4. {10 Days of ... Blogging Series}

Last, but certainly not least important is to determine how to begin or open your unit study.  Unit study beginnings matter because you want a hands-on activity that will hook your children onto unit studies.

There are several ways to introduce a unit study besides reading a book though I have used that hook before to get my boys’ interest piqued in our unit study.  Most children will engage when you open your unit study with something that is not expected like a hands-on project.

I have used many different ways to introduce a unit study that moved me outside of the box or in this case the book.

6 Creative Unit Study Beginnings that Stick

Take a look at this last of ways to introduce your unit study that spark an interest in any hum drum unit study.

• Instead of doing a whole lapbook, just do one small minibook.  When we studied the Native Americans, we started by creating a pop up book.  Instead of a boring quiz on what my boys knew or didn’t know about the Native Americans, we made an interactive mini pop up book.
• Begin your unit study with a field trip.  Sure, you can save it for the end, but if you have enough places to visit, try to make it your first event too.  The field trip sets the mood for learning that topic and for my boys they could recall what they already experienced by the place we visited.  One year, I did a fall unit study with the boys and instead of reading about what fall is, I took them to a field trip where we could pick our own pumpkins and experience hands-on about fall.

• Begin with an easy science activity.  We tested out some plants when we began our Amazon rain forest unit.

• Begin your unit with a game. And if you can’t find one on the topic you are studying, you can create an easy one based off the basic games like Go Fish, Battle or even trading cards.  You are only limited by your imagination.
• Begin your unit study by listening to music or even doing a drawing, illustration, art or craft.

• Begin your unit study by creating a meal or favorite dish.

I hope you have enjoyed this step by step series in helping you to ease down the unit study trail.  As you can see, I feel a unit study is a superior way to teach a child though I never claim it is easy.

Sometimes it is flat out hard, but I always focus on the rewards.  I always look at my return in investment.  When my sons learn research skills early and have a say in what they want to learn with my guidance, I feel it gives them a mastery of material that would otherwise take us a few years to learn.

Doing my part in the process too by using living books, choosing topics they are enthusiastic about and working hard alongside them, keeping it all about hands-on when I would rather it be hands off at times, I have tried to reduce education boredom.

One of the biggest payoffs though is when my oldest son who is now graduated and doing college level work tells me Thank You.  His thank you comes from a place deep down inside because he knows I could have chosen a little easier path and some years I had no choice.  But where possible, I always tried to bring our learning around to a central theme or topic.

It’s true small ideas give a huge payoff.

Did you come up with a theme or try one or two unit studies?

Hugs and love ya,

10 Days of Creating A Unit Study Together

Homeschoolers are anything but typical and that difference is reflected in the flow our day with a unit study schedule.

I cringe when I think about sharing “typical homeschool schedules” only because I don’t want to ever give you the impression that this is the best way for the season of homeschooling that you are in right now.

But having said that, I would rather share with you how my unit study schedule works for my day so that you see how relaxed that it can be.  I have had many schedules, even having to schedule to half-hour increments where needed.  And all of them have worked for the various stages of homeschooling that I have been at in my journey.

So sharing the groove to our unit study day, I am hoping that you see that when planning by “blocks of time” if you can, you have more control over your day.  Freedom with a block of time still gives me boundaries and helps me to plug along in the day, but it also allows me to decide if we need to focus on a previous day’s assignment or work on the next assignment in our unit study.

Too, I am an early riser and believe in the value of getting the day started early because I don’t want to waste any time.  No, we don’t have to start schooling right then, but I like having a little bit more time to enjoy quiet mornings.   Believe me, it was not always possible with little ones, but they grow up, trust me.

We start our day early most mornings with school too and I do occasionally begin our day with fun subjects like geography, history and science and especially if we feel a bit of burnout coming.

However, for a majority of our homeschooling years, we begin our morning focused on the 3 Rs.  I have read numerous articles throughout the years and we have experienced the same thing and that is my sons prime time for learning is first in the day.  Tackling tougher subjects first instead of giving left over time to them allows them to not be frustrated on such essential life-long skills.  For most kids tough subjects are usually math and some of language arts like writing.

It is especially important to me to cover math and grammar first because those subjects are harder to cover in a unit study and I don’t want them to suffer.  For the little ones, you will want to focus on phonics first as well.  Too, a fun hands-on project waiting to be done in your unit study is a great motivating factor for you for your kids to finish the skill subjects early.

Relaxing and savoring our moment with our unit study is more satisfying when I know that I don’t have to force a subject to fit. Get it done early and move on to the delight of the unit study.

It has been my experience to not labor subjects like math, grammar and phonics. If they fit in a unit study topic, then fine.  If not, always schedule time for them separately and move on to enjoying your day.

Blocks of time work for us. And I always make sure I have time to give to my youngest son if he is struggling and allow time for them to finish up an assignment that might have taken a little longer to cover.   A block type of schedule allows us longer stretches of time to set up our hands-on materials, work on them and not have to put them away right then for the day.  We can come back later in the day to work on them also.

As you can see from my schedule above, we are either together for out unit study from about 10:00 a.m.ish on or right after we finish our early lunch, which is normally around noon.

I decide each day how we will spend it depending on the previous day’s assignment.

A unit study schedule should have an ebb and flow, but be relaxed and flexible.

Do you think you can create an easy unit study schedule based on the tough subjects that you need to tackle first?

Hugs and love ya,

10 Days of Creating A Unit Study Together