Unit Studies: Anyone have resources?

[Thandiwe]

Does anyone have any resources you'd like to share for unit studies?  We're fairly new to structured homeschooling, as we're kind of gently taking a transition from unschooling (still a lot of the time) to a gentle homeschool approach.  I'm finding we love the unit study approach.  We don't have a curriculum we follow; we're pretty eclectic and self-formed usually. 

Last week, for example, we had a really good Laotian dinner and then decided we wanted to explore the Asian continent in greater detail.  So the next day we visited an Eastern market run by an Asian family that barely speaks English and has really awesome stuff in their store.  We grabbed some items and cooked a meal at home.  I downloaded a Japanese cd with traditional music that we listened to during this time.  We visited our local Japanese cultural center and wandered through the strolling gardens.  We read a little bit of geography on Asia.  And my kids had a blast!

So, I'd really like to keep the unit studies going, maybe work our way around the world?  Does anybody have any good resources they'd like to share?  How do you do your unit studies?  How long do you focus - one week?  One day?  Any tips would be greatly appreciated as I start pulling this together and planning out the next several weeks.

[NaturalFamiLEA]

What kind of unit studies?

We are currently using Heart of Wisdom's Adam to Messiah unit studies, along with Creation, Energy, and Light. That is what we will be doing this year, and likely next. We want to soak it all up :)

http://homeschool-books.com/xcart/books/unit-studies/

[Thandiwe]

Well, like I said, last week it was Asia, before that it was regarding trees.  We aren't following a structured curriculum, I'm building my own.  I've stumbled across a few resources for compiling unit studies and just wondered if anyone else had some they would like to share, like various websites, etc.  We are really into different cultures and systems of nature.

[sarahtar]

We don't have curriculum, either, and do mostly unit studies. The length varies from a few days to our current Ancient Greece which will end up being about 12 weeks. I wrote a blog post on my HS blog about how we do unit studies - the post is about the Greece unit, which is the most detailed, longest study we've ever done and so ended up needing more organization and prep work than others, but it might be useful:

http://thefamilyschool.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/developing-a-unit/

[Thandiwe]

Thank you, Sarahtar!  I appreciate the help!

[heatherdeg]

LOVE this website for unit studies:  http://www.homeschoolshare.com/

The best is that you can search for a unit study based on a specific topic; and so far--they're all pretty awesome!

[AngelBee]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg 

LOVE this website for unit studies:  http://www.homeschoolshare.com/

The best is that you can search for a unit study based on a specific topic; and so far--they're all pretty awesome!

We like this as well.

[tankgirl73]

Intellego unit studies -- a wealth of resources there.

Hands of a Child -- huge variety there too, many are lapbooks.

Currclick -- the quality can vary, but tons and tons of unit studies.

Teachers' Book Bags -- one of the unit study companies on currclick that I've really enjoyed.

You might also be interested in the Waldorf idea of lesson blocks, there are manuals for various units at Christopherus for instance.  There's also Moving Beyond the Page, which is a literature-based curriculum but the materials are designed and woven around the books in a broadly unit study format, you might find it interesting.