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kbfsc
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| Posted: July 06 2009 at 7:46am | IP Logged
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Hi All,
I'm new to posting, pretty new to homeschooling and brand new to unit studies... but feel a definite call to light my second grade son's little educational fire through unit studies. It's a step in faith for this mama who likes a syllabus and lesson plans in hand - but exciting!
He's been interested in World War II for a while. We've done planes (he illustrated a huge, old bookkeepers' book with the planes, battles, and flags completely on his own!) and now he's on warships. Has anyone done a unit study on warships? Any suggestions from you brilliant, experienced moms? Other topics you have had success with your boys with would be interesting to me, too, but especially the nuts and bolts of putting something like this together.
I'm thinking history, going all the way back to ancient warships and the cultures that produced them; geography goes right along; maybe a little about the design and structure of the most effective warships (I dream of experiments and models in the bathtub, but wonder if I'm a little over the top there); introducing some research techniques, like using an encyclopedia; introducing a historical timeline; he's a natural artist, so I'm sure we'll have great illustrations; and ...
I have no idea where to go for some good "living" books on the topic.
As an aside, I have a little girl in kindergarten (absolutely no idea how to interest her in this study. No princesses or sparkles), a 2 1/2 year old little guy and number four arriving in 6-8 weeks.
Blessings! And thank you!
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Maryan
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| Posted: July 06 2009 at 9:09am | IP Logged
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Hey that sounds like fun! I've never done WWII, but I have a winter promise catalog that seems to have some books about it. But they are just images of books that look like WWII books?? You might be able to see if they list them on their website.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 06 2009 at 11:21am | IP Logged
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Oh! Yes! I have a wonderful picture book that ds loved when he studied ships and sailing.
The Great Ships by Patrick O'Brien (author of the Master and Commander series).
It has lovely illustrations and descriptions of many famous ships from viking ships to The Bounty to the Nautilus and the Enterprise. A GREAT resource!
Also, your ds may like Ship by David Macaulay (author of Castle, Pyramid, The Way things work, etc)which is about a Spanish galleon, I believe. It is fascinating as his books always are.
Have fun!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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MaryM
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| Posted: July 06 2009 at 11:46am | IP Logged
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kbfsc wrote:
He's been interested in World War II for a while. We've done planes (he illustrated a huge, old bookkeepers' book with the planes, battles, and flags completely on his own!) and now he's on warships. Has anyone done a unit study on warships? |
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I think this is wonderful. I find that if we follow an interest like this it really engages the student and they learn so much more in-depth. My oldest son was a big fan of the "Age of Fighting Sail" so we/he did warships from that era especially. It is a great topic for boys!
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| I'm thinking history, going all the way back to ancient warships and the cultures that produced them; geography goes right along; maybe a little about the design and structure of the most effective warships (I dream of experiments and models in the bathtub, but wonder if I'm a little over the top there); introducing some research techniques, like using an encyclopedia; introducing a historical timeline; |
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I think the history of warship idea is a great idea to branch off of. I found that this article on wiki is a nice brief overview which could get you thinking about specific areas to cover.
Wiki on warship history. What you describe doing is probably how I would approach it. I have a loose structure for planning when it comes to these types of interest driven units/trails. I'll google a lot for ideas of topics to pursue. Look to the library and Amazon for book ideas- as well as coming here to 4 Real. I encourage the reading and as "questions" come up we follow that to find answers. Then do activities that come naturally from the study - field trips, model building, the bathtub experiments sound great!
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| he's a natural artist, so I'm sure we'll have great illustrations |
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And while I was looking around I happened on some links to maritime battle art. There is so much and it would an fun art appreciation track for a study and would probably encourage his artist endeavors as well. Here are a few of the prominent artists I found. I'm sure there are more. That's the thing as you turn a stone in the planning there are always more trails to follow.
W.L. Wyllie
Philip James de Loutherbourg
Robert Dodd
Reinier Nooms
Willem van de Velde
The National Maritime Museum has a great fine arts section.
