in September. My youngest is just starting B4FIAR and so happy. Although she joined in on so much of the books that I did with my oldest that I was amazed what she was learning when I wasn't even trying to teach her. At the end of the school year I asked her what she liked and didn't like about school. She liked everything but FIAR was by far her favorite. The first year I did it I added extras to the lessons but this last year I kept it simple and we enjoyed it even more. I have found that what they learn with FIAR really stays with them. We have the recipe book and even though we don't use it every time we enjoy the ones we do. I highly recomend it.

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Is FIAR considered a supplement? We were going to be using Right Start or Saxon math for our math needs this year. Will FIAR cover all our math needs or should we still use something along with it?

 

FIAR will only cover all of the math needs of a Pre-Ker or a Ker. Beyond that it is only a supplement in this area. The author suggest to add math and phonics/reading.

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Thanks. Then, I will still introduce/keep going with Right Start or Saxon. We already do 100 Easy Lessons for reading and First Language Lessons for grammar. I can't wait to start FIAR!

 

Do you think I should start BFIAR with my 3 yo and do the usual FIAR with my 5 and 7 yo?

 

Or, will all three be okay on Vol 1?

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We used FIAR when DD was 4. I blogged a bit about it (in my signature).

 

Over all, I enjoyed FIAR but sometimes found the suggested activities kind of pointless. But that's OK, I either found something more fun on the web or came up with my own when needed.

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Thanks. Then, I will still introduce/keep going with Right Start or Saxon. We already do 100 Easy Lessons for reading and First Language Lessons for grammar. I can't wait to start FIAR!

 

Do you think I should start BFIAR with my 3 yo and do the usual FIAR with my 5 and 7 yo?

 

Or, will all three be okay on Vol 1?

 

Some folks let their youngers sit in on the reading, but don't really expect a 3 yo to get anything out of the lessons. But at this point there is no real need for schooling anyway. So, whatever you decide to do will be fine. Others like to use B4FIAR for a 3 yo. HTH

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Some folks let their youngers sit in on the reading, but don't really expect a 3 yo to get anything out of the lessons. But at this point there is no real need for schooling anyway. So, whatever you decide to do will be fine. Others like to use B4FIAR for a 3 yo. HTH

 

Good point. My 3 yo will most likely pick a lot up just from seeing big brother and sister do the work. She's pretty versed already in a lot of subjects because she has so much exposure through her older siblings.

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We've used FIAR over the years. I took a long break from it because it was a lot of planning. Now that I don't have a baby in the house, I'll be trying it again with my K'er. I'm hoping my 7yo will sit in as well since he missed most of the books.

 

When I had younger DC, I always made extra coloring sheets or let them create their own art project. I don't think they got much out of it, but they had fun and felt included. I'm planning on doing some BFIAR books that my 3yo will enjoy and beefing them up a bit for the 5yo.

 

I agree that the cookbooks seem to be mostly from scratch. They also bake many traditionally fried foods (onion rings and egg rolls)...although I think this is mostly for safety reasons. Some foods I remember making are cabbage soup, burgers and onion rings, egg drop soup and egg rolls, baked fish and rice, hot cocoa and omelets. It was a nice ending to our week and they loved creating their own menus!

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We've used FIAR over the years. I took a long break from it because it was a lot of planning.

 

I have heard a lot of people say this, but I have always been very :001_huh:. I found it almost open-and-go. The only planning I ever did was to put books on hold, and we had an absolutely lovely time.

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I have heard a lot of people say this, but I have always been very :001_huh:. I found it almost open-and-go. The only planning I ever did was to put books on hold, and we had an absolutely lovely time.

 

From what I have been reading, FIAR can be as much or as little planning as you want.

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From what I have been reading, FIAR can be as much or as little planning as you want.

 

The first year I OVER planned and it was too much, it took a lot of the fun out of FIAR. :D Last year I stuck to the manual and it was wonderful! I'll be doing that again this coming school year. As others have said, you will be amazed at what your kiddos learn! I know I am every year! :)

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I have been using FIAR to various degrees for over 10 years. You can plan as much or as little as you want.

 

Some years I do nothing but phonics, cursive, math and FIAR. Some years I mix in SotW or whatever. It really depends on my needs and my kids' needs that year.

 

But regardless, we have always enjoyed it. I don't buy all the lapbelts and folding things and other paraphernalia.

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I bought the manuals and all (or almost all) the books. I only used a few ideas from the manuals and ended up selling them on half.com (for almost as much as I'd paid for them).

 

I LOVED the books (well, most of them anyway) and so did my son. One of his very favorites was Warm as Wool.

 

The cookbook is great, I didn't sell it!

 

I didn't buy the Bible supplement.

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I bought the manuals and all (or almost all) the books. I only used a few ideas from the manuals and ended up selling them on half.com (for almost as much as I'd paid for them).

 

I LOVED the books (well, most of them anyway) and so did my son. One of his very favorites was Warm as Wool.

 

The cookbook is great, I didn't sell it!

 

I didn't buy the Bible supplement.

