Our Journey Westward » Unit Studies

Christmas School

Cindy — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:33:34 +0000

{Although a silly story (needing some tweaking), the science mystery experiment pictured above is both fun and worthwhile as you step away from the textbooks this Christmas season. Enjoy the Christmas Cookie Mystery with Teacher Directions.}

Below is an article I wrote for CHEK’s December Newsletter. I thought I’d post it here just in case some of you are overwhelmed this Christmas season.

Are you tired yet? By the time December rolls around each year, I’m ready for a break – only to find all the busy moments surrounding the Christmas season staring me in the face! Instead of throwing in the towel on homeschooling in order to manage all the other to-do’s of December, we have “Christmas school”. That’s a fancy term meaning we relax the regular schedule and make the to-do’s part of our school routine.

During these two or three weeks just before Christmas, the textbooks are often replaced with practical things such as menu planning, couponing, baking, party planning and decorating, shopping for presents on a budget, crafting homemade gifts, addressing Christmas cards, practicing for plays and musicals at church, and more. We’ll spend extra time fitting in service opportunities, too.

We also replace our daily Bible routine with one that prepares our hearts to celebrate the birth of Christ. There are so many different Bible schedules and Christmas devotions readily available, even some with learning activities! I’ll mention just a few to get you started. We love completing a Jesse Tree and have done this several different years. We have completed several themed studies relating to Advent, the Symbols of Christmas, and the Names of Jesus. We’re also suckers for good literature. Our very favorite Christmas series is written by Arnold Ytreeide and includes three books (read one book per year) with readings every day of December leading up to Christmas day. If you are new to this series, I would read them in the following order: Jotham’s Journey, Bartholomew’s Passage and Tabitha’s Travels.

Don’t let the craziness of December leave you feeling overwhelmed and spent. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your homeschool. Enjoy the to-do’s. Enjoy the extra-gushy time with our Lord and Savior.

Unit Study Posts

Cindy — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:13:37 +0000

If you’re interested in planning unit studies, you might like to check out my four-part series over at the Heart of the Matter.

Ancient Civilizations and the Bible Unit 1

Cindy — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:05:01 +0000

We are absolutely LOVING Ancient Civilizations and the Bible by Diana Waring! There is SO much to choose from for every single learning style. We’re only skimming the surface of the depth that could be reached with this curriculum, and we’re still diving way deep into Biblical world history!

Here are some photos from our first unit culminating projects based on Creation and the flood. At the end of each unit, Diana Waring has included a huge variety of project ideas. Your children choose whatever most floats their boat as far as topic and learning style. This time around, Mahayla chose to create a poster of the lineage of the Seed line up to the point of Noah and a demonstration with research about the effects of the world-wide flood.

Caleb chose to rewrite Genesis 1 and 2 in the form of a comical puppet show.

I haven’t even included pictures of the mapping, timeline, vocabulary work, poster projects and artist study we did! I may put up another post of those soon, but more likely I’ll wait and try to include those in a unit 2 wrap-up.

Until now, I’ve never found a single curriculum that I haven’t had to add to in some way or another to make it exactly what I was hoping for. This is even more perfect than I had imagined!

Side note: I’ve had several people ask me about the age appropriateness of this program. I’m using it with an 8th grader and 5th grader. The 5th grader is a tad bored once in a while when we get into more technical or drawn out readings or discussion. That’s when I pull out the activities from the younger student activity guide. To really get the full benefit from everything available in the curriculum, I’d say it’s most appropriate for 7th or 8th and higher. I don’t have any regrets bringing the 5th grader along, but there are just some of the fascinating learning opportunities that are flying over top of him right now. On his own upper elementary level, though, he’s gaining a ton from the study, too! If you have the option, I’m just saying that I think waiting until upper middle and high school is better. Hey, it can count for a world history credit if you wait!

Where I Find Project Ideas

Cindy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:53:42 +0000

Lots of people over time have asked where I find ideas for the project choices I give my children. At this point, most of the ideas are dreamed up in my head, but it hasn’t always been that way. Some of the books I use include:

Better Than Book Reports is book is full of great ideas for projects as they relate to literature. I’ve found the project ideas easily transferable to research/history/science topics as well. The following three are very similar to this one, but I’m finding that they are probably out-of-print. I’ve linked you to their webpages anyway since they can all still be purchased through Amazon new/used sellers.

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Student Product Development & Evaluation was sent to me as a review product. Although not quite as visual, there are lots of very thorough ideas – especially project ideas for older children and teens. A large list of project ideas is given, with about 40 of those ideas fleshed out for you with book lists, websites and possible rubrics. This is not my favorite of the books I use for ideas, but it has it’s place, especially for the upper school years.

