Tell me about FIAR...

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

My son is doing great with our little first grade schooling, and my 3.5 year old has been tagging along. But, I think I need something aimed more directly at a pre-schooler for her, to keep her interested and also so she feels special too, now that big brother is getting a lot of one-on-one time.

 

Is FIAR a good fit? I thought my big kid could listen in as well, but it would stil be "little sis's school"

 

Do your kids not get tired of the same story five days straight?

 

Thanks!

[mumto2]

I have had lots of friends use it and they have all loved it. A couple have actually done all of the levels. My dd was the exception-- she adored the books, enjoyed the activities, but wanted to do them all the first day. We would spend 3 days on a book usually. She enjoyed it and wanted to complete it. She tends to be that way with most things, very focused.

 

One piece of advice is to make sure you have most of the book list located before you start. I never managed to find a couple of them. At that point in my home ed journey not having a recommended resource drove me nuts.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thanks for the pointers!

[ErinD]

Monica,

 

Since your daughter is 3ish, I would recommend starting with Before Five In a Row. Some very fun stories in there and enough to keep a 5 year old's interest, too. We especially loved Caps For Sale and still play the velcro hat game from HomeschoolShare!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thank you Eddie! I was looking at the booklist for both BFIAR and FIAR, and I can remember eading all the FIAR books when I was a kid. I had not heard of any of the BFIAR books before, which is why I wasn't too sure about it. I will go peruse them on amazon. She is an mature 3, but definitely still 3!

 

I'm still :bigear: if anyone has any other experiences to share.

[selh09]

Monica,

 

Since your daughter is 3ish, I would recommend starting with Before Five In a Row. Some very fun stories in there and enough to keep a 5 year old's interest, too. We especially loved Caps For Sale and still play the velcro hat game from HomeschoolShare!

 

:iagree:

 

We have been using FIAR for 3 years now and LOVE IT! But this is my first year using BFIAR. When I found FIAR my oldest dd was past BFIAR, and I REALLY wish I would have used BFIAR with her for pre-k, it is such a sweet and fun curriculum. I said all that to say, I'm using BFIAR with my 3 yr old (almost 4) and she loves it! We don't use it every day, but the days that we do it is definitely a hit!!

 

HTH

[orozco]

Use BFIAR and we loved it. Just to give you an idea, when reading the Carrot Seed, we read the book once each day for five days. Sometimes we read the book 2-3 times on the same depending on what the children wanted. We created a large measuring tape out of butcher paper in the shape of a carrot to measure heights. We planted our own carrots, both seeds and sprouted carrot tops and kept a picture journal. We made hummus and ate it with carrot sticks. We measure the lenghts of different carrots using both rulers, cubes, and bears and weighed them after children made guesses. And we did a color hunt searching for items around the house that were the same color as our carrot. Hope this helps a bit. Happy reading.

[Alice]

We use BFIAR and FIAR for preschool and Kindergarten. I use it much in the way you described, it’s stated as for the little one so they have something special but usually my older one sat in and enjoyed it.

 

I call it “book of the week” with them and use it more as a starting off point for a preschoolish theme for the week. We rarely read the book all five days, maybe 3-4 days. With BFIAR we might have been more likely to do it 5 times (or more) because that’s the age they are more likely to like books read over and over again at our house. As my kids got older they didn’t always want to hear it 5 days.

 

FIAR is very flexible which is why I like it. If you check out their message boards you can get a lot of ideas of how people use it.

[kolamum]

I don't think FIAR would be a good fit for a 3 year old. I'd say a 5 year old, yes, but it might go over her head & you might feel it was a poor purchase. I'm not as crazy keen on BFIAR because it's not laid out in the same fashion as FIAR.

 

There are small suggestions of things you COULD do with little books to read to her in BFIAR. You could get a small feel for what FIAR & BFIAR are like by checking out some of the free unit studies over at HomeschoolShare.com ;)

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

You could get a small feel for what FIAR & BFIAR are like by checking out some of the free unit studies over at HomeschoolShare.com ;)

 

Thanks for the link!

[KristenR]

I did FIAR with my young daughter and her younger sister happily tagged along. I was easily able to adapt it for my younger audience while still accomplishing the things I wanted to with my older daughter. You can see some of our FIAR posts here. It might give you a good idea about things you can do.

[mom2one]

I did FIAR with my daughter when she was 4 & 5 and she loved it. She never got bored with the same story over and over, even when I did. We still have all the FIAR books that I purchased and she is getting to the age where she can read them herself and does. Recently I heard here explaining what a gondola is to her stuffed animals while reading Papa Piccolo to them.

Edited August 27, 2012 by mom2one
Mistake, just turned 4 when we started, not 3.

[SFM]

We love love love FIAR in the early years, the books are excellent and it is gentle enough as well as educational and helpful for the teacher without being restrictive. I really enjoy doing it, we have BFIAR and FIAR. I will be using it for K and adding in Math.

[Susie in MS]

Recently I heard here explaining what a gondola is to her stuffed animals while reading Papa Piccolo to them.

 

Yep!

Gondola, personification, erosion, symmetry, Eiffel Tower, countries, rivers, alliteration, overlapping, buoyancy and on and on.

 

There are so many things my dd learned from FIAR. To be honest she had a better education at 4 and 5 yo than I had in high school! FIAR has continued to amaze my dh and I at how thorough yet gentle it really is. And how it can be used with a wide range of ages. The simpler activities for a 4 yo and the more in depth ones for a 7 yo.

 

I started FIAR when my dd was 4. I personally would not shoot for 3, but you know your child.

 

I have used HomeschoolShare many, many times. I am grateful for the moms who took their time to organize it and make it free to all. However, I personally do not feel that it will give you a good idea of what true FIAR is like. HSS is mostly notebooking and lapbooking that can go with the topics in FIAR. True FIAR is not about lapbooking. It is more about snuggling with your child and great books and learning from them. Nothing wrong with lapbooking at all though. We have used a combo of the good warm lessons in FIAR all "cozyed" up on the couch and we have added notebooking when we wanted.

 

I have not been a super great fan of B4FIAR, but there are many moms that love it. You really might want to give it a try first. The books are very nice.

[skeeterbug]

We use BFIAR here. My 2.5yo loves, loves it! My 5yo is happy to do it, and even my 7yo joins in on the activities. My first resource for activities is Delightful Learning. She blogs about all her rows with pictures and links to resources. We don't read the book everyday, and some days I let youtube do it for me if there is a video of someone reading the book. It's really flexible, we spend a couple of weeks per book. I also use the preschool packs over at Homeschool Creations, she has many for the BFIAR books, there would be activities in these that would suit the ages of both your kids.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

This all sounds so great! I am now thinking I want to do BFIAR with my little one and FIAR with the big guy. I like the description that it's more about snuggling than "schooling"

 

Does everone enjoy all the volumes of FIAR equally? I only recognize the books from volume 1...

[Acorn]

I have FIAR vol 1-3 and select books from each volume. I am using it with a 4 and 6 year old so I wanted to use some of the titles that are better suited for younger ages. I am organizing our rows this year to focus on geography.

[Susie in MS]

 

Does everone enjoy all the volumes of FIAR equally? I only recognize the books from volume 1...

 

I do. If I had to choose between vols 1-3, I don't know that I could. I am very blessed to have them all.