Homeschool Curriculum 2014-2015

This is a milestone homeschooling year for us.  It’s our 15th year!  We started when ds1 was in 4th grade.  Now ds4 will be entering 4th grade.  So this is the fourth and last time that I will be teaching 4th grade.  :)

Ds3 is 13 and will be in 8th grade.  Towards the end of the last school year he just wasn’t giving it is all and seemed to really dislike school.  So we switched him to Time4Learning (which he used for a while a few years back) and he really liked it.  I’m going to let him continue with T4L for now.  Soooo, ds has decided (at the very last minute) that he would rather have books and be taught by me this year.  He thinks it will prepare him better for going to public high school next year.  Nothing like having to put together a complete curriculum at a moments notice lol.

Math  Math Connects
Language  Writing Skills Book 3
Science  Physical Science
History  The American Journey
Geography  Road Trip USA
Reading  Various classics

Ds4 is nine and will be in 4th grade.

Math  Spectrum Math 4
Language  Writing Skills Book A
Science  Harcourt Science 4
History  The Complete Book of US History
Geography  Road Trip USA
Reading  Various classics

Here’s to another fun-filled homeschooling year.  :)

I’m linking this post up to the annual Not Back To School Blog Hop

Lesson Plans 2013-2014

I have a new approach to lesson planning.  I really like the idea of having a full year planned out, but not having to rearrange things when those pesky interruptions from life occur.  It finally occurred to me that I could make up the plans but only put them in my lesson plan book a week, month or whatever at a time.  Let me explain.

I take a subject, open up a Microsoft Works document, and input all the lessons from the resource we are using.  For example, we are using The Nature Connection for nature studies this year.  I wrote out all the individual lessons from the book on my MW document.

I repeat the process with all the subjects.  Yes, even the “next page” daily assignment subjects and workbooks (personally this helps me get familiar with the work and skip some lessons I feel are unnecessary.)  I printed up all these plans and had them bound in a customized planning book.

This is the front of my planner (the Office Depot people put a clear cover on it…not exactly what I wanted.)  In the first section I have our yearly curriculum picks…

Then a reading list and attendance chart for both boys and a calendar and long-term planning page for me.  Next I added in the MW documents with each subject’s lessons.

Then I popped in a neat plastic divider page with a pocket for misc papers.

After this I put a two-page monthly calendar and 5 weekly pages I ripped from a planner from the dollar section of Target.

On these pages I plan out the week, plugging in the plans from the MW document.  Above you see August’s calendar and planning pages.  Then comes another pocket divider and September’s calendar and planning pages, and so on through December.  I like to start fresh with a new planner in January…gives me some incentive and a way to make any necessary changes to the design.

Now some of the resources I am using this year are not physical workbooks but downloaded documents.  These I printed up, put in page protectors, and assembled in a binder.  This way they are always handy and ready when we are.

Here are the lessons for our science unit on electricity.  In the back of this large binder I keep other homeschooling related materials…

such as a printed list of our book collection (compiled at Library Thing) and my copies of our yearly evals.  This system has so far helped me be as prepared as possible without going overboard.

Homeschool Planning 2013-2014 Part III: Curriculum

I sat down the other day and planned out the boys’ course of study for the new school year.  It was surprisingly easier this time around.  I even managed to order the necessary supplies off Amazon and they have already arrived.  Part of me is really pleased with how well things are going so far…part of me is afraid, very afraid.  ;)
Ds3 12yo 7th grade
Math  Abeka Basic Math, work on multiplication with 5x5 does not equal 10
Language   Writing Skills book 2
Science  Tops Science units on electricity and chemistry to begin with
History  Complete Book of US History
Geography  continue Trail Guide to World Geography
Nature  The Nature Connection
Reading  various classic books
Ds4 8yo 3rd grade
Math  Abeka work on basic skills with 2 plus 2 does not equal 5
Language  Writing Skills book A, continue Explode the Code series
for all the other subjects ds4 will follow along with ds3
I have some PE, art and music courses that we have tried and dropped (or not even tried at all) that I’ll try once again to implement.  For whatever reason, those three subjects have never really taken hold in our schedule.  Maybe this is the year…

Homeschool Planning 2013-2014 Part I

Dear Lord, is it really that time of year again?  We are wrapping up the current “school year'’ and that means we must plan out the next one.  Ack, ick, and ugh.  Best to approach this like getting into a cold pool…just dive on in, honey.  I’m going to first review all the resources we used for this year and decide what worked, what bombed and what I completely forgot I had.  Sadly, that happens more than I like to admit.

