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What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies

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

Until my sons reached high school, I didn’t know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Check out my how to homeschool high school page for awesome tips.

Also, there didn’t really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies.

Between determining if unit studies were a good fit for high school and understanding record keeping, it was a lot to wrap my mind around.

Until my sons reached high school, I didn't know if my unit study approach would meld with tracking credits and courses. Also, there didn't really seem an abundance of prepared high school unit studies. Click here to read these 3 must know tips!

Sorting out myths from truth, I hope these 3 tips will help you to easily homeschool high school with unit studies. Or at least give you a beginning place.

3 Tips for Teaching High School Unit Studies

ONE/ Understand first that high school is just a continuation of the lowers grades – really!

Yes, it’s true that you’ll need to track credits and courses, but before stressing out about them, plan high school subjects like you’ve done in the lower grades.

That’s right. Begin with what you know.

In my article How to Choose the BEST Homeschool Lesson Planning Pages for THIS Year, I not only give you tips on how to do that, but each lesson plan form lists subjects by general categories; math, language arts, science, history and electives are the framework of well-rounded out high school courses.

It’s not hard to plan when you understand that you’re covering the same basic subjects albeit in more depth analyzing views instead of just a question answer format like your child did in younger grades.

TWO/ Look for resources which teach 2:1 or two-fer resources.

A two-fer resource is another secret tip to homeschooling teens.

Using a resource which teaches two subjects is vital when your child enters high school.

You don’t want your time wasted and neither do teens.

More important though is the reason that unit studies rocked in the younger grades is the same reason which holds true for high school.

Learning makes more sense when subjects are tied together instead of studied as separate subjects. Additionally, unit studies have always been a research-based approach.

This is a skill which is needed on into adulthood.

Living Books for Unit Studies

Resist giving up your unit study approach because it may require a bit more time to put together.

Sure, it’s easy to assign a text book and move on, but you and I know that high school is just hard sometimes. It’s a challenge to plan but still doable.

Begin again with something you know. Look at these things you may already know how and are doing with your kids in the younger grades.

  • Reading history living books and having your child choose writing topics based on history.
  • Reading science living books and choosing writing topics based on science.
  • Reading math living books and having your child choose writing topics based on math.

Now that you understand that high school courses fall into general categories and understand to look for two-fer resources, here are some examples of how to put it together.

We love the book Undaunted Courage.

Just a side note here.

When I look at a book which can serve as a springboard for high school unit studies, I note 3 things:

  • that it’s a living book,
  • that it’s high school level so that I can legally note on my high school transcript that it’s a high school level resource,
  • and I mull over how hard it will be to add external resources to enrich the study.

Not only is your teen covering part of his credit toward history when reading Undaunted Courage , but he is covering credits for literature too. Writing is part of a literature credit.

So your teen is covering 2–3 subjects at once depending on what credits you’ve lined out for the year.

Because covering literature in high school means more than just reading, you’ll want to have a variety of resources for analyzing literature and for guiding your teen how to write well.

A literature-based unit study which has a history setting has been the easiest to start off with at the high school level.

For example, I find it a challenge to round out a history book with literature analysis than a great book suited for literature analysis.

How to Put Together High School Unit Studies

It’s been easier to add history and science of a time period to a great read.

One super helpful resource we only discovered this year and that is the Thrift Study Editions by Dover. 

Not only are the books for high school level, but each one comes with a study guide in the back. 

For example, while reading A Tale of Two Cities, we studied about the culture of France and England and learned about the issues of the French Revolution.

With a resource like that, doing unit studies are a cinch at the high school level. This brings me to the third point you want to know.

THREE/ Fill your teacher nook with specialized how-two books for you and your teen.

Tackling how to teach a subject with out a curriculum can be daunting, but you can go from research to reward if you choose specialized teaching books.

Here are a few of my favorite resources. You don’t need all of them, but I’ve used them at one time or another to round out our unit studies.

