Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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AnaB
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Posted: Oct 25 2008 at 7:46pm | IP Logged Quote AnaB
Hi There,

I first used FIAR with my first daughter about 8 years ago. I included my boys a few years later and those were some of the best memories I have of homeschooling. They were delightful and we learned alot.

Now, I have a 4yr old and we've gotten out all our FIAR books. I find that we don't do much beyond locating the place of the book and reading the book. Since I'm already homeschooling the older ones with lots of read alouds, it just doesn't seem as natural to pull all those lessons out of the book. My daughter also seems to want to read more than one book at a time, so we've already read through many of the FIAR titles before.

I am also reading aloud to her Little House on the Prairie which she enjoys. But I feel like I may be cheating her by not "doing" FIAR with her like I'm supposed to. She'd much rather be working on some type of handcraft or puzzle than coloring. It does take me a while to put the lesson together on top of what I'm doing. I also realize that When I first did FIAR, I wasn't homeschooling anyone else like I am now.

What do you think?

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Sarah M
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Posted: Oct 25 2008 at 9:37pm | IP Logged Quote Sarah M
I did FIAR last year, using a lot of the book's ideas. It worked wonderfully and we all loved it. For whatever reason, that didn't work for us as well this year. The lessons seemed a bit more unnatural for us- contrived a little, maybe. Now we use it mostly for a booklist. Occasionally I scan through the book for ideas, but I'll admit we don't do much in the way of "units" or anything like that. We read the books as I get them from the library, and if the kids are interested in learning more (for example, the girls really took off on a Japanese theme after reading A Pair of Red Clogs), I'll follow their lead, using FIAR suggestions as a resource.

I'd say don't feel guilty. Homeschooling your first is surely different than homeschooling the youngest of several. Different seasons in our lives require our homeschooling to look different from year to year.

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Bookswithtea
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Posted: Oct 27 2008 at 8:14am | IP Logged Quote Bookswithtea
Do you spend any time on the FIAR boards? I do like them. We've been using FIAR since '99, but each year is very different from the one before. Some years the lessons are very involved and some years, its mostly just oral on the couch with the manual in front of me so I don't forget what I wanted to say. All methods count as 'doing FIAR'.

If you want to make it work, I'd try doing geography on the first day and then making sure that art and cooking end up on your list as well. Also, its not uncommon for 4 yr olds to not really "get" what you are doing, but suddenly come into loving FIAR when they are a year older. Some 4 yr olds do better with Before FIAR.

Hope this helps!

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Waverley
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Posted: Oct 27 2008 at 2:26pm | IP Logged Quote Waverley
Maybe it would help (and you may have already done this) if you took a minute to write down your goals for you and your daughter for the year. Also make a list of what your daughter likes to do and how she learns best. Maybe the goal is simply to make sure she has quality time with you. Perhaps looking at the lists together will help you decide if FIAR is the best curriculum for you for this year. Maybe give her another year of more relaxed learning or maybe as bookswithtea suggested you could use B4FIAR.

Good luck.
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