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teachingmyown
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| Posted: July 11 2006 at 5:00pm | IP Logged
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I am currently going through what you might call a mid-homeschool-life crisis!  For years, I have had a relaxed mixture of CHC type workbooks and real books. Looking back, I think we are close to being un-schoolers, though more out of necessity than thoughtful planning. 
So, I am exploring various approaches for the coming year. I have been reading through the FIAR books and Prairie Primer. I can see myself doing them, but my question is about continuity from year to year.
Let's say I decide to dedicate this year to Prairie Primer. Then where do I go next year? Follow with FIAR for a year or two and the repeat Prairie?
For those of you who do primarily unit studies, how do you choose what to do next? And how do you avoid a lot of repetion of the same things covered (i.e. American history, nutrition and plant life) while maybe never touching on ancient history and physical science?
I am just trying to get a picture of your organization and long range goals. Maybe I am making this too complicated? After years of bouncing around, I want to feel like I have a coherent plan but really am not interested in following a set curriculum, if you know what I mean.
Thanks.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Meredith
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Hi Molly, I've gone around a bit on this one too
First of all, do you want your units to be based on particular picture books or do you want to pick a theme, say Rainforest and then go from there?? For me and my style of (over) planning I really like FIAR, but prefer to pick a theme and then roll from there with the rabbit trails that might follow. In this way one theme may be super involved and everyone may want to spend alot more time on it than others so this gives you the freedom to expand or decrease your amount of in depth study. Does that make sense??
I'm sure you'll get many wonderful responses. One site I really like for picture book studies besides FIAR and of course the Real Learning Booklist is this one
HTH, Blessings!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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lapazfarm
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I usually design my units based on my ds's interests. I basically ask him "what do you want to study next?" and then we sit down and make a list of things he'd like to know. Then I take some time to come up with resources and activities and away we go. It is easy to avoid repetition this way because ds never wants to do the same thing twice! Last year he went from dragons to pirates to dogs to Christmas to ancient architecture to fairies! What fun!
I make sure that we cover what we need to based on the goals I set for him at the beginning of each year and revise ~quarterly. For instance, I knew that I wanted him to do some writing with each unit, and that our writing goal for the year was to improve narrative writing skills and work on vivid descriptions. So for each unit I just made sure we did some of that. Next year he will be working on expository writing so each unit will have some of that. In addition to the units, we keep a history notebook and timeline that we are always adding to. This helps me to make sure we are adequately covering history either within our units or seperately (especially since he likes to jump around in history in a very random fashion). Nature study is a seperate subject for us, and science is done within units as well as seperately (for example the Journey North project). I look at our year in chunks (roughly quarters) to be sure we have covered a broad range of topics in science.
Continuity from year to year is not really something I worry about with my ds. He thrives on variety! One thing I would like to do with my dd who will be in K next year is to choose a math curriculum and stick with it from year to year for continuity. But I probably won't!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Katie
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| Posted: July 12 2006 at 12:43am | IP Logged
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I've used FIAR for a few years now and I really like it, but it has developed for me into something we do when I don't have anything better planned! Sometimes a FIAR unit develops into something more convoluted, but sometimes it remains a small week-long study, depending on the myriad factors that come into play, like interest levels, energy levels, time of year etc.
I base my decision to do a unit study (not FIAR) on several factors: my children's interests; something I think they should know at their particular age level; something that sounds so cool I can't resist being a sheep and doing it too!! I'll give you my plan for nexzt year to give you an idea of what I mean. I'll be using Animal Worlds from Winterpromise as a spine, though I may abandon the plans and just read the books and Netflix some DVD's. Not sure how that will pan out. Then I have a unit planned on ballet (girls' interests), which will involve reading some picture books, learning about some famous ballet dancers, the stories of famous ballets like Swan Lake, listening to some classical music etc. I also want to to do a geography unit which will be very Montessori; in other words we'll learn about landforms, the globe, the continents, and if the mood and energy strikes we may rabbit trail to one continent like Australia. This unit is a combination of something I felt they needed to know and someone here posting their wonderful geography plans on their blog (sorry I can't link to the correct person here). Finally, I want to do a unit on Anciant Egypt. There are so many resources out there for this that it is mind boggling, so I have limited myself to a set from a homeschooling mother who puts together Montessori-type cards and files and sells them on Ebay. Her Ancient Egypt set comes with two gorgeous books, a set of cards, and also some miniature wooden Egyptian items, like a pharaoh's mask, mummy, sphynx etc. Add to that a couple of books I have around the house, some Pyramid building blocks, and Bible stories and we're all set.