Easy File Folder Reports is simple for mom and children. Each topic has reproducible pages where your child fills out the papers during their research and attaches them to a file folder. Usually, a small hands-on project is suggested for a 3-dimensional addition to the report.

I know you hear about the NaturExplorers units all the time, but I have purposely designed the writing and research activity ideas in the units to be project-based. In other words, with most of the writing and research suggestions, projects like creating file folder reports, dioramas, posters, charts, models and much more are part of the activities.

The following site is helpful, too.

More Ideas Than You’ll Ever Use for a Book Report

If you have any other resources for finding project ideas, please comment!

Project Q & A

Cindy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:36:30 +0000

Here’s one more really good question that has come in regarding unit studies specifically relating to projects…

“In regards to projects and presentations, how do you gently help improve the note taking, thoroughness of information and actual presentations? I know some of this will come with practice, but I’d like to improve on these things without stifling my child’s enthusiasm.”

Yes, better projects and better presentations come with practice. But, like anything else we teach, if we let too many things slide this time around, how will our children know what to improve upon next time?

During and just after presentations, I give lots of praise. Not fake praise that simply puffs my children up, but real praise. “I love the book you chose.” “It seems like you put a lot of time into your research!” “I can tell you really thought through the use of materials for your diorama.”

It’s hard to give presentations – even in front of your own family! During a presentation, your child is making him/herself very vulnerable and immediate criticism will stifle future presentations for sure.

Usually the next day, during our normal unit time, I’ll jump into any constructive criticism that needs to be discussed about the project or presentation. Again, I’ll always start with something positive before talking about the negative. Here’s how a conversation might go…

Dad and I were very impressed with your speaking yesterday. You remembered to keep your head out of your notes and look your audience in the eye! We could hear every word you said, too, which was a big improvement over your last presentation. Let’s talk about two things that stood out to me as needing a little work next time around.

Think about your poster. You spent a lot of time researching about Teddy Roosevelt, but I could tell you didn’t spend as much time making sure your poster was neat and organized. Do you agree? What do you think went wrong? Did I not give you enough time or did you get tired of the project and rush to finish it? What are some specific things you can do next time around to improve the visual appeal of your project?

One other thing I noticed was a big gap in the information you presented about Teddy Roosevelt. You told us a lot about his life before becoming president and several fun facts about his presidency, but I felt like the important work during his time spent as president was lacking. Again, it almost seemed like you started your project with a lot of gusto, but puttered out towards the end. Why do you think the second half of the report wasn’t as thorough as the first?

Every single time I’ve taken the time to gently discuss the major problems of a project, my children have improved on those aspects in following projects!

Here’s the catch, though!! Even if you see 10 things that really need improvement, try to focus on only one or two at a time. They can only process so much, and hearing about too many things at once will seem more like tearing them down causing LESS effort next time. As you talk about one or two main issues, you may be surprised to find your children paying better attention to the other issues that you didn’t even mention anyway!

One other thought that comes to mind is the use of a rubric to give your child a basic guideline of your expectations. Basically, a rubric tells your child what you expect from the project in order to gain a specific grade or score. See sample rubrics here. You’ll have to click on a link to see the particular rubric. Scroll down a bit to the “Research Process Rubrics” – they go along well with presentations. Take some time to go through the other subjects as well, then look near the bottom to find “Creating Your Own Rubrics”.

I don’t always use rubrics. Quite honestly, they take time to create and time is of the essence around here! But, when I have taken the time to create one, my children have ALWAYS done better on their projects. They tend to reach farther if they know where the higher goal sits. Something to think about for you and me!

Unit Studies – More Q & A

Cindy — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:47:43 +0000

A few more questions have come up regarding how I organize and plan our unit studies. You can find the first post at Unit Studies Revisited and the follow-up post at Unit Study Questions Answered. As long as you keep asking questions, I’ll keep answering.

“To clarify, it sounds like you do one unit at a time, either a science-based one or a history-based one. Is that right?” Yes. I have tried doing two at the same time – history a couple days a week, science a couple days a week and it never worked out well for us.

“I really want to do unit studies, but feel pulled toward a full curriculum so I’ll be sure not to leave anything out.” So many people – and I mean almost every one I talk to – feel like a prepared curriculum (ie. A Beka, Sonlight) gives them “everything” they need. In other words, once their child is finished with 12 years of a particular curriculum, they will have learned all there is to know. Certainly, your child WILL have a very solid education, but there is always more to know, no matter what curriculum your child uses.

Others really WANT to do all that certain curriculum choices offer, but find the assignments overwhelming and impossible to fit into a normal routine. I have never wanted my children to literally be “doing school” for six or more hours a day just to say we got it all in.

