The unit study method has dom-inated our homeschool for the majority of the nine years we have been home educating. We

discovered early on that following the in-terests of our son, and developing those interests into unit studies, has given him a love of learning that textbooks never gave my husband or me.

What Is a Unit Study? With unit studies, one topic is approached from many academic areas—history, sci-ence, geography, art, music, Bible, and

more. Even language arts and applied math can be studied, though you should continue with your usual curriculum for these subjects. With unit studies, your topic is viewed as a whole, rather than a few disconnected pieces. So, rather than studying ancient history, anatomy, and modern art separately, all of these aca-demic areas are viewed through the lens of the one topic you have chosen.

Why Unit Studies? You may be thinking that a topic of in-terest can be studied simply by reading

a few books or doing a quick Internet search. While this is true and is some-times enough, I have found that using the unit study method is beneficial for three reasons.

1. Unit studies create a passion for learning. Children are curious about everything. I believe we sometimes squelch that with lists of what we think they need to know, rather than allowing them the freedom to dive into what piques their interest. Curiosity is what compels children to

54 Annual Print Book 2016 • Methods and Styles: Unit Study Homeschooling www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com

by Marcy Crabtree

Methods and Styles: Unit Study Homeschooling

Understanding the Unit Study Method

Unit studies are all about digging deeper into those topics your children are curious about.

love learning. When they get curious about a topic and you indulge that curio-sity by granting them the opportunity to learn more, they develop a love for learn-ing and the mind-set that they can learn about anything! Most of my son’s learn-ing has happened in areas in which he has had great curiosity. When children have a choice in what they are able to learn, they fall in love with learning. And isn’t that the goal?

2. Unit studies bring about deeper learning. Exploring a topic across the curricu-lum gives students a deep knowledge of the subject. With many homeschool methods, subjects are taught in a mile-wide, inch-deep kind of method—a lot of information is given about several subjects, but nothing is studied very thoroughly.

With unit studies, the topic may only be an inch wide, but it is a more complete approach, covering many subject areas—a mile deep. And when you add up all of the inches that accumulate throughout the year, your students are likely to end up with knowledge that is a mile wide and a mile deep. This type of learning sticks with them. This process encourages

learning in a way that is fun, engaging, and memorable.

3. Unit studies are easy to use. This homeschool method is very simple to use. There are many options available for pre-written unit studies, but plan-ning your own unit studies works great

for those topics you have trouble finding in a pre-written format. Don’t worry—it’s very simple to do. All you really need is a library card and a few supplies you prob-ably already have on hand. If you provide your students with what they need, they’ll even take over for you. A lot of planning may not even be necessary.

Five Easy Steps to Planning Your Own Unit StudiesBegin by talking with your children and gathering ideas for what they would like to learn. Or, if you are add-ing unit studies to a more traditional curriculum, take notice of what excites your students in their current studies.

You may be nervous, but let me assure you, you can’t mess this up. Unit studies are all about digging deeper into those topics your children are curious about. All you need to do is guide them a bit, make some resources available, and they’ll likely take over from there. For those of you who want a more complete plan than that, here are simple step-by-step instructions.

1. Choose a topic.You may already have a huge list of ideas. If not, you can choose just about any-thing and create a unit study.

• Are you a geography-loving family? Choose a country, state, or city to study.

• If history is your favorite, you might choose a historical time period, an event in history, or a historical figure to learn more about.

www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com Methods and Styles: Unit Study Homeschooling • Annual Print Book 2016 55

Be flexible enough to let your children lead. This is when they will really learn! This is the beauty

of unit studies.

56 Annual Print Book 2016 • Methods and Styles: Unit Study Homeschooling www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com

• Science is also a great area of study. From space to weather, animals to rocks, there are so many fun topics in science!

• Holidays, seasons, airplanes, biomes . . . anything that your students find fasci-nating will make for a fun unit study.

Remember as you’re planning to ask these questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure you are cover-ing your topic in a thorough manner.

2. Plan activities.Brainstorm ideas for not only what you want to teach but how you want to teach. What kinds of projects will make your study come alive? Make a list and pri-oritize it. You probably won’t get to do everything. Some ideas are: cooking a new dish, jigsaw puzzles, art proj-ects, mapping activities (like salt dough maps), dioramas, science experiments, word searches, lapbooks, and field trips.

Depending on the ages of your stu-dents, you may want to assign some in-dependent projects. Sometimes my son enjoys putting together a PowerPoint presentation, creating a travel brochure in Word, or preparing an oral presenta-tion. For younger children a simple draw-ing, coloring page, or short poem recita-tion might be on the list. The possibilities are endless. Be creative. Think outside the box. Allow your students to explore unit studies in less conventional ways.

If you are unsure or are feeling less than creative, log in to your computer and search the phrase, “kids learn about . . .” or “unit studies about . . . ” and see what you find!

3. Gather materials.If you don’t have the time or money to col-lect a lot of extra things, your library card and a few school supplies are all you really need for a great unit study experience.

At the library, look for picture books, fiction and nonfiction books, chapter books to read aloud, cultural cookbooks, DVDs, and music. If your library has an online service, give yourself a couple of weeks’ leeway so that you have plenty of time for everything to ar-rive and be picked up. Be sure to scour the shelves of your own home library and computer files, too.

Once you have your books, CDs, and DVDs, create a book basket. We

have two: one for library books and one for books we own. Any basket will do. A laundry basket or milk crate is perfect.

You’ll also want to gather school, art, and craft supplies. You will likely have most of this on hand. However, if you have special projects or recipes in mind, be sure you make a shopping list of everything you need. Children tend to be very disappointed if you discover at the last minute that you don’t have the proper ingredients for the activities.

4. Plan your time.Jot down a rough plan of the areas you wish to cover. You may want to deter-mine ahead of time how much time you’ll spend on one unit study. Or maybe you’ll just run with it for as long as your students are interested.

If you are an organized planner and are spending one week with a unit study, consider focusing on a different subject each day. If you’re planning a unit study for one day per week, you may want to teach a different subject each hour. How long you spend teach-ing one topic is only limited by how much time you wish to spend, how deep you wish to go, and how long your children are interested. We’ve had unit studies last anywhere from one day to several months.

Once you begin a topic and allow the curiosity of your children to flow, the doors will fly open to all kinds of things to learn about that likely did not occur to you when you began planning. Be flexi-ble enough to let your children lead. This is when they will really learn! This is the beauty of unit studies.

5. Record your fun.Lapbooking and notebooking are great ways to keep a record of your unit stud-ies. You might also have your students record a daily journal of what they ac-complished and learned. If you make some awesome creations that can’t be easily kept, be sure to take pictures (with your children in the photo!) and print those to add to your lapbook or note-book. Many states require a portfolio; this is a great way to add to that.

You don’t have to do all of the plan-ning yourself. Many unit studies have al-ready been written and are available with a quick online search.

Whatever you do, have a blast with unit studies. Ask your children for ideas. Get messy. Smile and laugh a lot. Have fun. You can do this!

Marcy CrabtreeMarcy Crabtree spent nearly 15 years as an OB nurse, sometimes juggling homeschooling with the

job she calls her first ministry. Grate-ful that her main ministry today is at

home, she has been married to Tom for 18 years and is 15-year-old Ben’s proud momma. Her homeschool style is de-light-directed, primarily using unit stud-ies and notebooking. She blogs at Ben and Me (http://benandme.com) and in 2015 published her first eBook: Delight-ful Planning: A Unit Study Planner for Every Homeschool (http://benandme.com /delightful-planning).

All you really need is a library card and a few supplies you

probably already have on hand.

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