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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Aug 14 2007 at 7:02pm | IP Logged
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I'm just curious. I own one volume of Beyond, but I have never been able to make it work well in our home.
If you use these volumes, can you tell me what your planning looks like?
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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MichelleW
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| Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 10:04am | IP Logged
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I have been trying to use these for years, and I am trying again right now. I have no good answers, but I'd love some better ideas, so I am looking forward to other responses! The best I've been able to do is to use it as "reading lesson" with individual children. That has worked somewhat. This year I'd like us all to do "Sarah, Plain and Tall" together, but I can't figure out how to make it work into our day.
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Michelle
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 1:11pm | IP Logged
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I don't know why I find it so much harder to use, but I have seen others on the boards say they struggle with the transition so I guess we aren't the only ones. I think I prefer the idea of Beyond being more independent. It looks like a lot of mom work if I have to lead the entire thing...
Maybe I'll try something like asking dd to choose one activity or idea each day in the areas I want her to cover and see what happens?
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MichelleW
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| Posted: Aug 15 2007 at 10:00pm | IP Logged
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When I used it for "reading lesson" I would have the child do some vocab work on Monday(I pulled vocab out of the chapter when I pre-red), then read the chapter on Tuesday, then, on Wednesday, choose one or two activities from those suggested in Beyond. This was fine, but it was more bumpy than it sounds...
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Michelle
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Aug 21 2007 at 6:52am | IP Logged
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Hmmmmmmmm...well I had a lot of reading time this weekend what with being on bedrest and all...I spent a good chunk of it reading my FIAR and Beyond manuals.
What ages did you use this with, Michelle? I think I am going to give it a try this winter, right after my dd's 11th birthday. I'm wondering if part of the awkwardness you and I have both experienced might include trying to use it with children too young for it? A lot of the ideas are independent research type things that would be a ton of work for mom to try to pull together, in comparison to a FIAR type unit.
Whaddya think?
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MichelleW
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| Posted: Aug 21 2007 at 4:41pm | IP Logged
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You may be right. The reading level seems kind of low to me (for older kids), but maybe that is ok?
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Michelle
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Aug 21 2007 at 6:12pm | IP Logged
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See, that's how I always looked at it in the past too. Now I'm seeing it as a tool...to learn a lot with a book that is not tremendously difficult to understand,and then save read alouds and readers for more complex books.
My dd read Boxcar Children years ago, but the things listed in the scope and sequence are very on target for 5th grade, imho.
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MichelleW
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| Posted: Aug 21 2007 at 9:52pm | IP Logged
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Ok, so give me a visual for your plan...
(By the way, my boys will be in 4th grade this year)
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Michelle
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 6:39am | IP Logged
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OK, so here's my working and always subject to revision plan. 
K-B4, other picture books added in, end of year will begin easier FIAR (like Harold and the Purple Crayon).
1st and 2nd-variety of FIAR 1-3, also chapter book read alouds regularly.
3rd-FIAR 1-3 stories for older children, continue chapter book read alouds.
4th-finish up older FIAR 1-3 older kid stories, and begin vol. 4 (maybe 3 books?), continue chapter books
5th-finish up Vol. 4, begin Beyond vol. 1 with Boxcar and Homer Price in the spring.
6th-8th-continue with Beyond, move to Above and Beyond.
I spent a lot of time considering scope and sequence because I worry about unit studies leaving out major portions of history. It covers American history extremely well, imho, and also, nonwestern cultures, but there seems to be a gap for things like the middle ages (duchess is not enough, imho) and ancient cultures like the Egyptians, Greece and Rome. SO! To cover my bases, children 5th-8th grade will listen to SOTW on audiocd one day a week, one volume a year, skipping chapters we've already covered (like Chinese culture/history), and keeping a timeline of SOTW and all FIAR history related. This way when we cover world history in high school, hopefully they will have hooks to hang it all on, kwim?
I'm hoping there is room in this schedule to add in some interesting other unit studies as they make themselves available (holiday Fold and Learns, units on homeschoolshare, etc), and of course, we always use Elizabeth's Christmas unit. I'm also using Catholic Mosaic separately alongside our religion plans for the year.
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MichelleW
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| Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 10:35pm | IP Logged
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So, you are doing Beyond INSTEAD of regular history/science/etc.? Kind of like we did FIAR? Just the book and the Beyond activities and nothing more (aside from religion)?
That may be part of my problem too. I might be trying to cover too much.
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Michelle
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Aug 23 2007 at 6:42am | IP Logged
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Basically, yes. Unless you count the once a week audiocd as more history than the FIAR. But I don't, that's only for timelining and chronology purposes.
This week we are rowing Grandfather's Journey, including my 5th grader. The little one has done simple things, but the older child looked up Pearl Harbor in World Book and wrote a paragraph about it and then added it to her timeline. Journey includes a thing on birds, so for our second week, we are going to read the chapter in Jeannie Fulbright's zoology 1 book on birds (ch 2) over the next week. There are free notebooking pages that go along with that, so those will be our FIAR pages. So I am using other materials, but only as they related to our units, rather than feeling compelled to finish the science text.
That is new for me, btw.  I am a compulsive "finisher" of stuff.
So yes, when my 5th grader moves out of FIAR, she will have math, ILL, religion and Beyond. I'm really excited because I think this will actually give me the time to do some Feast Day notebooking and holiday units. I've never had time for those before, which has always made me sad. I couldn't figure out why our hs didn't look like I wanted it to look and I realized its because I have always planned in such a way that the units would have to be extra work (and that was just too much). This year I've planned to do one week units on Labor Day, Veteran's Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day (along with Follow the Drinking Gourd). Both FIARers and Beyonders will participate in those. I planned a field trip around They Were Strong and Good.
I'm "practicing" this year (because Beyond intimidates me) by starting with 2 Beyond books in Feb. Dd will be 11 by then. She has read Boxcar already a long time ago, but she loved it. I figure it will only help that she is familiar with the story. In May, I want to spend the last two weeks of the schoolyear on a unit on the Month of Mary/Springtime, and hopefully, it will be a great schoolyear and I will not look back and feel like I forgot to do the fun learning stuff. We'll see how it goes! lol
But really, looking at your signature, your three are so close in age and not even 5th grade yet. I would not be doing Beyond with any of them. There is too much richness in the FIAR books to miss. I so regret taking my first child off picture books too early.  I'd do volume 4 and spend two weeks per book, kind of like the Very Last First Time unit that someone posted here recently. and Catholic Mosaic, for sure!
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ami*
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| Posted: Aug 23 2007 at 8:17am | IP Logged
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Bookswithtea wrote:
I spent a lot of time considering scope and sequence because I worry about unit studies leaving out major portions of history. It covers American history extremely well, imho, and also, nonwestern cultures, but there seems to be a gap for things like the middle ages (duchess is not enough, imho) and ancient cultures like the Egyptians, Greece and Rome. SO! To cover my bases, children 5th-8th grade will listen to SOTW on audiocd one day a week, one volume a year, skipping chapters we've already covered (like Chinese culture/history), and keeping a timeline of SOTW and all FIAR history related. This way when we cover world history in high school, hopefully they will have hooks to hang it all on, kwim?
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You may want to check out Marguerite Makes a Book at HSS for some extra Middle Ages history! 
I've enjoyed reading this thread, btw. We definitely plan to use Beyond someday!
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Bookswithtea
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Wow, Ami, this is cool! Never even heard of this book before, but it looks interesting.
I'm enjoying this thread, too. Its helping me to understand why it hasn't worked for me before and how to try again.
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: does anyone use Beyond FIAR?
