Who uses FIAR as part of their 1st grade curriculum?

[arcara]

How does it fit into your curriculum? Are you also doing history and science? We already have a pretty full curriculum, but I like the idea of enjoying and digging into good children's books. At what age/grade did you stop using it?

[Aurelia]

We will be doing FIAR as part of 1st grade. I do not plan to do additional history or science except as read-alouds and maybe some nature study, but if your child is really into either subject, you could definitely add it in. I think too much added material takes away from what FIAR covers and so far DD's retention with it has been great, so I have no complaints. We are just finishing volume 1 and will do volume 2 during her 1st grade year. My current plan is vol 1 in K, vol 2 in 1st, vol 3 and repeats of some of vol 1&2 in 2nd, and a few books in vol 4 in 3rd grade.

[Karen in CO]

We used it for part of first and part of K.

 

We did it for literature and art. It is a great way to introduce literary concepts. I am going to do it again with the next child. I didn't use it as written - we had full days already too. I planned it for twice a week. Once day we would read it and talk about the literary parts of the story that the FIAR manual discussed, plus any map work. The other day we read it and discussed the illustrator. I covered the artistic discussion in the manual, and we did the art project. It worked really well. We also used it in a once a week co-op that went well.

 

So, you don't have to use all of it, just one or two of the lessons with the book are a good supplement.

[Free Indeed]

I use it for 1st - 4th usually. With my oldest I added in history and science because he is a history buff. For my other children I did it pretty much as written. I use homeschool share units now and then too. We really enjoy this type of learning and retention is great. :001_smile:

[chiguirre]

I used it last year with a 1st grader and a PKer. We did about 40 books and learned a lot about science, geography, literary terms and artistic techniques. I didn't want to start a more indepth science or history program until dd could fully participate and I'm glad that we waited. FIAR helped my kids enjoy read-alouds and piqued their interest to learn more about the world around them. We still occasionally row a book and we're finishing up #47, Andy and the Lion, this week while also doing a mini-unit on the first Thanksgiving.

 

FIAR was good for the kids, but it was also a good skill builder for me. I became more confident about organizing our studies, choosing materials and knowing when we had done enough (that's the hardest for me). I'm much more comfortable following our interests, even if it means deviating from our main history curriculum. Some of our best hs memories have come from those sidetrips.

[Jenn Robinson]

We have done ALL the books in vol1-3. My girls were 6&4 when we started and we just finished this August (they are 8&6).

 

When we did it we DID IT! We made notebooks and lapbooks and made it part of our curriculum across the board. We might so SOTW for a season or in the afternoons when we weren't doing FIAR.

 

During FIAR weeks instead of doing a math sheet every day, one day a week we did FIAR math. Instead of doing Lang. Arts everyday, one day a week (a different day from Math day) we'd do FIAR Lang Arts. Then we'd do science and art together.

 

We LOVE FIAR! As soon as I have an "extra" $75 laying around we will order Vol 4 b/c my girls miss it so much and they aren't ready for "Beyound FIAR" yet. All that to say, it is very doable with TWTM!

HTH!

[5wolfcubs]

We are -- FIAR is primarily for my 1st grader. He also listens to SOTW 2 but doesn't have an additional science program. He is just learning to read and print...FIAR is perfect for him. My 3rd grader & 3yo enjoy it as well.

[Amber in AUS]

We are using it and loving it too!

[Ummto4]

Me !!

 

I plan to use FIAR for both first and second grade (up to vol 4).

 

I only do it 3x/week.

Mon: social study (character, citizenship, community, geography).

Tue: applied math, some vocab, comment on art. We don't really do FIAR art (in terms of real drawing). My son does not like drawing, so I only ask him to draw for his nature journal and to illustrate history/science (his choosing).

Wed: FIAR science . For science, we don't do all activities suggested, but we pick and choose .

Thurs: BFSU science .

Fri: American history.

 

We don't do lapbook at all. I do have template for geography, vocab, writer's choice, lab worksheet, and science copywork sheet with blank space on top for illustration. OThers are conversational.

[Laura W.]

I use FIAR.

 

What I've usually done is pick a history theme and spine for the year, then use the FIAR books that have lessons related to that theme. I then do whatever applied math, language arts, art, and science lessons that I want to from each book.

 

Next year I'm going to change it up a bit, though. I've picked a couple of spine science texts to go through, and I'm lining up our FIAR studies to mesh with them. We'll also be using Biblioplan for history, so I'll keep our FIAR social studies lessons very light.

 

Currently we use FIAR 4 days a week.

Monday - Introduce the week's Social studies and science topics (we do a little on these each day)

Tuesday - Language arts

Thursday - Art and Applied Math

Friday - finish up the week's Social Studies and science.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura

[Karen in CO]

I used it last year with a 1st grader and a PKer.

 

FIAR was good for the kids, but it was also a good skill builder for me. I became more confident about organizing our studies, choosing materials and knowing when we had done enough (that's the hardest for me). I'm much more comfortable following our interests, even if it means deviating from our main history curriculum. Some of our best hs memories have come from those sidetrips.

 

 

:iagree:

This is a great point about FIAR.