Unit studies are a wonderful way to get learning in without being overwhelmed. When we can learn about a science or history topic, complete research on that topic, include wonderful literature (reading skills), writing assignments, drama, speaking, etc. – in other words, pull in all sorts of academic areas in one sha-bang (yes, that’s my own made up word) – then we’re getting SO much of what the boxed curriculum choices have to offer, but in a more compact, doable way. In a way that is drastically more interesting and fun as compared to most boxed curriculum choices.

Will I leave things out over my children’s education? Certainly! (As will all curriculum choices.) There’s way too much knowledge to be gained in this fast-paced world of ours. I’m doing my best to give them solid instruction in the basics – readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic – AND preparing them with the skills they need to be able to find information they need to know. At the same time, hopefully giving them a lifetime love for learning that will spur them to keep on gaining knowledge their whole lives.

“How do you decided what you are going to do each day? How do you break that down?” That’s a tough question to answer. Let me say again that on most days we complete Bible, math and language arts lessons separate from the unit study, so they come first. Afterwards, we jump into the unit study time.

So, on a typical day you might see us sitting together to read from the Bible, trudging through our Saxon lessons, going over multiplication flashcards, completing a grammar lesson, practicing spelling words, writing or typing something, and reading from a good book. After the “main stuff” is out of the way, you’d find us doing one thing or another having to do with our unit study. This could include one or more of the following: reading a book, researching on the internet, completing a lapbook activity, working on a project, performing an experiment or putting on a play.

How do I choose what we’re actually going to do each day? Hmmm…that’s hard to explain. If you remember the main unit plan I make, you’ll remember that I jot down activity ideas. Well, over the weekend I try to sketch out a basic plan for the upcoming week. It’s nothing fancy, just quick notes about which math lesson we’ll aim to complete each day, which grammar lesson, what writing projects… and what unit projects. I simply look at my unit plans and jot down things I think we can tackle for each day. Those plans don’t always work! Some days we get so involved in a project (or the opposite) that my good intentions don’t happen. That’s okay with me, though, I just readjust as the week rolls on.

Also remember that I said in the first post that I rarely ever complete everything on the unit plan list. As we actually dive into a unit, I often realize that there are way too many ideas, or some of the ideas won’t fit like I had imagined, or I just don’t like them anymore.

No unit study day is ever the same. (See, I told you this was hard to explain.) If one day finds us reading a book and completing a lapbook activity, the next day might find us choosing final projects and diving into them, while the next day might find us cooking a themed meal for dad. One thing I can tell you clearly, (and I hope it helps in some way bring a real answer to the question) in planning, I TRY to plan for about an hour’s worth of unit “work”. My kids give up on me after an hour.

If I’ve made this muddier than it is clear, please keep asking more specific questions so I can try to pinpoint a better answer.

“When you choose your artists/composers for the year, how do you choose? Do you tie those studies into the four year history/science cycles? Nature? Seasons? Holidays? I’m getting really bogged down with how much there is to do! So many options, so little time!”

You’re exactly right – so many wonderful learning opportunities with so little time to fit it all in!

I don’t have a four-year plan for artists or composers. As I’m planning my year, I’ll pull out the NaturExplorers units that I hope to use monthly for nature study and see if there are artists or composers included that we haven’t studied yet. I try to tie nature, artists and composers in together. That doesn’t always work and that’s okay with me.

On months where I need to fill in, quite honestly, I just pull out my Discovering Great Artists book and my Great Composers Dover coloring book and choose someone we haven’t yet studied! There is no rhyme or reason to my choices. This is one area where I don’t worry about choosing particular artists or composers to go with our time period or unit. You could, though. It’s just something that hasn’t seemed overly important to me. (Nor have I had the time to research who fits with which time period.)

As for nature study, I usually pick a monthly theme from the NaturExplorers units. I try to choose a topic that will go well with the season. Sometimes we ditch the topic of the month and just walk, or something else grabs our attention and we go with it.

I wasn’t really good at including artist/composer study until last year when I decided to set aside an entire day for these things. One day a week, we only do math and a tad bit of language arts, then spend the rest of the day learning about our artist, completing art projects, learning about/listening to our composer, going on a nature walk and maybe completing some sort of experiment that goes along with our nature topic.

Whew! Another long post. Are you still with me?

How are your unit studies going?

Unit Study Questions Answered

Cindy — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:14:19 +0000

Wow. Through my email, there were a lot of questions about unit studies from my original post. I’m glad because it helps me to know what needs to be clarified or expounded upon. I tried to combine all the questions into major themes which you’ll see below. Please feel free to keep asking questions, and I’ll keep trying to answer!

