Five in a Row

If you’re looking for something a bit different to do, especially with younger kids, you could try Five in a Row. This is a literature-based approach to learning that slots in nicely with the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. Although we don’t really follow a Charlotte Mason approach, we tried it a couple of years ago as a break from our usual curriculum, and really loved the stories! Together, you read through a specified picture book over the course of a week and from that one story all sorts of learning happens! The teacher book has all sorts of suggestions on how to draw out lessons on art, geography, science, history, writing, maths and more.

Some of the stories were quite lengthy and reading it five times a week was probably a little too much, but 3-4 times was definitely doable and quite enjoyable. We even learnt the poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost!

We were fortunate enough to borrow the first teacher book and the associated picture books from a homeschooling friend, and I imagine the best way to get hold of it would be to buy second hand from other homeschoolers. However it does seem to be available on Amazon, although perhaps there is a NZ supplier that would make it more accessible.