Workbox Wednesday ~ Link-up

Each Wednesday I post what we have in our Workboxes. So I don't overwhelm myself I alternate each week with Preschool, K/1st and 6th grade workboxes.

This week I am featuring Monkey's Preschool Workboxes:


After joining the family for Religion (reading the Friend) and doing Chores, Monkey will start his workboxes.
1. {BFIAR}: Caps for Sale. We will practice balancing things on our heads as we walk around the room.
2. Phonics: The letter "J" (from Teach Me Joy's Animal Play Curriculum).
3. Math: The number "5" (from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Math Printables).
4. Science/Writing: J for Jellyfish (from Homeschool Creations Ocean Preschool Pack).

Now it is your turn! Grab a Button (or link back here) and Share your Workboxes! As this is my ONLY Guideline, I will be deleting links that do not have a button or a link back to this post. Thank you!

TOS Review ~ Before Five In A Row (BFIAR)

I am so excited to share this review with you! I have been wondering about Five In A Row {FIAR} since I first started hearing about it about a year ago. As a former public school teacher, I wondered if I "really needed" a manual to read a book five days in a row and do some educational activities based on the books. I am a teacher and I was "trained" to teach children. Well, read on to discover the answer to my question.


From the {FIAR} website: Five in a Row is more than just a set of lesson plans. It’s an approach to learning that will forever change how both you, and your children view education, books and teaching.
Before Five In A Row {BFIAR} is an adaptation of the original {FIAR} curriculum. It is 23 mini-units (plus a bonus unit) based on excellent children's literature. The book selections and activities are geared for 2-4 year-olds (although my 5 and 11 year-olds love the books and activities too).
The Details:by Jane Claire Lambert$35 at Rainbow Resource Center149 pagespaperback book23 mini-units (+1 bonus unit)ages 2-4reusableChristian basedReligious and non-religious activities to choose from for each book selection2 Parts: Part One is the mini-units & Part Two is a "Treasury of Creative Ideas for Learning Readiness"
How it works:You choose a book (either borrow them from your Public Library or purchase them) and go to that section in the {BFIAR} manual and read through all the activity ideas. After you look through all the AMAZING ideas, choose the ones that your little one will enjoy and learn from. Generally, you read the book everyday for a week (hence, five in a row) and do one activity a day. However, if you have a child who is begging for more, for many of the stories there are enough activities for two a day or even two weeks of rowing the same book. The amount of preparation needed varies based on the activities you choose (and to some extend the amount of effort you put into it). You can choose to make the activities as elaborate or as simple as you wish. 
Books we "Rowed":We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael RosenCorduroy, by Don FreemanI Am an Artist, by Pat L. CollinsYellow Ball, by Molly BangThe ABC Bunny, by Wanda GagJesse, Bear, What Will You Wear?, by N. W. CarlstromAsk Mr. Bear, by Marjorie Flack
Some Activities We Did:We went on a Bear Hunt.Talked about Homes and Habitats.Talked about our 5 senses and used them to discover nature.Painted a scene of a Yellow Ball (see picture below).Discussed weather (lightning, clouds, wind, hail, etc.)."Can You Find" Search.Made puppets and put on a Puppet Show.


Our Thoughts:
I absolutely love it. I am not super creative and would never think of even half of the ideas in this manual (nor do I have the time to do so)! At first I thought the $35 price tag was kind of high, I do believe that it is worth the investment. Especially if you have more than 1 child that would benefit from it. While Monkey (age 3) was the main child to benefit from this product, my other children loved it too. We all sat to read the books as a family (sometimes Unicorn age 11 would read out loud for me). Then we would do the activity together or the girls would go off and do their own thing while Monkey did the activity on his own. Most of the stories were read multiple times a day! Since we are tight on funds we chose activities that were simple and didn't require a lot of materials.

Many of the books are difficult to find and some are downright expensive (because they are out of print). To save money be sure to ask your local librarian about Inter-Library Loans. I have had to do this to find a couple books (Yellow Ball and My Blue Boat for example). Other places to look for the books are at Thrift Stores, Yard/Garage sales, paperbackswap.com and ebay. Also, you can purchase the books from Rainbow Resource Center.

Remember my question from above? Do I really need a manual to help me come up with educational activities for great literature? The answer is Yes! I don't have the time or creativity to come up with all these amazing ideas! Also, I had never heard of most of these books and probably wouldn't have ever picked them on my own.

Additional Products:
Five In A Row volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 (ages 4-8)
Five In A Row Bible Supplement
Beyond Five In A Row volumes 1, 2 and 3 (ages 8-12)
Beyond Five In A Row Bible Study Supplement
Above & Beyond Five In A Row (ages 12+)
Digital Resources (Nature Studies, Holiday Studies, Cookbook, Timeline, Planner, etc.)


Additional Resources:
{FIAR} has a Forum on their website where you can go to "meet" others who use {FIAR}, get support and get ideas. If you choose to use {FIAR} a couple other useful sites are Homeschool Share and for {BFIAR} be sure to visit 1+1+1=1.

Click here to read what my Crew Mates thought of {BFIAR}!

{Disclaimer: I received a copy of Before Five In A Row {BFIAR} in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.}

Workbox Wednesday Link-up

This week we are taking a little break. We are only doing Religion, History, Art, {BFIAR} and a 9/11 unit. Religion: The LDS Friend magazineHistory: The Mystery of History Vol. 1 Lesson 12 ~ The Minoan CivilizationArt: The World's Greatest Artists Vol. 1 DaVinci ~ Lesson 7{BFIAR}: The ABC Bunny ~ Discussing different plants we find in the bookSpecial Unit: September 11, 2001 Project Pack by Hands of a Child
Now it is your turn! Remember, I only have ONE GUIDELINE! Please link back or grab a button so others looking for Workbox ideas can find us easily! Thank you!

Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ September 2, 2011

In my life this week…my hubby turned 44 (shhh...don't tell him I told you)!

In our homeschool this week…we finally got The Mystery of History (I finally won it on ebay)! We started right away and LOVE it!

As a family we started reading the September Friend for Religion, did 4 lessons in MOH and started studying Da Vinci for Art.

Unicorn has mastered 75% of her addition facts using ALEKS, completed 13 chapters in Life of Fred - Apples, used the draw a picture and guess and check methods to solve word problems, worked on prepositional phrases and review other grammar skills, completed Lesson 1 of Visual Latin (one of our upcoming reviews). 

Ladybug worked on sums to 6, finding the missing addend and her addition facts, got 100% on her spelling tests, completed 3 lessons in Reading and took a break from writing.

Monkey focused on the letter H, the heart shape, horses, hummingbirds and hermit crabs. He also "rowed" Yellow Ball for {BFIAR}.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…Sam's Noggin and her organization of MOH! Our copy of MOH was a little tattered when we got it. What a blessing...I was able to take the book apart, bind the two semesters and hole-punch the resources without having to pay to have any of it done!

Things I’m working on…next week we will "take a break". By this I really mean we will have a light schedule (Religion, History, Math, {BFIAR} and Art). During this time, I will clean out our binders of all the work we have done over the past 5 weeks and bind the stuff that we are keeping.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…my little guy painting a scene from Yellow Ball.

Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ August 26, 2011

In my life this week…

This has been a week of ups and downs. Ups: We got our schooling finished, we ate FREE breakfast at Chick-fil-A (twice) and Downs: I spent 2 days in pain (I live in pain everyday but this was on top of the normal everyday pain) so much pain that I wanted to curl up and cry!

In our homeschool this week…

As a family we finished our If the World Were a Village unit and our Picasso unit. 

Monkey focused on the letter "G", the colors green and gray and Geese, Goats and Great White Sharks. He also rowed I Am an Artist for BFIAR.

Ladybug worked on finding the missing number in math, practiced her math facts and spelling words (got 100%) on BigIQKids, wrote about friends and completed 3 more lessons at ReadingEggs.com. She also rowed with her brother.

Unicorn worked on her addition and multiplication facts, learned 2 more problem-solving strategies, reviewed adjectives and adverbs, did 6 lessons in Latin and wrote in her scripture journal.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

If it isn't working...try something else!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This month our local Chick-fil-A is having a special promotion. They are giving away free breakfasts! One entree per person per day! So...this week we went out to breakfast (twice) and will probably go again on Saturday. I had never tried their breakfasts before and was pleasantly surprised! Very Yummy! We even bumped into some friends while we were there. The kids loved having the play area to themselves too!

My favorite thing this week was…

Free breakfast! ;)

What’s working/not working for us…

Free breakfast! :0)

Questions/thoughts I have…

Thinking I better stop now since the only thing I can think about is free breakfast! ;)

Things I’m working on…

Lesson plans for next week (yes, they include 3 days of free breakfast)!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Some fun education cartoons: http://www.danscartoons.com/education_cartoons.htm

Workbox Wednesday ~ Link-up

Each Wednesday I post what we have in our Workboxes. So I don't overwhelm myself I alternate each week with Preschool, K/1st and 6th grade workboxes.

This week I am featuring Monkey's Preschool Workboxes:



Monkey hangs with us in the mornings, doing Chores and learning about Joseph in Egypt for Religion. Then he starts his workboxes (or folders in our case).

1. Coloring things that start with the letter "G"for fine-motor skills and Phonics. Most of the time he tries to cut out the objects too.
2. Putting Green leaves on the tree for Math.
3. Reading about a Goose for Science.
4. BFIAR: I Am an Artist with focus on finding things God created in the book.

Reminder: I only have one GUIDELINE ~ Please link back or grab a button. This is so others will be able to find the link-up and contribute as well. THANK YOU!

Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ August 12, 2011

In my life this week…things have gone fairly smoothly. I really like not having a full calendar.

In our homeschool this week…we had a very good week.


Unicorn finished reading Little Women (we get to watch the movie now), started a 2 month free trial of ALEKS for math, did a couple lessons in Latin, practiced writing invitations and thank you notes and practiced her math facts, spelling and states at BigIQKids.com.


Ladybug started learning about < and  > in math, wrote a story about hugs, used BigIQKids.com to start learning her math facts and to practice her spelling words and started using ReadingEggs.com for reading. She also did BFIAR with Monkey.


Monkey started BFIAR this week with We're Going on a Bear Hunt. He acted out the story (fine arts), counted things in the story (math), learned about mud and other parts of nature (science), talked about family (social studies) and answered questions about the story (comprehension). He also did some letter "E" and number "3" activities as well as read about Eels, Elephants, Eagles, and the Emerald Tree Boa.


As a Family we learned about Jacob and Esau and Jacob's Family (religion). We also started a lapbook for If the World Were a Village (social studies).

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…check out the Homeschool Buyers Co-op! They have awesome deals on curriculum (and more). Sign up for their newsletter because they partner with new companies all the time (I am NOT an affiliate...I get nothing for saying this...I just really love the great deals)!

My favorite thing this week was…that the girls had a play-date this week.

What’s working/not working for us…our routine (finally and for now)! ;)

Things I’m working on…budgeting my computer time. I spend too much time on social media and my email.

I’m reading…I finished the 2nd Harry Potter book!

I’m grateful for…the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and the comfort it brings me when tragedies occur in life.

I’m praying for…my step-brother's wife and her family. Her 2nd youngest sister died this week leaving 2 VERY young children without a mother. 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…"If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves." ~C.G. Jung