Do YOu theme Teach your 5 year old?

[SquirelNutkin]

Do you theme teach you 5 year old?
What is your experience with it?
I was thinking about doing a series of posting about each theme topic- so we had a strong resource for each theme.
With that in mind- what themes would you be interested in getting ideas for?
I try to hit the standards each year- our planat, water, air, land (geology,etc), space, the body, bears, houses, clothes, the holidays.

Thanks
brenda

[teachinmaof3]

I use unit studies....self-made and KONOS (http://www.konos.com). I LOVE teaching this way!! It's always been my favorite way to teach!

My experience with it is that it's more work. You have to take the time to collect ideas and materials and plan everything out. KONOS is nice b/c the ideas are all listed in the book w/ lesson plans. You can follow it exactly like she has it laid out or you can do your own thing (I do the latter and particpate w/ other KONOS families in our HS group).

A few we've done:
One's I made -
weather
farms
oceans (doing it right now actually)
plants

KONOS -
Russia
Queens/Kings/Knights/castles (doing this one after our ocean unit)

[Astrid]

I've been letting my five year old lead the way on what themes to study. He was really into planets for a while, which led to focus on Earth (the layers, volcanos, plates all interested him for months), which led to the oceans and that is where we still are because he is really facinated with undersea life, esp. undersea mammals and deep sea life.

And I must say I am learning WAY more then I did the first time around when I was in school and wow, is it ever interesting

[marilynmama]

I consider us to be unschoolers but we also really enjoy unit studies as well!

My dd is only 5 so we have been using Five in a Row. She *loves* it and asks to do it almost everyday (we are not strict with it since we are unschoolers).

I have also heard really good things about KONOS and a friend of mine is bringing me the first volume for me to use since it is expensive. But I know a lot of people who really really enjoy it.

Five in a Row takes only as much time as you want and since I am not just homeschooling but also a full time college student time is very important to me

I think unit studies can be a fun way for younger kids to learn, its very natural and fun!

Marilyn

[WendyLouWho]

Yes! I would say when my oldest was around 5 we only did themes/units.

There is a darling book by Cresent Dragonwagon:

This is the Bread I Baked for Ned

We had such fun with this book, making the bread, the soup, etc. We went to a local small neighborhood bakery and took a tour. We were bread fanatics for a few weeks. He still loves to bake bread today at age 9. So, I guess we did our own little FIAR thang

I find at that age it's so easy to do unit studies. They find a subject that interests them and dive into it totally!

That said, he always picked the themes. I just went with whatever piqued his interested...bread/cooking, frogs, gardening/seasons, planes, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day are ones that I remember.