Rowing

I’ve never spent much time on preschool with Calvin or Micah.  Time just hasn’t allowed it.  Usually my mornings are spent with housework, running, or are meeting someone at the park.  My afternoons are spent in language study.  I’ve always figured my kids were working hard learning a second language so didn’t want to do a formal preschool program, but this year I decided to try something new.  

So Micah and I have been rowing J.  I decided to start with before five in a row this year (BFIAR) vs. Five in a Row, I have books for both, so I’m sure by the time the school year ends we’ll have dipped into the FIAR books. 

So far this is exactly what we needed.  Something that gives Micah my attention, but isn’t too time consuming in the prep for me.  Plus they are really great books we get to read.

Oh and if you have never heard of the curriculum it is literature based.  Each week you choose a book, read it 5 days in a row (hence the rowing) and add some activities to it each day.  Counting, comparison, bible memory, crafts, science, etc.  These activities are already spelled out in the book so it takes the work out for me. 

There are loads of printables for each book, so a quick google search can give us plenty of activities if I don't like the ones suggested in the book suggests.  If you subscribe to FIAR you can also obtain access to free lap books they created.  I’ve enjoyed several other lap book printables I've found on the web and decided to create a book to put them all in.  Thankfully here we can find these sketch books that work perfectly for our school book and I don't have a ton of papers to deal with later.  :)

Micah loves having his own school book, and showing big brother what he’s done while he was at school.  Hopefully this will help with some of the behavioral issues we’re seeing in him as well.  This boy loves attention, but loves one on one time best of all.