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Mrs. B
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| Posted: April 08 2013 at 11:23am | IP Logged
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Does anyone use a unit study approach to school subjects? Can CM methods be combined with unit study?
Lately I'm trying to dream up a way of doing school that is more interesting for all of us, and one that will be easier to get through for next year when I have toddler twins to deal with.
I also have adhd/dyslexic/dysgraphic kids so I have to find materials that the kids can work with...and I have adhd too and it is so hard to stay on the course.
I've also been thinking a lot of about what is real learning verses what is just bookwork. I need to be able to have a condensed school year next year because I know I will not have enough time with all my kiddos.
I know this is a little bit of ramble... but do you have any advice?
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 08 2013 at 11:58am | IP Logged
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I don't, particularly, but a month or so ago, I read and liked this blog post, which . . . um . . . made me feel better about not doing unit studies? :)
That's not to say that you shouldn't do them, or that people don't do them in a CM-inspired way. But I thought that the points this blog post raised were really . . . thought-worthy, I guess.
Sally
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Mrs. B
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| Posted: April 09 2013 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
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That is really interesting, thanks.
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Erin
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| Posted: April 09 2013 at 4:49pm | IP Logged
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What sort of unit study did you have in mind? I can relate to 'making it more interesting for all of us"
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Willa
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| Posted: April 10 2013 at 1:31pm | IP Logged
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I don't like "contrived" unit studies, where you are studying the Spanish Armada and have to calculate how much food the Armada would need for all the sailors, but I do like picking out some key topics that connect our living books studies. It suits the way my mind works and frees me from just slogging through a workbook all year.
So for example we are in the Middle Ages right now, and while we are reading through Famous Men of the Middle Ages, I still pick out some unifying topics like "Vikings" or "Crusades" so that I can go into a bit more depth with my kids, bring in other books, lapbook, etc.
I don't know if this is the kind of thing you are talking about.
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Willa
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 10 2013 at 2:41pm | IP Logged
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Jen Mack has some great posts here on the board that I can try to find. I can't recal atm what we were specifically discussing at those times, but when we've discussed unit studies, the points in Sally's article have come up.
And yet, CM did make history the foundation of her curriculum. There is nothing wrong with studying like things with like. For instance, choosing the composers or artists or literature you are reading from the place or time that you are also studying isn't contrived, it makes sense. Jen has shared how she loves creating collections of books to be studied and enjoyed together (her young ladies year of studying Edwardian literature alongside a botany course comes to mind).
In my own planning, I have found that I like to choose books where the children can make connections between them, but I don't feel the need to dissect the books such that we are focusing on all the paricular ideas at just all the right times. When I look at the lesson plans for some of the unit studies I've seen, the reading assignments coordinated in charts seem very carefully orchestrated. In my own plans for next year, I have my rising 4 th grader reading about the Westward expansion and Lewis and Clark for American history, and he will be reading Minn of the Mississipi and The Explorations of Perre Marquette for geography. He'll also be reading about the Greeks and Romans for world history and about Archimedes and Galen for science. I have some other living science books on simple machines and the human body on his lists, too.
I am intentional in my choices, but my method is to let these books speak for themselves. We'll work through them alongside each other, but I'm not going to spend my time coordinating the pertinent chapters to each other. I trust my son will make those connections come as they may.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 10 2013 at 2:51pm | IP Logged
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In response to your expressed desire above, I have considered using a piece of curriculum that we can all enjoy together. I'm looking as the Sassafras Adventure as a "fun thing" that can be enjoyed by all the older bboys (when they'll be 9, 7, and 5). They have a simplified plan that is only 2 days a week, and while the oldest will have his "own thing" going, too, I think it will be a fun way to study science.
There are suggested other readings outside the novel, so, I suppose thwt is something like a unit study. Is that what you meant? How to do a particular subject with your multi-age kids?
We've also enjoyed doing the Home Art Studio dvds all together. Perhaps you are just looking for one or two things to try that are unifying and a little outside the box from your normal plans?
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mrs. B
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| Posted: April 10 2013 at 7:14pm | IP Logged
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Sorry I haven't gotten back to you all yet. Lindsey, I think your idea is the closest to what I am thinking of doing...combining subjects.
Maybe that's not what a unit study is...maybe I have the wrong idea of what unit studies are.
As I think about it- what I need to avoid is having one child doing "ancient civilizations' and another in the 'Cival War' and another on 'american history.' Very soon I'm completely overwhelmed. As bad as it sounds, I can just not keep up with all of these subjects...If I could combine history, art, science, geography as a single thing they all could benefit from that would simplify things, I think.
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: April 10 2013 at 8:54pm | IP Logged
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Well it would be fairly easy to combine history and geography, and if you have them all working in the same time period in history that would simplify for you. It's often fairly easy to tie art in to the time period too. That would leave science, and with some time periods it's easy to tie that in as well. That is basically what I did with mine -- unit studies that were either history, literature or nature study based, and then I'd build the rest around it. Some units had more science, some had more history, some had more art. I never "forced" a subject to fit in that didn't make sense. It evened out over the course of the year.