Literature Unit Studies

  • The Design-A-Study series are timeless. This series of books about science, history, and composition gives an overview of what to cover in each grade.  Instead of giving you subjects, it’s helpful because it gives you the big picture of what your child needs to know from K-12. A resource like this is especially helpful if you want to cover a skill or topic that your highschooler may have struggled with in the earlier grades.
  • Warriner’s English Complete Course. This set of books have been around for years and helps to hone writing. Christine Miller of Classical Christian said, “This excellent reference can be used throughout all three years of the dialectic to teach writing. It thoroughly covers grammar in detail, which provides a nice review for those children that need it, or for those children that missed some grammar instruction in the grammar stage. It also covers writing in detail, with a complete section on writing mechanics, usage, writing correct and clear sentences, paragraphs, and papers, the research paper, using references, and even public speaking.” Read the rest of her review here. Before we started using Rod and Staff high school levels, we used Warriner’s. Rod and Staff’s Communicating Effectively I liked one year because I felt like it was more streamlined. It helps to.understand that I used Rod and Staff in the younger grades and their grammar is very rigorous and by 8th grade formal grammar is completed. When you click the link above you can see the sample of their English and what is covered in the high school years.
  • Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School. Don’t get overwhelmed by this book. There is no need to have to read all of it. Focus only on the grade level for this year. Having a handy reference like this will guide you to subjects for each grade.

In an upcoming post, I’ll show you how I plan credits now that you can see how easy it is to satisfy two to three subjects using carefully selected resources.

What You Must Know to Teach High School Unit Studies. Click here to grab the tips!

Also, check out Diving into Homeschool Unit Studies: The Dos and Don’ts and 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together and Homeschool High School–How to Log Hours for High School.

Hugs and love ya,

How to Teach Science Through A Story – Middle & High School

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

When you teach science through a story that is powerful. Using storytelling as a powerful teacher is not a new concept to homeschoolers. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips

Not only do we love reading stories but we understand their power to captivate and convince readers.

However, until I started using Beautiful Feet Books I wasn’t so confident that teaching science through a story or through biographies would benefit my kids all the way through to high school.

Using storytelling as a powerful teacher is not a new concept to homeschoolers. Not only do we love reading stories but we understand their power to captivate and convince readers. However, until I wasn’t so confident that teaching science through stories works for all ages of my kids. Click here to read 7 creative ways to teach older kids!

I stalked the mailman waiting for these books from Beautiful Feet Books. I was given this product free and I was compensated for my time. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off or that a company will receive a glowing review. I don’t roll that way. ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!

First, I need to back up and explain what curriculum we’ve been poring over.

For the past couple of months, it has been a delight to use the History of Science.

I knew it was geared toward the 3rd to 7th grade level.

But we were over the top excited to ditch the science textbook and learn the history of science through living literature.

Besides, science biographies can be used for older kids.

And when you have a guide any study can be fleshed out for older grades. It was a great guide.

History of Science Living Literature

In addition, I had already figured out that my worksheet approach, as academic and bookish as it sounds, didn’t work because my boys retained lessons better using a learn-by-doing approach.

Next, early on in my homeschooling journey, I had stumbled upon Early American History with my then first kindergartner.

After using it with him, I learned that other equally important elements which stir a child’s thinking are living literature and absorbing history through a story.

There has not been a more enriching way to teach him or my other sons to high school than a literature-based approach.

What I’m saying is that storytelling, learning-by-doing, and living literature are inextricably linked.

Using those same elements while teaching science are the same ones used in teaching the History of Science and used for teaching an older child.

7 Creative Ways to Adapt Curriculum for Older Homeschooled Kids

Learning how to adapt a multiple age curriculum for upper grades can be challenging, but look at some ways I did this with the features of History of Science.

They are the same tips I used with my sons all the way through middle school and into high school.

