Learning Together With Five in a Row

I will be teaching Malachi and Eliana together with a fun literature based curriculum - Five in a Row. I have been wanting something planned out for me since I finished Malachi's preschool alphabet fun. And I am happy that I have something that will be perfect for us! - which is something literature based and planned out, but still allows me much room for creativity and lots of hands on learning fun. My sister-in-law blessed me with FIAR Volumes 1-3, the supplemental character book and cookbook, and after looking through them I knew that I wanted to do this - so I ordered Before Five in a Row and all the books I needed for B4 and Volumes 1-3! I elected to get a few of the more expensive books from the library, but I wanted to own the books we "row" so that my children will always remember the learning we had together.

Since we will be reading the same book five days in a row, I got as many books on CD that I could find at Rainbow Resource. I also plan to supplement other books that relate.

I will be using Homeschool Share for supplemental activities and lapbooks. HSS also has a section on teaching the alphabet with Before Five in a Row that I may use from time to time for Eliana. I am using this helpful chart to help plan our lessons as well as the wonderful resources found at the FIAR forums (a fun group of ladies that I am just getting to know).

Here is what I was busy doing over our Spring break:

I printed out all the lapbook activities from HSS and filed them with extra printables I found online and some craft items that I will need. I even laminated what needed laminated and each folder is ready to just grab and go.

This week we rowed the Runaway Bunny and it was so simple and effortless to pull it altogether.

Instead of a lapbook, we will be making a lapjournal/notebook. My kids love to look through their lapbooks - this way they can look and I can help them pull out the sheet of cardstock if they want to open the books, without worrying about the books being torn. I think this is our answer to lapbook storage from now on. I love lapbooks, but I have been frustrated with all the work (and ink) that goes into them, just to have them torn, so I am happy with my idea (which I got from Jordan's Apologia lapjournal).

Since Before Five in a Row is geared towards ages 2-4, I thought this would be perfect for Mali and Elli (they just turned 3 and 5). Especially when I consider that girls mature more quickly than boys. So I am very excited that they will be able to learn together. We will work through B4FIAR and then move on to FIAR Volume 1.

Meanwhile, I will continue with the lessons I began with Mali's 5K Corner, using the resources I have already mentioned. His time will be independent from our time all together, but I will incorporate his studies as I am able to with FIAR. You will see what I am talking about in my next post. =)

For supplemntal science, we will be doing Nature Study. I have a great plan for that too and will share more in a future post.

I also plan to link up to Tot School and The Preschool Corner {& 5k too!} each week, but it will be in one post - together!

For more, see Learning Together Part 2: More Organizing ~ or how I do what I do!