Tell me about FIAR

[AimeeM]

I was looking at MP's Junior K (I would add in math - Miquon and Seton - and phonics - Phonics Pathways and CHC's phonics).

 

... but then... then I looked at FIAR. Would a child who does NOT care for coloring/art enjoy this, or no?

[Alice]

Yes. FIAR is pretty much what you make it. The manual is simply a list of suggested activities to use along with a list of picture books. The idea is you read the same book every day for a week and then do an activity each day based on the book. At it’s simplest that is it and that is all you need.

 

Many people who use FIAR do different things with it. A lot of people who like lapbooks or crafts or coloring pages use those. My oldest was allergic to crafts and art from an early age. The way we used FIAR was mostly as a way for me to somewhat structure a library reading list. Mostly we read other books that went along with the topic and then we’d do a few activities each week related to the book/topic. He loves science so we were always more heavy into the science activities. We also did a lot with food and cooking. A lot of the books lend well to trying different ethnic cuisine or just something new to you...we had french onion soup, sushi, mussels.

 

For example...for a book on pioneers (I can’t remember which one now) we read the book, read other books about the same time period, and did an experiment with oiled paper which was mentioned in the book as used for windows. That led into a bunch of different experiments with oil and water. We made our own butter (surprisingly easy to me). For The Giraffe that Walked to Paris we studied giraffes and did a measurement activity on the sidewalk showing the length of different parts of a giraffe compared to our own lengths lying down. For a discussion on personification in Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel we put googly eyes on the furniture and then pretended that all the furniture had personalities.

 

The other thing he liked doing a lot was somehow acting out the story. We’d either re-tell it with stuffed animal puppets or play act the story.

 

My next son was much more into art so we did a lot more crafts for the same books.

 

I’m going to start again next year with my daughter and one of the things I’m interested in is seeing what things she wants to do. It’s really a very flexible and adaptable program.

[Susie in MS]

Oh yes! My dd was allergic to crayons for a long while, but she has always loved FIAR. On art day you can just look at the examples pointed out in the manual and show the pages from the picture book. My dd learned how to draw motion, water puddles, shadows, hatching and all sorts of techniques from FIAR. They were very simple, but effective lessons. You can either just view them in the book or view and practice. The hands on activities (science exp, etc) are appreciated by almost all kids.

 

Art is 1 day per week. You cover 1 subject per day (unless you choose to do otherwise). Social studies on day 1, Language Arts (we loved the personification lesson the pp mentioned)-day 2, Art- day 3, Math- day 4, and Science- day 5.

[craftyerin]

Absolutely. I have two writing-phobic boys (almost 5 and almost 6) who have **LOVED** FIAR this past year. Much of what you see when you look at mamas blogging about FIAR are lapbookers. We are not lapbookers. That is all add-on to what is included in the manual. I don't think it's a bad way to do FIAR, if it suits your and your children, but my kids would riot if I suggested lapbooking our way through FIAR. Creating that sort of paper trail just doesn't appeal to us at all. We "row" conversationally, with fun projects here and there, field trips, hands-on stuff, etc. I blogged about how I plan and implement FIAR here, and elsewhere on my blog you can see what some of our rows have looked like. It is a simply delightful curriculum, IMO.

[mombrarian]

I'm loving the sound of this for my K and Pre-K kids! I think we would be particualrly interested in the science stuff too. Do the FIAR books include instructions for doing related experiments/projects, or do you have to seek out a lot of supplemental science books and/or flesh out the projects on your own?

 

What do you plan to do after FIAR, since it is geared toward 5-8 year olds? Is there another unit studies curriculum that goes through upper elementary or beyond? Will you just put together your own unit studies after that, or switch to more traditional curricula? I like the idea of doing unit studies all the way through, but I don't know if I'm creative enough to put it all together on my own.

[AimeeM]

I downloaded the sample. The activities seem very vague - not much direction for the parent, at least on the sample. Is it the same for the entire volume, or just the sample (a unit for Ping)?

[Eagle]

We just started FIAR last week (with Harold and the Purple Crayon) and I'm really surprised how interested my son is in it. I figured he would have no interest in certain language arts topics and that the math would be way too easy. By day two he was leaping out of his chair shouting "that's a pun!" when we encountered one (after we did a lesson on puns day 1). We did skip counting by threes for the first time and did some fraction addition. It turned out to be an awesome week and I didn't need to do any of the supplemental activities I had started to compile on Pinterest. We still did our regular spelling, handwriting and math (except for the FIAR fraction day). One day I set aside our plans because ds asked "Can I pleeeeeease write another purple crayon story today?". The beauty of homeschooling is I could just set aside the plans for the day and say "of course, let's write a story!"

 

I personally felt the Ping row was not representative of the richness of the curriculum.

[Susie in MS]

I'm loving the sound of this for my K and Pre-K kids! I think we would be particualrly interested in the science stuff too. Do the FIAR books include instructions for doing related experiments/projects, or do you have to seek out a lot of supplemental science books and/or flesh out the projects on your own?

 

What do you plan to do after FIAR, since it is geared toward 5-8 year olds? Is there another unit studies curriculum that goes through upper elementary or beyond? Will you just put together your own unit studies after that, or switch to more traditional curricula? I like the idea of doing unit studies all the way through, but I don't know if I'm creative enough to put it all together on my own.