Clarifying what a unit study means to me -

What is a unit study? A period of time we spend learning about a certain topic. It could be a small topic like electricity or a large topic like ancient history.
How long does each unit study last? This greatly depends on the topic. If it’s a small topic, a couple of weeks might be enough. If it’s a large topic, an entire semester might be dedicated to it. I rarely limit our time. After planning, I estimate how long I think it might take, but if it needs to be longer or shorter once we get started that’s no big deal.
How do I break the yearly topic into specified units? In the original post, I talked about following a four year cycle for science and history. This year’s science has been physical science. Within physical science, I knew I needed to cover the topics of energy, heat, electricity, magnets, light, color, sound and machines. Based on resource books I already had on my shelves, it was easy for me to break those topics into five doable units – Energy (including heat), Electricity, Magnets, Light/Color/Sound, and Simple Machines. I try to break the topics into chunks that make sense to go together.

Clarifying “the spine” book of the unit – The spine is the main resource book or piece of literature I use during a unit. It’s the book that encompasses the most unit topics in a clear (usually hands-on) way. Some examples of previous spines have been:

Westward Expansion unit – Amanda Bennett’s Pioneer Unit
Medieval History unit – Hands On History: Middle Ages
Magnet Unit – Magnets and Electricity
Chemistry – Christian Kids Explore Chemistry
Inventors & Inventions – A Journey Through Learning Lapbook
Our upcoming Early 1900′s unit will use an American Girl book called Samantha’s World as the spine. The book gives wonderful information about years from 1900-1920. I’ll find other books and activities to go along with the major topics of the book like women’s sufferage, the Wright brothers, Henry Ford and more. (See the 1st sidebar all the way at the bottom.)

As you can see, I’ve used a variety of spines from prepared units to lapbooking units to texts to library books. What’s most important to me is the overall coverage of topics. Are most of the topics I’m hoping to cover included in this book in a clear (and hopefully fun) way? In some cases, the spine will have most everything I need – explanations for my children and activities that help them understand the topics better. Most of the time though, a spine will either be the explanations without the activities OR the activities without the explanations. This is where I try to find other things to fill in. (Also, most spine books won’t include a test or end of the unit project ideas. I usually come up with both of these things myself.)

The following questions were specific to “the spine”.

How do I decide which book to use? I hope I’ve answered this pretty well already. It has to be pretty complete in either explanations and/or activity ideas.
Where do you find your spines? I LOVE the library. My library has lots of activity guides to go along with history and science themes. Otherwise, prepared lapbook units are a great start, or prepared themes from parent/teacher stores. Golly, there are so many wonderful prepared unit studies out there, all you really need to do is type your topic in a search engine and see what comes up. (“______ unit study”) Don’t forget that wonderful resource for nature/science related unit studies called Shining Dawn Books!
How much of that book do I typically use and how much do I typically pull in from other sources? It just depends. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise, but it’s truly impossible. With a really good lapbook unit, for example, I may not need to add anything besides a test and final project ideas. With a book that leaves holes, I’ll have to find info and activities to fill the holes. With a book that gives great explanations, but no activities, I’ll have to find or dream up the activities.
Why don’t I just use the spine book and be done with it? Sometimes I do! With our chemisty unit last year, we only used the spine during the unit. At the end of the unit, I asked them to “show what they know” in the form of a chemistry show. Other than giving them a list of topics to cover in their show and some resource books full of ideas for kids about chemistry, all we used was Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. For me, I just don’t find too many prepared units that “do it the way I wanna do it.” By all means, if you look at a unit and think it covers all you need, DON’T fool with adding to it!
How do I know what to leave out of the spine and what to add to it? In the beginning of my planning stages, I’ll take just a few minutes to find out what topics should be covered during a unit. For example, when planning a unit on physical science, I’ll go to the internet search engine and type in something like “physical science topics”. After browsing a couple of websites, I’ll have a pretty good idea of what I need to cover for physical science. We’re getting ready to jump into a 1900-present unit study. So, I took a few minutes before planning to see what major topics I needed to include in the unit. A simple search for “important events of 1900′s” led me to several lists and timelines that helped me know what to include in the unit. If I find a spine that includes everything except Civil Right, for instance, I’ll need to be sure to include that in the unit. If the spine covers way too much on Civil Rights, I’ll have to cut some of it back a bit.

Combining American and World History is tough, how do I do it? I’ll be honest, this is a tough one for me. In our first four year history cycle, we used Story of the World as our main history teaching. It did a super job of combining American and World History! This second four year cycle, once we came to the time of American exploration, I decided to focus mostly on American history. We pull in world history as it relates to America (ie. WWI.) I’m still pondering how to do it, but world history will be a bigger focus during the third four year cycle.

