Posts Tagged ‘Unit Studies’
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!
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!
A homeschooling family enjoys having time together but adding in planning for each school year can be time-consuming. Here are some time-saving teaching tips to help give you more family time, and less planning time.
When you schedule a week of school make room for a day to do errands. This can become part of the lessons, or a day of project/research work. Setting aside this time allows you to get things done without feeling the crunch of time constraints. At particularily busy times of the year use unit studies, curriculum that is already set up so there is little or no preparation work but lots of educational benefits. On weekend getaways or family vacations incorporate some lessons on geography, culture, economics and more. Filling in education in these extra places can help alleviate some of the structured work that needs planning. Finally, teach your kids how to organize themselves, find answers for themselves and structure their days, that means you have time to structure yourself without having to worry about keeping them on track.
After a night of trick or treating and a belly full of candy, getting children to concentrate on school work can be a challenge. The trick is to incorporate Halloween into the lessons!
A bag of Halloween candy is a great math manipulative. It can be used for counting, sorting, graphing and more. Even the wrappers can be used for collage art! A health lesson on the good and bad of sugar is another great way to incorporate treats into the lesson plan. Keep out those costumes and use them to act out plays, fairy tales or other stories that has the character in it. Kids will study topics they are interested in so find a thematic unit on Halloween, ghosts, bats or other spooky themes. Bringing Halloween into the lesson plan will take the trickiness out of teaching over-excited children!
Sometimes school work can be boring. If a child is not enjoying the subject or is struggling with the lesson it can be hard to teach them.
Theme units are a great way to beat the boredom. Pick a theme your child enjoys and develop it into a lesson plan. Or find a theme unit that already exists and use it. Because theme units encompass cross-curricular activities all geared to that specific theme, your child can get a well-rounded lesson on something they enjoy. It is amazing how keen they will be to do their school work when pirates or princesses are involved!
Home educators have the ability to allow their children to learn each subject at their own pace. There is no need for specific grade levels across the board. Let’s face it, some subjects are harder for us than others and therefore may take more time to learn, or will be learned at a higher or lower level.
Students who struggle in Math may be advanced in English. Or, someone who enjoys Science may excel at it but not do so well in Geography. These variances in learning levels can be taught through unit studies. A unit study takes a topic of study and offers activities and worksheets across the curriculum. Many unit studies incorporate different levels of learning so that it can be used for various grade levels, or learning levels. They also offer a variety of lesson ideas to expand a child’s knowledge on the subject and a chance to study it further on their own.
A unit study, or thematic unit offers a comprehensive overview of a specific topic. It provides a variety of activities that cover science, math, language arts, social studies and fine arts. A unit on Vikings for example could contain a mapping activity for geography, a saga lesson for language studies, some math questions about how much a Viking ship can carry and more.
Not only do unit studies provide lessons and worksheets across the curriculum but they can also provide lessons for a variety of learning styles and levels. Unit studies are especially helpful for the reluctant learner because they can be about a topic that is a favorite and will therefore make them more willing to learn!