Day 6 Unit Study Resources that Stir the Imagination 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together

Today is day 6 unit study resources that stir the imagination because supplementing is important. Also, look at my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies. I’m doing 10 days of diving into unit studies by creating a unit study together.

You don’t have to be creative to create a unit study that sparks your children’s interest. You just have to be committed.  Like all things that are practiced, the more you design a unit study, the better you become at it. 

Gathering resources plays a large part in whether your unit study is successful or just so so.

And gathering resources, for me anyway, is a constant factor in my journey. 

All teachers plan differently, but I prefer to plan as I go along.  For me, it keeps planning time to a minimal because I already have some basic resources to choose from.

I guess you can call the resources I gather my unit study starters.

You notice how I will change directions on you when we are studying one topic and post my resources that I gather up for another one.

  I just did it this week with the few resources I shared about a human body unit study. 

My secret to planning is to gather as I go and to plan one or many unit studies while I am doing another one.  It really keeps the planning part from being overwhelming when you can spread it out over a period of time.

Unit Study Resources that Stir the Imagination

Gathering resources is just one aspect.  Also, knowing which resources will help to create the love of hands-on learning and knowing which ones to ditch will keep your unit study moving along and not stagnant.

Look at my list of things that I got to on a regular basis for my unit study starters.

• board games
• living books
• atlases
• bar charts
• student magazines
• teacher’s guides
• movies
• documentaries
• my pinterest boards
• My Amazon Shop for boards separated by topics

Choosing resources wisely that will capture your children’s interest is not the only caveat to be aware of.

Hands-on or Drooping Hands

While I do whole heartedly agree with the fact that hands-on learning is an inherent part of any well educated child, I do believe that an overload of them or complicated ones can exhaust both teacher and child.

As new unit study converts, sometimes they tend to go overboard with hands-on learning.

Hands-on projects are like seasonings that we add to our food.  Just a pinch of it enhances our food.  Hands-on projects should not be overwhelming or exhausting.

Planning too many or did other things that made them hard to fit into your day can make unit studies turn to blah quickly.

4 UNIT STUDY MISTAKES

Look at some of these tips for adding hands-on resources that will not exhaust you or your kids.

1. Avoid insanity by doing one project per child or grade level. Do one project for ALL of your children. Aim for a project that satisfies the middle age range of your children.
2. Don’t do complicated projects. Choose projects that require normal household items you already have on hand. It is okay to gather supplies you don’t have on hand too, but try to plan ones where you have a majority of supplies on hand.
3. Weigh doing long term projects carefully.  If you have very little kids {mostly under 8 or 9 years old} choose projects that have an immediate wow factor, i.e. blow up something.  You won’t hook them on hands-on learning if they have to always grow something that takes weeks or months to build.  As they grow older, they develop the love of waiting, watching and observing and then you can choose longer projects.
4. Avoid doing all the work. If you have older kids, let them gather the supplies, decide some of the projects and lead the projects. Even when kids are young, they can learn by gathering up items on your list.

Unit Study Resources Organized

Key to using your resources is being able to find them after you have gathered them up.

An easy system and one that you can retrieve quickly always works best. 

And though I love Pinterest, the Pinterest boards are not really able to be highly organized at this time.  Pinterest really needs sub-boards. I’ve used  Evernote in the past.  Evernote is free and I find it way more practical than bookmarks because I am able to copy/paste just about anything onto it.  I organize it and type whatever I need to remember.

My very favorite way to organize is my Ultimate Unit Study Planner.

TOS

Important: READ THIS FIRST.
Before you email me asking where your download link is or tell me that it is not working, read this to ensure that you get your pretties timely and that you don’t pay for something and not get it.

• All my products are digital. You will not receive a physical product for anything in my store. A digital physical year calendar does not mean a physical product or calendar

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Then look at more tips.

10 DAYS OF CREATING A UNIT STUDY TOGETHER

• Unit Studies Define & Redefine the Meaning – Day 1
• Tips For Choosing Unit Study Topics.- Day 2
• Selecting Superior Sub-Topics. Day 3
• Finalize Sub-topics – Day 4
• Creating Unit Study Objectives – Day 5
• Unit Study Resources that Stir the Imagination – Day 6
• Unit Study Activity Ideas – Day 7
• Creating a Unit Study Lesson Plan – Day 8
• Flow of Our Day with A Unit Study Schedule – Day 9
• Unit Study Beginnings – Day 10

Ocean Unit Study Resources Gathered

Here are a few of the resources that I have for the Ocean Unit Study.

Update: I have since completed this unit study and have all these resources & more on free my Oceans Unit Study and Lapbook page.

Though there are volumes of links, I find that by grabbing just a few of the ones that better suit us or the ages of my children keeps me from storing links that we will not use.

Gathering resources is a practiced art no less important than teaching the unit study.  Be selective and choose ones that you think will inspire your unit study.

Do you find it hard to organize your resources or find them for your unit study?

Hugs and love ya,

10 Days of Creating A Unit Study Together