We host a wonderful Christmas ornament exchange with our Five in a Ro homeschool group. We've been doing this at least 6 years. Each of us makes an ornament to represent one of the FIAR titles. The first couple of years, we didn't sign up for what we were making, but ended up with some duplicates of titles. With that in mind, we decided to sign up for the book titles and are working on having a complete set! :-)
So we sign up for a book (choosing from the titles that have not yet been done) and make our ornaments. We swap the first Sunday in December.
This year, we set out the ornaments with the book. It was a really fun visual and especially nice for the books that might have been unfamiliar to some people. We put the Before Five in a Row books together.
And then the Five in a Row books.
Having the books out also served another purpose for my family. It prompted us to read them before hanging up our new ornaments.
I really liked doing this. It was especially fun for Daniel as he wasn't familiar with all of the books yet. I think next year I will plan to put up this tree early and read the books as we add them to the tree. I need to put a reminder in my calendar to do that!
For those that aren't familiar with Five in a Row, its a curriculum based on wonderful children's books. The are books for the younger ages (Before Five in a Row), early elementary (Five in a Row) and upper elementary/early middle school (Beyond Five in a Row). We read the books and then use the book as a springboard to learn so many fun things! Since we have been doing this now since 1997, we have a lot of memories tied to these books! Its fun to have a tree and ornaments that bring back so many of these memories.
So here are our new ornaments for this year. First the books that are part of Before Five in a Row.
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| Goodnight Moon |
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| Angus Lost |
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| Yellow Ball |
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| The Carrot Seed |
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| Katy No-Pocket |
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| Caps for Sale |
The six Before FIAR book ornaments.
The rest of these are all part of the Five in a Row curriculum.
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| The Glorious Flight |
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| Andy and the Circus |
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| The Finest Horse in Town |
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| The Hatmaker's Sign |
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| Babar, To Duet or Not to Duet |
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| Katy and the Big Snow |
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| The Story of Ferdinand |
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| Grandfather's Journey |
Here are the 8 FIAR ornaments.
I wish that you could see them all in person. The details on each are so perfect! Like the snow that shakes in the Katy ornament.
Or the musical score that really is the song with Babar.
Each one is just perfect and one of the sweetest parts is having memories of my friends to add to the tree too!
These books have been a huge part of our family in so many ways and this is a delightful reminder of the sweet memories that we have made!
Love
Leslie
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