I am really looking at using FAIR this coming school year and want some input from those of you that use/used it. 1. If you use/used it would you use it again? 2. How much time does it take a day? 3. I don't have a very good library where I live so should I buy the books that go with it? 4. Does one book equal one week of study? 5. Does extra money and stuff go into each week? 6. Do you have to do the books in order? Ok~I think that is it for now, I am sure I will have more later!
I got it out when my kids were young, but didn't care for it. Can't even tell you why particularly! See if your library has it. Mine has many hs'ing stuff. That way you can get your hands on it, and see how it fits for you.
Thanks for the replies, HUGE help! I forgot a question. I have HSed my oldest two for 4 years and it has been very much school at home for many different reasons. I don't want it to be that way with my younger two, but for many different reasons, I am having a hard time moving away from that. So question is: IYHO, will FAIR help me move away from SAH, but still give me something to go by with some structure? I tried the doing it on my own this school year and that just doesn't work for me, at least with my younger ones. Thanks again!
I used FIAR for one year, the boys loved it, and I loved how much they learned, but I felt like it was a little below my boys ability levels. It is a great prek-2 program though and I will probably use it again for my baby (when he's ready), the books are some of the best picture books I've ever read to my children. They are really good books. I got them from our library, but still ended up buying many of them because they were loved so much! We spent about 45ish minutes a day doing the lessons, sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on what activity it was and how much they enjoyed it. We also added the cookbook to ours and at the end of each week we celebrated with a meal from the book.
I think that FIAR can move you away from SAH if you let it. The book has LOTS of different activities in a lot of different "subject areas". YOU need to have the mindset that NOTHING in it is "required". Feel free to pick and chose your activities. Don't feel you "must" do something in EACH subject area each week. If you "skip" science or history one week, it's OK. Most important thing is to HAVE FUN with it.
If you DO decide to go with FIAR...make sure to check out www.homeschoolshare.com to make lapbooks with each one - there's so much stuff on there to expand each book. HTH.
