Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: Fiar, Five in a Row

This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 8 months ago by TailorMade.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

Author
Posts
October 8, 2013 at 8:49 pm
jill smith
Participant
Does or has anyone used Five in a row for there children. I love the books and my daughter 5 is not wanting to sit real long and do book work. I just thought this would work good. Pros and Cons please.She just turned fve in March. I seen on the list for pre-school through age 5 alot of the books and then some other great ones too. Thanks as always.:)
October 8, 2013 at 8:55 pm
TailorMade
Participant
I used it as a booklist for my daughter when she was that age. It was our Friday naptime list. No extra activities, but she didn’t miss out on the wonderful titles. Those that she wanted to read, or have read to her more than once were read/reread. Those that weren’t a hit went back on the shelf, or back to the library.
HTH,
Becca<><
October 8, 2013 at 9:26 pm
RobinP
Participant
I love FIAR. It is what introduced me to living books 18 years ago. I used it when it first came out with my little guy who is now 23. He still has fond memories of some of,those books. I’ve used it with my youngest two boys as well. What I love about it now, as a homeschool librarian, is that it shows young moms that it really is possible to teach every subject with living books. My library houses FIAR totes. Each tote contains the main title as well as go-along living books relating to each topic in the guide. It is CM? Not necessarily but it gives moms a good foundation of using wonderful books with their children…and a lot of great memories. 🙂
October 8, 2013 at 9:45 pm
HollyS
Participant
We used FIAR for a few years. I’d love to use it with my younger ones, but I’ve had a hard time fitting it in consistently. My main problem is that it takes a bit more planning on my part…when I just had little ones, I had no problem with this. Now that I have a larger age span to teach, I need more open and go curriculum.
I found it very CM friendly, especially for the early years.
October 9, 2013 at 12:39 am
jill smith
Participant
Thanks, I just don’t know how much to do with her. I get alot of presser about why she isnt doing math and so on. I just want to enjoy her being young and she has so many years to learn math ect. Robin, some of the books are hard to find where i live, any good ideas where to find them. My daughter loved the Great Gray Lighthouse and the Great Gray bridge. I think thats correct. Any ways I cant find all the titles.
October 9, 2013 at 12:56 am
susie in ms
Participant
We have used FIAR for years also. It is a wonderful curriculum and it teaches a child things in a child-like way. They remember so much with it. You can go to http://www.fiar.com and download a free unit on Ping to try for free. This way you will see if it will work for yours. Most titles are in print now and many can be found for a song at Amazon Marketplace. Rainbow Resource has book packs for ease of shopping.
October 9, 2013 at 3:50 am
RobinP
Participant
I have all the books but some of them are very pricey. I paid $150 for Andy and the Circus. Thankfully Giraffe That Walked to Paris has been reprinted! But enough of them are in print to make it a very full curriculum. Just always have your eyes open and check with your library for ILL.
October 9, 2013 at 2:17 pm
HollyS
Participant
I bought our books slowly over a few years. I’d pick up a book or two each time we visited a bookstore and always checked thrift stores for books. A few I bought online. We skipped any that were hard to find or very expensive.
Many moms use their library or Inter-library loans. We were moving around quite a bit at the time and I’d planned on using it with all my DC, so I spent our HS budget on the picture books instead of other curriculum.
October 9, 2013 at 2:50 pm
gcbsmommy
Participant
We used Five In A Row and Before Five In A Row years ago before I ever heard of Charlotte Mason. We loved the books, and some are still on our shelves as treasured favorites. I didn’t always find the activities to be engaging for the kids… We struggled with that and sometimes reading the same book 5 days in row if it wasn’t a favorite. But it was a blessing for where we were in our homeschool journey at the time.
October 9, 2013 at 2:57 pm
susie in ms
Participant
I paid $150 for Andy and the Circus
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Which is why we don’t hava that one. We only got Giraffe after it came back in print. Most titles are now in print thankfully. And the few that aren’t can usually be found inexpensivily if one is persistant in looking for new ads. But Giraffe and Andy are the two exceptions that were never fairly priced.
October 9, 2013 at 3:19 pm
sheraz
Participant
I am missing a few like Andy and the Giraffe…I am not able to pay that kind of money. But I bought all the sets available from Rainbow Resource before I found CM. I love the books! I know that they are quality living books – in fact, looking at them versus my other children’s books make it so much easier to clean twaddle out of my bookcases. LOL
The Five in a Row website also sells a timeline book and lapbooks for many of the books. We have several and my children enjoyed them. My 6yo constantly re-visits them, playing with them, and re-doing many of the interactive parts.
My girls love me to re-read and re-read the books. Even my older ones stop and come listen when I start reading them. They are creating precious moments for memories. =) I love the books.
I think that it is a good way to teach your children about living books and how to use them to learn and ejoy it. I do not think that FIAR is really CM, but it can teach us as parents/teachers how to use them and can make the transition from a “PS-at-home” mentality to a CM education much easier.
October 9, 2013 at 7:20 pm
TailorMade
Participant
I never knew about the FIAR Timeline. What a neat resource!