Math:  Both boys started off with the appropriate level of Math Mammoth, and worked together on the Clock and Money workbooks.  We are finishing off the year with Abeka.  Math Mammoth is great, and I would use it again, it’s just that there are too many levels and subjects.  With Abeka there is one book covering a whole year in an orderly fashion.

Language Arts:  Ds3 (12yo 6th grade) has been following a free program I found online, Scott Foresman Grade Six Grammar and Reading.  It has been just what we needed, a simple approach to grammar and how to use it in writing.  I bought First Language Lessons and All About Spelling for ds4 (8yo 2nd/3rd grade) and regret both.  We did a few of the FLL lessons and enjoyed them, but they are SUPER repetitive and slow.  I never even did one lesson with ABS.  Too complicated!  Index cards, little letter magnets, too much effort and learning on my part.  I learned that ds4 did great just listening in on ds3’s lessons.  Also used a word a day vocabulary program.

Geography:  I bought Trail Guide to World Geography and the companion workbook for both boys to use.  We got off to a late start with this as it is not terribly user friendly.  I seriously couldn’t figure out how to plan our days and how to set up the notebook at first, but now we are in a good groove and really enjoy the series.  (This is the one I forgot I had lol.  Fortunately, the lady who owns the site gave me a refund when I purchased it the second time.)

History:  Confession time.  We did a few lessons to continue on with our SOTW series (book 2) but when our lives got a little hairy and I had to pare down the subjects I covered, history was dumped.  I had the chance to pick back up with it earlier this year, but honestly we are all bored with the curriculum and the subject matter.  It’s time to move on.  Since it was an election year we did do a unit on elections and one on the Olympics.

Reading:  As always, I pick several age appropriate classic books to read to the boys and we have casual discussion based lessons based on the books.  I let the boys pick the last few selections themselves (Robin Hood and My Side of the Mountain) to round out the year.

Science:  I had planned on doing a few themed units instead of following a prescribed curriculum.  We did cover weather, dinosaurs and magnets but I did not plan ahead enough and when life got tough, science was one of the subjects we dropped for a while.  I will plan more in advance this time.

PE:  I purchased Family Time Fitness Basketball and we did about 10 of the lessons.  It’s okay but still not the thing I’m looking for in  a PE program.

I think despite the trials and tribulations of the past year, we had a pretty good homeschooling season.  Time now to prepare for the next stage.

Homeschool Book Organization

So, continuing on with Preparation H.  Yesterday I completed the two-day task of organizing all the books we use for homeschooling.  I now know every book in this house.  :)  Since I have the memory of a 45yo woman, I catalogued our collection for future reference.  I used Library Thing, an online catalogue for your books.  I have had an account with them for years.  It’s cheap, easy to navigate and has plenty of useful features.  When I was on The Homeschool Crew I was given a copy of Book Collector, but I will tell you now that Library Thing is much much more user friendly.  Much.  Specifically for me, I could easily tag and group book collections.  I have a “children’s library” collection for the kids’ fiction and a “homeschool resources” collection for reference and curriculum items.  It is easy enough to input books in each program, but with Library Thing it only takes a click of the mouse to group, tag, delete, etc.  Here is the lay of the land for our organized book collection.  Fanfare, please…

899999uAQ0000000000000000000N  (um, I walked away from my computer for a minute and came back to this.  My cat Ellie apparently had something important to add.)

This is a 5 shelf big plastic thing in the schoolroom.  The reference items and curriculum are stored here.  I have them grouped loosely by subject and put in labeled magazine holders.  (In the dollar section at Target right now, hurry, that is a STEAL.)  Each item is in my “homeschool resources” collection on Library Thing and tagged with appropriate descriptions of their contents.  Now when we do a study of something I can search the tags in my collection and go right to the box the resource is stored in.

This is my super duper had it for YEARS custom bookshelf courtesy of dh.  The kids’ fiction is stored here, grouped as best as I could and taking up two shelves.  The rest are MINE, ALL MINE!  Sorry, I get a little crazy about my books. 

I printed up a listing of both collections.  The fiction list I printed in a plain list form, title and author.  The homeschool resources list is printed with a small pic of the cover, title, author and tags.  I can easily refer to these lists and even take them with me when I am shopping or at a book sale to make sure I don’t already have a title.  And yes, while doing this project  I found 5 different books that we had more than one copy of.  Never again!  This was quite time consuming and ever so a little boring but completely worth the effort in the end.

