Okay, I'm intensely interested in FIAR right now and I was wondering if someone here had answers. I have been to a few other sites and tried to sign up for the FIAR forum, but it wouldn't let me, so I thought I'd try here for now, since I know that FIAR is popular with some of the teacher-parents here. How does it work? If you used it, was it your primary or secondary curriculum? What did you like, dislike, love and hate about the program? What is the main difference between Before FIAR and FIAR? Does B4FIAR use different books or different activities or both? Any other comments you'd like to add?
I haven't used it, but as I understand it, B4 and FIAR are for different age levels, with B4 for the youngers. Then there's Beyond FIAR for the next year. You read the same book 5 times, once each weekday, and do the activities in the program to cover 5 different "subjects", one a day: reading, math, science, social studies, and I'm not sure what else, as far as I know.
I used Before Five in a Row. We loved it. If for some reason we decided to stop what we're doing now, I'd go to Five in a Row. With three kids at three different ages, I really like the idea of working with the same literature, and structuring academic study around the same theme but working different skill levels. I'm not really familiar with Beyond Five in a Row. It's literature based. The author gives titles, which you all read, then all your subjects are integrated/centered around the topic/theme/subject of the book. In my experience with BFIAR, there is a lot of mom-prep, more than I do now with our current CM-style approach. I'll be curious to hear from those who are using FIAR currently.
I used FIAR Vol 1 when my oldest was in Kindergarten. We loved the books. I wish I knew about www.homeschoolshare.com back then....I probably would have stuck with it longer!
I use FIAR and Beyond FIAR. Before FIAR is for younger kids. Most use it for preschool. It is literature based curriculum. You need a separate math program for FIAR, but nothing else is needed. Some do supplement. Sometimes I do, depending on the book/subjects/interest. I supplement more with Beyond FIAR, especially for DD12. My dd7 lapbooks her FIAR studies, so there is some mom-prep. But since the plans are laid out and Homeschool Share is available, it's certainly no worse than any other lesson planning.
Okay thanks for the replies! I guess what I'm trying to figure out is what is a sampleweek of lessons in B4FIAR like? What are the subjects that they take from the books for Before Five in A Row? For FIAR, they have applied math, language arts, social studies, science and art. What do the lessons look like for B4FIAR, what do the lessons cover? I understand after looking around that I need to supplement FIAR with at least the 3R's, but I'm wondering if B4FIAR is worth it or not...
I currently use FIAR for my curriculum this year for my dd in Kindy. We use it as our primary curriculum and add a phonics program (we use Click-n-kids) and a math program (mcruffy math). I am really enjoying the program....even my ds (he's 3) will sit and listen to the books every day they are read. As has been explained you read the same book for 5 days and then use an activity a day to go along with it. A typical week for us looks like: Monday - read book, find location on map, color flag, discuss country/state Tuesday - art related to book Wed - language arts related to book (ex. discuss the use of poetry in books) Thur - science (there is usually a hands-on type of activity) Friday - we review and cover anything that has come up during our readings I do skip the applied math section since I enjoy our math program. All the activities are listed in the manual but you can also supplement with homeschoolshare.com. HTH!
I am using FIAR for my 7-year old son, and we are really enjoying it. I modify the schedule because DS attends a homeschooling enrichment program every Tuesday from 9-3, so I usually skip the applied math since we are using MEP, or I will add a quick math lesson to one of the other days. I also choose one vocabulary word daily from the reading. Using StartWrite, I write the word and definition on the top of the page that DS then traces for copywork and then he draws a picture depicting that word. We also use the FIAR cookbook since DS loves to cook. Our usual week might look like this: Monday- Social Studies, locating book's venue on the map Wednesday- Language Arts Thursday- Art or field trip related to the book (for example, when rowing Night of the Moonjellies we took a trip to the Aquarium. Friday- Science and grocery shopping for whatever we are going to prepare from the cookbook Saturday or Sunday- DS prepares a meal for the family from the FIAR cookbook. We never used B4FIAR, but they do have a separate book list.
We've been using FIAR for 7 years. We used B4FIAR with my first son when he was 3. We went on to use FIAR Volume I when he was 4, Volume 2 when he was 5, Volume 3 when he was 6, and about half of Volume 4 when he was 7. My younger son started B4FIAR last year (when he was 3) and we've continued it this year (he's 4). You read the same story for five days in a row. Each day, you do lessons together that are based from the story. Because you are reading the story five times, you remember/review the things you learned from the previous day/s. I believe this method has helped my children to see books in a different light. They have a what-are-we-going-to-find-in-the-treasure-box-today mentality about books. Hmm . . . it's your primary curriculum for every except math/language arts. You need to add math and language arts (or phonics) to FIAR. They do have math lessons, but they are applied math (helping the student to see math in REAL ways!); however, it is not a math curriculum. There are also really great language lessons (personification, rhyme, vocabulary, simile, repetition, parallel construction, etc.), but it's not spelling, handwriting, etc. What I like & love . . . ~My older son is interested in EVERYTHING! I think this is because of FIAR. It presents material to children in an unschooly manner. I don't use any curriculum with him now (other than math/language arts) because he can fill his own time because of his curiosity about the world around him. I thank FIAR for lighting a fire in my son. ~It's fun. ~It helped me transition from school mode (I was a teacher) to educating your kids at home mode. ~The books used in the program are the best. We've laughed; we've cried; we love our FIAR books! My kids definitely understand what makes a good book (and they don't even have a taste for twaddle). What I dislike . . . ~So many of the lessons are meant to be given oral (with discussion). When my son was younger, he had a very hard time with discussion. He's an extremely visual learner. I had to take the lessons and make them visual for him (so I created many printables/lapbooks to cater to his learning style). ~There aren't enough units. Many people who use FIAR "re-row" the stories, but my older son thought that I was insane when I tried to do that with him. One of the reasons I started HSS is because we wanted to continue with this kind of learning without having to redo the same units. There is nothing to hate about FIAR! Before FIAR is for younger kids (ages 2-4). It's a gentle approach and very relaxed. It's super easy to implement, but I also feel that it needs a little OOMPH! added (especially for a 4 year old). I would bump my younger guy up to regular FIAR, but I know he's not quite ready. Next year. Both. There isn't any difference in difficulty in Volumes I-III, but Volume IV is meatier with MORE lessons. Many people are disappointed in FIAR because they want to SCHOOL, SCHOOL, SCHOOL their children. If you are in that camp, it might not be the program for you. I have lots of FIAR posts on my blog. Here is our week last year with Madeline (we tried a re-row). We added a lot to the manual, but many rowers don't. Glorious Flight blog post Mailing May (Volume 4) Notebook There are many more FIAR posts on my blog; we were in a FIAR co-op for five years, and we had a TON of fun! You can see more lapbooks here (look in Kindergarten and First Grade to see the FIAR/HSS ones).
I tried FIAR with my Kinder last year and we liked it. The only thing was the books were hard to find at the library. They didn't have alot of them. But for the books we did find and use, FIAR was fun and my dd liked it.
