Before Five in a Row

Rating:
Summary: Precious book inspires parents!
Review: Before Five in a Row is a sweet book that presents many ideas for the parents of preschoolers to have fun teaching their children about the world around them. This is a wonderful guide for both homeschool and non-homeschool families.

The first section of the book offers educational activities centered around classic children's books such as GOODBYE MOON and CORDUROY. Based on these books, you will take nature walks with your child, play fun games, act out stories, do simple science activities, and eat fun foods. These activities lay the foundation for future educational situations---providing simple math, science, reading, and language arts readiness.

The last section of the book offers general activity ideas not centered around specific books.

These activities are not just wonderful educationally, though, but relationally as well. They are opportunities for the child and parent to build beautiful memories and strengthen the child-parent relationship.

As a busy mom of 4 children, this book reminds me of what a special time these early years are without making me feel guilty for not being "super mom". We homeschool using the Five in a Row curriculum with our older children, and Before Five in a Row is a nice go-along with our older ones' educational process. My 2 and 3 year old sons love when they get to do "school". In fact, my 3 year old often begs us to do a Before activity with him because he loves them so much. Even his big sisters like to join in with many of the activities such as when we went berry-picking to go along with BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL.

The Lamberts also offer a website with message boards for Before Moms to "meet on" and exchange ideas and advice. There are many great articles there related to the Five in a Row books, education, and parenting in general.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. You and your family will be blessed by its use in your home.

Rating:
Summary: Precious book inspires parents!
Review: Before Five in a Row is a sweet book that presents many ideas for the parents of preschoolers to have fun teaching their children about the world around them. This is a wonderful guide for both homeschool and non-homeschool families.

The first section of the book offers educational activities centered around classic children's books such as GOODBYE MOON and CORDUROY. Based on these books, you will take nature walks with your child, play fun games, act out stories, do simple science activities, and eat fun foods. These activities lay the foundation for future educational situations---providing simple math, science, reading, and language arts readiness.

The last section of the book offers general activity ideas not centered around specific books.

These activities are not just wonderful educationally, though, but relationally as well. They are opportunities for the child and parent to build beautiful memories and strengthen the child-parent relationship.

As a busy mom of 4 children, this book reminds me of what a special time these early years are without making me feel guilty for not being "super mom". We homeschool using the Five in a Row curriculum with our older children, and Before Five in a Row is a nice go-along with our older ones' educational process. My 2 and 3 year old sons love when they get to do "school". In fact, my 3 year old often begs us to do a Before activity with him because he loves them so much. Even his big sisters like to join in with many of the activities such as when we went berry-picking to go along with BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL.

The Lamberts also offer a website with message boards for Before Moms to "meet on" and exchange ideas and advice. There are many great articles there related to the Five in a Row books, education, and parenting in general.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. You and your family will be blessed by its use in your home.

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Imaginative!
Review: I purchased this "curriculum" sight unseen for my then three year old and almost immediately wished that I had saved my $25 for something far more worthy.

While most of the literature selections for B4FIAR are wonderful it is the activities themselves that were a real turn-off. They are common sense and rather unimaginative to say the least. I would have to say that at least 90% of the activities were things that I would have done with my son even without the book. I don't need a "curriculum" to tell me to drop blueberries into a pail after reading "Blueberries for Sal" or to talk about the weather and clothing choices while reading "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?"

In my opinion, save your money, buy some good children's literature and come up with your own activities... they're bound to be at least as creative if not more!

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Imaginative!
Review: I purchased this "curriculum" sight unseen for my then three year old and almost immediately wished that I had saved my $25 for something far more worthy.

While most of the literature selections for B4FIAR are wonderful it is the activities themselves that were a real turn-off. They are common sense and rather unimaginative to say the least. I would have to say that at least 90% of the activities were things that I would have done with my son even without the book. I don't need a "curriculum" to tell me to drop blueberries into a pail after reading "Blueberries for Sal" or to talk about the weather and clothing choices while reading "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?"

In my opinion, save your money, buy some good children's literature and come up with your own activities... they're bound to be at least as creative if not more!

Rating:
Summary: Not impressive.
Review: I was not impressed by this book. The activities are mostly common sense things that anyone with an imagination can do without this book. There was nothing that inspired me, as most of the activities were things that I would do anyway after reading a book to my child.

She includes a Bible reference for each book. This may be useful if you want to tie your reading in with the Bible. This could be useful if you don't know the Bible well, but still want to include it. Since I didn't wish to do so, and it was the only information that was new to me, I mention it. Certainly there will be someone for whom it is helpful. My inclination though is to think that those who wish to include a Bible reading that relates to a story know the Bible well enough choose a scripture by themselves.

