so... now i found myself in the unfamiliar world of homeschooling. i knew of no one who did this. no mentors. no resources. no girlfriends teaching at home. i vividly remember sitting down one sunday afternoon at the computer... and googled everything on homeschooling. i was swept up in a whirlwind of excitement, unrealistic ideas and also fear.

i came upon using the five in a row curriculum. starting at the preschool level and using it right through fifth grade. five in a row was what held our homeschool together. without it... i would of gave up homeschooling.... it enriched our lives beyond anything i can compare to. it gave our homeschooling and ME "depth." it gave me a different perspective of teaching-- using wonderful literature and seeing deeper into the story. it made dinner conversations interesting. it made learning fun. a mountain of information and subjects are in each unit study... which catapulted my child into a bigger world. a world that i would of never thought about going to. sri lanka. china, japan, paris and the list goes on.

my son is by far not a prodigy. however, this curriculum gave him profound information at a very young age.... launching him ahead of anything a public school could offer. i fondly remember a unit study on, "climbing kansas mountains,".... in which we went to our local grain company and had an impromptu tour of the grain distribution: corn being put on trains, which were being shipped to china and elsewhere.... and other behind the scenes stuff! this deeper learning became a very natural fit for us.

i also loved the charlotte mason method. and studied it faithfully. charlotte mason planted the love of nature study into our lives and the the importance of living books... which is all we use, even to this day.

so, after seven years of five in a row and charlotte mason... i have no choice but to look at learning a different way. it's all i know. it's all my son ever had. that's not to say, i didn't try using workbooks... or rod and staff/drill and kill or 100 ez reading lessons... we tried, with negative results on many levels.... we always found our way back to the comforts of five in a row.

i must retrack here about workbooks... we've used horizon's math from third grade on. and, i do use winston grammar, as per suggested on the five in a row boards.


i cannot salute five in a row and the lamberts enough! this is a rock solid curriculum, which covers a smorgasbord of subjects in one sitting--when you use it faithfully. some think using a unit study is not an effective choice for an only child. i am proof, that it can be done. done quite well, indeed.

(please, if you do decided to use any five in a row products... order them directly from the five in a row site and not a distributor.)