Posted in Unit Studies
Unit Studies are great ways to teach when you have more than one child. I have five children and unit studies allow me to teach them all the same things. I am able to alter and change what each child does depending on their abilities. Example: I can have my 11 yo write a page story, my 9 yo write a few paragraphs, my 6 yo can write a sentence and my 4 yo can draw a picture.
I usually prepare our own unit studies, however there are times I need a break and that is when I'll use Weaver. Even with using Weaver at times we go on plenty of rabbit trails. There are also a lot of good FREE unit studies on the web too.
When I prepare a unit study I get a list of library books that I and the children can read together. I search the internet for information, worksheet pages, games and even other free unit studies about the same subject to see what ideas I can get. Sometimes they can have neat web sites or crafts that I might not think of. The web has a plethora of goodies out there that can be used as aids in our home learning adventures.
When I have my info and my research put together I can then make a goal of what I would like my children to learn. Most times they let me know as most of our units are due to their curiosity. In all our units I try to incorporate geography, writing, reading, math, science, history, projects and art. Then we get busy and have fun. ***Note: there are "how to's" for putting together a unit study, but I don't follow them to a "T".***
I can chart out what we learn, but we never really follow our chart. We get into exploring and having fun learning about a subject that a "schedule" of it gets in the way. The BEST way, I have learned is to allow the Lord to lead where we go in our learning no matter what we are learning about.
