Beyond Five in a Row
Since our family is relatively new to literature unit studies in our homeschooling (other than history), we were excited to take a look at Beyond Five in a Row, by Becky Jane Lambert.
For those of you who are already familiar with the “Five in a Row” book guides which have been around for quite some time, Beyond Five in a Row is slightly different. Instead of reading the same picture book each day, five days in a row, with your children, and then doing accompanying art and projects, Beyond Five in a Row is written for 8-12 year old children who are beginning to read chapter books.
Each Beyond Five in a Row volume (there are currently three volumes) is based on four different chapter books. Two of them are fiction, while the final two are non-fiction.
The volume we decided to try was Volume 2, which includes the chapter books, Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark by Patricia MacLachlan, as well as The Story of George Washington Carver by Eva Moore and Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson.
Here is an excerpt from their website, which explains the books used for each "Beyond" title:
For those of you who are already familiar with the “Five in a Row” book guides which have been around for quite some time, Beyond Five in a Row is slightly different. Instead of reading the same picture book each day, five days in a row, with your children, and then doing accompanying art and projects, Beyond Five in a Row is written for 8-12 year old children who are beginning to read chapter books.
Each Beyond Five in a Row volume (there are currently three volumes) is based on four different chapter books. Two of them are fiction, while the final two are non-fiction.
The volume we decided to try was Volume 2, which includes the chapter books, Sarah, Plain and Tall and Skylark by Patricia MacLachlan, as well as The Story of George Washington Carver by Eva Moore and Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson.
Here is an excerpt from their website, which explains the books used for each "Beyond" title:
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Volume 1 explores:
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Volume 2 includes:
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Volume 3 utilizes:
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In this Beyond Five in a Row unit study, we were pleased to see that it covered such subjects as history, geography, science, art, and the language arts.
Families who want to round out their school studies will want to also include their own curriculum for handwriting, math, spelling, and grammar. We started out with Sarah, Plain and Tall, which is a familiar story to my children as they have viewed several of these movies on television. A parent summary is provided, so if I chose to not read the chapters along with my children, I would still know what the story was about for that day’s reading. I liked how the beginning notes for Chapter 1 began: a brief synopsis of what topics would be covered by the family for Chapter 1 of Sarah, Plain and Tall. It included: |
- the history and geography of Maine and prairies
- babies and human development
- geology
- symbolism in literature
- letter writing skills
- some creative writing and basic writing skills
- drawing composition skills
- singing
- family relationships
There was plenty for my girls and I to discuss as we snuggled on the couch with the unit study guide and the Sarah, Plain and Tall copies I checked out from the library for their use. Both girls chose to read their chapters independently as the chapters are short and quick reads for both of them.
This unit study has children make a notebook (or two separate notebooks) with two sections so they can have details of prairies in one section and information about the sea and Maine in another section. It’s neat to include artwork, notetaking, writing, and so many other activities into a notebook for them to view later on!
There is enough information and details so that a family could use this book entirely for these subjects. I would like to add, however, that for numerous sections of each chapter, additional work might need to be done by the parent to prepare for that day’s “lessons.”
For example, one of the activities to accompany chapter 1 of Sarah, Plain and Tall includes studying the biological science of a baby in development. Fortunately, I had a wonderfully illustrated book that shows the various stages of development in the womb, and we were able to discuss that and learn a lot about this. However, if I hadn’t had this particular book, with its huge true-to-life photographs, I would have wanted to go to the internet or my local library to find a source of photos and possibly more information.
This is where people might find Beyond Five in a Row a bit more time-consuming for them as the parent-teacher. Yes, I could have just read all the information to them, but not all of my children have strong visual learning skills, so I prefer to include photographs and other illustrated materials to demonstrate what we are studying. However, if your children don’t seem to mind looking at a page in very small print in order to study and learn a particular subject, then you wouldn’t necessarily need to gather some books, website links, or materials to accompany your Beyond Five in a Row studies.
This is just my personal preference. If you are looking for a curriculum where everything is completely laid out for you and you just need to open the pages and begin using it, you might say that Beyond Five in a Row is not for your family. However, with just a little bit of preparation, I think you’ll discover that your children are having so much fun using Beyond Five in a Row unit studies, that your efforts will pay off in a very rewarding way!
Five in a Row’s website not only sells additional curriculum and digital downloads of some of their out-of-print selections, but they also have a link to a "Five in a Row" forum or message board. This should be very helpful to many families:
http://www.fiveinarow.com/~gbprnhrz/forum/index.php
My daughters thought it was a lot of fun to be doing their reading and projects together even though they are at different levels. We enjoyed using this curriculum, and look forward to using more of the Lamberts’ unit studies in the future.
© 2009 by Julieanne Miller
DISCLOSURE: While I will never be paid to write a product review (gasp!), I did accept a free copy of Beyond Five in a Row for me to use in our home and then write an unbiased review.