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3 Wrong Ways to Begin a Homeschool Unit Study

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

It is easy to get caught up in the hype of designing your own homeschool unit study before you have had a chance to explore potential mistakes that can be made when doing one.

Look at these 3 wrong ways to begin a homeschool unit study.

In creating a unit study, I had to decide which topics and subjects my children needed to cover.

Skinny It Up

My very first mistake was thinking I had to cover all the subjects in a balanced way. I did not.

Learning is about exploring subjects that your children are interested in or that you want them exposed to.

My beginning system wasn’t fancy, but it worked.

I simply took time to sketch out what subjects I needed to cover for that unit study.

3 Wrong Ways to Begin a Homeschool Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Too, in my example above, I made the material have personal application to our family.

Meaningful Learning

That is the second common mistake to jumping into a unit study, which is not making the material personal to your family.

If you decide to use a prepared unit study, tweak it to fit your family’s needs.

Though children are interested in happenings on the other side of the world, learning comes alive when it is full of personal meaning.

For example, the first time I did the American Civil War, we lived in Texas and my boys needed more of an emphasis on learning about our home state.

I made the unit study to fit our needs because we took a trail off of the unit study to learn about Texas.

Curriculum Paradise or Pain?

Trying to cover two curriculum equally is the third mistake.

Why do we try to do that? It won’t work.

Well it might but then it might lead to homeschool burnout if you become too unbalanced.

There is nothing wrong with having more than one curriculum but the difference is that one curriculum is your main spine or focus.

The other curriculum simply supports or enhances your primary spine.

I have found that comprehensive unit studies are unlike short term enrichment projects.

In other words commit to a unit study all the way.

This means I don’t stress out my kids by going over other lessons in whatever laid our curriculum we are using at the time.

I simply move forward without feeling like we are behind.

Don’t stress you or your children either one by doing unit studies on top of what you are already using.

If you see something that is important to you to cover in your laid out curriculum, then fold that information into your upcoming unit study.

Grammar and spelling can always be applied to writing, atlases always fit geography and science and history can be hands-on activities.

Covering too many subjects, not making learning come alive by making it apply to your children and trying to do two curriculum simultaneously are sure ways to kill a unit study before you get started.

How about you? Have you made any of these mistakes?

Hugs and love ya,
2015 Tina Signature co

Check out my 1o Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together

Why It Is Hard to Teach Homeschooled Kids Writing But Not Impossible

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, in sharing why it is hard to teach homeschooled kids writing but not impossible I will share some background information on how to teach writing. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter for more tips!

First, let me tell you my story.

In public school, I had a middle school teacher that I adored.

She understood my preference of communicating orally where I could look into the eyes of the person I was talking to, give them a gentle pat or flail my arms out long when talking fast.

But she also encouraged me to give my written words the same gravity.

It wasn’t until I started teaching my boys how to write that I truly appreciated what a difficult task it is to teach my boys how to write.

Understanding the process of any skill that I am teaching has always helped me to find a solution to any problem we are experiencing.

More importantly, I have a direction to follow.

For example, it’s easy enough to understand that when teaching reading we need to start with a set of letters that express sounds.

After that, we build words, sentences and we are off to teaching our kids how to read.

Finding a starting point for writing, however, can be more elusive.

Why It is Hard to Teach Homeschooled Kids Writing But Not Impossible @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Word Writing Scramble

One reason I found writing hard to teach was that I didn’t appreciate that it is a learned art to fashion words on a page that are appealing.

It’s almost like playing word scramble or in this case sentence scramble when teaching our kids to write.

Immature readers can create awkward sounding sentences because of their lack of experience in life.

For that matter, awkward sentence that don’t flow smoothly can happen to even the most experienced writer too.

That is why it is important in the early stages of writing that children have plenty of time to mull over words, thoughts and arrangement of ideas.

Ideas like creating and writing in daily journals, playing word games and vocabulary games are important to arming children with the creativity they need to write.

When I started teaching writing, my oldest son felt almost paralyzed when I would ask him what topic he wanted to write about.

That was my first ugly encounter with writing after teaching him how to write his ABCs.

Mature Writers Born?

I taught him how to write his ABCs, how could this not be just as easy or so I thought.

My next mess up came because I was expecting maturity and experience with writing topics from a 5 year old.

Experiences and maturity come just from that, age and life experiences.

How could I equip my 5 year old with opportunities for writing experiences?

It is the same answer that equipped him at 15 years old, which is reading to the rescue.

I had heard many times that a reader is a writer and we read every day.

But other than pleasure and reading to find out what we wanted to know about, I under estimated the value of it in gaining experiences outside of what we were learning each day.

There was a connection between the books we were reading and writing topics that swirled around in my son’s mind.

I didn’t have to rush childhood, nor would I want to so that he could learn the art of self-expression.

Drawing out of him experiences that he read about either in his books and daily living were the keys to overflowing topic ideas.

