Back in November, we decided to scale way back on Five in a Row. I scheduled one FIAR book every five weeks, so that in the intervening periods we could devote more time to lab science and history. We’ve done a few good rows since then. But yesterday we picked up the FIAR book I scheduled for this week and realized… we were done.
It’s funny how a curriculum can go from right to not-right. In the past, I’ve seen people complain that the FIAR concept felt weird and disjointed to them. Their children didn’t understand why they were having a lesson on some random detail of a story; they liked the books themselves, but not using the books as a springboard for a unit study. I always thought those people didn’t get it, or they weren’t doing it right. Until Alex turned into one of those kids.
We gave it a night’s rest before making any final decisions. Then today I asked Michael and Alex, separately, what they thought. They agreed that we were done. Alex asked that I still sometimes check out a stack of related library books for her, but she doesn’t want to “do” them as a formal study based on one central story.
This is a really great thing about homeschooling. When something is no longer right, we can just bring it to a close and go on with things that are working well.
So I’ve rewritten my planning calendar and packed the FIAR books away to wait for Colin’s kindergarten year. I try to look at it this way: I haven’t lost a core curriculum, I’ve gained two cubes of bookcase storage.
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I’m sad to see those beloved FIAR books going into boxes! We’re in our second year of Five in a Row and it has been such a wonderful experience for us. Like you, I’ve wondered how FIAR could ever be not right for anyone.
But I just wanted to tell you that I’ve been inspired by your FIAR blog posts. Your blog is one I’m always sure to check when I’m planning our next unit. Thank you for sharing your ideas and thoughts!
I’ve been lucky (??) enough to have one of those kds from the start. Every few months I think, “ok, soon we REALLY need to have more formal curriculum”. But now we are starting year three where he’s been just fine academically, and more than fine otherwise. Good for you for remaining open to change, and flexible!
I swear I got a tear in my eye seeing them packed up!
I’ve just started FIAR again this year with my youngest and then after him, in a year or two we’ll be boxing things up too. It’s bittersweet.
I’ll bet the bookshelf space fills up quickly!
It does seem like you’ve moved into longer learning arcs and more in-depth topical studies and I can see why you’ve moved out of FIAR being a good fit.
Deb