tell me about beyond FIAR

[Marissamom]

I'm about to start homeschooling my 12 year old SIL. she has been in public school, and will probably be returning to public school after a year or two. I was mostly un-schooled, but want to take a slightly more structured approach for her, but not a traditional curriculum. I'm attracted to the FIAR series, and have been thinking of using it for my own kids when they're old enough. so, would beyond FIAR work? if we do school 5 days a week, how long to get through a volume? do you recommend a particular volume to start with? anything else you can tell me about it? 

[southernmommie]

I hope someone responds that has some advice. I'm curious to hear how FRIAR is also. Although I'm looking at it for my preschooler.

[Marissamom]

there are several in my home-school group that use it for their preschoolers and early elementary age kids and love it, but there's only a couple of older kids in my home-school group, and they use another curriculum. 

[thenson229]

I'm not sure about the age range of FIAR (I wanted to do that with my kids but our small rural library didn't have enough of the books to make this cost effective) but we did use Learning Language Arts through Literature one year. Here is a link if you'd like to check it out.  If the link doesn't work go to cbd.com and search for it.  http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntt=learning+language+arts+through+literature&N=0&Ntk=keywords&action=Search&Ne=0&event=ESRCS&nav_search=1&cms=1&show_cms=1

[Marissamom]

Originally Posted by thenson229 

I'm not sure about the age range of FIAR (I wanted to do that with my kids but our small rural library didn't have enough of the books to make this cost effective) but we did use Learning Language Arts through Literature one year. Here is a link if you'd like to check it out.  If the link doesn't work go to cbd.com and search for it.  http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntt=learning+language+arts+through+literature&N=0&Ntk=keywords&action=Search&Ne=0&event=ESRCS&nav_search=1&cms=1&show_cms=1

that's really now what I'm looking for. we do not want to use a curriculum that's specifically christian, and want more than language arts (FIAR covers other subjects as well). I'm not really sure how you thought your post would be helpful as I was asking about a specific curriculum that you've never used?

[ebethmom]

Hi Marissa!  I have two Beyond Five in a Row volumes, but we haven't used them yet.  My dd is still in FIAR, and my son is doing other homeschool things right now.  Have you visited the FIAR website?  The books in Beyond FIAR are listed there.  The Beyond FIAR volumes aren't written to be used in any particular order.  You could look at the books that are studied in each volume and make your choice that way.  Each volume has two fiction works and two non-fiction.

There is also an active message forum over at fiarhq.com .  There are quite a few families doing Beyond FIAR over there.

I just raided ds's bookshelves using my phone as a flashlight.  I grabbed what I thought was Beyond FIAR, but it turned out to be the Christian Character and Bible Study Supplement.  Drat!  I know that isn't the info you're looking for.  I almost woke him up with that raid, so I'll wait until tomorrow to get the volumes out.