Are You Making this Mistake?

There is just no rushing content, facts, ideas and details, which is the foundation of writing.

Content is the next biggie that kids are afraid of.

As if struggling with the structure of creating delightful sounding words is not enough, they have to think about content, topic sentences, details and a strong conclusion.

There is no getting around it, our kids needs our expertise when it comes to helping them with their writing.

In the early stages of writing especially, our kids need us to supply content and it is okay to do this.

We don’t want to ever put our kids in a sink or swim situation when writing.

It does absolutely no good and it can create a kid who hates writing and carries that feeling to high school.

It is important to continue these building skills through to middle school.

That is the time to continue to reinforce what was learned at the foundational level and to hone outlining and note taking skills.

Though I didn’t know as much then when I started teaching my kids to write as I know now, I did know that certain valuable skills could not be overlooked.

Look at these basic things to include in teaching everyday writing.

  • Copywork
  • Dictation
  • Outlining
  • Constantly reading back what they wrote
  • Journal writing to not be corrected but to use as practice for self-expression.

More Homeschool Handwriting Curriculum Tips!

Keep reading for a list of 8 handwriting curriculum and the benefits of each.

Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 – Best Hands-on Homeschool Ideas

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

One reason I chose to use Ancient Egypt Passport Project from Home School in the Woods is because of the amount of hands-on history that it has.

Today, I am sharing Ancient Egypt Unit Study Part 2 because I want to be sure you to get see wayyy more pictures before I finish this study.

Ancient Egypt is a great civilization to study for Ancient History. Your kids will love this hands-on Ancient Egypt history study with many activities for multiple ages to choose from. CLICK HERE!

I know I am not using it like suggested meaning you pick and choose what you like to do. That would be too balanced for me.

I tend to be over board when it comes to history and we like sampling a little bit of it all. Don’t do like me.

We are trying to squeeze in every bit of the activities because we can’t wait to make the next activity and also I am visually obsessed so I wanted to be sure you get tons of pictures for this unit study.

Today, we played with paper dolls.

Okay, don’t tell Tiny I said that because it was almost an outright mutiny when I showed him what we were going to do next.Ancient Egypt Figures 1

Tiny was almost not going to do these fun Egyptian Figures, but it ended up being such a cool project I am glad we did them.

Homeschool History and Crafts Obsessed

Not only did we enjoy the coloring, but he enjoyed reading about what Egyptians, both adults and kids wore back then.Ancient Egypt Figures 2The coolest part is that after using an exacto knife on the paper figures, the clothing can be changed out by sticking tabs from the pieces into the holes or slits cut on the figures.

After a bit of time, he really got into changing out the pieces.

One thing that is so unique was that there were templates to use to cut out actual fabric that can be glued onto the figures.

I thought how fun it would be if you had a girl but that was Tiny’s limit.  He wasn’t going to make templates out of material.Ancient Egypt Figures 3The finished looking project is a fun way to learn about time period clothing. He was pleased with his finished product.Ancient Egypt Figures 4Not only is all the reading you need included with this unit study, which I like because you know the only books I can get here in Ecuador are in Spanish, but then the review of the material is illustrated in different ways like these pop out books.Ancient Egypt Popup 1We read about the social system in Ancient Egypt.

Then Tiny glued the text on each mini pop out book to show each level in the social system.Ancient Egypt Popup 2Let’s just face it, interacting with mini pop up books are certainly way more fun to handle and review material.

After he made the minibooks, I helped him glue them on the page showing he social pyramid.

Tell me which kid wouldn’t prefer to review material from a page like this instead of a worksheet?Social PyramidThen one more project I wanted to show you was the pocket made for souvenirs.Souvenir 1The pages are instructions for dressing up like an Egyptian boy or girl.Souvenir 2There are more projects we are working on as we make our way through this hands-on unit study.

Have you ever tried any of the history unit studies from Home School in the Woods? Do you have any favorites?

Ancient Egypt is a great civilization to study for Ancient History. Your kids will love this hands-on Ancient Egypt history study with many activities for multiple ages to choose from. CLICK HERE!

Look at the other parts we did:

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Besides being a great way unit study starter, movies have a way of taking us back in history.  Remember, when we did our FBI Unit Study, we started our unit study by popping popcorn and watching the documentary about the FBI.

Not only do movies capture our children’s attention but they have a way of hooking our children on history too.

Homeschool History Alive

Netflix is one tool I happily pay for each month because the benefits always outweigh the nominal cost.

Though the movies change throughout the years, I always manage to keep a list or two on hand when teaching different periods of history.

Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

Look at my list of homeschool history teaching ancient civilizations using Netflix.

