Very Last First Time, FIAR and Canada

(1/30 – 2/3)  Yes, you did read the post title right including the part about ‘Five in a Row’.  The boys did not like the changes I made to our curriculum one bit.  It didn’t even take a whole week and they were begging ‘to do the one where we read on the couch together and do fun stuff afterward’.  As much as I wanted the changes to work, it touched me that they enjoyed our time with Five in a Row so much.  So, what did I do?  I immediately printed and got stuff ready to make our Canada unit a row.  It was simple to do since Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews is a FIAR selection.  I didn’t go all out for this row, but we had fun with it and as always fell in love with this book like all the other titles we’ve rowed.

Before I get on with our row, I want to add that I am still using bits and pieces from Expedition Earth, Road Trip USA and Apologia Elementary Science (all six books) to enhance our rows in the areas of Geography, History and Science when I feel it will easily work itself in.

Very Last First Time is a sweet book about an Inuit girl, Eva, going on her first trip to dig for mussels in an ice cave under the ocean.  Eva has always done this on her mother’s back or alongside her and this is to be her very first time all alone in the ice cave under the sea.  She is brave and perseveres, but ultimately decides she will continue doing this with her mother in the future.

Joe thought it was really cool that the ice cave was literally under the ocean.  I did too.  We learned alot about the Inuit culture while rowing this book.  We also watched a video about Inuit life that included the building of an igloo—so cool!

We learned about Inuit life, fun facts about Canada…  …Canadian currency…

…watched an episode of How Things are Made about making maple syrup (on Netflix).  For our treat I served vanilla ice cream with warm maple syrup.  Science -  we studied mussels and read from Apologia Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures. Art – The little boys just had fun with watercolor paints.  They painted and painted and painted more than once during the week per their request. Joe made a watercolor arctic picture using painter’s tape and rock salt.

We also covered lessons from the Five in a Row manual on first time experiences, relationships between a mother and her child and ordinal numbers.

We enjoyed reading the following books:

I have to say, I am glad my boys protested and asked to continue on with our Five in a Row journey.  It may require a good bit of time on my part for prep, but it is so worth it to see them love learning, ask for more and make memories with me that will last far beyond the week’s row.

*Ideas, inspiration and printables for this row can be found at:

• Five in a Row manual
• Art Projects for Kids
• Expedition Earth