How to Teach Science Through A Story - Middle & High School
  • With a yearlong program geared toward 3rd to 7th grade, there is a lot of room to allow exploring topics in more depth. Using a yearlong program is key. Your time is valuable and by using a curriculum that is laid out for a year, you have more than enough ideas in place to use as a springboard for all the ages of kids you’re teaching.
  • Even though the biographies are geared toward a lower reading level, they are likable by an older child. Many essay points can be gleaned from each biography. For example, previous to studying this curriculum, we hadn’t researched much about George Washington Carver. Reading about this American Pioneer and his many uses of peanuts made for a fun rabbit trail or research project. Even though your younger kids can join in the project to list the many uses of peanuts, I had Tiny delve deeper into this since it piqued his interest. I required that he explain the history of the peanut. I had questions like what is the history of the peanut, why was Carver encouraging farmers during the American Civil War to break away from cultivating just cotton, and explain the growing process of the peanut. For example, he had to know that it wasn’t a peanut at all but a seed and understand that the boll weevil could devastate cotton crops.
  • Another fascinating point to glean from the History of Science is understanding and seeing science through the eyes of great scientists. We use this concept for history all the time. We want to learn history through the eyes of a character who lived in a particular time period. Learning science through biographies of Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein keeps kids equally inspired to learn about the wonders of science instead of dry, boring facts.
How to Teach Science Through A Story - Middle & High School
  • In addition, with many notebook pages, vocabulary words, and hands-on ideas the study guide is just that. It’s a springboard for you to use and add your own ideas. I really love how the guide is laid out because if it was totally scripted it’s hard to use that for older kids or younger kids. A guide on the other hand gives me a nudge or jump to another teaching concept that my son is interested in.
  • After I abandoned my wrong and stereotypical view that hands-on learning means no learning at all, I’ve been touting for years how hands-on learning needs to be used through to high school. The best books have been culled through and selected for easy hands-on activity that can be used for a variety of ages. Not only did we start our science portfolio notebook, but we did many hands-on learning activities like this one Day 4. Ancient Greece (Hands-on Science) 3 EASY Activities, ice cutting, and writing the Greek alphabet.
How to Teach Science Through A Story - Middle & High School
  • One more fun way to engage older kids through a story is to let them learn through a timeline. A timeline is a visual and natural way to learn. Kids can race ahead and place figures on a timeline while they read about scientific discoveries, events, and biographies. This is another key benefit to this curriculum. The timeline can stand on its own. It can be used completely separate. Instead of quickly placing the key events or scientists in order, challenge your older kids to learn about them before seeing the dates. Which significant event happened first, next and so on? Your middle school kids can memorize the events in order. It’ll give your kids foundational pegs as they fill in with more information with each time period.
  • Another tip that makes this curriculum especially useful to me is that it has scientists from different time periods. It’s organized into 3 parts that coincide with history, which are Ancient Scientists, Medieval & Renaissance Scientists, and Modern Scientists. I can easily add one section in depth this year and come back to this resource another year to focus on a different time period.
  • One last tip I do is to completely turn the teaching guide and everything over to my older kid. When you’re finished with the younger kids, let your middle or high school kid work through the lessons at their pace or at their will. For example, Tiny skipped all over the place when it came to reading and what interested him. That is such a liberating feeling for any learner and it’s the way to encourage independent learning. A lot of Beautiful Feet Books curriculum can be used that way, which is why I’ve been a user for a long time and couldn’t be more pleased.

The last thing I know you want to know about is whether it’s Christian or secular. I guess that depends on your definition of those two concepts.

It’s easier to tell you that it’s very friendly toward both type of views which I appreciate.

While it has some parts that ask your child to write a Bible verse, you can leave it, use it, or add your own. That part shows they support a Christian view.

However, their goal with their curriculum is to leave it up to you as the parent to add your worldview.

I can say it’s more easily done with this curriculum than many I use which saturate their curriculum with their Christian or secular worldview and makes it almost impossible to tweak.

If you’re wanting to use curriculum that teaches science through storytelling with a focus on hands-on learning by using a part unit study approach and part Charlotte Mason, you’ll love this curriculum like I do.

Read about the other curriculum I’ve used here at Early American and World History which is not available anymore and revamped, the Medieval History Sr. High levels and Medieval Intermediate Pack.

How to Purchase It.

►Product Name: History of Science
►Website: Beautiful Feet Books – BFBooks
► Don’t Miss: The Getting Started page. It’s been such a helpful guide for me through the years.
►Type of product: These is a physical product but the study guide is available as a digital download too. From their site: Our newly revised and updated History of Science is a popular and exciting read-aloud approach to the study of science! Rebecca’s course uses biographies to tell the life stories of famous scientists like Archimedes, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, George Washington Carver, Einstein, and others as well as hands-on experiments to prove the scientists’ theories and test their discoveries. An enriching way to introduce biology, chemistry, and physics. For grades 3-7, this one-year study will cover basic scientific principles and the history of scientific study beginning in ancient Greece and continuing through the 1990s. Contains 85 lessons, dozens of experiments, lab reports, and much more.

5 Simple Ways to Enhance a Homeschool Unit Study

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

Unit studies can be intimidating. The same things that make unit studies captivating can be the same things that make them tough to teach. Sharing 5 simple ways to enhance a homeschool unit study, I’m hoping that you won’t be afraid to take the plunge and try a unit study or two.

Unit studies can be intimidating. The same things that make unit studies captivating can be the same things that make them tough to teach. Sharing 5 simple ways to enhance a homeschool unit study, I'm hoping that you won't be afraid to take the plunge and try a unit study or two.

Do You Struggle with Homeschool Unit Studies?

One/ Always include a simple hands-on activity or two.

I use to be very judgmental and critical of homeschoolers (I know, doesn’t sound like me at all does it) who did a lot of hands-on activities until I started actually teaching.

