Posts Tagged ‘Unit Studies’
In search of a unit study
My unit studies are a way to combine education plus fun. They start with an interesting topic, then as the child learns more about the topic they will also learn aspects of English, Art, Math, Geography, Science and more. The idea is to get kids interested in learning by making learning fun.
I started writing unit studies when homeschooling my youngest son. He was not the type of child who like to sit and read. It was a bit more of a challenge teaching him as his attention span was not long. So at first I created a unit study about Pirates. He was thrilled to learn about pirates, to read about Blackbeard, figure out weights according to cannon ball size, draw a wanted poster and even learn map and compass skills. And so, we continued with Soldiers Through Time which was a seven module unit study that ranged in history from Ancient Roman Soldiers to Soldiers of World War II.
After helping my son get interested in learning I thought maybe the unit studies could help others enjoy learning too! And so came a unit study on Spies, one on Cowboys and Superheroes as well as a three part unit study on Forts Across Canada. These unit studies became known as Education with a Bang series to help add excitement to education, specifically for boys.
Fashion Through Textiles, a four part unit study featuring wool, silk, cotton and linen as well as the unit study on Herbolgy are part of the new line of unit studies which would be more appealing to girls but equally combine fun with education.
I continue to create unit studies and have many ideas in my head for new ones but sometimes I am not sure which one to start next. Constellations and the Mythology behind them sounds very interesting. What about the History of Pets and how they became domesticated? Or what about Biomimicry – technology inspired by nature?
I just love to research the various topics and put them into a fun and interesting unit study that will help inspire children to learn. One 11 year-old boy who was reviewing Science Inspired by Superheroes was blown away by the fact that you could learn science from superheroes and chose to do the unit study instead of play on the Wii! What a great reward!
And so I continue, finding interesting topics to put into fun and educational unit studies – always on the look out for new ideas!
Sandra Wilson is an experience home educator that is dedicated to putting the fun back into education!
You can view the full list of completed unit studies at http://www.homeeducationresourceemporium.com/unit-studies!
Do You Squidoo?
Have you discovered Squidoo yet? This a great site where homeschoolers have been putting their unit studies and lesson ideas, along with pictures from their lessons – all to help other homeschoolers! There are a variety of themes and ideas and some encouragement as well. It is
The Homeschool Club is a part of Squidoo. It features lenses specific to and written by homeschooling families. They have a directory of lessons, some homeschooling success stories and great advice on college and more!
It is a place to find resources for homeschooling, by homeschoolers, for homeschooler!
And, more and more unit studies are being written for The Homeschool Club every day!
They also encourage writing a lens or two of your own. It has an easy to use template to add text, pictures, website links, amazon products and many other inclusions that can make your lens complete.
One lens is even devoted to how to write a lens for them. It says:
The Homeschool Club Wants YOU to Write About Homeschooling!
Find out more, and get some great lesson ideas, by checking out the homeschool club on squidoo!
Anyone with more than one child can compare and contrast their children. They may have similar mannerisms yet opposing interests and sometimes you may wonder how two could have sprung from the same womb! Children are different, they have different interests, different focuses and different learning styles. So too, must the teaching style for them be different.
My first child was pretty easy to homeschool. He was a book kid, loved worksheets and would sit for hours working on a project. My second child is not as keen of a reader, would prefer not to have to write and won’t sit for hours to do anything. These differences are not a variance in intelligence, just in how and what they learn.
With both children, one of the main things I did was teach what interested them. My eldest son studied Medieval history at least five times. Each time had a different focus, an increased measure of learning and new projects to work on. The younger son enjoyed Medieval History as long as he was reading about knights, catapults and the siege of a castle, but really only wanted to study it once. And so, while one child created graphs about the plague, the other crafted medieval weapons from cardboard, tinfoil and duct tape. Since each activity was premised with a discussion or reading about the time period the history lesson was still being taught, just in different styles.
The older child struggled a bit with math, but when lessons involved money, things made sense! And so, many math lessons allowed counting, converting and problem solving with money. The youngest struggled with geography but enjoyed cooking. So, we travelled the world learning about common foods and recipes found in the various countries.
