We're All Related Somehow: Day 5

This is the fifth post in a five-part blog series called "Learning at Home". 

Thanks for joining us!

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So how do we plan to teach [hands-on, play-based, interest-led, nature-aware, literature-based] curriculum to our children?

Easy.

Enter our {unique?} Unit Study Method. It's eclectic. A little bit of Charlotte Mason, a healthy dose of Waldorf, just enough Classical Education, and sometimes you might even call us {Un}schoolers {when you find us playing in the creek during “school hours”}.

Unit studies are multi-disciplinary, meaning the subjects are integrated. If you are learning about ants, for example, you would conduct science experiments around an ant hill, write down your observations, study their colony culture, compose a little song about their work ethic, take some pictures, measure how long it takes an ant to find crumbs at different distances from the hill and then graph the results, then go home and write reflection poetry.

Cool, eh? And everything you are doing is tied together with a sweet little bow -- helping you retain the information {remember prior learning?}. It’s like a puzzle.

And that’s like real life too -- everything interacting together, people, animals, environment.
Why shouldn’t we show connectivity in education as well? It’s the natural way to learn.

It’s all about meaningful context.

And maybe you have more than one student in your classroom? At different levels? Imagine that! Unit studies are perfect -- pick a topic, books, resources, and then tailor your activities for each academic level. One child might be dictating a creative writing assignment while the other writes personal poetry. It works!

I've put a great deal of time lately into planning our own method of unit studying. If you're interested in a sample, click here. You'll find a PDF file for a two-week lesson all about butterflies.

And to read more about the unit study approach, check out these links: 
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/earlychildhood/articles/integratedunits.html
http://www.helium.com/items/245587-explaining-the-unit-study-approach-to-homeschooling

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Want to read the rest of my "Learning at Home" series?
Everyone Learns at Home
Why Shouldn't We Spend More Time Together?
Group Learning Has Its Advantages
How Do We Learn Best?
We're All Related Somehow