July 17, 2024 – Unit Study Homeschooling: How Does That Work?

Mercy Every Minute

Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor

What Works Best?

I never considered myself the “fun” unit study mom. I am still more of a textbook/workbook person. Unit studies didn’t always fit with the way our family operates. And that is one of the great things about homeschooling. No matter the method we use to teach, homeschooled kids excel (www.nheri.org). However, I knew the kids needed a break from the books at times, and they learned a lot from unit studies when we used them. 

I often would ask the children what they’d like to study. One year they asked to study chocolate, so we read a Milton Hershey biography, learned the geography involved with cocoa, visited the local chocolate factory, and created recipes with chocolate. We drew and painted chocolate desserts along the lines of artist Wayne Thiebaud, and found Scriptures for copywork related to the word sweet. 

Maybe you are just feeling too overwhelmed to even think about fun unit studies. Embrace your weakness as it compels you to embrace your Savior. Submit to His perfect will. You will begin to know the power of His resurrection in your own life. Have you forgotten why you homeschool? Here are some Scriptures about homeschooling that you could post on your walls to help you remember. 

I pray that you find a place of real rest in Christ. Lay your stress, your cares, and your pain at His feet. He wants to speak to you, comfort you, and then give you the strength to rise up and keep running the race.

“He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright” (Psalm 20:6-8).

~Deborah

More from The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine:

What is a Unit Study?

How and Why to Do a Math Unit Study

Understanding the Unit Study Method

Busting Four Myths About Unit Studies

Give Thanks! A Unit Study About Gratefulness

Visit McRuffy Press today – play free online games, find free printables, access learning videos, join our mailing list, and even shop for great homeschool curriculum! www.McRuffy.com

Todd Wilson

Familyman Ministries

Life Is a Unit Study

Actually, we’ve been doing a unit study this whole week on ‘vacation.’ We looked at the finer points of family unity/disunity, spending, and extravagant love. We taught our children when it’s okay to stay up late, spend a little extra, and how to resolve conflict (we did that a lot).

In short, we taught them valuable lessons that they will use for the rest of their lives.

That’s the purpose of a unit study: to learn valuable, life-long skills in a complete, natural unit of study. It really is the most effective way to learn. It utilizes all the senses and increases retention.

In fact, I believe unit studies are served up every day in a variety of learning situations that give us the opportunity to teach our children invaluable life skills. 

So, I’ve got to go. Today we’re learning something really important . . . although I’m not sure what it is just yet. I do know that it’s up to me to use what God gives us today to train my children for the future.

Class is about to begin.

Be real,
Todd

About the author

Todd Wilson is a dad, granddad, writer, conference speaker, and former pastor. Todd’s humor and down to earth realness have made him a favorite speaker at homeschool conventions, retreats, and churches across the country. As founder of Familyman Ministries and the Smiling Homeschooler, his passion and mission are to remind dads and moms of what’s most important through weekly e-mails, podcasts (The Familyman Show & The Smiling Homeschooler), seminars, and books and products that encourage parents. Todd, and his wife Debbie, still homeschool two of their eight children (six have graduated with four married) in northern Indiana. You can read more at www.familymanweb.com.

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Beth Mora

Unit Studies Can Be a Breath of Fresh Air, a Lifestyle, or Both

Are you stuck in a ho-hum curriculum, going through the motions without really caring about what you’re learning? Well, it might be time for you to consider unit studies. This fabulous learning style challenges “surface” learning that often erodes the love of learning. Unit studies offer in-depth learning that encourages bunny trails and delightful discoveries.

A unit study is where the student or the teacher chooses a topic of interest and then, as a family, you take a trip to your local library or favorite bookstore and collect books on the subject—all kinds of books! Next, surf the internet and lose yourself in documentaries and video instruction. Your chosen topic will explode with possibilities! Get a blank notebook for each child and start filling up pages with what you find. The beauty of this learning style is that we can do it together as a family. Younger and older children do age-appropriate learning activities together. 

Here’s one of our first unit studies; we chose to study—birds.