Within the four year history/science cycle, how do I know what subjects to teach? I tried to clarify this above when I talked about the quick internet searches I do before planning a unit.

How do I know each child is getting what they need for their grade level? Please don’t take this wrong, but, um, I don’t really care. Let’s see if I can say it in a different way. Every single school system in every single state will have different expectations for the same grade leveled student in America. I feel like as long as I’m covering the topics within the four year cycles at a level that is appropriate for my children at the particular time we’re learning it, all is well.

Now, as for how I make sure all three kiddos are getting what they need during the unit, it’s pretty easy. First, the 3rd child is still way too young to be included. I teach everyone the same thing. When activities or projects are assigned, I’ll expect more from the older child. She will have to do more projects, write more in her research, and create a more detailed final product. I usually assign each child a book that goes along with the unit, too. The older child will read a more mature book.

How do I go about planning what I’m going to do so I know what supplies to look for? In the original post, I mentioned noting the main topics to be covered and writing ideas down for each of those topics as I go through my resources. At the same time, I have a supply/library list going. If I know I need to check out such and such book, I’ll write it down. If I know an activity will require toothpicks, I’ll write it down. After the list is made, I’ll go through the house checking off what I already have so I don’t buy too much of anything.

How I add language arts into the units? Language arts, as a rule, is separate from our unit study time. However, I never hesitate to replace the normal l. arts activities with a writing project/research project/or something else that goes along with the unit. Same goes for math.

How are end-of-the-unit projects chosen? I’ve gone into quite a bit of detail about this on another post titled Project-Based Learning.

What it the rhyme and reason behind the four year cycle? It wasn’t my idea! LOL But, the rhyme and reason is, in a nutshell, that all of the sciences and history from Creation to present time are covered every four years in a chronological way. Learning them three times over the course of a child’s schooling is supposed to cement the concepts. Of course, the child will be older and able to understand more each time the four year cycle is repeated, so you can dive further into the learning each time.

This four year cycle is a method in Classical education. Veritas Press is a Classical education company, but they choose to repeat the topics only twice in six year cycles. For me, the reason I chose to go with the cycles is quite simple. I didn’t come out of the public school system understanding anything in terms of how one things fits with another. I wanted my children to have a clearer picture in their head of timelines and events. I wanted them to be able to see how chemistry relates to biology. Working in the methodical cycles made sense to me and I’m finding that my children see the bigger picture of the world around them because I’m not teaching WWI today and medieval times tomorrow.

Do we stick to the four year cycle units only, or do we include other units in the year as well? Mostly, we stick to the four year cycles. I add nature study all year (including summer) and occasionally add in other units when we have extra time. One thing I’ve found to be lacking in my four year cycle is current cultures and geography. That’s an *extra* unit I’m planning for the future.

Once you start high school, will the four year cycle plan need to change according to what is required in your state? In KY, I am required to teach certain subjects (especially for college bound children.) There is no regulation about when and how these subjects are taught. As long as Civics, American History and World History are taught, for example, they don’t care in what year they take place. So, no, this plan won’t need to change.

How much time do you spend doing school per day? It depends (mostly on the get-up-and-go of my children!) On average, we are finished with “schoolwork” in three to four hours. However, the rest of the day is spent doing learning activities like reading, handicrafts, cooking, farming, computer games, etc.

“Everytime I start thinking about/doing unit studies, I get scared and fall back on workbooks.” A lot of people I talk to feel the same fears! Don’t kick yourself over it. If this season in your life is meant for workbooks, that’s fine! If you’re really ready to start unit studies, though, I would suggest finding some prepared unit studies and using them “as is” at first. When you feel more confident, add a couple of things here and there – maybe end of unit projects. As your confidence continues to grow, you’ll find this unit study thing isn’t nearly as hard as it seems right now!

“Say you want to teach using narration, lapbooks, notebooking, copywork, etc. How do you decide what to do and when. Do you include things like narration and copywork everyday?” The spine of my unit pretty well determines the style of the unit. If the spine happens to be a lapbook, then most activities will take the route of lapbooking. If a spine is hands-on, most of the activities will be projects and/or experiments. I purposely plan my units so there is variety throughout the year. It would make me (and my children) unhappy and bored if everything we did revolved around the same type of learning style.

Things like narration, copywork, notebooking, other writing projects, etc. are included within units as they “fit”. In other words, I don’t worry about doing copywork every single day. When I come across a great Bible verse, for instance, that goes with the unit theme, I’ll assign it for copywork one day. When we complete an experiment, I’ll often ask the kids to keep notes in the form of a notebooking page. As they read their assigned reading books, I’ll ask them to narrate once or twice. Writing assignments are easy to fit into final project choices.