Sometimes we make fancy notebooks or lapbooks, and sometimes we don't. I've learned not to stress it too much, especially with the younger crowd. We have put together a fabulous book for our Eric Carle insect unit we just finished (courtesy of this board - example of someone else's idea too cool to pass up!!), but the Morocco unit I had planned (dh is heading there on Sunday) is turning into just a read-aloud and bedtime story unit, which is just fine, too. They're still learning plenty about another culture, and making their dad's trip more meaningful, so I have achieved what I set out to do.
I don't know if that helps or not, but I feel like I've written my plans out now for all to see, so maybe I'll stick with them! 
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Mother of 5 in South America. No 6 due in April.
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Elizabeth
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I think Meredith, Theresa and Katie have pretty much covered how we do things. FIAR is never enough--I always end up blowing up the unit to encompass much more than in the FIAR manuals and that's why I have been able to use those manuals as springboards even up through middle school. I love unit studies and I think it really defines who we are with regards to educational philosophy.
I have promised myself not to post on unschooling because I always stick my foot in in it somehow. Suzie Andres (author of Unschooling with Gentleness once sent me an ofical "Unschooling Community Membership Card" because I told her I wasn't sure if I'm an unschooler. She assures me I am. I can't quibble over semantics anymore, so I just do my thing and don't worry what it's called.
I definitely plan and I plan with gusto. We learn around themes. And as my children get older, they like to plan with me. Winter Promise looks very intriguing--but I'm not sure I could stick with one theme all year. And I absolutely cannot afford it anyway. But it is certainly nice to see a literature-based unit study curriculum all laid out and available at long last.
FWIW, Michael absolutely considers his high school unschooling. In reality, he did things in chunks (units?). Almost nothing was a traditional year-long course. Instead, he'd binge on something until he got his fill and/or fulfilled what he saw as a necessary requirement and then he'd move on. I asked him recently about regrets/things he wished I had done differently. He said he wished I'd made him do more formal grammar when he was fourteen.  Anyone who knows me and Michael will remember that I couldn't really make him him do anything at fourteen and he spent the year studying at Starbucks...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Leonie
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| Posted: July 12 2006 at 5:38pm | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
I usually design my units based on my ds's interests. I basically ask him "what do you want to study next?" and then we sit down and make a list of things he'd like to know. Then I take some time to come up with resources and activities and away we go. It is easy to avoid repetition this way because ds never wants to do the same thing twice! Last year he went from dragons to pirates to dogs to Christmas to ancient architecture to fairies! What fun!
I make sure that we cover what we need to based on the goals I set for him at the beginning of each year and revise ~quarterly. |
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We pretty much do as Theresa described - except we do more family oriented interest as there are several dc homeschooling. And we use our state's scope and sequence to touch base, rather than goals per se.
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Leonie in Sydney
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Leonie
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| Posted: July 12 2006 at 5:39pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth wrote:
| I have promised myself not to post on unschooling because I always stick my foot in in it somehow. Suzie Andres (author of Unschooling with Gentleness once sent me an ofical "Unschooling Community Membership Card" because I told her I wasn't sure if I'm an unschooler. She assures me I am. I can't quibble over semantics anymore, so I just do my thing and don't worry what it's called. |
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I think that is us - sort of unschooly CM classical hands on literature based - and now I am interested in TJE!
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TracyQ
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| Posted: July 12 2006 at 9:09pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
This year, I'm using The Prairie Primer with Sarah. We did this when she was in 1st grade (and the boys in 3rd and 5th), so she doesn't remember a thing about it!
Now that she will be in 6th grade, this is THE year, and we are BOTH looking very forward to it! We haven't read the books with her, but she LOVES the TV show! And I already have everything we could possibly want to use with it, so I don't need to buy a thing (though I'm sure I'll find SOMEthing)! I even bought the fiddle music CD to go with it!
Last year, we did about the year 1200ish through the year 1800ish, so this is the perfect unit study to use for this time, a time we haven't really covered with her yet.
I'm planning to add two things for this....build into it a unit on quilting (expanding what's already in there), using FIAR books and other picture books, ideas, quilting through history, etc. And also to use Amanda Bennett's, Horse Unit study to build a unit on horses, something that I think will fit in nicely as well, and both of which interests my daughter very much! 
The problem for ME will be picking and choosing the activities/lessons, etc. that we'll use, but God always leads me to what Sarah needs.
Last year, we used From Sea to Shining Sea, and we liked it OK. The book itself was a great guide. But I had intended to bring in tons of fun activies, books, projects, etc., but of course, never lived up to MY end of things.  So Sarah didn't retain as much as usual, and didn't really enjoy her history last year.  It did prepare Zach well for beginning more textbook work next year (though I WILL bring in living books into his Global Studies course).
So I vowed we would do something much more fun this year, and this is a perfect fit for the next period we needed to study with her, we'll just do it in a different way, a way that's MUCH better suited for her!