I’m going to give you just the trailhead of our bird unit study journey:

Bible: The Bible contains over one hundred verses about birds. We started using these verses for copy work.

Art: We did all kinds of bird crafts, built nests, in addition to studying the artist, John James Audubon.

History: We dove into the history of bird conservation and extinct birds.

Science: We studied the physics of flight, the life cycle of birds, and habitats.

Literature: We read fables and poetry about birds.

Writing: We wrote short stories and poems about birds. 

Math: We created math problems with different types of birds, produced a graph for our backyard bird visitors, and calculated mass and motion during flight according to the laws of physics.

Hobbies: We became “birders” for a weekend and built our own birdhouses. 

Field Trips: We visited bird sanctuaries and, of course, the bird house at the zoo. 

You can study almost any subject or even do a literature-themed unit study.

Unit studies can breathe fresh air into your homeschool year in between other planned curricula, or they can be a fulfilling lifestyle. And because we created the unit study, we owned the knowledge! It was one of our favorite ways to learn as a family.

About the author

Beth Mora is a staff writer for The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC and lesson designer for www.Schoolhouseteachers.com. She is the creator/teacher-on-camera for Here to Help Learning’s Homeschool Writing Program Grades 1-6, and a homeschool conference and women’s events speaker. Meet up with Beth at Home To Home, one of her favorite places to encourage. Everything she does, whether laughable or heart-gripping, is done to honor her Lord and Savior, Jesus. God’s grace is the salve that has healed her own life and is what she offers liberally to others.

Pillar of Hope

Stacy Farrell

HomeschoolAdventure.com

Blazing Trails with Unit Studies

When my teen-aged sons told me they wanted to play airsoft at an event hosted by a young man named Russell, I immediately started asking questions.

“Who is this guy?” 

“Where did you meet him?” 

“Who else will be there?” 

My husband and I homeschooled our sons kindergarten through 12^th grade. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate my sons’ abilities to make wise decisions about relationships. They’ve been blessed with amazing friends. That said, I’d never met Russell, and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about dropping my sons off at a stranger’s house and driving away. However, my apprehension soon turned to delight . . .

A Unit Study Is Born 

That day I learned that Russell was a trustworthy homeschool graduate who had just returned from an adventure of a lifetime. He had spent seven weeks exploring Ecuador and serving in the Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center (ITEC), a ministry founded by Steve Saint, the son of Nate Saint who was martyred in 1956. The highlight of Russell’s trip was when he ventured into the jungle and met the Waodani tribesman who had played a leading role in one of the most famous missionary stories ever told. 

What Is a Unit Study?

Russell’s inspiring story became the basis for a unit study that highlights the importance of sharing the Gospel with a lost and dying world through the heroic story of Operation Auca.

A unit study integrates multiple subjects around a single theme. This allows students to go deep into one topic—exploring it from many different subjects. Through the unit study method, students gain a sense of the interconnectedness of life—which is so much more reality-based than segmenting a study into isolated subjects.

For instance, the unit study Russell inspired has sections on:

• People & Places (History & Geography)
• Meals & Markets (Home Economics)
• Animals & Agriculture (Science)
• Worlds & Worldview (History)
• Journal Notebook Pages (Language Arts)
• Mark Your Map (Geography)
• Rate the Recipe (Home Economics/Language Arts)
• Draw an Animal (Art)
• Creative Freewriting (Language Arts)

If you’re interested in his story, you can learn about it with this FREE lesson here.  

Blessings on your studies!

His love,

Stacy 

About the author

Surprised by Jesus, Stacy went from an unmarried, childless, thirty-something career woman to a Christ-following wife of more than thirty years with two sons she homeschooled K-12. Author of more than twenty books—including the award-winning Philosophy Adventure and Food Prep Guide: A Plan for Money-Saving, Self-Sustaining Abundance in Hard Times—she loves to equip and encourage homeschool families. Visit her at HomeschoolAdventure.com and at FoodPrepGuide.com.

Custom-build your child’s learning adventure with the help of Unit Studies on SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Make it part of your main curriculum or fill in the gaps where needed. They are great for teaching multiple children if you have a big family. Try one today!