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Unit Studies
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Question:
Ive been h/s my 6 year old for a month now...i keep hearing about
unit studies. Can someone please tell me exactly what unit studies
are? Right now we are working from workbooks (Alpha Omega) but i have
a goal to create my own curriculum for next year. I have been hearing
that
unit studies are the best so far...any information is greatly appreciated !
Answer:
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A unit study takes advantage of the current all-consuming curiosity
of a person by studying it in depth and from several different perspectives.
For example, if your son is engrossed this week by submarines, you can
easily incorporate lessons in history, physics (displacement, pressure,
bouyancy, etc.), mechanics, earth science and biology (National Geographic
style), physiology (oxygen needs, high pressure effects) geography, politics
and current events (sometimes, like recently w/ N. & S. Korea), vocabulary,
and just about anything else you want. Unit studies take the old battered
mantra "But you'll *need* this information later in life" and elevate it
from platitude to priority. Teaching by unit studies assumes that: 1)
The student has interests; 2) Pursuit of knowledge yearned for is much
more effective than acceptance of force-fed blather; 3) The student's
interests will eventually lead him/her to absorb all of the knowldege
considered to make up the "essentials".
Actually, I think that I've tainted my description of Unit Studies with
the concept of unschooling, or student-led schooling, but that's ok
with me since I think that the two are extremely mutually compatible,
and because I think that the term "unschooling" is horrid--if I can
push unschooling without its label then I'm happy to do so.
-Unit studies are a way of taking a subject, for instance
music, and building on that. For instance, you might learn about
orchestras and their seating arrangements, then about the sounds of
different instruments, then expand that into classical composers
(biographies of their lives) then learn about how music is recorded (how
LP's and CD's work). You might add some bible verses on music and see
what the Holy Scripture has to say about music...you could go on and on.
Probably one of the most popular "unit study guides" is Konos. We had
it, but found it (and the whole idea of unit studies) too time consuming
(especially for me, because there is so much to be gathered, materials,
etc...) I know many people who have bought more costly unit study
programs just to give them up in a year or so. On the other spectrum, I
know people who swear by them. I, live you, work. I have no time for
gathering up 20 items, half of which I can't find at a local store, for
one little experiment. We use the Robinson Curriculum, which basically
is 2 hours of Math in the morning, an essay (which is corrected for
grammar, spelling, and content/style) then they spend about 2 more hours
READING...reading everything, but mostly classics, science books,
historical novels (the older the better...no politically correct garbage
for my kids). I work FULL time, although I have 3 days off per week, and
I, like you, work in the evening. My hours are from 5:00 pm till 3:00am.
I really HAVE to homeschool my kids, cause if I didn't I wouldn't see
them! My husband also works wierd hours and this allow him to see them a
lot. We all sleep in until about 9:30 or 10:00 am (sometimes I wake up
to a breakfast made by the kids of hotcakes and fresh fruit, if they wake
up before me.) I would love to be home full time, but there is just no
way. But I am thankful that I have a good paying job that allows me to
still homeschool. My days off are tues/wed/thurs so that works out good
for our school schedule. Dr. Robinson (the one who made the curriculum)
really believes that all kids could be homeschooled if they were taught
to learn independantly (he is a widower who homeschools his 6 kids).
Anyhow, you may want to get ahold of one of Mary Prides big book of
homeschooling, because I think there is a section that explains unit
studies a little more in detail there.
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