Is anyone doing FIAR?

[L&IsMama]

Is anyone doing Before Five in a Row,or Five in a row with their preschoolers? It looks really interesting,and I'm seriously considering doing it for my sons. Just thought I'd see if anyone has any advice on it!

[joandsarah77]

We use FIAR loosely. Rather then row for 5 days in a row we tend to row 3 days a week for two weeks. I also go online and find other things to go with it because I find a lot of things in the manual is still over dd head or not of interest to her yet. Like for ping we made a paper plate duck, and with Madeline I found instructions to a Lego Eiffel tower we made. We haven't done any rowing or 'school' lately at all. I've been sick, and now we are preparing for dd princess party and paper machatting(sp?) a 'golden ball' piñata is taking precedence.

[annethcz]

I have done it in the past, and will probably do it again in the future.

When we first did BFIAR, I had a 2yo and a 4yo. I felt like the suggested activites were too easy/too immature for my 4yo, and too advanced for my 2yo. My youngest is almost 3, and I'm tenatively planning to try BFIAR again this winter after she turns 3.

We've also done FIAR. I'll be honest and confess that we didn't use it very long. Although I like it *in theory* it just didn't feel like enough for us. When we used it, I had a 5yo (K), 3yo and 1yo. I also disliked all of the preparation that was neccesary for some of the suggested activities. It's so frustrating to spend an hour planning and preparing an activity that takes 10-15 minutes for my kids to finish.

Have you looked at the FIAR boards? If you decide to go ahead with it, there are some great suggestions for different books on the boards. You might also want to just start by purchasing the Teacher's manual, and check out the story books from the library. That way you're not out much money if you decide it's not for you.