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 11 2013 at 7:04am | IP Logged
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Have you looked at Connecting With History? That is a program that would lend itself very well to a Charlotte Mason approach and simplify planning across ages.
A Science Program other than the Sassafrass I referenced earlier that could do the same might be NOEO Science.
Both programs use a lot of Usborne and DK type books, which are wonderful in that we enjoy having them around for the kids to use and pour through independently, but I will just add that they are not really conducive to narration. The style is not "living" in that way.
But they also use living books that are more narrative, too. And you could always supplement or substitute more living books.
Some people have also enjoyed using Winter Promise, and there is a recent discussion of that here.
I would also take a look at the planning guides from Simply Charlotte Mason. They study the subjects you mention as "modules" to combine ages with the older children going into more depth at their level.
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 11 2013 at 7:26am | IP Logged
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Mrs. B wrote:
| Does anyone use a unit study approach to school subjects? Can CM methods be combined with unit study? |
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I wanted to link you to an interesting conversation we had a couple of years ago on this exact topic that I really enjoyed.
Question about CM and Unit Studies
Hope you enjoy! I'd love to come back and revisit some of those points if you have questions, Mrs. B!
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 11 2013 at 11:16am | IP Logged
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Yes, what Lindsay is describing (and Willa, too) is really what we do. I choose books that for whatever unifying reason seem to go together in my mind. And while my high-schooler is on his own trajectory in history and everything else, my two primary-aged kids (currently grades 3 and 4) *do* do most subjects at least partly together. That is, we have read-aloud books that form the "core", and then each one has some kind of independent reading that branches out from that core, even if the branches go, sometimes, in quite different directions.
But as Lindsay says, it's important to let the books do the talking. *I* might quietly choose two books to do at the same time because I see connections, but I try not to point those connections out overtly to my kids. They might not ever see the connections my mind makes, and that's generally okay (or if I think those connections are really crucial, and everyone's understanding of everything in the world hinges on them, I *might* eventually point them out myself). But they will make their own connections, even if it's years later.
I would drive myself insane trying to make *everything* fit into one picture -- generally math and science go their own direction, though we have had a continual science read-aloud to go with our history (Galen and the Gateway of Medicine, since we're doing ancient Rome this year; last year, when we were doing Greece, we read Archimedes and the Door of Science).
I also find that having things be at least a little "digressive" makes our study richer, rather than otherwise. We do two history "tracks," for example, Old World and New World, and sometimes some interesting parallels and insights arise from the "clash" of those two sets of readings. This to me is one reason not to try to be too "unified." Sometimes the kids will see unities -- or parallels, or connections -- where I don't see them at all, until they're pointed out to me. Also, everyone gets bored with too much of one thing.
I totally agree that it's easier to have everyone on the same basic page for a core subject like history, rather than scattered all over. And you can so easily tuck other subjects into that core (especially art and geography, but to some extent also science, depending on ages/grade levels). I also have everyone doing the same foreign language, which makes things much easier, even though I'm not in charge of my high-schooler's language (he takes an outside class). This way, we can all talk to each other -- "Lernst du Deutsch?" "Ja, ich lerne Deutsch. Und die Frau trinkt das Wasser!" -- albeit in some very strange and stilted conversations, since none of us is very good at it yet!
As I understand it, though, a "true" unit-study approach would mean, for example, that we studied German, did German history, read German literature, focused on German scientists for science, did German artists and composers . . . all of which could be really, really cool, now that I think of it, because there is so much to German culture that would be fun to study . . . but it also seems like the kind of approach that would make you *only* notice the German connection and not other things. And from what I understand, that's kind of not what Miss Mason is getting at.
Sally
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Willa
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| Posted: April 11 2013 at 4:52pm | IP Logged
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Mrs. B wrote:
As I think about it- what I need to avoid is having one child doing "ancient civilizations' and another in the 'Cival War' and another on 'american history.' Very soon I'm completely overwhelmed. As bad as it sounds, I can just not keep up with all of these subjects...If I could combine history, art, science, geography as a single thing they all could benefit from that would simplify things, I think. |
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That is probably "multi-level studies"
Multi-Level Homeschool
No doubt a survival strategy with many children all close in age!
If you pick one subject as the core subject, then you can cover many other subjects by branching off... history can include science, literature, religion, art, etc. Then you just have to worry about the 3Rs for each child, plus the big integrated course you are doing.
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Willa
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setonmom
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| Posted: April 13 2013 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
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catholic heritage Curricula has some readers ( I think they are called Stories of the Saints) that make excellent unit studies about saints. What we did was make a binder about the saint with a nice cover picture. CHC gives lots of ideas for rabbit trails. When we did our binder, we did Fr Junipero Serra, and one of the things in the binder was a map of the island of Majorca, where Fr Serra was originally from. My son enjoyed it.
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Topic: Subjects as unit studies