I think God really leads you to what your kids need to know. And I figure what they've missed out on in the elementary years, they'll get in high school when they do it in a much deeper way. They get it somehow! I mean, how many times do they need to learn the same history? I wasn't even able to truly understand history until I was in high school........or maybe when I was 40!
Hope this helps some!
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: July 12 2006 at 9:21pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Everyone.
Tracy, thank you for the look into your past and future plans. I am not as creative as most of the ladies here and was having trouble seeing "the big picture". I like how you have tied other units in to Prairie Primer. Also, that you are using it as the spine for that time frame. . I guess that is what I was missing. If I can just plan a certain time frame per year, and find a unit to teach that time? Does that make sense? Sometimes a unit study and sometimes an interesting text as a spine like you did.
Just trying to organize my thoughts. Thanks.
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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lapazfarm
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Tracy, That sounds AWESOME!!! Can I come to your school? LOL!
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Theresa
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TracyQ
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Theresa,
Sure, come on along!!! We'll take a field trip to Niagara Falls while you're here! Not that that fits in well, but we can figure out how it can fit in!
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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TracyQ
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| Posted: July 13 2006 at 9:13am | IP Logged
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teachingmyown wrote:
Thanks Everyone.
If I can just plan a certain time frame per year, and find a unit to teach that time? Does that make sense? Sometimes a unit study and sometimes an interesting text as a spine like you did. |
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Yes, Molly, it makes PERFECT sense, because that's how I choose curriculum!
I haven't looked forward to a coming schoolyear like I am this year in a LONG time! It's truly how I LOVE to homeschool, and how Sarah loves to learn!
And this year, we're going to do a notebook based on this unit study. And we'll divide it by each book we do (there are 9 in the series), and put it ALL in there. I don't care if anything's perfect this year, I just care if it's there, and as nice as possible.
If I try to make it perfect, it doesn't get done.
Anyway, I'm glad I could help.
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: July 17 2006 at 12:52pm | IP Logged
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I have another question which I think still falls within this topic.
How does the cost of really "doing" a unit study compare to something like CHC?
In particular, if I want to do Prairie Primer, will I need to buy many of the resources suggested? Have you found that you were buying extra resources and such throughout the year?
I really have a very limited school budget this year and don't want to dive into something I can't do well because I am missing the materials.
Thanks!
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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TracyQ
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| Posted: July 17 2006 at 6:53pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
Here is a website on using The Prairie Primer that answers your question: Using the Prairie Primer
You don't NEED the extra resources, and some you can get through your library too. At Margie's site, Cadron Creek , she also has packages you can buy.
You can find many things on USED sites like the yahoo groups, cathswap: Cathswap Yahoo Group There, you can put on WTB (Wanted To Buy) messages as well.
You can find many things online. Don't buy the Webster's 1828 dictionary, for instance, because it's online (the link is at the site above).
I have many of the resources because I used them when we did the Prairie Primer a few years back with the boys. But if it were today, I wouldn't be able to purchase many of them, because we're very limited this year as well.
I would love *The World of the Little House*, one I don't think we have. But I went to my library homepage, and see that they have it there. I'm thinking I may use it from there instead of paying the $20.00 towards it. We can just take it out of the library.
It's hard to be limited, but if you're resourceful, doing unit studies can be much less costly, especially when using the library.
For instance, if we're going to use The Little House Cookbook, or The Little House Crafts book, I need to ask myself how many I'm honestly going to use for the year.
Then I can look ahead, and take them from the library, copy out of it what I'm going to use (because educators can copy out a certain amount for educational purposes), saving myself the money. Or I may not even have to copy them, depending on if I can renew them, etc.
It's hard, because in the past, I've always wanted to OWN all of my books, but honestly, I don't use some enough to need to own them. So for those, I'm learning to sell what I don't use often enough, use the library for that which I can't afford or need to buy, then only buy what I truly need.
I wish I would have learned that lesson long ago.
And The Prairie Primer is one that can have SO many resources, found both online and in the library, because it's such a favorite! If you go to google.com, and type in Little House on the Prairie K-12, you'll see so many wonderful resources that would be very helpful to the study.
And you can often find The Prairie Primer itself used as well. So this one in particular, if on a budget, is one of the fullest, best written guide, yet flexible enough that you're the one making the decisions about what is best for your family to do.
But the general rule for unit studies for the most part is, the easier it is for YOU to do, the more money you'll be spending for the unit study guide. The more inexpensive it is, the more work you'll be doing in order to use it. But it's like that with any curriculum!
I hope this helps some. If there's anything more specific, please don't hesitate to ask!
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: July 17 2006 at 8:31pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Tracy! You told me just what I needed to know.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Considering unit studies