Preparation H

That got your attention, huh?  Really, it’s not what you think.  I’m talking about homeschool preparations people!  Preparation(s for) H(omeschool.)  Yeah, the heat is finally getting to me.  ;)

So, in hopes of starting the 2012-2013 school year next month, and doing a better job of it than last year, I have been in deep, deep preparation mode.  I have to say that last year’s schooling was a dud…I blame burnout, getting old and all the additives they put in fast food.  I want to do better by my boys this year so, despite a lingering lackluster feeling, I am making myself get ready to have a productive, organized, fulfilling homeschool year!  (Go Me!)

I started this endeavor in our hall closet.  Isn’t that where we all start our homeschool planning?  Actually, the hall closet is where I store various supplies for our schooling.  Here is the before.  Brace yourselves.

Well, more accurately, this is the during.  I pulled all the stuff out of the three drawer bin thing, sat on that little stepstool and purged and sorted.  Note the fan at the end of the hall.  I was melting, people, melting!  Basically what I did was toss old, broken and empty items and put the remainder in zippered storage bags, labeled with the contents. Then I put said bags in plastic bins.

This is everything from craft sticks, wooden shapes, feathers, beads, streamers, clothespins, cotton balls (oh, so many cotton balls), pom poms, etc. etc. etc.  Now, when I need an item for a project or craft I can easily see what we already have on hand.  They are no longer all swimming in those drawers, mingling and planning revolutions.  (When left to their own devices, craft items will do that, you know.)

Now the top drawer holds our science supplies (beakers and whatnot), the middle drawer has paints, glues and glitters, and the bottom drawer holds the larger sized plastic bags of goodies…items like dowels or pipe cleaners.  Purty, isn’t it?

Holy cow, you can actually walk through the hallway now.  Without tripping.  Or getting ambushed by wayward craft supplies.  All is good.  I am contemplating making some sort of list of all the supplies on hand.  That would be the organized homeschool mom’s response, right?

Schoolroom Version 2011-2012

The “schoolroom” has certainly evolved over our 11 years of homeschooling.  For the past few years our dining room has undergone a gradual but persistent transformation into schoolroom.  Here are some pics of this year’s version.

Looking into the room from our living room.  Dh’s desk is on the left, mine on the right.  The window faces the street in front of our house.

The cubbie under the window is a new addition.  It will be home to things related to our current monthly theme.  Right now, the theme is oceans and the unit houses related books and our “discovery/sensory” bin.

Looking out from the schoolroom into the living room.  There is the table where the boys do most of their work and another new addition next to the table…a computer station for ds3.  A close up of the little supply caddie I finally got around to making.  Just bought a cheap lazy Susan and had ds2 hot glue on some cute holders from Target’s dollar section.  Very handy.  Although I could use some creative ideas for what to do with that bucket of crayons, it’s so messy and unorganized.

The view from the entryway into the dining room.  (Please take note of our school uniform policy…you must either be shirtless or in your pajamas.  We are pretty strict about that one.)  Close up of yet another new addition, a giant shelf for all our resources.  Up until I got this, all our books and other resources were stowed away in the hall closet.  It kept things looking neat as we could close the closet door and no one is the wiser, but over time I kept forgetting exactly what resources I had and failed to use them.  So now they are out in the open and readily available.  The top shelf holds reference type resources (and our collection of refillable Icee cups,) the second shelf has three holders for storing ds3, ds4 and my own current curriculum, the third shelf holds books sorted by subject, and the bottom shelf holds art and science supplies.

This is the door next to the shelf, that leads into the kitchen.  We added a dry erase board (love it!  bought a magnetic eraser and cup to hold the markers.)  On the wall next to the door I put up a pocket chart and cute wooden perpetual calendar (both Target dollar section finds.)  The pocket chart holds the calendar fact cards from Carissa at 1+1+1=1. 

My desk.  In the file drawer I have 36 folders that contain all the worksheets and other papers for each week’s lessons.  Tons, tons, tons of work to prepare that much in advance, but I am hoping it will all be worth it.  Please, oh let it be worth it lol.

Our kitten Ellie.  The best new addition to the schoolroom of all.  :)  I’m linking this to the Not Back To School blog hop at Heart of the Matter online.

