Five in a Row

by Ashleigh
(Millington, TN, USA)

Product:Five in a Row (FIAR)
Subject: literature based unit studies
Levels Used: Age 4-8 (vol 1, 2, 3)
Dates Used: 7/07-present

Likes:I love this curriculum!! The curriculum provides a guide for each book covered. Each book is a GOOD quality children's book, with a significant portion being Caldecott or Newberry award winners. The premise is to read the book for at least 5 days in a row, and teach various subjects from this book. They guide you in how to teach history, geography, science, art, language arts, a little math (minor), cultural studies, practical life skills, etc.

I have fallen in love with our FIAR books, and our kids have as well. One thing I particularly like is you can also use the FIAR "story disks" - little circles that you can laminate that have a small picture on each one representing each book title. These once laminated can be stuck on a map, and give the child a visual reminder of where you are studying. For review, I give my son all of the story disks and ask him to place them on the correct country, state, etc.

Dislikes: Not really a dislike, but you'll need another math and phonics program to go along with this, as it doesn't teach these thoroughly enough.