Homechool unit studies have been a fun way for us to engage as a family and study together.  I don’t always use them, but when I do, the kids are thrilled, and so is my budget. 

Unit studies can be a very low-cost homeschool curriculum option, especially if you use free unit studies or create your own.  All you need is a plan, some great books, and a little bit of time.

While I do put together my own studies, if I can’t find one I need online and I’m short on time or motivation, I ask my friend, Tina Franks, to put one together for me.  Tina is awesome at unit studies – especially ones around literature or when you want lapbooking pages too.

When she offers a lapbooking or unit study class at her home, I send my kids – cuz they *love* Ms. Tina and her three kids, so much so they love to volunteer to go “help out” Ms. Tina.

In fact, here’s a picture of Tina and Kate  taken here in March 2011 when K was helping Tina out  for a few hours.

Tina Franks and Kate, March 2011

So when I got this idea to do this homeschool unit study series, that we are about to embark on, I asked Tina to help me out with it.

So, on Mondays for the next 7 weeks, Tina will be guest blogging here, with a primer on how to write your own homeschool unit studies from scratch.  Starting with:

What are Unit Studies?

by Tina Franks

Before we can talk about writing our own unit studies, we should make sure we all know what they are.  So what is a unit study, anyway? 

Simply put, a unit study is the cross-curricular study of a specific theme or topic.  A topic, such as snow, is thoroughly explored and expanded upon from all angles, incorporating many subject areas (art, music, applied math, language arts, literature, science, social studies, character, writing, etc.).

Unit studies can be adapted for any age range or combination of age ranges.  They can be short-lived or lengthy.  They can be highly structured or left up to the student to expand upon. 

There is a great deal of freedom in learning through unit studies.  Let’s start at the beginning…

Shannon’s Note: One of my favorite things about homeschool unit studies is that there is flexibility, flexibility to educate across multiple ages, like we are doing with our geology unit study, and the flexibility to delve as deep or as shallow as you need or want, or have time for. The kids will often dive much deeper on their own time and accord if something catches their interest.

Up Next: Homeschool Unit Studies: Choosing a Topic & Expanding On It

**UPDATE**
Tina is about to start a new, huge monster of a unit study, and she volunteered to let you and I follow along as she creates it. This is the perfect opportunity to learn exactly how she goes about putting together a study.

Interested? Just enter your email address below and we’ll send you Tina’s updates whenever they are ready!

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