TOS Review:Before Five in a Row

Now, I am going to be upfront and let you know that I am not a big fan of any sort of formal pre-school curriculum. I had my doubts about this one too.

Before Five in a Row is a curriculum designed for ages 2-4 and uses books and engaging activities to teach little ones math, science, art, Bible as well as activities that promote coordination, gross and fine motor skills and more. It is priced at $24.95 as a bound book and would cover everything you would want a pre-school curriculum to cover. Also available are Five in A Row, Beyond Five in a Row and Above and Beyond Five in a Row.


Each lesson in Before Five in a Row is based on a book from this book list and offers easily adaptable and engaging activities. These books can be purchased of course, but I went to our local library, which is fairly large, and searched for 10 of the books randomly. All but two of them were carried by the library. I loved this book list for a second reason, these were not just your typical Eric Carle-esque books. While I love me some Eric Carle, I really loved that I had not actually heard of most of the books on this list. I loved that the curriculum introduced us to new authors, new art work and new stories! There are, of course, a few recognizable books, but for the most part these were brand new to us.

For each lesson you will have a variety of activities for the different subjects. For example, in Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, Bible talks about being cheerful, Language Arts about rhyme, math about patterns and so on. My son is only 3 and being a son also makes him a boy, and being a boy also makes his attention span short and his body wiggly. I kept the lessons to about 10 minutes each and that was just about right for him. It also meant that each book lasted us about a week(the lessons are set up for each book to be read five days in a row. Hence, Five in a Row).

To see this entire sample page visit here. You can also visit here for more lesson samples.

Another thing that I loved was that I was able to adapt it to my older girls as well. Easily adaptable curriculum is very important in a house with multiple aged children. As an example, in Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, there is an activity where the younger child searches for items on the pages of the books. We printed out picture searches and they did those.

So was my mind changed? Yes, and no. I did love this curriculum. I thought it was well laid out, the book selections were great and the activities were engaging enough to keep my three year old interested. The Price is excellent for a curriculum that could last you all year. I am very thankful to have gotten to try it. However, I am still a big fan of that age range being "kid time" and would not go out of my way to purchase any pre-k curriculum. But that is OUR family, and if you are looking for a pre-k curriculum or even a kindergarten curriculum, I can most definitely recommend Before Five in a Row!

You can contact Before Five in a Row Here:

Five in a Row


P.O. Box 707 • Grandview, MO 64030-0707

Phone: (816) 246-9252 • Fax: (816) 246-9253

E-mail: lamberts@fiveinarow.com • URL: http://www.fiveinarow.com/

or visit here to purchase Before Five in a Row.

Please be sure to check out my fellow TOS Review Crew team reviews on Before Five in a Row.

I was given a copy of Before Five in a Row in exchange for an honest review. Any opinion expressed here is 100% accurate to the best of my ability. Please take a moment to visit my full disclosure policy.