Customer Reviews

Five in a Row (Five in a Row): Volume 1

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

While I am a homeschooling mom, I have to say that it would be foolish to dismiss this book simply because you don't homeschool. If you love books and want your children to love them, too, this can point you to the kind of book they will love. Many of the books are a joy to read, both for the parent and the child.

Also, one might get the impression that this book is not readily available from the way it is listed here, as a hard to find title. This isn't true. Amazon may have to special order it, but they should be able to get it without a problem.

I do have to offer one clarification, of sorts, from what some others have said. It is suggested that the lessons require no further preparation than glancing at this book and then getting started. That isn't true. If you want a curriculum where all the information your child needs is right there in front of him, this is NOT it. Five in a Row suggests *topics* on which to teach based on the book of the week. You may be learning about the Revolutionary War, or Japan, the sense of taste, or ducks. But if you want pictures related to that topic or some information about it on the child's level, you need to supplement with other books.

That should be achieved easily enough in the public library, same place many people get the FIAR books themselves. But it helps to know that in advance, rather than assume this material is something it's not.

For those who are interested in teaching their children the Charlotte Mason way, FIAR makes a GREAT curriculum. It will grow a love of literature. While my son sometimes resists his math and phonics lessons, he LOVES FIAR. He often asks me, "What are we learning today from the book?" I don't have to tell him, "It's time for *Papa Piccolo* (or whatever book we are on that week) twice. He's there, ready and waiting for the next lesson!

For a homeschooler, this wonderful curriculum is exceptionally well-written and organized so that anyone can pick it up and teach from it at a moment's notice. Jane Lambert has included all information necessary to teach geography, social studies, language arts, art, applied math and science for each unit so that if library materials or other research materials were currently unavailable, the teaching could still continue.

There are nineteen picture book titles (ex: Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say) with extensive lesson plans for each title. Units can be repeated easily without repeating the same information each time. My children have been using Five in a Row for three years and the knowledge they have gained is incredible! This is a fun and enjoyable curriculum that teaches a love for learning and I highly recommend it!

We have used this curriculum for our first year of homeschooling, and I can't possibly tell all the benefits, but here are a few. The books used to study have all been gotten very easily through our library, either on shelf or interlibrary loaned with ease. The ideas given are fun, packed with info, and a wonderful springboard for further exploration, if chosen. I have learned how my daughter learns best by introducing these lessons, and following her interests to further her learning experience. This has taken time--a trip to the library, a search on the web, a look through a book from home, a field trip, etc, but the decision to homeschool my daughter wasn't one of "reaction"--but one of "conviction" that a real education is one that teaches that life is filled with learning experiences, and how can we best use these. The "love of learning" that Five in a Row teaches has shown up in so many ways this year--from a glance at a cloud that resembled "Sri Lanka" (How to Make an Apple Pie & See the World), to seeing "concentric circles" on a button, reminding her of how a tree grows (All Those Secrets of the World), to working on bravery when we were camping, to be more "mature" (Very Last First Time), and so on. I truly believe that this approach to education, the literature unit study, is accomplished with the use of this curriculum in a life changing way. It recommends approaching learning in a natural, fun, explorative & continual process--so, if you're looking for a curriculum that gives you a dated, scheduled, textbook & worksheet approach, keep looking. But, if you're looking for a rich, broad, eye-opening and thrilling education for your children that includes reading while snuggling, learning while talking, re-inforcing while doing a project, understanding & seeing the world while doing life, exposing them to many cultures around the world while deepening their love for God, or teaching about the life long need and value of learning at it's best--THIS IS IT! Hope this helps someone!

I first tried using FIAR last year, when my son was 5 years old. He's always been an avid reader, so I thought it would be a perfect fit. However, it didn't seem to work - he became quickly bored of the two books we tried, so I stopped and sadly put it aside.

When I was figuring out the curriculum for this year, I found my FIAR book and decided to give it another try. I'm glad I did! While I can understand the comments made by the people who gave negative reviews, I think anyone who is having a tough time with these books and activities should re-think how they're approaching it and give it another chance. I found that flexibility is key - I view the activities as guidelines and adjust to my son's abilities and interests as needed.