Not Back To School Blog Hop

This hop lasts all month with a new theme each week and is hosted at Heart of the Matter Online.  I’ve done this hop since 2009, pretty cool, huh?  This week we are to wax eloquent on our curriculum choices for the year.  Let me just start with our homeschooling facts for this year…I’ll be schooling two, my 10yo 5th grader and 6yo 2nd grader.  Both boys have October birthdays and are in fact kind of “between” grades right now, but saying they are in 5th and 2nd is easier for everyone else.  ;)  Let’s start with ds3, shall we?

Ds3, 10yo, 5th grade

Math Mammoth
Writing Tales
Vocabulary Word of the Day
Elemental Science  Earth/Space
Daily Geography
HWT
For reading I always choose some classic books to study and usually can find a few lesson plans to go along with each on the internet.  This year we will cover

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. James and the Giant Peach
3. The Mouse and the Motorcycle
4. Stuart Little
5. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
6. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil

We are finishing up SOTW vol1 and then moving on to some U.S. History.  I was going to go straight to SOTW vol2, but came across the neat US study and thought it would be a great tie-in with our presidents study.
Ds is finishing up his states study and will move on to a presidents study.  I was going to have him do a notebook like he did with the states, but found a workbook in the dollar section at Target (along with flashcards and a puzzle) and figured it will do just as well (and save me a lot of time and ink and paper.)
Famous Artists study
Outdoor Hour nature study

Ds4, 6yo, 2nd grade

Math Mammoth
First Language Lessons
Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
HWT
Explode the Code
You Can Read
Ds4 will sit in on ds3’s history, science, artist and nature studies.  I am still working on coming up with a FIAR type literature plan for him.

We have a few fun extras for this year, including a very neat calendar idea and “sensory bins,” both from Carissa.  We will probably call our bins imagination bins or something, as my boys are both a little old for sensory development.

And there you have it!  Today was our first day of school!  Very light, just getting back into the swing of things (as in mom still hasn’t finished all the lesson planning yet.)  Well, and the fact that our science books haven’t arrived either.  But none of that matters, we homeschool!  :)

Hey, somebody better enter this giveaway I’m hosting or I’ll just have to keep them for myself!!  Enter now, get a jump on Christmas.

50 States Study

We are doing a U.S. states study this year, tackling one or two states per week. 

We are going to put all our info and worksheets into a notebook.  At the beginning of the notebook there will be a blank map of the states.  One of the boys will color in whichever state we are studying.  I’ve decided to go in order of admittance.  This way they can see how the country developed over the years.

I am using Jimmie’s worksheets she designed when her daughter did a states study.

For page 1 I found some state outline maps to use here until ds is more comfortable trying to draw the outline in the appropriate box himself.  I found state flag stickers at Rainbow Resource.

There are two blank sections on page 2 of the worksheet.  In the bottom one we will paste a pic of the state bird/state flower to color (found at homeschool share for free or at Notebookpages.com for a small fee.)  In the other one we will put a sticker of the state license plate.  I found pics of the plates here and printed them up on sticker paper.

I thought they turned out pretty good!  There is also a spot for making a rubbing of the state quarter (maybe get a collection going?) but I also found images of the quarters here that I printed up on sticker paper as well for when we can’t get our hands on a certain quarter.

I signed up for a postcard exchange on a homeschool board I am part of and we have already received cards from 13 different states.

Here are some of the books we will be using.

I also signed up at About.com for their free email course, “Our Great 50 States.”  Every week I get a newsletter with links to printables and lesson plans for 2 different states.  The course follows order of admittance as well so it’s very timely for us.  Our favorite part of the email course is the recipe suggestion for each state.  So far we’ve enjoyed milkshakes and smores while learning about the states…um, can you say, “Homeschooling rocks!”?  :)

4th Grade Homeschool Revisited

I do so love a blog hop, especially one where I get to peek into other homeschooler’s lives and see what they have going on.  Heart of the Matter is hosting the Not Back-to-School hop this year for the next 4 weeks.  This week we share about curriculum choices.  I posted in June about the decisions I made for ds3’s 4th grade, but that was based on our failed attempt at year-round schooling and I have since revised our plans.

Math    Mathletics  We tried this out for a while last year and ds did well with it.  We needed some time away from workbooks and ds enjoys  computer work.

Language    Spectrum Grade 4  I am a big fan of Abeka for language arts but this Spectrum series does a fine job as well.  Used it last year with ds with great success.  It’s thorough but not too repetitive.

Reading    I always have my boys read classic books and do some comprehension questions and various activities with them.  For the first nine weeks we will cover Stone Fox, Charlotte’s Web, James and the Giant Peach, Boxcar Children, Chalk Box Kid, Mouse and the Motorcycle, and Muggie Maggie.