This book was very expensive for the information it contains. With a little thought, and a trip to the library you can do the same things with your kids....

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This book is a great because it brings books alive as a parent uses the suggestions to make each book more enjoyable. The only problem that I found was a few of the books cannot be purchased easily, but any library should be able to get these books on loan. The books that go along with Before Five In A Row are wonderful for a 2 year old. Worth every penny for a parent to spend quality & quantity time with a child.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Unit Study Book for 2-4 Year Olds!
Review: This book is a jem! Although, I wish the price were about [amount] instead of [amount] plus s/h. Fortunately, our library had this book. Since I was able to sample the book for free, I have made the decision to buy it. The Biblical application is worth [amount] in itself. My three year old is just beginning to understand the Bible so the lessons are appropriate for her, but my 22 month old has no interest at this time. I have done unit studies for Good Night Moon and Courdoroy. The studies were done without the purchase of extra materials, we used items around the house, like my box of extra buttons for Courdoroy and paint from previous art projects for Good Night Moon. The studies take about 2 hours to complete, and there are 24 lessons. Aside from the main book read in each lesson, the author gives reference to older books that are hard to find, like I cannot find The Adventures of Little Bear, so I improvised and found another book entitled Little Bear. So far, I have not had a problem finding the other books in our county library system. I really like unit studies because we live such busy lives and the unit studies help pull many sujbects together in one place. Some of the subjects covered are science, art, biblical application, language arts, prose, math, geometry, zoology, botany, memory games. Although these are mature topics, the author does an excellent job in explaining them in preschool terms. The idea is to stimulate a child's interest in a life-long learning process. My children get so excited when they see and hear me talk about preparing for the next unit study. They really have absorbed and shown deep interest in all the material so far. Life is busy and this book has it all. I do not spend my precious time preparing an original unit study when this book has it all there for me! Thank you, Jane Claire Lambert, you are a jewel!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Unit Study Book for 2-4 Year Olds!
Review: This book is a jem! Although, I wish the price were about [amount] instead of [amount] plus s/h. Fortunately, our library had this book. Since I was able to sample the book for free, I have made the decision to buy it. The Biblical application is worth [amount] in itself. My three year old is just beginning to understand the Bible so the lessons are appropriate for her, but my 22 month old has no interest at this time. I have done unit studies for Good Night Moon and Courdoroy. The studies were done without the purchase of extra materials, we used items around the house, like my box of extra buttons for Courdoroy and paint from previous art projects for Good Night Moon. The studies take about 2 hours to complete, and there are 24 lessons. Aside from the main book read in each lesson, the author gives reference to older books that are hard to find, like I cannot find The Adventures of Little Bear, so I improvised and found another book entitled Little Bear. So far, I have not had a problem finding the other books in our county library system. I really like unit studies because we live such busy lives and the unit studies help pull many sujbects together in one place. Some of the subjects covered are science, art, biblical application, language arts, prose, math, geometry, zoology, botany, memory games. Although these are mature topics, the author does an excellent job in explaining them in preschool terms. The idea is to stimulate a child's interest in a life-long learning process. My children get so excited when they see and hear me talk about preparing for the next unit study. They really have absorbed and shown deep interest in all the material so far. Life is busy and this book has it all. I do not spend my precious time preparing an original unit study when this book has it all there for me! Thank you, Jane Claire Lambert, you are a jewel!

Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful way to foster a love of reading!
Review: This is an absolutely wonderful, easy-to-use curriculum for little ones, ages 2 to 4. My son isn't even 2 yet, but he LOVES the stories that are used in this book! I have even been able to incorporate some of the activities suggested, and am looking forward to incorporating more as he gets older.

I feel this book can be used by Christians and non-Christians alike, as yes, there is a Bible reference section, but it is short for most stories, and does not get referenced in any of the other sections (i.e., literature, drama, science, health, math), so non-Christians can skip this section without detriment to the program.

Most of the books are still available for purchase, there are 5 that are out of print, but can easily be obtained through your local library or inter-library exchange program.

The stories are gentle, fun, and in some cases, might allow you to share pieces of your childhood with you child (for me, Cordoroy was a childhood favorite that I can now share with my child), and the life lessons can easily (and enjoyably!) be taught.

The second section on learning readiness also has a lot of useful ideas that I look forward to using in the coming months.

This is a good way to do some homeschooling with your child and I highly recommend this to anyone!