What I learned along the way was that activities don’t have to be expensive or time-consuming to have a wow factor.

What is more important is that hands-on learning brings your topic alive and those are the teaching points your kids remember for life.

I’ve tried to do simple things through my many years of homeschooling.

Two/  Include living books.

Sometimes you can pull information from a textbook.

I’ve done it several times because that is what I had on hand and there was no need to purchase something else.

Look at how I did that at From Textbook to Homeschool Unit Study Starter.

However, if you’re wanting the best ways to enhance a unit study, living books beat the boring blahs when it comes to introducing or learning a unit study.

We love using the books by Beautiful Feet, but we also love using reference books.

Though some can be dry, we find they still have a story like appeal which is the hallmark of living books.

Look at my tips at my post Day 3. Selecting Superior Sub-Topics. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies By Creating A Unit Study Together.

Are Your Unit Studies Boring Your Kids to Sleep?

Three/ Use movies as part of your unit study or as a kick starter.

Many times, I’ve used a documentary, musical, or movie to kick off a unit study. It adds flavor to a time period especially if it’s a history related topic.

Not all kids have good imaginations for a past time period. A movie has a way of adding facts about a time period without a child having to slave over period details.

Look at my post Homeschool History Teaching Ancient Civilizations Using Netflix.

Four/ Include just one or two other homeschool families.

You don’t have to join a co-op if you want to cover topics specifically geared toward your kids.

By homeschooling with another family, you still add the element of fun that is found in a co-op, share the lesson planning with another homeschool mom but still control what you want to teach.

Plus, it was great to see my kids interact with another homeschool educator. We did a study about the Vikings with another family and between the two of us, we had so many ideas for our kids.

Some of our best times were by including another homeschool family or two.

Five/ One of the best ways is to focus on one subtopic within your unit study or enhance it with a focused subtopic.

A huge mistake in unit studies is covering way too much material.

But too another point is not being able to hone in one of the subtopics in a unit study.

Whether you purchase a unit study or find one that is free, a problem has always been that you’re not able to cover a subtopic deeply within a theme which interests your kids.

Today, I’m over the top excited to announce a new series which will be in my shop and that is Unit Study Enhancers.

What exactly are they? Well they are printables (minibooks and/or notebooking pages) to use for those times when you can’t find a unit study which hones in specifically on a subtopic that you want to cover.

My unit study enhancers will enhance your teaching points.

It’s meant to bring up close a subtopic or topic that you want to highlight within a theme.

Add them to a notebook, lapbook, use with a workbook or include them as a subtopic in a free or purchased unit study because the printables are not a complete unit study, but enhance one.

Too, by giving you options within the product download, they are designed to relieve teacher prep time and to use with multiple ages of children. For instance, some downloads have simple researched printed material to glue onto pages. This allows you to move forward teaching when your time is limited.

Or, you can have your student research his own information and write it in. Where possible, I give one link or more for reference while using the printables.

Unless a topic is specifically geared toward young learners, quality photos and not babyish images are chosen so that older learners can be engaged.

Color and the highest quality graphics I can find are used to diminish the blah of boring printables.

My first Unit Study Enhancer focuses on one of my biggest free unit studies here on my blog and that is The Amazon Rain Forest. The Unit Study Enhancer is about the temperate rain forest. You can read more about it here at my shop.

But you can download it today for only $2.25.

Also, look at my tips at my series 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together.

Hugs and love ya,

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

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Day 4. Ancient Greece (Hands-on Science) 3 EASY Activities

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These activities are geared for middle school, but a high school student that has a science aversion would be engaged too. While studying the ancient civilizations, grab these ideas for an Ancient Greece hands-on science unit study. Click here to add these ideas to your unit study!I have a secret I’ve been keeping. You already know my love for living books, unit studies, history, and hands-on activities. But you may not know that we’ve been using Beautiful Feet’s History of Science this year. Besides the excellent literature they cull through so that I don’t have to, we love the easy hands-on science activities.

These activities are geared for middle school, but a high school student that has a science aversion would be engaged too. While studying the ancient civilizations, grab these ideas for an Ancient Greece hands-on science unit study.

We have been learning how far ahead of their time the Greeks really were when it came to science. We loved reading about Archimedes. I had already studied about Archimedes with my first two sons before I had discovered Beautiful Feet literature. So I was really tickled that I have it for Tiny.

Even though it is written for a middle school level, a living book is written like a story and draws in a reader of any age.

To engage your kids, look at these questions to ask and have your kids write in their notebooks.

