This first question has many answers and all of them are correct. For a complete unit study, it is a good idea to try to include activities from all of the subjects you would normally teach. But, you don’t have to.
Read that again.
You don’t have to include every subject.
You should include what you feel is important to the study of your selected topic and follow those trails that spring naturally from its study.
Including applied math in a unit study on safety is quite possible, but don’t feel that you have to force it into the unit if it just doesn’t flow in the direction you want it to.
Remember, part of the beauty of creating and using a unit study is the freedom of being able to study, on your own terms, a topic or theme that you and your student have a real interest in.
It is the freedom of being able to follow those little detours that naturally spring from a child’s curiosity. This is not textbook teaching and it should not be made to conform to that style of learning.
For those who like it laid out, though, here is a partial list of some of the subjects that can be incorporated into a unit study.
Reading comprehension / literature connections
Writing activities
Handwriting practice via copywork
Grammar concepts
Vocabulary
Applied math (such as measuring); word problems; graphing
Science experiments or exploration into related science topics
Bible study or memorization
Character traits
Social studies concepts – mapping, history, cultural connections, community connections
Research skills
Field trips and webquests
Art projects, art history, picture study, artist study
Music study
Life skills connections – cooking, service projects, etc.
Again, this is just a partial list of the myriad of subjects that can be incorporated into your unit study.
So what about holes in your child’s learning?
Simply answered, there are holes in every education. Not every chapter is covered in every textbook. Kids get sick and miss a few lessons and will never recover every single bit of information from those days that they missed.
As children, we were most likely not taught every single piece of information that should have been taught.
Every education has gaps and we will never be able to teach our students everything. Thinking that we can teach them everything is, while admirable, quite unrealistic.
The goal of a unit study is not so much to cover every bit of information that’s out there, but to foster in our students the love of learning and the motivation to learn more on their own. With those tools, they’ll be presented with a tremendous opportunity to learn as much as they want.
So now that we’ve got some topics picked out and we know what areas we can cover within those topics, let’s talk about how to put it all together.
**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. J
Interested? Just enter your email address below and we’ll send you Tina’s updates whenever they are ready!
Part 2 in our How to Write Homeschool Unit Studies series by Tina Franks
Now that you know what homeschool unit studies are, let’s talk about Choosing a Topic for your unit study….
There are endless options when it comes to choosing a topic for a unit study. Think about what your student is passionate about. Think about what you’re planning to learn this year and what could be made more interesting by allowing your child to study it in a variety of ways.
If it can be taught, it can most likely be turned into a unit study, large or small.
A Literature Unit Study
One type of unit study, and a topic of discussion in its own right, is the literature unit. Perhaps you’ve chosen several read-alouds for the year. A unit can be written around one of these selections.
Literature very easily lends itself to this type of study because it naturally stimulates all of our senses and our entire knowledge-base.
Grammar concepts can be introduced and reinforced through the reading of a good book, as can new vocabulary words. e.g, What is the setting of the story?
Reading comprehension and writing activities are a given in a literature study.
History, geography and science can easily be extracted and rabbit trails followed.
e.g., What’s the climate like there?
Can you find it on the map?
What was life like there during a specific period in history?
Biblical and character-building principles, too, can be gleaned from a literature selection. Talk about the characters and their actions. What can we learn from them? What Bible verses apply?
A picture study of the illustrations in the book is also an easy path to expand upon.
Shannon’s note: For a quick example of a literature unit study, check out my free Robinson Crusoe unit study
A Topical Unit Study
Then, of course, you have the topical unit study, where you study a variety subjects based on one topic. Here are just a handful of examples of topical unit studies:
Science – migration, gravity, birds of prey
Social Studies – ancient China, your home state, the Mayan culture, St. Patrick’s Day
Life Skills – cooking, safety, responsibility
Bible – Noah, creation, life during Jesus’ time
This list could go on indefinitely, but you get the idea. Anything you or your students are interested in studying is fair game for a unit study. Rabbit trails are followed and curricular areas are expanded upon in the same manner you would in a literature study.
What Do You Want to Study?
So sit down and write out a few topics that you’d like to study. Once you’ve chosen a topic, you can decide on some of the subjects that be incorporated into its study.
Shannon’s Note: Seriously this is that simple – just pick a book or a topic that you want to study, and then build your unit study from there. Right now I’m working on an Africa unit study with the kids – which I’m writing as a I go along.
Most topics can be turned into a cross-curricular unit study without too much effort, the biggest challenge is knowing what to include and how deep to go. But Tina will get into that next…
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. J
Interested? Just enter your email address below and we’ll send you Tina’s updates whenever they are ready!
Homeschool record keeping is my least favorite thing about homeschooling. I’m just not great with repetitive day-t0-day processes, so I tend to gravitate towards the easiest homeschool record keeping techniques that work for me, and still satisify any potential homeschool requirements we might run into.
