I have really enjoyed the Five in a Row program we've been using; it's got so many wonderful ideas and the books are fantastic. However, after veering off course a bit the last two weeks by doing a separate unit study on the Renaissance period and then one on apples, I think I found that I prefer doing this learning approach even better. Five in a Row is similar, but it has you read the same book each day and then use certain aspects of the story to introduce lessons in art, math, science and language. But what I did with those other two studies and what I would like to continue doing is take one particular subject and then read many books and do activities that focus on that one theme. It's a similar, yet different approach. I think the kids had more fun with it, as did I. I'm still planning to use some of the Five in a Row books and ideas they provide, but these will be done in support of our one-themed unit study, which will typically change from week to week (or possibly more than a week, depending on the unit).
We are off to a slow start this week, as we are still a little tired from all the recent events: Halloween, Amy's birthday and celebration and the time change, to name a few. But I believe we will focus on Thanksgiving related themes for the next couple of weeks. There is so much we can talk about. Today during tea time, we started reading ...If YOU SAILED ON The Mayflower in 1620. We read just the first part and will read more over the next several days. I love this line of books because they really take you there and are so informative. I think the kids are enjoying it, though this day in particular they have been a little distracted by the desire to be outside. Imagine that! I still think they soaked up some of the information, and of course we will be reading more books and doing some fun activities that will hopefully help them remember who the pilgrims were and what Thanksgiving is really all about.
This new teaching approach is exciting and I'm looking forward to all the fun things we'll do together in the weeks to come!
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I felt so strangely relieved to read this! We've sort of been doing the whole concept of reading a whole lot about one topic since we began homeschooling, too, and I've really enjoyed that...but your Five in a Row lessons always sounded so fun, too! I hope your new approach works well for you all and that you enjoy it as much as we have! But I already KNOW that you are a GREAT homeschooling mom. I loved the whole Renaissance theme study you talked about in an earlier post, and I read on Celeste's blog about the apple tasting party you had. That sounds like such fun! What a great idea!
Oh...and I LOVE the "If you Lived..." series, too! We read "If you traveled west on a covered wagon" to go along with our Little House reading and it really added such depth to the story. Right now we're working our way through "If you lived during Colonial times..." because I thought it would work well with the Thanksgiving reading we've been doing. I hadn't seen the Mayflower one...but now I feel tempted to run out to the bookstore! :)
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