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Jenn, Thanks for your recommendation, I got FIAR and looked through it, I was impressed too!
For those of you who want a literature based curriculum and can't afford Sonlight, Five in a Row is excellent! You can get it on Ebay for cheaper too. They have Before Five in a Row for ages 2-4, Five in a Row Volumes 1-3 ages 4-6, volume one is good for Fall, Vol 2 works well in Spring. They also have one for older kids.
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Glad you liked it! I was just looking at my copy today and getting geared up to do some planning for the fall. I'll be using that plus the Letter of the Week program (we'll be doing Sound of the Week for our phonics), and I'm checking out some neat math books from the library for our math (lots of games and fun stuff for learning math). So I think I am set for the fall. Hooray!
Umm... did you take that test yet?????
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We are finding most the books on the list at the library. Its neat, not stories I would have thought to pick so its definitely expanding or reading time.
~Carla
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We just ordered Volume 1 online, and I'm looking forward to using it with my girls! I have also found that most of the books are available at our library.
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I homeschool my preschooler and have researched this... we just did The Story of Ping and we did Sylvesters Magic Pebble. We don't actually own FIAR, but follow the principles and do our own version. I think about buying it, but b/c I don't homeschool fulltime I hesitate to spend the money!
It seems pretty repetitious... do you actually read each story 5 days in a row? We only did it 2 days in a row, so maybe we aren't getting the full effect! Is it really more beneficial IYO, if you do all five days??? I worry that my wiggly son would get bored.
Curious how others do it.
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We read each story five days in a row. My kids love to read- so sometimes we'll read a book 2-3 times in one sitting. They know each week that the FIAR book is the "book of the week", and they know that there will be some kind of activity to go along with it, so they look forward to it.
There are so many neat things to learn from each book. My 2yo points out the Eiffel Tower all the time after reading" Madeline". And we were at a neighbor's house, and the mom said something about who knows where Sri Lanka is? Well- we knew! It's a pear shaped island off the southern tip of India; it's where cinnamon comes from (from the bark of the Kurundu tree). We learned that from FIAR as well. I truly believe it's the repetition that helps the kids really learn.
Lots of libraries have the books on tape- maybe you could listen to it in the car one or two days if the book isn't working.
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That is so very true about the repetition! My 4 yo and I did a Thematic Unit on Money over the summer... my mother said he wouldn't remember anything. Yeah right! Wherever we go, he points out Abraham Lincoln (and quite embarrassingly but accurately announces that he was shot and killed and is dead! EEEK) He knows John F. Kennedy, (same thing about being shot and killed, eeks) George Washington (and that he's on the quarter and dollar and that he was the general in the Revolutionary War!) and knows all the coins. At a friends house, she had a small picture in her hallway, going up the stairs... very obscure little picture I'd never noticed in all my visits there.... he told me it was the building on the back of the penny!!! OMG it was!!!
lol my first boyfriend was from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). Amazing that any child would know about Sri Lanka! What book was that learned from? Interesting!
It was interesting, too, after we did The Story of Ping, many things in our day to day lives that we encountered could somehow cross-reference back to Ping! We'd see a duck and we'd say, "Hey maybe it's Ping!!" things like that. That stuff truly stays with kids. My guy was good with 2 days of reading, so maybe I'll try 3 and go from there. I have soooo many books I want to read with him that I am probably the one not being patient enough.
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[quote=kellytime]That is so very true about the repetition! My 4 yo and I did a Thematic Unit on Money over the summer... my mother said he wouldn't remember anything. Yeah right! Wherever we go, he points out Abraham Lincoln (and quite embarrassingly but accurately announces that he was shot and killed and is dead! EEEK) He knows John F. Kennedy, (same thing about being shot and killed, eeks) George Washington (and that he's on the quarter and dollar and that he was the general in the Revolutionary War!) and knows all the coins. At a friends house, she had a small picture in her hallway, going up the stairs... very obscure little picture I'd never noticed in all my visits there.... he told me it was the building on the back of the penny!!! OMG it was!!!
lol my first boyfriend was from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). Amazing that any child would know about Sri Lanka! What book was that learned from? Interesting!
Thanks for sharing the money story- it made me laugh, and I could use a laugh this morning. It is funny what kids remember. The Sri Lanka story is "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World". That's been one of my favorite FIAR books so far.