 

I bought most all of volume 1 books (except for two) on the used book store online. Most were at least 2-4 dollars under the brand new amount so, if it doesn't work I'm confident I will get my money back :) But thankfully, I know my kids will love reading the same book at least three days (we read Toad and Frog almost every night) in a row and since vol1 is only 19 weeks long I figured the three days will stretch it out for me :)

 

Thank you for the feedback.

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I bought most all of volume 1 books (except for two) on the used book store online. Most were at least 2-4 dollars under the brand new amount so, if it doesn't work I'm confident I will get my money back :) But thankfully, I know my kids will love reading the same book at least three days (we read Toad and Frog almost every night) in a row and since vol1 is only 19 weeks long I figured the three days will stretch it out for me :)

 

Thank you for the feedback.

 

I do think it's a good program, especially if your kids will want to read the same book several days in a row. My son liked to hear some books many times, but not for days in a row.

 

I still think he benefited from all those wonderful picture books and since the manuals can be sold for a decent price, I don't think you can go wrong trying FIAR.

 

I love the ideas like looking on a map to locate where the stories are set and vocabulary building while reading and discussing the book. A lot of the math games are really cute too.

 

Here is a list of which Let's Read and Find Out science books go well with which FIAR books.

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We enjoy FIAR, I think it's the best curriculum out there for this age. We used it from K - 3rd grade using volumes 1-4 as our main curriculum and only adding in math and language arts. Volume 4 is really great as well for the 7 and 8 year olds, you go much more in depth with topics and you spend about two weeks on the literature unit. You don't read the book everyday for two weeks, it is just a bouncing board for studies.

 

I didn't always read the book 5 days a week with volumes 1-3, sometimes we just read it twice or three times. However, I would open up the book and refer to certain pages with the lessons so there was still a connection to the story and the lesson.

 

Some weeks we did just the manual and some weeks we added all sorts of stuff like extra books, lapbooking etc... I would get burned out if every week I scheduled and added things to so that is why sometimes I did and when it started to feel too much I would just do the manual for a few weeks and once I felt better we would do a few weeks of adding in extra things. It doesn't have to be either or.

 

Things I liked to add when my son was older like in 2nd and 3rd grade was lots of extra mapping. I would print off maps from our Uncle Josh's Outline map cd and use an atlas. If the geography lesson was for a state, than we would fill in the capital, large cities, bodies of water and rivers. Basically, just add in surrounding areas to whatever the geography lesson was and color in the map.

 

We also used Bare Books the hardcover spiral kind to put all our lapbook and print out elements in. We just kept one big book going that had several books in it instead of doing an individual lapbook for each title. Homeschool Share has lots of great print offs that we used.

 

But again, it would be too much some weeks if I did every FIAR title like that and so some weeks we just went with the manual. Also, if more emphasis needed to be on math and language arts than we would just do the manual as well.

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I do think it's a good program, especially if your kids will want to read the same book several days in a row. My son liked to hear some books many times, but not for days in a row.

 

I still think he benefited from all those wonderful picture books and since the manuals can be sold for a decent price, I don't think you can go wrong trying FIAR.

 

I love the ideas like looking on a map to locate where the stories are set and vocabulary building while reading and discussing the book. A lot of the math games are really cute too.

 

Here is a list of which Let's Read and Find Out science books go well with which FIAR books.

 

Thanks for the reference!

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We enjoy FIAR, I think it's the best curriculum out there for this age. We used it from K - 3rd grade using volumes 1-4 as our main curriculum and only adding in math and language arts. Volume 4 is really great as well for the 7 and 8 year olds, you go much more in depth with topics and you spend about two weeks on the literature unit. You don't read the book everyday for two weeks, it is just a bouncing board for studies.

 

I didn't always read the book 5 days a week with volumes 1-3, sometimes we just read it twice or three times. However, I would open up the book and refer to certain pages with the lessons so there was still a connection to the story and the lesson.

 

Some weeks we did just the manual and some weeks we added all sorts of stuff like extra books, lapbooking etc... I would get burned out if every week I scheduled and added things to so that is why sometimes I did and when it started to feel too much I would just do the manual for a few weeks and once I felt better we would do a few weeks of adding in extra things. It doesn't have to be either or.

 

Things I liked to add when my son was older like in 2nd and 3rd grade was lots of extra mapping. I would print off maps from our Uncle Josh's Outline map cd and use an atlas. If the geography lesson was for a state, than we would fill in the capital, large cities, bodies of water and rivers. Basically, just add in surrounding areas to whatever the geography lesson was and color in the map.

 

We also used Bare Books the hardcover spiral kind to put all our lapbook and print out elements in. We just kept one big book going that had several books in it instead of doing an individual lapbook for each title. Homeschool Share has lots of great print offs that we used.

 

But again, it would be too much some weeks if I did every FIAR title like that and so some weeks we just went with the manual. Also, if more emphasis needed to be on math and language arts than we would just do the manual as well.

 

Can you tell me more about Uncle Josh's Outline Map CD and the Care Books? Where I can find them?

 

I planned to have each child do at least two notebook pages this year (and notebooking is new to us too) but is lapbooking any different?

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