For 10th Grade
  • Son of Hercules vs. Medusa
  • The Ancient Life
  • The 300 Spartans
  • Colosseum: A Gladiator’s Story
  • Cleopatra
  • The Prince of Egypt
  • Nova: Building Pharaoh’s Chariot
  • The Pyramid Code
  • The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb
  • Secrets: The Sphinx
  • Alexandria
  • Secrets: A Viking Map?
  • Secrets of the Viking Sword: Nova
  • Secrets of the Dead: China’s Terracotta Warriors

Whether you add a movie or two for enrichment, as a unit study starter or to add some spice to your day, a movie or two can history alive for a time period in history that sometimes can be hard to teach.

Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

I also scour the History Channel and PBS/Nova for movies to go with a specific time period.

Also, be sure to scoot by and check out Teach With Movies for free lesson plans to go with movies. It is such an awesome resource.

Although I don’t use movies to teach exclusively, I feel they are a fun and valuable part of teaching history that can be inspirational.

What about you? Do you add movies to your unit studies or to enrich your curriculum?

Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix

Also you’ll love these other resources:

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T
Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

How can I be sure I cover EVERYTHING this year?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When I hear the question how can I be sure I cover EVERYTHING this year, my mind flashes back to my many years of homeschooling when I too felt the same way.

Teaching EVERYTHING In Your Homeschool

One point I stress is to be balanced in your teaching. This is important because it gives you a changed direction to your efforts.

Switch your direction from checking off a list of subjects for the day to intentionally teaching educational independence.

Instead of focusing on EVERYTHING,  focus on the skills your children need to have so they can learn ANYTHING.

This is a completely different concept from the way most kids have been taught up to the time you begin homeschooling.

How can I be sure I cover EVERYTHING this year?

Teach your children to be independent instead of daily spoon feeding.

We already do it if you think about it.

For example, the other day Tiny tried to ask me a question, which he should have known. 

Instead of looking up what a word meant, he wanted me to simply tell him the answer.

Each situation is different and at times, I do explain what a word means.

But as the teacher, I also knew what kind of effort he had been putting forth in writing his composition for the day.

He was in a get it over with mood because his mind was more interested in the games he could play later after school.

Instant Education – Do Our Children Pay the Price?

Teaching him to value his independent learning time and also because I knew the meaning of the word would stick, I required him to look up the word.

Yes, it would have been easier for me to give him the answer so that he could finish with his composition and move on to the next subject, but in the process I would not be teaching him everything.

It is not even realistic nor a trait of modesty to think we will teach our children everything.

When our eagerness turns to anxiety, it can have a devastating affect on our children.

Personally, I never thought that pushing EVERYTHING onto my children as being a lack of modesty on my part because I certainly did not know everything.

What was I teaching my children? That we could read a few books and be an expert in that subject? Certainly not.

Also, my pushing an everything education at them might be depriving my children of a childhood because I expected instant performance.

The public educational system is in a hurry to label our children as behind, ahead, gifted or whatever new politically correct term that will arrive in the future.

Skills our children will need are ones that will last a life time like reading, math, research skills. and technical know-how in this modern age.

Too, whenever did life skills and plain practical sense like opening a bank account, trying to live a debt free life, running a household, making good decisions as the head of a household ever be counted as less important?

Are we raising dependent or educated independent children?

Harmonious Homeschool

Do you know that some children do not know how to use a library let alone research resource materials?

Equipping our children to weigh valuable resources found on the internet versus valueless ones is vital today.

With the amount of information overload we have access to, kids need to know the difference.

Children’s dictionaries, student dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias and atlases are resources that are priceless as we teach our children a lifelong love of learning.

Too we want resources that give us an idea of basic subjects because we don’t want to compromise our rigorous standards.

The most basic subjects are arithmetic, language arts, history and science.

Public schools nowadays cut back on subjects that also enrich our lives.

Enrichment, the very thing that causes children to accelerate in their education is the first thing stripped from it.

In homeschooling, we can add art, foreign language, drama, PE, dance, 4H and sports.

All of these subjects help to round out our children but more important they instill an appetite for learning everything that is not easily quenched.

Curriculum, course of studies, and checklists are just guides, but they don’t take importance over the goals we have set for our family.

Therein lies the secret to equipping our children with everything they need to know.

When looking back now, it’s liberating to know that teaching children how to learn everything they want to know is easier than I even imagined.

Self-Education. Expert or Novice Status

The key was to give them the freedom to explore what interests them and then give them keys to self-education.

There are those that will always scoff at the ideas of self-education thinking and that we only cover broad strokes.

It has been my experience that a scholar can be born from a slacker and infused to knowing everything about the details of any subject he deems worth to cover.

So next time someone asks you how are you going to teach EVERYTHING, let them know you don’t have to.

How can I be sure I cover EVERYTHING this year?

We don’t know everything. You are leading them to teach themselves ANYTHING they want to know.

Beside, we were made to learn lifelong and not in just the short few years our children reach high school and graduate.

How do you answer those who ask you about homeschooling gaps?

Look at these other helps and tips:

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T
How Can I Be Sure I Cover EVERYTHING This Year @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus