Unit Studies really work for us

[Mama~Love]

I thought I'd give the unit study thing a try, and I'm glad I did! It is so much easier to plan, and the fact you can incorporate anything in them is awesome!

I asked the girls what they'd like to learn about, and they came up with a huge list of things that can be turned into Unit Studies that can last us at least a year!

This is HUGE for me, as I tend to be a bit too relaxed (according to DH) about things. It still allows the girls the freedom to learn things at their pace, so if they want to study astronomy for a semester, that's fine with me.

[LilMamiBella]

[QUOTE=Mama~Love;14563290]I thought I'd give the unit study thing a try, and I'm glad I did! It is so much easier to plan, and the fact you can incorporate anything in them is awesome!

See I think we'd like unit studies too but I'm not creative and would definitely need a teacher's manual. Glad its working for you though.

[MPsSweetie]

How exciting! I love it when everything just feels *right*. I'm not there right now though, ugh!

[Mama~Love]

Originally Posted by LilMamiBella

Originally Posted by Mama~Love

I thought I'd give the unit study thing a try, and I'm glad I did! It is so much easier to plan, and the fact you can incorporate anything in them is awesome!

See I think we'd like unit studies too but I'm not creative and would definitely need a teacher's manual. Glad its working for you though.

It's not hard at all. We picked a topic, and then went to the library & checked out a bunch of relevant books. I then did some searching online & found a TON of free activities and worksheets, crafts, etc. We'll do a few each day, for as long as we want, or until the interest is over. Then we'll move onto the next topic.

I do math & grammar separate, just to make sure we cover everything.

Originally Posted by MPsSweetie

How exciting! I love it when everything just feels *right*. I'm not there right now though, ugh!

Yes, I'm very happy now . It's finally working for us !

[tankgirl73]

Cool. I'm kind of moving in that direction right now. After years of random eclecticism (which, while stressful in many ways, didn't leave him with any major gaps anyway) -- now that he's older we've been working at being more scheduled and planned.

We've been mostly Charlotte Mason in approach, with short lessons, lots of books, etc, but it's still very piecemeal and somewhat random. Again, he's doing fine, it's just more a feeling of being a bit frantic. And we just don't have time to do everything we'd like to be doing.

We tried lapbooks recently for the first time, and he LOVES them. I've bought several ebooks (Hands of a Child, for instance), and Intellego unit studies, etc... and they're just so HUGE that on our current short lesson schedule and with everything else we're trying to do... it will take all year to finish a single one!

So I've been looking more at the Waldorf idea of blocks, and working out from there. Like you said, we'd still do math separately (try to incorporate stuff when we can, but keep going with the curriculum anyway), and french. But - especially now that we're finishing up with many of the 'rudiments' like handwriting and grammar - we'd like to focus on one topic, one lapbook, one unit study, for a couple hours every day for a few weeks. Do some art, some copywork, some crafts, etc, based on that topic. Voila, we're done.

Nice to know it's working for you. I'm still planning and gathering ideas, but DS likes the idea too so we'll see how it goes!

[Mama~Love]

I know that frantic, random feeling you mentioned. I hated that feeling. I like that a unit study can cover just about everything, especially like the arts & crafts type stuff, as I tend to say no to that because I dread the mess & such. This way I feel it's a bit more in control, and orderly. I follow the kids' leads and base activities off of what they want to do as well - even if it's not part of the unit study. They need that free time too.

Our next unit is astronomy - that one will be wildly popular, and will last awhile for sure!

[MrsStrick]

We've used a lot of different approaches in our homeschool "career" as well. After two years of being back to work full-time, I purposed myself to find materials I could use for both of my children at the same time. (teaching the same subject 2x a day was draining)

This year, we are using Christian Cottage Unit studies. We've completed 5 full weeks so far and we really love it. It is designed to be used across different grade levels, K - 12. At first, it was a little hard for me to understand. Once it "clicked" with me, it was very easy to use.

I've designed my own unit studies in the past, but had to come the realization this year that I don't have time for that anymore. :-( This has been a great fit for our family.

-Christina S.