In my experience, it all comes out in the wash. My children don’t need to complete narration everyday, for example, in order to know how to narrate. Now, if I see their narration skills are lacking, I’ll offer more opportunity – but in the scheme of real life, I simply don’t have time to do everything everyday (or every week for that matter!) Sometimes, I might even miss copywork altogether during a unit (gasp!) When I miss something in one unit, I just try to add it into the next unit more purposely.

Okay, I think that answers all the questions so far. Please forgive any typos – this was a long post!

Unit Studies Revisited

Cindy — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:43:36 +0000

It’s been well over a year since I posted anything about the nitty-gritty planning of my unit studies. I’ve had several email questions lately wondering how I plan, so I thought it might be time for a new post on the subject.

The emails I’ve received have all been similar in the basic four questions I tend to be asked.

How do you choose what you study each year?
How do you plan your units?
Is there any sort of curriculum you follow?
How do you not overload?

I’ll take a few minutes to try to answer these questions in a way that makes sense. (Planning is a very personal thing, so I have a hard time articulating how I plan sometimes.)

How do you choose what to study each year?

Our unit studies typically revolve around history and science. Although I consider myself a Charlotte Mason style homeschooler, I follow the Classical model of a four-year cycle in the areas of history and science. Basically, that means every four years we will be covering similar topics with the depth of understanding and expectations growing each time around. Here’s the plan I’ve followed from the beginning:

Year 1 – Ancient History / Biology
Year 2 – Medieval History / Earth & Space Sciences
Year 3 – Early American History / Chemistry
Year 4 – Modern American History / Physics

Of course, I don’t limit myself to only doing these units or studies each year. I do make sure each of these are covered in their appropriate year, though. I also include nature study (biology) each and every year.

I used to follow The Well-Trained Mind’s plan of history three days a week and science two. For me, this seemed to drag each study out way too long. I opted to create my own units to cover the history and science concepts in blocks of time and I haven’t turned back. (With the exception of chemistry last year. We did chemistry a couple times a week while history units were done in chunks of time.)

My children and I really like delving into a particular history or science subject. We’re able to check out all sorts of library books, books on tape and videos that go with the theme. We’re able to include whatever math, language arts or other subjects that might fit with the unit. We don’t have to stop learning about something just because we’ve already done history three times in the week. And, we’re able to end the unit and move onto something else when we’ve soaked in all we can handle.

How do you plan your units?

I always start by gathering information and supplies. For instance, if I’m going to do a unit on Slavery in America, I’ll start by going through all my files, curriculum guides and bookshelves to see what I already have by way of ideas and resources. Oh, and I’ll also check my computer files for e-books and other resources I’ve stashed away.

I think I need to stop here and remind you that I keep fairly organized files, shelves and computer files, so the initial gathering of materials doesn’t take long at all. All my resource books for history are placed in chronological order on a bookshelf. I also keep file folders on various topics. As I come across a great idea that I don’t want to forget, I copy it or tear it out from a magazine and file it in the appropriate folder. You can get a glimpse of my file cabinet here. I also keep history related literature together on a bookshelf so they are easy to find as well. And, I suppose you might like to know that I have a folder on my computer for each academic area, so I can stash e-books in an organized way.

If I don’t have many resources on my shelves already, I’ll go to the internet next and type in searches for free units based on the topic I’m planning. This will usually lead me to more information than I care to have, so I limit internet searching as much as possible. From my resources, I start a list of important topics I feel need to be covered. I simply jot them down in a notebook. As I make topic notes, I’ll also jot down great activity ideas or literature suggestions I run across from the resources.

All of this eventually fleshes out into a full unit! I NEVER get to all the activities that are jotted down in the initial planning. As the unit progresses, I pick and choose what will work best based on how my children are responding to the study.

I might note here that during the planning stage, I almost always pick out one or two pieces of living literature for my children to read during the unit. Plus one or two that I will read aloud and/or we’ll listen to on tape/CD. All of our units rely heavily on living literature!

Either as I’m planning the unit or as we come to the end of it, I’ll be thinking about final projects. You can read more about our projects here.

(I know this seems confusing. I’m trying to write it clearly, but it would be so much easier for me to have you over for some tea and cookies and just show you this process. It really isn’t as hard as it looks!)

Is there any sort of curriculum you follow?