 

 

Yes, there are instructions when there are experiments. Whether you add go-along topical books (science or history) or not is completely up to you. For K and Pre-K I would suggest not really adding a lot.If you do make it light and fun. For example for Ping we added Big Bird Goes to China vid. You could add a book about ducks if you wish or do a quick search if you want. But non of this would be necessary for children of those ages.

 

I have used vols 1-3 for 4 years and now we are on vol 4. Vol 4 is for the slightly older crowd (7-8, but many use it for even a bit older child). It is very rich. We have even rowed one Beyond FIAR book Boxcar Children. BYFIAR is for 3rd - 4th grade and uses chapter books instead of picture books.

 

FIAR gives you plenty of guidance. There is a lot of foundational info in all of the guides. You choose which lessons to do and which ones to skip. So if on language arts day there is a lesson on personification, one on quotations, and one on homonyms you can choose to do all 3 or pick according to your child's skill level.

[Susie in MS]

I forgot to mention there are pre-made, laminated vol 1-3 set of story disk for those who don't want to color.

 

http://www.rainbowre...2&category=1041

[Susie in MS]

I know I am gonna seem obsessed. Okay, well, I am!

 

This stuff really does stick with the kids. My dd is nearly 8 and we are rowing vol 4. Bravest of Us All used to be part of vol 4, but is now only available via download ....and well worth it too! Anyway, today we were studying the dialect in this book and two of the vocab words was mite and meager. In the book it talks about how when food was a mite meager the kids would head for the sandhill plum bush. Well our water well gave out a few hours ago and my dd came to me and said, "Well, I guess our water is a mite meager!" LOL! I guess that was our silver lining to this mess, and it was thanks to FIAR. :)

[AimeeM]

Other than the books, the manual, and the story disks, what else will I need (other than normal art supplies)? A large map?

[Susie in MS]

A large world and a large US map. If you want you can get the Christian Character Supplement and the Cookbook. These are optional.

 

Art supplies if you decide to go that way. Charcoal, tempra, brushes, etc. I think there is a suggested list in the FREE Ping unit. Let me check.

 

 

 

 

Nope, I was wrong. Ignore this list from the manual if you don't want to do the art lessons:

 

kneadable eraser

drawing pencil or #2

oil pastels

markers

colored pencils

water colors

crayons

acrylics

burshes

water color paper

canvas paper for acrylics

drawing tablet

tracing paper

ruler

cardboard templates for geometric shapes (we have never used this)

[IceFairy]

We are starting FIAR this week...as a fun Summer plan. But, honestly, I can see us using this into the next school year and beyond. I have Ping planned out and we will spend two weeks on it, venturing a bit more into it with books on Ducks, Pandas, The Great Wall, and alittle reader on Confuscious and honesty. Plus the bible supplement takes us into the Story of Jonah and the Whale. We are NOT artsy here and will do one craft rather than an art study, at least at this point.

[craftyerin]

 

 

What do you plan to do after FIAR, since it is geared toward 5-8 year olds? Is there another unit studies curriculum that goes through upper elementary or beyond? Will you just put together your own unit studies after that, or switch to more traditional curricula? I like the idea of doing unit studies all the way through, but I don't know if I'm creative enough to put it all together on my own.

I am planning to use FIAR through the year that my kids will be in 2nd and 1st grades (so, 2 more full school years). After that, I plan to abandon unit studies and pursue a more WTM classical format. We'll start the 4 year history cycle, do science as suggested in the WTM, etc. I am loving FIAR, but I think I'll be ready for more structured classical ed when we finish our years in FIAR.

[craftyerin]

I downloaded the sample. The activities seem very vague - not much direction for the parent, at least on the sample. Is it the same for the entire volume, or just the sample (a unit for Ping)?

I personally felt the Ping row was not representative of the richness of the curriculum.

 

I quite agree. I am disappointed that they chose Ping as the sample row. We enjoyed our row of Ping, but I don't think it's representative of the depth that I find using FIAR.

 

The "vagueness" is part of what I love about FIAR. I don't like scripted, scheduled curriculum. I like an outline, a list of ideas, and the freedom to do them however we like. We've found more "meat" in some rows than others, of course, and everyone's rows will look different because of the choice that FIAR gives us in planning. I think FIAR is a hard curriculum to "get" until you dive in and try it. The samples never gave me a realistic look at how it would actually be to implement FIAR as our core curriculum. I decided to jump in, try it, and we have never regretted it.

[Tracy]

My dd did not like coloring at the age we did FIAR (loves it now, though), but she did love FIAR, and especially the art component, because it was so simple. She is a bit of a perfectionist, and FIAR art was something she could actually do. She especially loved the discussion aspect of the program.

 

My ds couldn't care less about FIAR. He did it willingly, only because it was on his schedule, and he is a "get-it-done" sort of person. But he did not love it. He did not want to read the same book multiple times, study the vocabulary, or have discussions.

 

So I guess it depends on the reason your student doesn't like art, as well as whether he enjoys reading the same book over and over and discussing different aspects.

[SeaConquest]

We have used FIAR books as a sort of reading list, but my son did not enjoy reading them over and over again in a row, so we abandoned that. He gets bored and wants to move on to other books and interests. He also isn't big into lapbooking and I'm not the craftiest. I will say that Ping was the worst book we read. My son and I were both horrified by the hitting, and I have pre screened FIAR books more carefully after that. But, it has enabled us to find and appreciate books that we may not have otherwise. Ping has been the only real miss.