Here’s one tip on how K keeps her own daily homeschool log and what I do that makes record keeping easier for her.
Enjoy!
…Shannon
P.S. Do you have any quick and easy tips for for homeschool record keeping? Please share!
I’ve mentioned in the Living Life at Home newsletter that I was the one that had the biggest adjustment to returning to schoolwork after the long holiday break – and the reason why was because I changed our homeschool schedule -again.
Our homeschol schedule changes from season to season, not just calendar seasons, but seasons of life, seasons of development, and seasons of work. And I adjust it accordingly.
For example, homeschooling K 10 years ago, as a preschooler, when I only had one other child, was totally different than homeschooling her and J, with a toddler and a baby underfoot (not to mention a full-time at-home job).
And then there was big adjustment when Little E was ready for formal schoolwork, and learning how to balance the needs of all four of them.
The important thing is to remember that it is okay to create a homeschool schedule that fits you and your family, for where you are at right now, and for the demands that this season of life is putting on you.
When K was in Kindergarden and 1st grade, she and I homeschooled the 3Rs at night, when I was done working. During the day, she unschooled, video schooled, car schooled, audio book schooled, whatever you want to call it… She explored her own interests under her dad’s supervision.
Last year, after three years of taking Latin classes from our local homeschool coop, and earning her first full high school credit at age 12, she asked for a break from serious academics. So that’s what we did, and she worked on things she was interested in, and recharged herself.
In December, I realized that we had drifted a little too far over to the “homeschooling in a silo” side of things, (i.e., they were all doing their own schoolwork without much interaction with each other), and I wanted to bring them back together for some studies.
So I revamped the schedule. The 3Rs are of course all done separately, but we’re doing geology and geography together, and they are having fun with it.
It’s more work for me, but there are bigger lessons being learned than just the academics, and the relationship building and memory making that is happening is worth the extra time it requires of me.
The point is – It’s okay to mix things up. It’s okay to change the schedule to meet your current goals and needs. And it’s okay to ditch a schedule that just isn’t working and adapt it to something that will work.
Homeschooling is not about mimicing what the public schools do. It’s about tailoring your child’s education to their needs, and your lifestyle. And when you take that stress of following someone else’s homeschool schedule out, and adapt it to your situation – everything becomes a lot more enjoyable.
Food for thought.
…Shannon
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It’s that time of year again, where homeschool moms and teachers alike start to feel that weariness of the school year. Homeschool burnout isn’t a new thing – in fact it isn’t even unique to homeschoolers. I have friends who are public school teachers who experience burnout about February/March each year too.
My biggest tip for overcoming homeschool burnout is to give yourself permission to take a break, or change things up – like taking the day off to celebrate Robinson crusoe day . Take a ‘unschooling” day or a field trip. Try a new project. Curl up together and watch movies (yes they count as schoolwork too!) or listen to a free audio book from Librivox.org or the library. Or my favorite, play in the garden, or head to the park for the day.
Learning will take place. Taking time off from the schedule or plan will not set your child back – in fact it probably will help you all focus more. As homeschoolers we have that flexibility. There is no reason why things “HAVE” to be done on a certain timeline. It will get done – learning will happen. I promise.
The key to overcoming homeschool burnout is to let go a little. Recharge, Get re-filled. Spend sometime in God’s world and in God’s Word. And know that through Him, by trusting in Him, it is possible to overcome the dullrums and weariness that cause homeschool burnout, and that your children are wonderful, creations of His, fully capable of learning.
Here a few more resources/articles that we’ve shared on Living Life at Home in the past, that are still relevant. I hope you find more encouragement and ideas for overcoming homeschool burnout here:
Overcoming Homeschool Burnout – Part 1 - More of my thoughts on overcoming homeschool burnout and how I plan for the inevitable February burnout period.
Homeschool Mom Encouragement from Karri - Karri Feiglin shares more of her great insights for those times we become discouraged as homeschooling moms, and for when homeschooling and parenting seems so hard.
Dealing with Lack of Motivation & Laziness - I share a conversation I had with my oldest son during a time when he had very little motivation to do his schoolwork and laziness was taking over.
Joy in the Journey - Homeschooling, work-at-home mom Kimberly Eddy shares her thoughts on finding joy in the journey of life and all the roles and challenges we face
59 Ideas for Taking Care of You - Vetern Homeschooling mom, Cindy Rushton, of Rushton Family Minstries, shares her 59 tips for taking care of you. My favorite tip: “Go Fly a Kite!”
Take Homeschooling Outside with Spring Science Notebooks - Here’s a fun thing to do when the kids don’t want to be indoors anymore – take learning outside with notebooking – another great article from homeschooling vetern, Cindy Rushton.
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