[Plummeting]

When I look at the sample lessons on the FIAR website, there doesn't seem to be much to them at all. I'm not incredibly creative, but it seems like the sample lessons are all things I could easily have come up with on my own, without spending inordinate amounts of time doing so. What has your experience with FIAR been like? Do you believe it's been a valuable addition to your homeschooling endeavors? I'm considering trying one volume out, since it really is very inexpensive and DD loves reading the same books over and over and over again. I just don't want to do it if the ideas in the manuals aren't anything worth paying someone else to generate for me. lol

 

[True Blue]

For me, it was too much thought and prep work, and not enough given to me.

:

 

[Jackpackbaby]

If you do go that route or Peak With books buy your books used on Betterworldbooks.com they have free shipping on everything and most of the books that I looked at are 3.48! Ask them for a coupon (as I did) for 20% off and that brings the price down to 2.78 with free shipping!!! You can get the entire booklist for about 1/3 FIAR's price. Conversly I found the manuals themselves used online as well for about 1/2 the price including shipping. I also found all the books at the library too for both programs. Betterworldbooks also sends a portion of each book sold to specific charities. Truly an amazing company.

 

[Mary-Beth]

We got all our books from the library except the actual FIAR book.
So it was very affordable.

I found the FIAR books (we have a few volumes) to be well worth the $. They give me info about a book, about an author and just a lot of useful other info I wouldn't already know. The activities are usually pretty easy-- yes, sometimes I would think of it myself but not all of them. There are plenty of activities for each book and you can pick and choose the one's you want to do.

 

[cappuccinosmom]

I did it for a review. We were able to find all the books at the libarary.

But it really just wasn't our style. I would need to be way more organized, thoughtful, creative, and less absent minded. I like the concept a lot, I think if I could do it, it would be great for us and well worth the money because it can be used again and again.

 

[elizawill]

i have all 4 volumes and the cookbook. i think it's a wonderful curriculum. we don't use it soley, but i love it for aspects of science/history/geography. it's very fun & hands-on, especially in conjunction with notebooking or lapbbooking. the FIAR boards are great to read through and i get many ideas there. good luck.

 

[ebethmom]

We've used FIAR for three years now, and we love it. The author, Jane Claire Lambert, writes in such a clear and thorough way. We do the lessons conversationally. When we first started, I thought that we would do lapbooks and elaborate projects. Not our style! I have most of the books from all four manuals, so I just choose one at the beginning of the week.

For all of the research and effort that went into preparing the manuals, FIAR is sold at a very reasonable price.

There are archives for every book in the manuals over at the FIAR boards. Their archives are an incredible resource!

 

[nov05mama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom I did it for a review. We were able to find all the books at the libarary. But it really just wasn't our style. I would need to be way more organized, thoughtful, creative, and less absent minded. I like the concept a lot, I think if I could do it, it would be great for us and well worth the money because it can be used again and again.

Ditto. I like the concept of it, but as organized as I try to be, it's just not working for us. I do try to pull from the book list and work on projects that correspond, etc, but I can't bring myself to use it exclusively.

 

[Plummeting]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't be using it exclusively, either. I'm getting at least one of the MBTP concepts (haven't decided which yet) and I thought it would be nice to compare and contrast the two in person, but the FIAR pages didn't seem like much. MBTP seems to have so much more stuff with it, which is good for me because with me and DH both in school, I'm not going to have a lot of time for planning everything myself. MBTP is so much more expensive, though.

 

[dotnetdiva]

We are loving it, but I would consider myself quite creative, and I think that's why we're loving it so much... To see how we spend our FIAR weeks, you can see my blog and click on a specific FIAR book on the right side to see what we've done.

 

[Annapooh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plummeting Yeah, I definitely wouldn't be using it exclusively, either. I'm getting at least one of the MBTP concepts (haven't decided which yet) and I thought it would be nice to compare and contrast the two in person, but the FIAR pages didn't seem like much. MBTP seems to have so much more stuff with it, which is good for me because with me and DH both in school, I'm not going to have a lot of time for planning everything myself. MBTP is so much more expensive, though.

I missed something maybe. What is MBTP?

 

[holyhelianthus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annapooh I missed something maybe. What is MBTP?

Moving Beyond the Page

I bought FIAR and I am not feeling it. I agree- it is something not only I but my my kids could come up with on our own. The curriculum also doesn't give near enough info IMO and the books aren't all that great though some are!

 

[elizawill]

we used MBTP this year, and it wasn't my favorite either. i think every curriculum needs major adaption....at least that's the personal conclusion i am coming too, lol.