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Today is the next post in my series on homeschool methods. Today I am super excited to share a post from Ashley at The Homeschool Resource Room. I love her site! She uses the unit studies method for her homeschool. I hope you finder her information valuable!
What Are Homeschool Unit Studies?
A unit study is when you choose one topic and design all your learning around that topic.
Your homeschool unit studies could be a broad unit that might take an entire school year to investigate, like an around-the-world theme. Or it could be a smaller topic that you focus intensely on for a few days, like an elementary study of birds.
Whatever you choose and however long you decide to stay with it, all of your subjects will revolve this one topic.
Let’s look at the topic of birds, for example. A homeschool unit study would include resources and activities that address all of the core subjects and electives. Each subject would include birds within that week’s lessons:
- Language Arts: Read about birds, bird themed copy work
- Writing: Make a list of bird facts, create a book about local birds
- Geography: Study the flight patterns of migratory birds
- Math: Measure the distance and time it takes birds to migrate
- Science: Go bird watching in nature, read a non-fiction book about birds
- Field Trip: Visit a local aviary
- Art: Collect feathers to use in an art project
- Learn through Play: Dress up as a bird, act out the life cycle
Homeschool unit studies can be about any topic. They can be child-led or parent-guided. There are ready-made units available or you might design your own around the topic of your choice!
Why I Choose Unit Studies for our Homeschool
I describe our homeschool as child-led and curriculum-supported. What I mean is that our studies are guided by my children’s interests, but I support that as the parent/teacher by finding books, resources, and activities that we can really dig into.
Homeschool unit studies fit my way of teaching as well as my kids’ way of learning.
We use a variety of eclectic materials to keep things interesting and move on to the next topic when motivation wanes.
Why We Love Homeschool Unit Studies
Both of my kids, but my son especially, really get into their interests. It started at a young age – I remember spending far too long on dinosaurs. I learned more about dinosaurs by the time my son was 4 than I’d ever learned (or wanted to) in my 34 years.
The great thing about homeschool unit studies is that no matter what I pull out – books, movies, a lapbook, hands-on activities, or even a plain worksheet – my kids like it. Because it’s all about what they want to learn.
We never have a problem with motivation… well almost never. They are still kids, after all.
Where to Find Resources for Homeschool Unit Studies
The Library: Never underestimate the power of your library card!
The first place I go to find resources for any unit that we’re working on is the library. I’ve been known to check out every book on a subject.
In addition to finding picture books, chapter books, and non-fiction to fit our units, we frequent some of the lesser-known areas of the library:
- Math section: incorporate math concepts into your unit studies with themed books and math activities.
- Kits and read-alongs: we do a ton of reading with our units. It’s helpful to have kits and unabridged books on CD – we check out the matching book to read along.
- Teacher guide books: since our units frequently step outside our regular curricula, it’s helpful to have access to activities, reproducible worksheets, and lesson plans that we can use once or twice and return.
Museums, Parks, and Events: Sometimes our units inspire field trips. Sometimes field trips inspire units. We’ve studied animal tracks at the nature center, examined geodes at the museum, and joined in some of the local cultural festivities.
Streaming Media: I search for movies and shows that go along with our units on Netflix, Prime, and at our library. We also use playlists and YouTube channels to introduce new concepts and expand on what we’re learning.
Online Resources: There is so much available online – on almost any topic! Some of our favorite sites for homeschool unit study resources:
- Scholastic for lesson plans, activies, and book ideas
- Ology for science resources, videos, and games (from the American Museum of Natural History)
- Teachers Pay Teachers for printable activities and worksheets
- Homeschool and teaching sites like right here at Teach Beside Me, The Learning Hypothesis, and Homeschool Share for great ideas for hands-on learning and printable resources
Curriculum: Even though we use an big variety of resources for our homeschool unit studies, I still lean on curriculum for a lot of our lessons. We just mold it to our needs.
I look for flexible curricula that is already arranged in units that feature topics and ideas that I know my children will like. Frequently creating a unit study is more about building onto the curricula we’re already using.
Ashley Fox is a mom of three and homeschool enthusiast running on lattes and Florida sunshine. She shares free unit studies, organization ideas, and homeschool resources over at The Homeschool Resource Room.