Five in a Row Curriculum Review: What You Need to Know

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Have you heard about the Five in a Row curriculum? It isn’t super common and certainly not talked about a whole lot on social media.

I feel as though that’s because it’s not so shiny and new.

Regardless, the Five in a Row curriculum has a lot to offer and is something that I was excited to start using with my children.

We incorporated it into my son’s Kindergarten year and so far it is working out really well.

Perhaps you’re considering it and just want to know more, or maybe you’ve not even heard about it. Whatever your reason for being here, keep reading to find out more.

What is Five in a Row?

I first heard about Five in a Row over on Youtube on the channel Rooted in Rest.

She referred to it in a few of her videos but I wasn’t exactly sure what it was.

There were also some moms that talked about it in some homeschool groups that I’m in and I didn’t pay too much attention.

However, for whatever reason, I took an interest and started doing some research into the Five in a Row curriculum and what it covers.

So, what is Five in a Row?

It’s a curriculum that is based on reading the same book 5 times in a row.

It is unit-study based although it could easily be adapted for those that enjoy the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling.

That still doesn’t tell you a whole bunch though, does it?

To be fair I did simplify my definition of the curriculum down a whole bunch. What you really need to know is how Five in a Row works.

How Does Five in a Row Work?

The basic concept of Five in a Row is reading the same book every day, at least five times.

This sounds monotonous but there is a method to the madness.

You see, every time you read the book there’s a lesson to go with it. The lessons cover everything from math through social studies and you have complete freedom to choose which one you do each day.

At the front of each volume of Five in a Row, you’ll find a list of the books that are covered.

You can then turn in the volume to where that book’s lessons are found.

It is beautifully simple and yet a very effective way of teaching, especially for the younger years.

I personally love it because I can use it for more than one child at a time and they can just work at their own level.

Do you have to use it every day?

Here’s another great thing about Five in a Row…you don’t have to use it as a core curriculum.

While I love it and can see myself using it more “full time” with my daughter next year (she’ll be four), we already have a complete curriculum that we’re content with and working through this year.

So, how can you adapt it to fit in with what you’re already doing?

Of course, every situation is different, but this is what I’ve done.

On Fridays, my son has a much lighter workload as far as school goes and so it seemed the perfect opportunity to add in Five in a Row.

Our school terms run for around 10 weeks each which means if we do Five in a Row once per week then we can fit in 2 books per term and 8 books per year.

We won’t be covering all the books in the first volume (I think there are around 19 of them) but it’s still the perfect balance for our homeschool.

SO What are the Pros?

Flexibility is an obvious one and its perfect for anyone that loves unit studies.

I think its a wonderful way to start a child’s school life because of how gentle and fun it is.

While you might think you have to purchase the books recommended, you could also just loan them from your library or find them second hand.

For a full curriculum, this makes it very affordable.

Plus, because it is unit study based, you can add or take away from it as much as you like to suit your children and their learning needs.

For instance, I don’t use the Language Arts or Math lessons so much because we’re already covering those thoroughly in our core curriculum. However, Social studies, Art, etc are all wonderful choices for us.

And the Cons…

It’s honestly hard to come up with these because I feel like I’m nit-picking.

Perhaps if you really just want a totally open and go curriculum, this might not work for you? Only because you might need to source supplies for the projects, etc.

However, if you want to keep things simple then you don’t have to do all the projects.

One other con I will mention is that I found it challenging to even source the Five in a Row volumes.

There’s this site which is their main site for purchasing, but I found it difficult to navigate and the international shipping costs weren’t great.

You can also find it on Amazon, but it was a little more expensive.

I did, however, find a solution which I’ll share with you below.

Where can you find the books?

So where can you find the books because some of them are a little hard to come by?

Most of the books listed in volume one aren’t that difficult to find if you’d like to purchase them, however, I only found one or two of them at our local library.

What I ended up doing what purchasing both Five in a Row volume one as well as a couple of the books from the book list from Thrift Books.

Its basically an online thrift store for books and perfect for finding books that are either pricey brand new or just challenging to find.

Their shipping rates weren’t bad either and if you’re in the States then you’ll find that if you spend a certain amount shipping is free.

I hope that this review has helped you out with understanding more about the Five in a Row curriculum and how it works.

We’re certainly enjoying it and I hope that if you choose to use it that it works well for your family too.