FIAR!!!
Well, we’re starting up today for a new session in school. I have hung up the My Father’s World hat and put on the Five In a Row hat. I’m excited about trying something new, but I feel like it’s taking a LOT of time to get ready. I enjoyed the planning time, though but I’m ready to give it a row (as they say in the FIAR world).
Five in a Row (or FIAR pronounced “fire”) uses classic living books as the basis for their curriculum then gives LOTS of suggestions on how to expand on it to teach MANY different topics. I supplement with other curriculum due to my own goals, but depending on the ages, it may not be necessary. I add my own math, phonics/spelling, and sign language curriculum, but use FIAR’s suggestions for all the other subjects.
I use Sue Patrick’s workbox system to organize our school day. So, here are my 12 workboxes we did for today:
Before the boxes, we read The Story About Ping on the couch. Then, we headed downstairs for the workboxes to begin.
- Map & timeline. We marked the wall map with a Ping dot and then using a teeny-tiny picture of the book cover, we marked our Add-A-Cetury Timeline at 1933 – when the book was written. Also, there was a black and white map of China for the kids to color and find the Yangtze River. They also did a China map dot-to-dot. These were glued into their Social Studies journal.
- Math (we use Right Start Math)
- Spelling (we use All About Spelling)
- Mommy Reads. I read a fairy tale story out of The Blue Fairy Book
- Sign Language. I am teaching them sign language (and learning myself) using Signing Online. This was our first day and they loved it.
- Writing in Journal. “If I were a teacher I would…” then drew a picture.
- Independent Reading. Magic Treehouse: Twister on Tuesday. 1 chapter.
- Typing/Keyboarding.
- Math Game
- Social Studies Journal Page. (Social Studies Journal) I created a page to be filled out at the start of each book that will go into the journal and printed a black and white flag to color.
- Extra Social Studies book: People’s Republic of China – read a few pages. We’ll read more through the next two weeks. It went really well!
- Cut out book characters for magnetic board stories (for later in the week).
I have decided to have full school only Monday, Wednesday & Friday and read the FIAR book for 2 weeks. So, we end up reading it 6 times in the end. I add the basic topics to each full school day. Splitting it up in 2 weeks also allows me to do smaller amounts of work each day while still covering a bunch of topics.
The basic topics I add to a “full” school day are:
- Math (Right Start)
- Spelling (All About Spelling)
- Mommy Reads (any classic that is above their reading level)
- Independent Reading (one at their reading level)
- Sign Language (Signing Online)
- Journaling (I give a simple topic)
- Typing/keyboarding (self-created Dvorak lesson plan)
Here’s my breakdown of a FIAR book study schedule that takes 2 weeks:
Week 1
- Monday: Social Studies (full school)
- Tuesday: Cooking and applied math (during cooking)
- Wednesday: Literary Arts (full school)
- Thursday: No school
- Friday: Art (full school)
Week 2
- Monday: Social Studies (full school)
- Tuesday: Science & Bible
- Wednesday: Literary Arts (full school)
- Thursday: No school
- Friday: Art (full school)
Day one went very well. I was nervous about it taking too long, so I tried to keep the workboxes lighter. I’m happy I did. We were done just 30 minutes after lunch. Which was just about right. Things start to go faster as we get used to a new thing, so we’ll be done in time for lunch after a few days, which is my goal.