Free yourself from the “typical” school regime, especially with a more active, reluctant student. Create lessons through field trips, music, crafts, athletics and unit studies that fill the needs of each student. This encourages them to learn because they enjoy the subject, and the manner with which it is taught!
Sneak Peek – Soldiers Through Time unit study
Education with a BANG suggests that when teaching active boys, incorporate a subject they love and develop it into a lesson that will help them learn the basics.
The Soldiers Through Time unit study has 7 modules – each module covers soldiers in one particular time period.
Each module can be downloaded separately so you can enhance you unit of study.
Here is what is being said about this exclusive unit study!
The American Civil War
When the Kansas territory had the opportunity to join the Union as either a free state (no slavery) or a slave state many people from both sides of the debate rushed to Kansas to try to influence the vote. As a result there were violent clashes.
Then, when Abraham Lincoln, who was against slavery, won the election in November 1860 making him president of the Union, the southern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the Union. A month after the election South Carolina seceded (broke away from the Union). Soon after Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana. Georgia and Texas also split from the Union. These colonies formed their own country – The Confederate States of America. Eventually they were joined by Virginia (eastern half), Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky.
On the next page – colour the map of the United States to show the Confederate States (red) and the Union States (blue)
Explorers made great discoveries – So can you!
Christopher Columbus took a risk and found the “New World”. Magellan took a risk and did not fall off the end of the Earth but went all the way around it. These explorers dreamed up an idea, followed it through and became great explorers.
Homeschoolers can be explorers too. Although there are the basic subjects to build a foundation like English and Math, home educators can explore other subjects of interest and curiosity and add them to their lesson plans. School curriculum does not cover espionage but homeschoolers can. Explore the world of spies learning geography, history, science and more. What about herbology? The study of plants used as medicine is another interesting yet not required course to study.
It is important to explore many subjects and interests in order for your child to make an informed decision on what they may want to pursue as a career. It is also more interesting for the child to discover topics that they are curious about.
Bringing up a family should be an adventure, not an anxious discipline in which everybody is constantly graded for performance.
– Milton R. Saperstein
Explore the world, one subject at a time and increase the education of your child while also satisfying their curiosity!
Snips and snails and puppy dog tails – that’s what little boys are made of. It is true boys and girls are different. The same can be said for how they learn.
While many girls enjoy the audio-visual aspects of learning including reading, writing and storytelling, many boys prefer the kinesthetic, hands-on aspects of learning. Anyone who has been around an active little boy understands the struggle any teacher would have with making that boy sit still for lessons. Keeping them still and focused is a challenge for most of their education.
These boys (and sometimes girls) need to be offered education that keeps them moving, having fun and learning, all rolled into one. This can be accomplished through use of manipulatives, learning games, field trips and experiments. Making it a more enjoyable learning environment will help these boys learn better, and achieve higher results. Creating lessons around topics they enjoy can also add to a beneficial learning experience. Dirt and mud and gross things are often inspiring to little boys and can keep their attention through a lesson. Superheroes are characters of interest to many little boys (and big boys too) and so can be used to inspire creative writing, science experiments and even math problems.
Education with a BANG suggests that when teaching active boys, incorporate a subject they love and develop it into a lesson that will help them learn the basics of education like math, science, history, english and geography. Not only will it ease the stress on the teacher, but it will benefit the child who will then love to learn!
Exclusive Education with a Bang unit studies are available right now at www.homeeducationresourceemporium.com/unit-studies
Look for the unit studies on soldiers, pirates, spies and more and put some BANG into your lessons.
Making Mountains out of Mole Hills
So, the first mountain you have climbed led you to the decision to homeschool your child. It sure was an uphill battle but at last you have reached the top and feel accomplished.
So now, your child would like to learn about car mechanics, or magpies or even mustard plants. But you don’t know about any of those things! In this case, there really isn’t a mountain to climb. It is just a little hill that can easily be reached by a little reading and research. Look to the library for books on the subject, or find some unit studies and workbooks to help you plan a lesson. Ask people in the neighbourhood or family that have had experience with the subject and just get in there and learn it together!
Homeschooling does have its share of mountains to climb, but teaching subjects that are unfamiliar doesn’t have to be one of them. You may be surprised how much you learn, and enjoy learning in the process!