Science    McWiz Kid  I’ve covered life and earth sciences with ds so far and this series is a fun way to approach the physical science subjects.  Lots of hands on experiments that are fun and informative.

History    Story of the World  We did the first few chapters of this during our summer studies and so far I like it a lot!

Geography    a study of the 50 states  I’ve put together a post detailing this and will put it up soon.

Nature    Outdoor Hour

Art     Lessons pulled from here and here

Writing    Write Shop C  This looks so promising for ds, a very reluctant writer.

I am getting pretty excited about this year with ds3.  When we started homeschooling with ds1 oh so many years ago it was his 4th grade year, so this will be my third time to teach 4th grade!  I am back to the drawing board with ds4, however, so I won’t be posting my plans with him just yet.  I look forward to hopping around and seeing what everyone is doing this year.  :)

Year Round Schooling Revisited

Sigh.  I had all good intentions of schooling through the summer this year.  I really had a good feeling about it, that it was what we were supposed to do…and we did have 3 good weeks in June.  But then life, as always, got in the way.  Holidays, get-togethers, weddings, dh deciding out of the blue to take a week off before his two week long business trip (“I hope this won’t mess up your schedule” he says.  Rrright.)  So now I am rethinking the whole “summer school” or year round issue and planning on starting back in August.  Not the first week as that is the one dh will be off.  Probably not the second week as that will be the week before he leaves for his trip and the week before ds2 goes back to high school.  Sigh.  So a probable start the third week of August, when I will be busy getting ds2 settled into Sophomore year and dh will be in California.  Yeah, that sounds about right.  Well, at least I can say we gave the year round thing a try and that, this time at least, it just didn’t work for us.  I also got a feel for how the resources I picked for the boys would work out (some did, some did not.)   Now I guess I have all the time in the world to nail down lesson plans for “next year.”  :)

4th Grade Homeschool

I think I’ve about nailed down what ds3 will be using this school year for 4th grade. It’s a real mix of old, new, borrowed, blue…wait, wait, that’s something else entirely! Anyway, here is a peek at the plans.

Math: Mathletics It was a real toss up between this and Teaching Textbooks, and Mathletics won out because of price. I knew I wanted a computer based program this year for ds3 as he and I are both frustrated with the workbooks.

Language: Spectrum Language 4 I was very pleased with Spectrum Language this year and found it to be as thorough as Abeka without being as repetitive.

Writing: Spectrum Writing 4 Hoping it’s as good as the language workbook.

Science: McWizKid and Real Science Odyssey We used McWizKid with ds2 last year and really liked it. After we go through McWizKid we will give Real Science Odyssey a go.

History: Story of the World This is my first time using this one. So far it looks promising. I am liking the lessons laid out for me, the resources I have been able to find online, and the story-telling approach to history.

Geography: Finishing up Galloping the Globe and starting a study of the 50 states

Nature: Outdoor Hour Been using this for years now, the boys and I all love it.

Art: Art Adventures at Home First time with this one, we’ll see.

Spelling: Spelling Wisdom Ds3 is just not one to memorize lists of words and this approach seems doable for him…will also help with his handwriting and listening skills (I hope.)

Edited July 27, 2010. No formal spelling this year. Writing will be Write Shop C.

It would seem I am taking a turn toward the classical approach this year, but I still consider us an eclectic bunch in the end. We began this homeschooling journey 11 years ago using Abeka and a traditional approach all the way (actually that lasted about 2 months before I started tweaking the Abeka stuff to our liking lol.) Now we are about as mixed up as you can get, using whatever we find that works for us (that we like and can afford lol.) I am deep into the lesson planning portion of all this now and will offer up more details as they become available. :)

Been There, But Haven’t Done That

I am going to nearby Mobile this weekend for a homeschool convention!  It’s a one day deal with speakers, workshops and a used book sale.  I am what you might call too excited lol!  Dh and the boys want to tag along, something about visiting the battleship and keeping busy.  The convention is from 9-4 and I’ll be busy during almost all that time so I hope they do find a way to keep themselves entertained (other than going  through the tunnel over and over…does that never wear off?)  I have been working on finalizing our plans for next year’s homeschool and hope to get most all I need at the convention…although this is a “first annual” event and may turn out to be small or not so helpful but we’ll see.  Seems like Saturday can’t get here quick enough!