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I have no idea where to go for some good "living" books on the topic.
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Are you looking for read-alouds, picture books, or chapter books? If you search the topic in the specific forums there are often recommendations.
Since it is WWII there are still veterans around, though they are all getting quite elderly and dying rapidly. I would encourage finding a veteran (hopefully one who was in the marines or navy for the ship aspect) he could interview and then use that for narrations, writing projects, etc.
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| Other topics you have had success with your boys with would be interesting to me, too, but especially the nuts and bolts of putting something like this together. |
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As I mentioned above I'm not very good with providing the nuts and bolts of organizing, as i am pretty loose when it comes to planning this type of topical rabbit trail. We just sort of go where it leads us and I take a lot of cues from the questions they ask and the activities they suggest or say sound like fun.
Topics the boys here have gravitated to:
Age of Exploration/Navigation
Civil War
Fighting Sail - as I mentioned
Wright Brothers, flight
Geology, rocks
Astronomy
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Mary M. in Denver
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kbfsc
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| Posted: July 06 2009 at 1:28pm | IP Logged
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Oh, these are wonderful ideas! Thank you!
In terms of the living books I'm hoping to find, all of the ones you mentioned would be great. (Sorry, can't figure out how to do that neat quote thing everyone does.) My son is really beginning to read well so I would especially love to find some intermediate kind of chapter books that he could read.
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MaryM
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 12:44am | IP Logged
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I forgot:
-baseball
-owls/birds of prey
-fire (wildfire)
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Mary M. in Denver
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kbfsc
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| Posted: July 13 2009 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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I am having such fun pulling this together! Thank you for all the wonderful ideas.
About structure... we'll have a timeline and world map to pinpoint the where and when , but as far as discussing the meat - like Viking longboats or the battle of Lepanto or the Spanish Armada - how should I approach these? Remember that I'm new to this and a bit compulsive...  Do we just sit down together and read about it? Is that where narration comes in? And then we intersperse projects, interviews (with a friend that was the Captain of a Navy minesweeper during the Gulf War!), grandpa teaching about navigation?
Am I on the right track?
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CandaceC
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| Posted: July 17 2009 at 8:05pm | IP Logged
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Hi there,
Are you familiar with Homeschool Share?
It is a website run by homeschool mommas (the creator is my friend) but it has TAKEN off! There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of FREE unit studies and lapbooks...you would not have to use the lapbooks, but they are there if you'd like to try one.
It is all created by other homeschool moms and it is EXCELLENT! They are all literature based unit studies. This site would be very helpful to someone like you (I think) because it lays out the different plans and ideas to do with each subject in the book you are reading.
Anyway, here is the main website:
www.homeschoolshare.com
You really have to click around to find all there is at the site...but here are a few links that might help you get started.
Middle Elementary Unit Studies
Animal Studies (unit studies on individual animals) My kids LOVE units on animals!!
Multi-book Unit Studies There are some great ones here too, like Dinosaurs, Chocolate, Dr. Seuss, the Pirates unit is AWESOME!
Here is an index of all book titles that fall under the social studies category...you would look for the subject you are intersted in, then find the unit on homeschool share.
Social Studies index
Hope that helps a little bit!
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
His Mercy Is New
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CandaceC
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| Posted: July 17 2009 at 8:07pm | IP Logged
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Me again...
The rainforest unit we did on The Great Kapok Tree was one of our all time favorites!
Great Kapok Tree unit study
Also, I just went back and read your post again...I think a GREAT way to include your daughter would be to let her to lapbooks to go along with the unit! Even if your son doesn't enjoy them, most of the units on Homeschool Share (HSS) have lapbooks and you could easily include her in that way! Just a thought...
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
His Mercy Is New
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kbfsc
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| Posted: July 17 2009 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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These ideas help a lot! I've wandered around Homeschool Share a bit - but am glad for the suggestion to dig deeper. I've never looked at the unit studies, only the FIAR resources. And the lapbook idea is great for getting my girl involved. She is all about them!
Thank you!!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: unit studies for boys