First of all, I don't think anyone intends for FIAR to be a complete curriculum - it's just one lesson a day. We use it as supplemental material to break up the day with something different. Each FIAR book has at least one lesson on Math, Science, Art, Social Studies, and Language Arts. There are actually many more than 5 lessons for each book, so you can pick and choose which ones you want to do (or you can do a couple in one day).

One of the negative reviewers mentioned that the lessons for Madeline included counting hats & talking about the Eiffel Tower, and that the lessons were "unstructured and flighty." I don't believe FIAR is perfect, but I feel the reviewer made a horrible misrepresentation of FIAR, and would like to use the book, Madeline, as a brief example of how well-rounded the lessons are for each book:

- One of the FIAR Art lessons involves a discussion on Paris architecture based on the pictures in the book. I found plenty of photos of all the landmarks easily online. My son enjoyed matching the photos with the book illustrations and drew his own picture of one of the landmarks. (The other Art lesson helps the student appreciate the variety of sizes & color drawings in the book.)

- There is no lesson that says to count hats. However, there are three Math lessons: one deals with grouping & dividing skills using manipulatives (my son is past this stage, so I would write out some simple multiplication problems that deal with the same concept); another deals with relative size order; and the third explores symmetry.

- The Science lesson has to do with health and developing healthy habits (based on Madeline's trip to the hospital).

- The Language lessons explain the literary devices used in the book, and teach new vocabulary (I actually have my son look up the words he doesn't know in our dictionary and he writes them out - FIAR gives me a good starting point in what words he might not know).

- There are three Social Studies lessons: geography, human relationships, and history. Sure, a lot of homeschoolers already look on a map to find the place they are reading about in a book. But the history idea was something new that we now apply to every book we read.

And that's just a very brief overview of ONE of the FIAR books! So I would describe FIAR as quite thorough and a great inspiration for thinking outside the book. Of course, some lessons need to be tweaked for my son's skill level, but to me that's what homeschooling is all about - not making him fit some kind of mold, but rather molding the curriculum around him.

As far as finding the books - it hasn't consumed more than a few minutes of my time, spent filling out interlibrary loan forms. I haven't had any difficulty finding any of the books this way.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that one of the things I did this time around was to make all the FIAR books into an ongoing art project, which has made a huge difference in the level of my son's excitment about the books. I bought a binder and each time we read a FIAR book, he uses construction paper to make a page for the book - he writes the name of the book at the top, marks the place where the book takes place on a small world map that he pastes on the page, and writes the name of the place below the map. Any activities that involve writing (sometimes I make some up) and his book-related art projects get added to the page (or hole-punched and added behind the book's page). It's a great addition to his school portfolio, and he really loves going through his FIAR binder often and showing it off to friends and family - each time he shows it off, he talks about the books we've read and explains what his projects had to do with the book, which helps reinforce the lessons.

So to the folks who have tried it and not had success - I would say to try again with a different mindset!

This premise is really so simple! Read a book 5 days in a row, and do various activities related to the book each day.

I added FIAR into our homeschool curriculum as a literature appreciation component, it is NOT the entire focus of our day. Nevertheless, the kids really LOVE it. The first story we read was "The Story of Ping", and we choose 10 of the activities to do. I bound all of their work into a "Story About Ping" book, and they enjoy looking at their art, etc...

I have found the FIAR concept to be incredibly flexible and have since then applied it to other books I love. We read "One Morning In Maine" and built a week's worth of activities around that book while we were IN Maine, and we actually went to THE Buck's Harbor and met another homeschooling family in the shop where Sal got her ice-cream!!

We also used "Diary of a Spider" (I wrote a separate review on it and listed some of the activities we did, if you are interested) and THAT was a huge success. And we used "Weslandia" as well, and my children just LOVED the "FIAR" type activities we did there.

Reading all of the books and the sample activites in FIAR was EXTREMELY HELPFUL, because it gave me many ideas about how to approach a book - for example, while I was very familiar with using books to talk about character development, plot structure, and language, I had never used picture books to teach art or geography before. FIAR tremendously improved my ability to mine children's literature as a teaching tool.