When we’re talking about unit studies, the answer is yes and no. If I come across a really great curriculum guide or library book with most of my topics covered, I’ll often make that my “spine”. In other words, I will use that book for the majority of our studies, but I never hesitate to add or take away from that book. An example of this would be using a prepared lapbook unit. That lapbook unit will provide much of the material for our unit. If I come across a hands-on idea that seems like it will help the children understand something better than the particular lapbook activity, I’ll ditch the lapbook activity and do the hands-on idea instead.

I have used in the past, and probably will use in the future, some really good curriculum for my unit studies. I just rarely use them “as is”. In other words, I use them in ways that meet our family’s needs rather than how I’m “supposed” to. Some examples of great unit study type curriculum would be Story of the World, Mystery of History, prepared lapbooks from any company, Apologia Elementary Science, Considering God’s Creation, Diana Waring elementary materials, and Beautiful Feet units. I’ve never used any of these “as is”, but they have each been great “spines” at one time or another.

How do you not overload?

Well, this question could actually have two meanings: How do I not overload myself as I go about planning and preparing units? AND How do I make sure not to overload my children with the unit?

1. How do I not overload myself as I go about planning and preparing units? I’ve been doing this a long time. In the beginning, I did overload myself. I spent WAY too much time planning, preparing, scouring the internet, searching the library, etc. Overplanning will burn you out on preparing your own units faster than anything else!

My best tips are:

Don’t plan too many units per year. (I only plan approximately six per year.)
Use a good spine like a prepared hands-on curriculum and tweak it to fit your needs.
Don’t try to pull in too many resources for ideas.
Try to get as much planning done as possible during school breaks. (I get the basic planning done for all units over summer break.)
Don’t try to teach everything about a subject and don’t try to do every wonderful activity you come across.
Keep units shorter, rather than dragging them out too long.

2. How do I make sure not to overload my children with a unit? Oh, I have! And, believe me, I knew it! When you’ve planned too much or the unit has gone far too long, your children will not hesitate to let you know they’re tired of the subject.

I’ve tried to keep my units shorter and save project time for the rabbit trails that interest my children most. This way they get the basics, while delving deeper into parts of the unit that are most meaningful to them. We all win that way!

Please feel free to ask questions! I’m sure I haven’t covered everything.

Update: You can find answers to several questions from this post by visiting Unit Study Questions Answered.

Simple Machine Stations

Cindy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:58:10 +0000

We started our short and sweet simple machines study yesterday. As an introduction to simple machines and for self-discovery of how machines work, I set up some little centers. The kiddos had to visit each center and complete a few thought-provoking questions about what they learned. Afterward, we talked about each machine type more thoroughly and thought about when, where and how we use simple/complex machines daily.

Center #1 – Levers

We practiced using several levers like hammers (both ends) , can openers, bottle openers, nut crackers and paint can openers.

We also experimented with the fulcrum of a lever placed in different spots to see at which point the lever was easiest to move and how much work the lever was able to do at each point.

Center #2 – Wedges

We had a nail with a sharp end (wedge) and a nail with a blunt end and tried hammering both to see which wedge was easier to go through the wood.

Center #3 – Inclined Plane

Using a stack of books with string tied around them, we pulled them up a simple ramp made from a piece of scrap wood, then we pulled the stack straight up into the air. Since we don’t own a spring scale, we tied a rubber band to the string and measured the stretch for each of the attempts to get the books to a certain level. Upon seeing that the rubber band didn’t stretch as far when the books were pulled up the ramp, we concluded that less force was necessary using the inclined plane as compared to pulling the books straight up. (Make sense??)

Inclined planes were further studied as we took two screws – one with threads very close together and one with threads far apart – and noticed how many turns it took to get each in the wood. More turns were required for the closer threaded screw, but the job was much easier than the screw with threads far apart.

Center #4 – Wheel and Axle (along with Pulleys and Gears)

Using the same rubber band trick as mentioned above, we determined whether or not less force was required to pull a piece of wood using wheels.
For gears, we pulled out the gear set we have in our toy closet and closely observed how they work.
For pulleys, we simply talked about how they work. My children are around pulleys all the time on the farm, so they were pretty familiar with their function. As a side note, you can find inexpensive pulleys for experiments at a tractor/farm supply store.

I had a discovery booklet made up with leading questions for each of the centers. Since I used so many ideas and clip art from various books I have around the house, I don’t feel comfortable placing the booklet on Homeschool Share. I will, however, plan to post the test I give at the end of the week. I’ll let you know when it’s up.

Project-Based Learning

Cindy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:20:48 +0000

I’ve had lots of questions about the projects we complete as part of our homeschool life. I’ve even presented a workshop specifically concerning this topic, as well as including it as a topic in my most popular workshop “Creative Homeschooling”.

