This post is to explain and show how I plan and organise our B4FIAR (and plan to do the same for our FIAR weeks).

Here are the items I use for planning each book we row:

• Before Five in a Row manual 

• This planning sheet

• Pinterest – I have a board for every Five in a Row book there is! It took forever to organise but it truly is a time saver because when I want to plan a book to row I go to that board and just look at all the ideas I have pinned previously. Here is my ‘Katy No-Pocket’ Pinterest board to give you an idea. 

Here are the items I use to store my planned ‘rows’ ready to go:

• Clear plastic wallet

• Suspension file box 

• 6 Drawer Trolley

Here is how we keep our completed work:

• 3-ring Lever Arch File

• Plastic sleeves

 How I plan:

First I gather everything I need

 

 
PICTURE BOOK

I’ll read the book to get an idea of the story and themes it covers. They are all such beautiful precious books that the kids and I love. 

BEFORE FIVE IN A ROW MANUAL
Basically I open the manual and write down all the activities I’d like to do on my planning sheet. 

IPAD

I use the iPad to search my Pinterest related board and write down ideas from here, printing anything I haven’t already done. It’s also great for reserving any books I want to get from the library so they’ll be ready for me to collect before we start. 

WORKSHEETS/PRINTABLES

At the start of the school year I printed, cutout and laminated all worksheets/printables I wanted to use for all the books we were going to row which has saved me a heap of time each time I plan a row. 

Lots of Printables/Worksheets can be found on the following websites:

• Homeschool Share
• Homeschool Creations
• Five in a Row Fold n Learns you must be a blog subscriber to access

PLANNING SHEET

All the ideas I write in the planning sheet side are then transferred to the Week-at-Glance side according to what I’d like to cover each day eg. 

• Monday – Bible 
• Tuesday – Math 
• Wednesday – Language Arts
• Thursday – Science/Geography
• Friday – Art/Cooking

It’s then a matter of just slipping each day’s printables into my 6-drawer trolley along with any additional library books or activities we will do and I’m set for the week. 

So that’s how I plan and organise our ‘rows’ hope it’s been helpful. 

Feel free to ask any questions if you’d like more information or I’ve missed something.