End of Volume 1 of FIAR

We have come to the end of the books in FIAR.  I enjoyed our time with it and then there were times that I did not.  I am ever so thankful that we did not have to buy any books because our library either had then on their shelves or I was able to get them through inter-library loan.  I think Hannah learned a great deal and I learned a great deal as well.  But having come to the end of our time with the first volume, I don't feel really compelled to continue with the series.  I have been praying about it with no real go ahead, and one thing I have definitely learned is that if it's not in God's timing, then I am going to end up frustrated and put out.  I'm not exactly sure what Hannah and I are going to do this second part of the year, but I know it will come to me.  The two of us are going to be seeing family in the next few weeks, so it works out well for an in between time and a place for me to get my bearings about this year and next.
Now, as to Five In A Row With Hannah In Tow, as we are no longer doing five in arow, instead of rebranding and moving and doing a new makeover, I'm going to just change sites.   If you would like to join me, I would love to see you there.  I call it HoHa for Hands On Home Arts and since we home school, I feel sure that I'll be posting about our school-ing over there. http://www.handsonhomearts.blogspot.com

Off the Bandwagon, Again

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself, I feel sure that YOU too are tired of hearing about it, but Hannah does not want to learn to read.  She refuses to look at the pages.  But today, we did work on handwriting with copy work.  She makes great letters and copies very well.  I also wrote some three letter words for her to draw and then we turned it into a book.  I also made a word scramble where she took the letters at the top and followed the lines to put the letters in the right order.  It was her name.
Later today, I think we are going to read how to make Apple Pie and see the world.

My Hero

We went shopping today after breakfast with the ladies.  We headed to Target and picked up Hannah a new pair of Sunday shoes.  She LOVES them! And then we picked up a new book, Bolt's My Hero.  She let me sound it all out for her, I'm hoping that by reading more slowly it will help her pick up on the letter sounds. 

Repetition

Repeating the story over and over is one of the concepts of FIAR.  So today, as we were reading Lentil, I decided to just reinforce onomatopoeia.  There are a lot of really good words in the story line, like slurp and shlursh.  Good stuff.  We were also gifted with some phoenic books from a friend that feature Scooby Doo.  We've been having fun reading those the last day.  And in some of them, I say the sound purposefully wrong, for instance ch I say cuh huh instead of the chuh sound.  or suh huh instead of shh.

Lentil

For some reason Lentil makes me think of Yentl.  Go figure!  It was a fun book to read. We like McCloskey so that always gives a book a leg up. 
We went with the Social Studies lesson today and found Ohio on the map of the USA.  We're also watching the Learn to Read with Phonics dvd that we got from Netflix. 
Hannah still frustrates me to no end in regards to reading.  I guess I'm still not ready for her to learn at her own pace, which means that I should probably hold off a few more months. 

A trip to the library

Joel needed the house to himself for an hour or two and I needed to turn in some library books so you know where we went, right?  We were able to pick up Lentil, How to Make an Apple Pie and The Night of the Moonjellies.  So we are pretty much set to work through the end of the month.  And unfortunately, that will probably get us to the end of our FIAR volume 1.  I'm still torn as to whether we will move on to volume 2 or to venture into a self created curriculum or purchase something that will be more geared towards first grade. 

I did get a first from Hannah today.  I told her that a DVD was coming in the mail that would teach her how to read and asked her if she wanted to learn how to read.  She said "yes" and that is the very first time that she has been agreeable to the option.  I did not buy one of those DVD sets off the the television, I merely rented one that was on Netflix and have no idea if it's any good or not.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow or Monday.   

Another Break

Joel has the next week off. I think I'm going to use the time to regroup and get reset in regards to Hannah and schooling.  I find it really hard to remember that she is just a little girl and doesn't need to know every thing yet, like reading.  I really really really want her to know how to read, in case you haven't been coming here for long.  It's one of my greatest desires for her right after getting to know Jesus and falling in love with him. 
But then I remember that she is just barely five and there is plenty of time for her to learn how to read.  And that she is learning how to learn and when the time comes it will be as easy as pie.
So here are some things we are learning in addition to the Five in a Row curriculum... Hannah is an expert egg cracker and becoming a pretty good scramble egg maker minus the cooking part.  She has learned how to make her own peanut butter and jelly.  She is learning how to sweep but this is probably the coolest thing of all, she is learning about communion.  She is also learning about worship :D