Some Women Buy Shoes

Me, I go crazy in the homeschool consignment shop lol!  I am so very blessed to have this wonderful resource available, it’s called Roland Inc. and it’s run by a fellow homeschool mom (click on the link, the store is now online!)  She only opens the physical store in the afternoons because of course she is homeschooling during the day.  I’ve been going there since we first started homeschooling 11 years ago.  The owner is so kind and helpful and her shop has really helped me keep the cost of homeschooling reasonable.  I went there yesterday to pick up an Explode The Code book for ds4 but came away with these goodies as well…

I have wanted Around The World In 80 Tales to go along with our Galloping the Globe studies all year and finally found it!  The little butterfly book is all color and features one butterfly per page.

It seems that math is the subject that I just can’t seem to nail down for ds3.  I was excited to find a Calvert math workbook to try.  I also picked up the Great States game and a U.S. Presidents fact sheet for our studies next year.

On the way out I spied this!  A complete curriculum for 1st grade, with very detailed daily lesson plans, bonus activities and correlating worksheets.  They don’t print this series anymore (a shame if you ask me) so it’s not only hard to find but expensive as well.  Got mine for $8!  Ds3 is obsessed with the Magic Tree House series and very excited to find 3 more to add to his collection (only $1 each!)  And yes, I did actually pick up the Explode The Code book I went in for lol.

I am excited as the next few months area homeschoolers like me wind things down, go through their resources and bring in more consignment materials to the store.  Next time I plan to bring a good detailed list of the topics I want to cover next year…I remembered about the presidents and states, but couldn’t recall what else to look for and started getting overwhelmed.  So anyone else have a neat little place like this to blow their dough?  :)

Homeschool Unit Studies: Solar System Example

I mentioned in my homeschool planning posts that I like to do unit studies for the boys’ science and history.  For us it is just more fun, more hands on and more memorable than following a textbook.  Now I call what we do “unit study” but that may not be an exact description for what we do.  Here is the “definition” of a unit study according to Amanda Bennett (kind of a pioneer and expert on unit study.)

It is defined as an in-depth study of a topic (space, trees, cars, etc.) that takes into account many areas of the topic, such as geography, science, history, art, etc. It is a complete immersion into the topic so that the student will see things as a "whole" instead of bits and pieces learned throughout their education.

For me a unit study just means that I pick a topic and we do a thorough study of it using a main reference book, some fun books about the topic (Magic Tree House or Magic School Bus series for example) a lapbook if available, visiting some internet sites, some hands on activities and crafts.  A true “unit study” would include lessons in all subject areas including math, history, etc.  I may or may not include those kinds of lessons and don’t depend on a unit study as our main curriculum for these subjects,  but just to enhance them.  Am I making any sense here?  A graph of the pay scale of a fireman may be part of a math lesson in a unit study on firemen, but I don’t consider that our main math lesson of the day like a true unit study is intended.

Anywho, recently I did a unit study on space with my boys.  We used these books for reference and for our reading lessons.

All of these were already in our personal library.  I found a free lapbook from Homeschoolshare.com and printed up the pieces I wanted to use with the boys.  Ds3 doesn’t like the folder aspect of lapbooks, so I put the pieces in a journal/scrapbook type book for him.  I find things go smoother if I cut out and paste the pieces ahead of time and just let him fill in the info.

When planning these studies I use this planning form from Donna Young.  For this unit I decided to cover general info on the solar system the first day (kind of an introduction) and then cover the sun, moon, and individual planets following how one of our books laid this info out.  So one day we would learn all about the sun, first by reading our reference book pages, then filling in a few lapbook components, maybe doing an experiment on shadows outside, visiting a few websites and then finishing up with a craft.  Next we would cover the moon in a similar fashion.  Depending on how many activities I have planned, we may spend a week or more on any given subject.

Sometimes I can find a good unit study already planned out for me (I call this homeschool nirvana!) by searching the internet (just type in the subject and the words “unit study”.)  Most of the time I can’t (I’m not really all that picky am I?)  And I am the first to admit it takes a lot of time and effort to plan these units.  Especially when the week is over and I am faced with another weekend spent planning another unit!  Plus when I am researching for a topic I always find way too much stuff to cover and get overwhelmed by it all quickly.  But my boys really enjoy this method of study and I find that they not only learn more but retain more as well.

I hope this helped someone, anyone out there (there is someone out there I hope lol) who is thinking of using “unit studies” in their homeschooling.  Please remember, the number one rule for homeschool planning is THERE ARE NO RULES!  Mix and match, pick and choose, adapt any and all curriculum to suit you and your children.  The end.