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The first section of the book offers educational activities centered around classic children's books such as GOODBYE MOON and CORDUROY. Based on these books, you will take nature walks with your child, play fun games, act out stories, do simple science activities, and eat fun foods. These activities lay the foundation for future educational situations---providing simple math, science, reading, and language arts readiness.

The last section of the book offers general activity ideas not centered around specific books.

These activities are not just wonderful educationally, though, but relationally as well. They are opportunities for the child and parent to build beautiful memories and strengthen the child-parent relationship.

As a busy mom of 4 children, this book reminds me of what a special time these early years are without making me feel guilty for not being "super mom". We homeschool using the Five in a Row curriculum with our older children, and Before Five in a Row is a nice go-along with our older ones' educational process. My 2 and 3 year old sons love when they get to do "school". In fact, my 3 year old often begs us to do a Before activity with him because he loves them so much. Even his big sisters like to join in with many of the activities such as when we went berry-picking to go along with BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL.

The Lamberts also offer a website with message boards for Before Moms to "meet on" and exchange ideas and advice. There are many great articles there related to the Five in a Row books, education, and parenting in general.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. You and your family will be blessed by its use in your home.

44 of 45 found the following review helpful:

Excellent Unit Study Book for 2-4 Year Olds!Jan 09, 2003
By Aimee McNally
This book is a jem! Although, I wish the price were about [amount] instead of [amount] plus s/h. Fortunately, our library had this book. Since I was able to sample the book for free, I have made the decision to buy it. The Biblical application is worth [amount] in itself. My three year old is just beginning to understand the Bible so the lessons are appropriate for her, but my 22 month old has no interest at this time. I have done unit studies for Good Night Moon and Courdoroy. The studies were done without the purchase of extra materials, we used items around the house, like my box of extra buttons for Courdoroy and paint from previous art projects for Good Night Moon. The studies take about 2 hours to complete, and there are 24 lessons. Aside from the main book read in each lesson, the author gives reference to older books that are hard to find, like I cannot find The Adventures of Little Bear, so I improvised and found another book entitled Little Bear. So far, I have not had a problem finding the other books in our county library system. I really like unit studies because we live such busy lives and the unit studies help pull many sujbects together in one place. Some of the subjects covered are science, art, biblical application, language arts, prose, math, geometry, zoology, botany, memory games. Although these are mature topics, the author does an excellent job in explaining them in preschool terms. The idea is to stimulate a child's interest in a life-long learning process. My children get so excited when they see and hear me talk about preparing for the next unit study. They really have absorbed and shown deep interest in all the material so far. Life is busy and this book has it all. I do not spend my precious time preparing an original unit study when this book has it all there for me! Thank you, Jane Claire Lambert, you are a jewel!

35 of 36 found the following review helpful:

What a wonderful way to foster a love of reading!Jun 04, 2002

This is an absolutely wonderful, easy-to-use curriculum for little ones, ages 2 to 4. My son isn't even 2 yet, but he LOVES the stories that are used in this book! I have even been able to incorporate some of the activities suggested, and am looking forward to incorporating more as he gets older.

I feel this book can be used by Christians and non-Christians alike, as yes, there is a Bible reference section, but it is short for most stories, and does not get referenced in any of the other sections (i.e., literature, drama, science, health, math), so non-Christians can skip this section without detriment to the program.

Most of the books are still available for purchase, there are 5 that are out of print, but can easily be obtained through your local library or inter-library exchange program.

The stories are gentle, fun, and in some cases, might allow you to share pieces of your childhood with you child (for me, Cordoroy was a childhood favorite that I can now share with my child), and the life lessons can easily (and enjoyably!) be taught.

The second section on learning readiness also has a lot of useful ideas that I look forward to using in the coming months.

This is a good way to do some homeschooling with your child and I highly recommend this to anyone!

19 of 20 found the following review helpful:

Excellent BookJul 04, 2002
By Elizebeth Mcdaniel
This book is a great because it brings books alive as a parent uses the suggestions to make each book more enjoyable. The only problem that I found was a few of the books cannot be purchased easily, but any library should be able to get these books on loan. The books that go along with Before Five In A Row are wonderful for a 2 year old. Worth every penny for a parent to spend quality & quantity time with a child.

20 of 22 found the following review helpful:

Not as good as "Five in a Row"Apr 05, 2005
By Marie
If you are looking for a text to give you ideas that you wouldn't come up with on your own, this may not be the book for you. I'm sure that "Before Five in a Row" is intentionally simplistic because the audience IS children ages 2 - 4, but I wish I had realized that before I bought it. The book choices are awesome though! On another note, I absolutely love "Five in a Row" which is very throrough and creative and teaches me lots of things I didn't even know!

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