Our Five in a Row Tree

Our small, literature-based co-op started seven years ago as a Five in a Row group. Although we have moved on to more mature books, we still call it our "Five in a Row group".

We didn't have a party that first year, since we barely knew each other, but in 2003 we started a tradition that has become a treasured part of our Christmas memories. Each year, each family creates an ornament to go along with one of the books we have studied that year. We love having our FIAR ornaments on their own tree.



If you look closely, the big dipper is painted on this gourd. (You can click the pictures to enlarge them.)

We don't assign which book each family will use to make their ornaments so one year we had two different Cowboy Charlie ornaments and three different Albert ornaments. That year, our family's ornament was for Snowflake Bentley. That's the only year we've had much duplication at all.

The first year, one family put all the FIAR story disks on ribbon and attached them to a medallion they made. We use it as our tree topper.

One idea I suggested this year was a little cup and saucer glued together for Three Cups of Tea. It's a good thing Allison came up with a different idea, since another family had the same idea.

Our ornament this year was the dog tags and wedding ring referred to in Born to Fly.

It's incredible how many of our co-op activities, or obscure details of the stories, the kids start reminding us of when we pull out these ornaments.

We treasure the many memories of special times with friends, of learning, and of wonderful books we have shared that are brought to mind as we admire our ornaments.