Is this kind of like Before Five in a Row?

[AngelaVA]

DD was into the book "If you Give a Moose a Muffin" so this week we...


made muffins (and ate them of course)
made sock puppets
painted scenery
did a puppet show
made up our our story "If you Give a Genevieve a Marshmallow"

Is this kind of how that book goes, you read a story and then do activities that connect to it? Is it worth it for this book or can I do just as well coming up with stuff on my own with books she is into and I have or can get at the library rather than tracking down?

[J3K]

Very similar yes. FIAR incorporates more educational stuff as they get older. Check your library , they may have a copy to give you ideas.

Once I got the hang of it , I stopped using their main book as well. Sounds like you are on the way to really grasping the FIAR way. It's very organic , isn't it ? I loved it.

[Karen]

I am so excited about using before FIAR. I figure it is worth the $25 until I get the hang of it. I am sure I will go "off book" soon. Right now with a 2 yr old and a 9 month old, my brain still glitches from time to time. We are going to start it in March. If it works for us, we may just use FIAR to begin homeschooling. I have heard wonderful things.

[ncsweetpea]

I loved BFIAR!

And yes, you are close to the ideas they have... I think they do a good job with giving plenty of options for the week.

BTW, my copy is ready to be passed along if anyone could use it.

[Titus2Momof4]

That sounds very similar.

For another similar (yet far less expensive) option, have you considered "Using Caldecotts Across the Curriculum"? If you look at the samples at Amazon (where you can buy it for a few bucks, used), you'll see that it's very much like FIAR/BFIAR, except that it doesn't instruct you to read the book every day ("rowing"). Otherwise, same types of ideas: http://www.amazon.com/Using-Caldecotts-Across-Curriculum-Grades/dp/0590110330

[AngelaVA]

Thanks for the feedback. I am interested in the Five in a Row concept but we have a VERY small local library library and I am not really motivated to be spending a lot of time tracking down a bunch of unavailable books. Maybe I should get the book anyway to get a sense of their ideas. I'll have to look into the Caldecot one, it's pretty rare for a Caldecot Metal winner to go out of print, I am guessing that's for the elementary group rather than the preschool one though?? (a lot of Caldecot books are pretty advanced)

[mommy2abigail]

What you are doing is very similar to FIAR. You can also go take a look at homeschoolshare.com, they have lots of ideas for unit type studies for tons of books, and it's free!

[AngelaVA]

What you are doing is very similar to FIAR. You can also go take a look at homeschoolshare.com, they have lots of ideas for unit type studies for tons of books, and it's free!

:D They have the book I was doing with a couple of ideas we havent' done yet :rockon Some other good ones here too. :)