If you are planning on homeschooling your young elementary child and aren’t sure where to start, Five in a Row can be a great curriculum to consider.
The curriculum uses classic children’s storybooks like The Story of Ping, Katie and the Big Snow, and Make Way for Ducklings and bases lessons in English, geography, history, science, art, and other subjects on the story.
Children easily remember things that they are interested in. Think about the last time your five year old explained, in great detail, the plot of the last Pokeman cartoon that he saw. Five in a Row uses the same idea – entertainment for almost effortless learning.
You get a teacher’s guide with all of the activities for each story in it. You don’t have to do all of the activities – there are many to choose from. You don’t even have to do the stories in any particular order.
Once you have chosen a book you will read it to your child every day for a week, thus the Five in a Row. Each day you and your child will explore a different subject related to the story. You may learn about Paris when reading the Madeline story or find out about maps and how they are made when reading Katy and the Big Snow. Since you can get many of the story books at the library, the actual investment is usually not too bad.
I enjoyed this curriculum. There are four volumes in the basic program – enough to take care of four years of learning. You can even get supplemental guides to help you use the program with preschoolers or older children for those parents that are teaching a variety of grades.
One of the best parts of it for me was the feeling of having quality time with my children while we were reading. Cuddled up on the couch, while a steady rain fell outside the windows, we traveled to Paris, experimented with lemons and taste buds, and created a variety of descriptions using a personification technique. It was more than school – it was a time of making memories.
You can find out more about this curriculum at the Five in a Row website.
photo credit: IowaPolitics
