Back to the Beginning
A few things have happened around here that have knocked the wind out of me. But I'm up. I'm up! And maybe I'll get to writing about it later. Yesterday we were all ready to get back to the grind after Spring Break was blessedly finally over. But we did something special. We went all the way back to the beginning when we started home educating with Five In A Row, which is a unit study approach based on great children's literature (you read the book five days in a row, and each day do a subject based on the story - geography, art, math, science, social studies). We have strayed away from this excellent approach as we've gotten more "sophisticated."
The first book on the list is The Story of Ping. I was amazed by how much the kids remembered about the story, especially Grant who was only three when we started all of this. I remember one of the things Giles' second grade public school teacher was aghast about when we told her we were going "home" was what I was going to do with that wild, blond haired imp while we seriously sat down to the business of school at home! (I managed a lot easier than she did with her 1:33 ratio).
Grant remembered how many cousins Ping had. Where the Yangzte River is. Giles remembered how to spell that river! Lydia remembered what medium Kurt Weis used to illustrate this classic children's book. We talked about what was going on in the world in 1933 when the book was written, about the time their grandparents were born. We dreamed about their own grandchildren reading the same book!
I needed the refresher. It was so much fun and so affirming. A gift from God. And a reminder to revisit our FIAR books. It's great for Grant and Lydia. Giles can tolerate it and also get something out of it too. I appreciate FIAR because it led me to a new appreciation of respect for GOOD children's literature and led us to wonderful authors such as Patricia Polacco, Tomie dePaola, Jan Brett, Masako Matsuno, Lauren Mills and others.
It made me really appreciate Five In A Row. If anyone is thinking about home educating, I highly recommend it. There's also a Before Five In A Row guidebook for children under five. Another great thing about beginning with FIAR is that it's economical. It's not a "curriculum" that costs several hundred dollars. The guidebook is $20, and although you can buy your own books, we got most of ours from the library and only bought the ones we really loved (such as PING!).
Posted in: on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at at 9:13 AM