►Who was Archimedes?
►What elements did the Ancient Greeks believed that made up the universe?
►What do we know today about the elements that make up our universe?
►What is surface tension?

Ancient Greeks and their Perception of Matter

Next, grab these simple things that you probably have lying around your house because these activities are so quick and easy that you want to include all of your kids.

  • tall glass bottle
  • gauze pad
  • rubber band
  • bowl or glass with water
  • steel paper clip
  • dishwashing liquid
  • food dye
  • a couple of droppers
  • milk at room temperature
  • shallow pan

Then move on to each activity.

ONE/ Understand what is surface tension. Then do this simple activity.

Place a steel paper clip in a glass or bowl. (Yes, I can do that.)

Why does it float? Which is more dense, the water or paper clip?

How to Teach Hands-on  Science Through Living Books

TWO/ Why is the gauze leakproof?

Fill a glass bottle with water. We added food coloring so it could be easier to be seen if it spilled.

Add the gauze over the top and secure with a rubber band. Turn it upside and see what happens.

Why won’t water pour out through a gauze enclosed top? It is held inside by the surface tension of the water.

THREE/ How to break surface tension? Understand that certain substances can break down surface tension.

This next one is a great activity to include the little ones because it has an instant ewwww and awwww moment. Grab a shallow glass pan.

Add room temperature milk.

Choose two food color dyes, get two eye droppers and some dishwashing liquid in a small container.

Then use one dropper to add two food coloring choices. You notice it stays in a circle or really doesn’t break the surface.

Then use the second dropper to add dishwashing liquid and you get immediate action. The colors start to swirl and move.

The colors spread around because the stronger surface tension around the edge of the dish pulls the milk and food coloring outward.

Try a few different colors. It really is an engaging activity. You’ll want to try it again and again.

These easy hands-on activities are a simple way to look at how scientist of the past looked at ancient discovery. Also, we have done plenty of lapbooks on Greece and we’ve added some too from Home School in the Woods that we love.

We have a few more things we have been doing with our History of Science and I can’t wait to show you more.

I’m doing an Ancient Civilizations hands-on history series and you’ll want to look at these other ideas:

Day 1. Ancient Egypt Civilization (Hands-on History): Narmer Crown.
Day 2. Ancient Mesopotamia (Hands-on History): Cook Sebetu Rolls.
Day 3. Ancient Rome (Hands-on History): Paint a Jester.

And look at these other ways we’ve used Beautiful Feet literature.

When We Used Beautiful Feet Books as our History Spine, Medieval History for Homeschool Middle School, and Medieval Chemistry and Homeschool History – Fun Hands-On Activity.

Hugs and love ya,

 

The Ultimate Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest

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

In preparing this ultimate guide to the flora and fauna of the Amazon rainforest, I’ve collect resources to enhance a study of the Rain Forest Amazon by gathering resources that focus just on the flora and fauna of the rain forest.

I fondly remember our family trek in the Amazon Rain Forest while living in South America and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart when learning about it. Having studied the Amazon Rainforest numerous times, we still find fascinating topics to study about.

Because of the sheer number of critters, creatures and creeping things as well as lush plants and trees that exists abundantly in the rain forest, I feel any guide can only touch the fringes of what can be learned. However, I do hope like my other Amazon Rain Forest resources, you’ll find this one equally helpful as you and your kids uncover the fascinating treasures of the Amazon Rain Forest.

Remember to add my HUGE free unit study Tropical Rain Forest – Amazon, or Amazonia in South America, which consists of multiple lapbooks for different ages, Rain Forest – Animals of the Amazon and Tropical Rainforest Amazon Free Resources – Teachers Guides, Crafts, Lesson Plans to this unit study.

The Ultimate Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest

Tropical Rainforest Amazon


Flora of the Amazon Rainforest

Trees of the Amazon Rain Forest

Our Journey Westward

Plants of the Amazon Rain Forest

Our Journey Westward

Fauna of the Amazon Rainforest

Birds of the Amazon Rain Forest

Mammals of the Amazon Rain Forest


Reptiles and Amphibians of the Amazon Rain Forest


Aquatic Life of the Amazon Rain Forest

Insects of the Amazon Rain Forest

The Ultimate Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest

Are you interested in more about the Amazon Rainforest?

Hugs and love ya,

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This blog hop is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutual beneficial projects.

The Ultimate Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest. Learning about the lush plants and fascinating animals of the Amazon Rain Forest makes for a fascinating homeschool unit study. Bring learning alive through hands-on activities, free guides and ideas for learning about the flora and fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest in this Ultimate Guide. Click here!