Before Five in a Row

I've heard many people rave about the Five in a Row series, but had always thought it was something I could create on my own. I mean, I did it in college...pick a "unit" and come up with all sorts of activities to go with it. Five in a Row is similar, you present a book and then do activities for all different subject areas relating to that book.

Since I'm looking at moving towards a more Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling and maybe using the St. Thomas Aquinas Academy curriculum in the future, I decided that it might be good to go ahead and try out Five in a Row. Yes, I could probably create these lessons myself. I have tried it on the spur-of-the-moment, and come up with great ideas for the girls to do. But it takes a lot of creative effort that many days I just don't have, especially early in the morning. And planning lessons days ahead is very difficult for me. So this will give me something to start with.

After a little research I decided to start with the Before Five in a Row. Even though it's geared towards preschoolers, I know Mary Clare still enjoys many of the books such as "Corduroy" and "Caps for Sale". We read "Katy No-Pocket" earlier this week, which is one of our all-time favorites, and enjoyed doing some of the activities recommended in BFIAR. The girls especially love learning about animals and really liked looking back at the book to find different things in the illustrations, count animals, etc. It also offers a short bible lesson after each story and a whole section devoted to various educational activities to do with your young children.

Since we already love to start off each day reading books, this will be a great way to extend it into some homeschooling lessons without getting out the workbooks and phonics flashcards right away! I heartily recommend this book to moms of preschoolers and young elementary students.