I Wish I Could Do a Unit Study!

by Teri Spray

When a mother wimpers and sighs about this unknown territory called "unit studies" I wish I could hold her by the hand and say, "You CAN do unit studies and it will be fun too!" If you want to have a homeschool year to remember, a year with intrigue and adventure, and students who can actually explain what they have been studying, then please read on.

A unit study is simply focusing your "output" curriculum upon one subject. Output curriculum includes all of the subjects beyond grammar, phonics and math. I consider those basic skills to be your "input curriculum." So "output curriculum" includes science, history, music, art, creative writing and literature.

So a unit study does not need to be some giant terrifying monster, simply a section of study in which you read real books such as historic fiction, you write something about what you are learning and you DO things to explore and express your understanding.

For those of you who are intimidated by the thought of slipping beyond the textbook into experiential learning, let's look at some of the unit study myths:

Myth 1: If I choose to do a unit study instead of science and history texts, my children will have gaps in their learning.
If your children are learning something each year about their nation, world, and government, natural, physical and biological sciences, they should not experience gaps. Christian Cottage Schools has spent years planning and designing a four+ year program of study to be completely inclusive.

Myth 2: Unit studies consume large amounts of planning time.
When Meredith taught our middle school students here at our home the Volume 2, For God So Loved the World, she was only 15 years old. She was not prepared very often, but managed to simply open the material and proceed on most days. The only preparation was a few groceries for some of the more exotic recipes, a monthly trip to the library, and initial preparations of student notebooks and basic art supplies.

Myth 3: If I begin a unit study I must finish it.
Unit studies are supposed to be subjects which are "delight-directed." This means that something in the lesson and content should hold interest to the teacher and learner. If the unit of study is a dud, simply go to something more interesting as soon as possible.

Myth 4: The purpose of completing a unit study is to have a product to show.
The purpose of completing a unit study is to learn. Many of the activity ideas in a unit study are for simple experience and application, not result. Unit studies should be more PROCESS-ORIENTED THAN PRODUCT-ORIENTED.

Myth 5: You can't get high school credit doing unit studies.
During the high school years, the students will often work more from a text than from activities, but they can still enjoy a more meaningful education through research-based studies rather than simply plodding through page after page of text work. Literature coursework can easily dovetail with the history unit. We highly recommend that high school students keep a unit study curriculum on hand to keep the doldrums away during their high school days. Though they might only pick and choose an occasional interesting activity, such as a drama, or board game, it will bring fresh air to their educational experience. Simply record the unit study activity within whatever school subject you are teaching at the time.

Myth 6: I cannot test or grade my children if I do unit studies.
Testing in the Christian Cottage Unit Studies is easy. Simply ask your children the questions listed in the Main Points to study and the Vocabulary list. You can quiz them orally or ask them to write out their answers and definitions. We like to play quiz games and word games to see what we recall.

Myth 7: I don't have time to do unit studies.
I never would have found the time to develop and write Christian Cottage Unit Studies if they were time consuming to teach. After grading Grammar, Phonics and Math for about 10 students, I was too tired to grade science, Bible and history books as well. Nor did anyone want to do any more books either. So we would gather in the living room and I would read aloud and then assign an activity appropriate for each child in the group. That SAVED time! There was one year when I was not gathering with the students well in the afternoon so we moved our unit study schedule to the morning with our devotion time. This worked well because the students went on to do independent work throughout the rest of the day and left me free to do more of my own writing and studying.