I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about incorporating projects into your homeschool for quite some time, but Jimmie finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed when commenting on my post about our Presidents of the United States study. So for Jimmie and everyone else who ever wondered, here are the basics about adding projects to homeschooling… )

Why add projects?

They encourage independent learning.
They require creative and critical thinking.
They require writing and research.
They allow for choices.
They allow for meaningful, hands-on experiences.
They allow for varied learning styles to be met.
They encourage real learning about a subject that isn’t simply memorized for a test and then forgotten.

Our methods of learning are continually changing – mostly because I want my children to experience all forms of learning and not become “stuck” when they’re required to do something later in life in a different way than they’ve learned. For example, if I only gave paper and pencil tests for every subject throughout their entire homeschool career, they would probably struggle when asked to complete a project at some point that requires creative thinking, the ability to put together a nice visual product and speak about it. On the other hand, if I never gave paper and pencil tests, this wouldn’t prepare them adequately for possible future tasks either. I hope this makes sense. I’m continually changing the approach so they’ll be prepared to handle whatever task is thrown their way!

Even more so, though, I feel like projects have helped my children understand and retain information greatly – as compared to simply learning about a topic and regurgitating the info back to me on a test. Why? Because they become part of the learning through their projects! In order to complete the project, they have to “know their stuff” about the topic AND put it together in an organized, thoughtful, expressive way. Besides this, we expect our children to present their projects – to further embed the learning and to become comfortable with verbalizing themselves. Believe me, just because they can put together a super project, doesn’t mean they can automatically speak about it. This is a separate skill to be learned, but just as important.

What are projects?

Projects can really be anything!

play/skit/speech/storytelling
story/report/book report/article/newsletter
mobile/diorama/model
experiment/demonstration
scrapbook/poster/journal
art/craft/cooking/other handicraft

How do I add projects to our learning?

This is a doozy, so I think I’ll break it down into a couple of areas:

When? By the time my children are seven, they’re introduced to the world of projects. I always complete the first projects alongside them. Once I see they’re capable of completing a thorough project without my help, I’ll be available as a resource for questions or ideas. By the time they’re in 5th grade (hopefully earlier), they’re expected to complete projects on their own with very little direction from me.

If you’re starting projects when your children are older, I suggest still working along side them at first and giving very clear expectations for final outcomes until they are able to complete a thorough project on their own.

When I say give very clear expectations, this is a little misleading. I typically give my children expectations that are open-ended. In other words, “I expect your diorama to show at least five important aspects of Native American life. I also expect that all surfaces with be covered and several 3-D models will be present.” This gives them a direction without me telling them exactly what to include and how to include it. Clear as mud?

Where? Most of the time, projects are interjected into our unit studies – which happen to be science and history related. A typical unit plan might be to learn about a topic together over the course of a week or more (depending on the subject.) At the end of the unit, I decide how many projects that unit warrants. For instance, if the unit was really long, I’ll expect five or more projects to be completed. If the unit was really short, one might be enough. They have a length of time to complete the projects, we set a date for presentations and the presentations become the finale of the unit.

I will usually come up with a list of several project choices from which my children can choose. I try to vary the learning styles required in the project list so my son who doesn’t prefer too much writing can find projects to suit his needs. Here’s a sample list of project choices I might offer if I expect them to complete THREE projects:

file folder report
diorama
skit with siblings
scrapbook page
newspaper article
commercial

In this list, all will require some reading, research and writing, but can you see how they allow for a variety of learning styles – writing, speaking, organizing, crafting, acting, etc?

We have also completed language arts projects such as bound poetry books and math projects such as grocery story price comparison charts. Remember that most any project is going to involve reading, research and writing – so language arts is always included!

As for grading, well, we don’t give many grades around here. We do talk about what was really good about the projects and what could be improved next time. Through my gentle direction, my children have quickly learned how to critique their work. (If not handled with care and lots of encouragement, this could turn into self-bashing. Don’t let them do that to themselves!)

If I’ve noticed that one of my children really needs to improve a certain part of their projects, I will simply include that more specifically in my instructions to them next time around. For example, one of my children was not very thorough in his/her research and writing during our past unit. When the next project time rolls around, I’ll be sure he/she chooses a project with plenty of writing and make it very clear how much of each I expect. You see, project time allows for choices, but mom’s still the boss! )

I sure hope this has been helpful and not muddied the water! Please ask whatever questions you may have and I’ll write a second post if I need to clarify anything.

You might find the following posts helpful in seeing some of the projects we’ve completed in the past.

Just in case you ever wondered, one of the things Melissa and I have included in the NaturExplorers units is project-based learning. Each unit gives several ideas for hands-on, writing/research and other projects you can assign!