Help / Suggestions

[DebiJ in IL]

I am very new to the five in a row concept. After struggling with the school my husband and I decided to pull him so I could home school him. I have tried for several years for that to happen:clap:

My question is my ds is in 4th grade and we are working with Thomas Edison because that was the book he wanted to do. My fear is that I'm not doing things in depth enough. I mean we read the chapter together and go over the manual stuff, and it appears he is understanding all the stuff. I'm having him do notebooking along with lapbooks, but we are usually done with everything by lunch? Am I doing it right? He has a book he reads for a while from the library and we discuss what is going on in that book. But I'm concerned I'm not going into enough depth or having him do enough independent work. I guess I'm just confused on how I am actually suppose to be doing this. Help!:eek:

Debij in IL

[CINDY LB OH]

It sounds like you are doing fine, but if you want to be more specific in what a day looks like for your ds, we might be able to answer better.

One thing you need to remember: 2-3 hours of one-on-one, individual tutoring at home is equal to a full public school day ;)

ETA: Also, check out Suz's response in the post below yours. It might help you as well get a better picture of what others do and what it all "looks" like.

[Tracey]

I was also going to suggest Suz's post. It is very helpful. Otherwise, it does sound like you are doing well.

[DebiJ in IL]

Thanks for the reassurance! Our typical day goes like this:

He reads a chapter out loud to me, (I love listening to him read he is so dramatic) we then go through the manual and discuss the questions and do the exercises. While he is reading any words he struggles with either becomes vocabulary or spelling I write the down. We work on his notebooking and his lapbook. He then works on a web-based math (Aleks) for about an hour then we are done :)

I guess my biggest concern is not so much time as much as am I going in depth enough. We looked up information on the Erie Canal, we are working on a lapbook on the State of Ohio, soon to work on Michigan.

I read the post before mine and after reading that I was wondering if I wasn't doing something wrong, because we do a chapter a day not one or two a week:eek:

Again thanks for the help

[Anjie in PA]

First, let me say that, in FIAR, there is really no right or wrong! The whole point of homeschooling is to make it work for you and your child. That looks different from family to family. That's one reason I love FIAR - they totally get that!

One thing we do here is check out library books on the suggested topics, especially science and social studies. I like having that kind of "back-up," so to speak. My only other suggestion to you would be to add some more language arts, especially writing.

:group: It sounds like you are off to an excellent start homeschooling your son! :clap: I encourage you to keep asking questions and trying out new ideas.

[CINDY LB OH]

What you are doing sounds fine. We also do approx. 1 chapter per day; it's usually 3-4 per week, with Friday's being our day to complete anything not finished.

This year we've also been putting together a President's notebook (whenever one comes up in our studies), continuing are states notebook from last year, and a timeline book.

We also tend to go off-road quite a bit. After doing Thomas Edison, we decided to read about Buffalo Bill and the wild west, then that lead us to the gold rush. We are finally rapping it all up and will be starting Homer Price in a few weeks to finish out the year.

That's one of the great things about FIAR, it's so flexible and allows for further interest-led learning.

You might want to check out HeatherW's blog (http://blogshewrote.blogspot.com/p/beyond-five-in-row.html) as well; she has some wonderful stuff on there.

So glad you have joined in!