I was asked a couple of questions in the comments by opheliag.  So I thought I’d take a couple of minutes to answer them.  I was just going to comment back but it was getting pretty long so I decided to post it instead.

When you plan a unit study, do you include all of the subjects in the unit or do you have a separate math, science, language arts, etc. curriculum? Well when I start planning a unit I usually start with just my theme in mind.  I look for all kinds of resources.  When I’m putting it together if I have an activity that is math, science, or language arts orientated I mark it in the unit.  I do this for a couple of reasons.  One so I know to schedule lighter in those other subjects for the week and two so I can also point out to the kids how everything they learn is interrelated.  That we use the things we learn in several areas of our lives.   

Yes I do use a separate curriculum for the other subjects but on the weeks where the unit we are studying seeps into those areas I go a little lighter in the workload for them.  I just don't feel there is enough of the other subjects included to justify not teaching them separately.  But I also don't stress if we don't finish every page of a curriculum because I do cross the subjects in units.  Sometimes I will skip something in a book if it is a repeat of something we already covered in a unit.  This year my history units are heavy in language arts so I’ve picked more direct lighter curriculum for language arts, I’ve also done this because I feel they need more practice in their writing skills.  We do one grammar lesson a week from Winston Grammar, one proofreading lesson from Editor in chief, and one writing lesson from Wordsmith for the older boys and Scott Foresman Writing and Grammar for Peewee.  For spelling they do a page a day with a test on Friday.  It takes them between 15 and 30 minutes to do each lesson.  I’m sure as we progress through the year some of the writing assignments will get tougher and require more time.  The math in the units is usually not enough to make up for a curriculum so I do have them do extra math.  They do math 4 days a week.  We do the science units I made 2 or 3 times a week on top of whatever is required in another unit like history.  I usually try to make the two units coincide with each other.

I do not use a separate handwriting curriculum for them.  For the ones learning cursive I just gradually work in the letters and then have them start doing some of their copywork in cursive.   I have also tried to include critical thinking and reasoning in with the units this year instead of doing something separate.

Do you make lapbooks with all of your unit studies?  No I do lapbooks with preschool through 1^st mainly because they seem to be more fun for them.  When they get older we still do some lapbooking but we tend to do more notebooking, which is similar to a scrapbook.  They put their timelines, biography papers, maps, worksheets, a list of books read, and other things they find interesting in it.  They also like to add clip art, stickers, and color their pages.  They also store their final notebook page in a protective sleeve.  These notebooks are something we add to every year, they are ongoing.  I tend to use these methods mainly for history, science, and Bible because my guys just seem to retain these subjects better this way.  My goal is for them to have an understanding of the material and subject not necessarily to memorize every date.  Yes the dates are important but the lesson from history is far more important.  Those whose do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.