Wild Horses of Sweetbriar {FI♥AR}

This book seemed like a wonderful book to follow our row of The Finest Horse in Town. It is out of print, and not available at our local library, so I had to borrow it via ILL ~ which means I had to row it in a timely manner! I didn't get the notice when it was checked out to me, so I had one week to row it. So our row was simple and I didn't have time to add any extras. Our row was mostly discussion from the manual and a few other activities like learning what flora and fauna are and making fish chowder and blueberry bread (of which Eliana made all by herself!). 


Wild Horses of Sweetbriar, based on a true story, takes place on a small island near Nantucket. It is about a little girl and her love for the lonely island and the wild horses. It is hard watching the horses go through such a long, hard winter and suffer such extreme hunger, and we are left to wonder what happens to the horses after the little girl and her family move away. But, I love the fact that it is a remembrance of her time on the island. 

For Social Studies, we talked about islands of wild horses and living in isolation. For Language Arts, we covered first person point of view, and talked about remembrances of our own. I intended to have Elli write her own remembrance, but she is keeping up a Project Life Mini Album, so she is recording her memories. ♥ For Art, we did the lesson on Comparison and depicting memories and dreams. For Science, we learned what flora and fauna are and she glued cut outs from magazine on card stock for each one. We also talked about all of the flora and fauna on the island and found all of the ones listed in the manual in the book. We learned about herd behavior as a tie into our last row.  Math was supposed to be liquid measurements (which we did tie into our FIAR Recipe), but I had planned to make and can blueberry jam with Elli and read Blueberries for Sal with Bo, but I forgot all about that because I lost my planning sheet until today!




Animal Science: Horses and Herd Behavior


Science: Flora and Fauna



FIAR Recipe: Blueberry Bread and Fish Chowder



Wild Horses of Sweetbriar is a Five in a Row selection from Volume 3. 



We only have a few books left to row in Volume 3: Paul Revere's Ride, Andy and the Lion, and Andy and the Circus (the latter which is out of print and hard to find, so we'll see on that one). 

Right now, I have a stack of Volume 4 books sitting in front of me to start planning for, plus a few Volume 1 and 2 books that I want to row again with Elli. Since I started Volume 1 exactly 4 years ago (!), she doesn't remember all of our rows.  I still find it so hard to believe that she wasn't even 4 yet ~ Boaz turns 4 this month! I was also rowing with Malachi, who was going on 6 at the time, so it has been a fun adventure rowing with them both. Now that he is older, my main focus has been on her. Even so, he still likes to participate in all the fun stuff. And now she'll get a chance to have some of the same experiences. 

I have two Before books to row with Bo this winter, several this spring, and several next summer as well. He's been asking me to read more to him, so I'm hoping to finish up Sonlight P 3/4 this winter/spring. He is begging me to start the P4/5 books already. After asking me several times, I finally pulled them off the shelf for him to look at. He's not ready for some of the longer chapter books, so I'll start by reading the longer stories from P 3/4 to him at night before bed to get him ready. It's always been the best time to read chapter books to my kiddos and I really miss our read-aloud time. 

This coming year I am going back to year round schooling. I'm really excited to start fresh this spring. Since we are finishing up Volume 3, and moving into Volume 4, it will feel like a fresh start. Elli will be ready for her new math book this spring and will be close to finishing her reading and spelling as well. We'll take the rest of the year to row Volume 4 and those I've thrown in the mix. Then by spring 2016, I'll have a new plan! 

5 comments

  1. I'd like that! I'm really excited to give it another go. It's fun to have friends that school year round, too. ;-)

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  2. Aw, thank you! It isn't memorable on a day to day basis, but we do just enough to make it so overall. :)


    I'm hoping for a warm spring! We have had several cold springs in a row and our last warm spring was in 2011, so I'm REALLY hoping for one this coming year. I'm not even sure I've been to the canyon in the spring! It would be fun to go look for signs of spring! :)

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  3. MudPuddleSoup.blogspot.comDecember 16, 2014 at 4:17 PM

    Her baking looks divine! Horse fun is always a hit :) We school year-round and love it for the most part -- especially when several weeks of sickness hit--ugh. We were ahead and now we have a bit of make-up to do, but today we pulled out the books and are having a make-up day.

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  4. i would really like to do this one!!

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  5. Oh wow Michelle, these pictures are breathtaking!!!! What an amazing journey through the book -- we'll have to pick this one up and use your ideas -- absolutely gorgeous!! xo

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