Here is a small sample of what the new Herbology unit study has to offer!
All over the world ancient peoples have dug up, dried out, chewed, crushed, rubbed and brewed plants, and through trial and error, discovered their healing powers.It is this knowledge that we use today for our herbal healing remedies.
Over 5, 000 years ago the Sumerians of Western Asia discovered medicinal uses for such plants as laurel, caraway, and thyme. From there medicinal knowledge developed into Egypt where many herbs were used in the mummification process. They also used onion and garlic to strengthen the body and mint for stomach upset. In fact, he world’s oldest surviving medical text, discovered in Egypt’s Valley of the Tombs in 1874, listed 876 herbal formulas made from more than 500 plants.
Sometimes, herbal healers could be as much of a killer than the healer. Herbal remedies could also be poisons, especially during the hostile time of the Roman Empire.The study of poisons though could also bring about antidotes against the poisons. This was the type of herbal knowledge gained by the Romans.
After the fall of Rome, European medicine became a focus of the Catholic Church. Officially, the church viewed sickness as punishment from God that could only be healed with prayer and penance. In the monasteries however, the monks were copying the ancient herbal texts. The Benedictine monks adopted the Arab practice of transferring the healing powers of herbs to alcohol and flavoured wines with herbs.
From 1300 to 1650 C.E.the view of the healer changed drastically. People (specifically women) who practiced herbal medicine and made herbal remedies were deemed witches and often burned at the stake. These witch-hunts were made worse when bad doses of herbal remedy caused poisonings and deaths among the patients. Although herbalism was not wiped out during these witch-hunts, much of the knowledge became secretive.
When Europeans came to the New World, they met healthy and strong Natives. Many that experienced native herbal healing were impressed with how quick and flawless they were. Even some early American doctors apprenticed to native herbalists. Native healers, called Shaman, relied on the energies of the herbs mixed with the powers of the spirits to guide them with healing.
Colonists, armed with the knowledge of the native healing herbs, would often grow both medicinal and culinary herbs in their own gardens. Many pioneer gardens were filled with vegetables as well as herbs for cooking, healing and even dying clothing. Along with herbal remedies, pioneers were offered special elixirs that “cure” everything from arthritis to headaches. Charlatans (tricksters) would offer snake oil, magic elixirs and liniments to cure what ailed you. Usually they had so much alcohol in them that a ‘cure’ seemed to happen, or at least you felt better for a while. These “fake” doctors became known as quacks because usually what they sold had no medicinal value.
Create an advertisement for your cure-all medicine.
For the complete unit study go to www.homeeducationresourceemporium.com/unit-studies
There are no rules, that is the beauty of homeschooling. Working one-on-one with your child will allow you to determine the best way for them to learn, and then you can teach it appropriately.
If your child does not like to read, offer stories in comic book form, you can get classics, Shakespeare, even the history of the world in this form. Comics break up the words with pictures making reading easier for reluctant readers.
If your child likes hockey bring that into your lesson plan. A unit study on a specific subject that the child likes not only covers the curriculum but also inspires them to learn because they are learning about something they are interested in.
If your child is an auditory learner, work in some audio books, computer games and music to the lessons so that they have the best chance to learn. Likewise, visual learners and kinesthetic learners can be taught to their learning style.
If your child is struggling with a concept, or is not liking a particular subject, tweak it so that the lessons will be more interesting, or easier for them to understand.
With homeschoooling you can take the time to determine how best to teach lessons to your child. You can cater to their interests, their likes and their dislikes. You can make education fun and important to them – that should be the only rule!
Instant Lessons!
Downloadable ebooks are a great way to have instant lessons! Find the book, add it to your cart, download and print!
Downloading workbooks is time-saving, money-saving and paper-saving because you need only to print the pages you want. It gives you a great opportunity to fill in lessons with ready-made worksheets, templates and more. Even novels can be downloaded which can be great when there is a hard to find or popular book to be read for that lesson. Sometimes it is worth downloading a book to see if it is worth buying it for keeps. Audiobooks can also be downloaded to a computer or MP3 player, allowing for stories on the go, or to help the audio learner. Downloadable ebooks make quick and easy lesson plans with just a couple of clicks of the mouse!