For us, FIAR is a homeschool teaching tool. If I ever choose a book that for some reason does not gel with my kids after the second day of reading it, then I plan to choose the most interesting activities for that day and just wrap up the unit. I'm not going to plod along doing 5 days if it just isn't working for us. However, to date, this hasn't happened yet!!

Even if you think you can do this approach yourself, I still recommend you either check FIAR out of the library or buy it. I even bought FIAR 2 - you can't have too many good ideas. Well okay, maybe you can, but the FIAR ideas are cream of the crop!!!

We really love Five in Row and find it to be the highlight of our homeschooling day. It is true that you must use the program with additional phonics and math to make it a complete program. We use it like a supplement to the daily math, spelling, and grammar of 'regular' school. The lessons are quick and easy to prepare and makes the day end on a high note. Some use the curriculum alone, but I prefer to use as a fun extra.
My kids have learned so much. Each lesson ties into the book of the week that is read, five times in a row. Each day a different aspect of the book is is focused on. The kids really cement in this new knowledge when it is tied in with a great children's book. They also make connections between the activiteis in the books and thier other lessons.
We've made a lot of great memories with FIAR, and look forward to more to come!

We feel so fortunate to have found Five in a Row just before we began our first year of homeschooling. The Lamberts made that first year easy for me and fun for all of us. My children have learned so much and retained it, too: just ask them about the Revolutionary War, Japanese culture, life in the Arctic, personification, flight, Medieval times, and artistic styles, to name just a few subjects - my kindergartener alone could talk your ear off!

The lessons are easily implemented yet rich in knowledge. I spend relatively little time preparing lessons and have easily found every book we've looked for so far, either in our library or using inter-library-loan. The lessons have been easy for me to adapt to my kids' different age levels, too.

I highly recommend this curriculum!

This "curriculum" did not work for us. We used it for several months, during which I attempted to make it work for my 6 year old. Then I realized that if it were the right curriculum for us, I shouldn't have to struggle to *make* it work.

While the literature selections were fabulous, my child became increasingly bored with the same story five days in a row. Additionally, the "lessons" were unstructured and flighty... Counting the number of hats on a page of Madeline... or talking about the Eiffel tower... I can do those sorts of things any time I sit down with my children to read a good book. Basically, FIAR was not enough... not enough "meat" and not enough interest from my child.

I also agree with the other reviewer about the FIAR website. The bulletin boards there are certainly a Five in a Row "love fest." Don't dare ask a question or make a remark that questions this "curriculum." The first amendment does not apply in FIAR world. The publisher is very abrasive and defensive and appears to believe that FIAR is right for *every* child and *every* learning style. Such claims are ludicrous. In fact, I was taught to be wary of such inflated claims. While I can show respect for those who have found this curriculum useful, I must emphasize that it is certainly not for everyone.

In six years of homeschooling, this is the best all around curriculum we've found! My children learned more language mechanics in one year with Five in a Row than they did with three years of standard text book studies. The geography lessons took us to places we would never have gone in the early elementary years: Japan, China, Russia, Scotland, France, the Arctic; my kids can find each one on a map and tell you all about them in great detail. As for art, we've done pastels, watercolors, charcoal; the works. We've also studied some of the world's great artists and seen their work. Five in a Row utilizes wonderful children's literature to teach lessons in Language, Science, Social Studies, and Art. All books are available through your local library or through interlibrary loan. We love them so much we purchased most for our home library. My kids give Five in a Row two very enthuiastic thumbs up!

We have been using this curriculum for a year now, and our children are learning so much! My children are 5yrs and 7yrs old, and have found this material to be so flexible to their levels of learning. They are so excited to learn more and more through books. They have thoroughly enjoyed all of the books that we have read, and remember what they learned long after. We have found all of the books at our library, OOP or not. This is definitely an easy book to just pick up and go, without much planning at all. Jane Lambert has done most of the work for you. It is well written, and easy to use.