I’ll never forget when I first stumbled upon Five In A Row curriculum!

(If you’ve never heard of it, or have been wanting to try it, they offer an incredible sample, here!)

My son was in the middle of his first grade year at our local elementary school. I was curious about homeschooling, and I had started asking friends about their experience–both friends who had been homeschooled themselves, as kids, as well as friends who were currently homeschooling their own children.

I was searching Facebook Marketplace for used curriculum, because I wanted to dabble, and also wanted to start small. My curiosity was piqued when I saw a vintage-looking book, called “Five In A Row, Volume I” listed for only $7. After a quick Google search for what it entailed, I messaged the seller, and bought it! Several days later, it arrived on my doorstep, and the rest is history.

Using Five In A Row in Homeschool

If you’ve been in the homeschooling space awhile, you have probably heard of Five In A Row. If you are new, I’ll give you a quick summary! Five In A Row is a gentle, low-stakes curriculum that takes high-quality children’s books and helps you explore them in a multi-disciplinary way. For example, this week we are doing the children’s book, Roxaboxen, by Alice McLerran. We will read the book five times this week, each day focusing on a different supplemental activity. Sometimes I do every activity listed, sometimes I pick and choose. Often times, I think of my own ideas to use as well.

Here are some things we will do, related to Roxaboxen:

• Talk about the Southwestern United States, and locate them on a map
• Make Broken Glass Jello to mimic the beautifully colored broken glass used to outline the Roxaboxen “homes”
• Talk about rules, structures, and basic principles of government. We will brainstorm together a list of family rules, talk about why they matter, and discuss how being in a family is alike and different from being a citizen of a particular city
• Do A Beginner Watercolor Sunset Painting using this tutorial
• Do this Roxaboxen Cut-And-Paste activity I found on TPT
• A few math counting, addition, and subtraction activities with my preschooler, using some blue gemstones like these (mine are just from the Dollar Store!)
• Create our own “Roxaboxen” structures in the yard–although, if I’m being perfectly honest, my daughter does this on a regular basis, naturally. You can always find little tidbits of things, structures made of sticks and cardboard, gemstones, little figurines and other assorted junk assembled creatively in the pockets of our very kid-friendly yard! 🙂

My preschool-aged son is particularly interested in the Ocotillo plant mentioned in the book, especially since the kids suck honey out of its flower! This prompted a discussion about how different plants grow different places, and how Ocotillo wouldn’t grow well where we live in the northern United States.

Here is a snapshot of our finished Broken Glass Jello! The pictures on the recipe website are much prettier, but it tasted good! 🙂

How ‘Five In A Row’ Made Me A Better Teacher

Ok, so here’s the main point: how did Five In A Row make me a better teacher?

Five In A Row approaches each singular children’s book as a feast of potential knowledge to be harvested and enjoyed. (You may have heard this idea before, it belongs to Charlotte Mason). This curriculum is somehow gentle & low-stakes, while simultaneously profound & thorough. The way the curriculum is written, made me pay attention. After doing a few weeks of this curriculum, I noticed myself noticing more things: comments my children made, ideas they proposed, questions they formulated, and even connections they made. The format and style of these FIAR lessons opened my eyes even wider to the way that every moment in life can be a teaching moment.

Five In A Row is gentle and “low-stakes”, because you can pick and choose however much you want to do. If you’re having a hard week and simply want to read the books on the list, you can do that. Maybe you read them three or four times that week, and simply enjoy them. That’s great! There is also the opportunity to enjoy foods, songs, poems, supplemental books, math activities, science experiments, and other incredible concepts in relation to the book. You can decide week by week what fits best for your family. I also repeat books year to year! Last year, we came to the classic How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, but the week got busy and we never actually got around to making the apple pie. Guess what! We will do it this year. No sweat.

Even during the “off weeks,” or times we were busier, I was still amazed at the way the lessons stuck with my kids. First, the literature is top notch. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the quality of children’s literature has been declining for the past decade or so. I always know that the FIAR selections are going to be excellent literature. I was also amazed at how much I learned, and how fluidly I picked up on the curriculum’s style. After completing a few lessons, I felt like I was able to think of my own ideas for supplements, and felt a growing confidence in gleaning as much as possible out of these precious books.

What Is Your Experience?

I would love to know – what has been your experience with Five In A Row? Has the structure or style of the lessons made an impact on you, as a parent / teacher? This style of teaching opened my eyes to the multidisciplinary possibilities of even the simplest children’s books. I love how the author encourages us to glean every possible gem out of each story. It truly maximizes the reading experience, for everyone involved!

If you want a few samples of this incredible curriculum, you can download them here for free.

If you want to see how we have “rowed” a few of these books, I’ve blogged about a couple so far:

The Very Last First Time (a harrowing adventure with Inuit girl Eva, in the Ungava Bay)

Henry The Castaway (an explorer who uses great survival skills along with his dog, Angus!)

Happy reading,

Cait