Image courtesy of Amanda Bennett
I have always liked the idea of unity studies. We started out with My Father’s World and for the first three years I loved it! It gave me the foundation I needed and the confidence to be able to homeschool with confidence. It also had every subject planned out neatly in a package. It was also affordable in our opinion. When I look back over the times we used it, I was also overwhelmed. I look back now and realize the overwhelmed feeling was a rookie homeschool feeling. I was often overwhelmed at ALL of the activities that come with the curriculum packages. I now have the confidence and security to know we can do as little or as much of the unit study as we want to.
The last two years I have been ready to branch away from MFW. I have mentioned in previous posts the struggle of bringing the twins into our homeschool day. This year at the MACHE homeschool conference we took classes on teaching unit studies to multiple ages. We took two big keys away with us. The first key, is to teach to the oldest child and let the rest glean and learn from what is being taught to the oldest. This right her folks is the gem for our house! This is the missing link we were missing. The second key was learning unit studies can be as short (four days) or long (12 weeks) as it works for our family. If we plan a unit study to last five days, but the kids want to learn more about it, it’s ok to stop and take more time to learn about the topic we are on. On the other hand if we are bored to tears with a topic it is perfectly ok to stop and start another one.
This is where Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett comes in! My sister also uses unit studies for her family. She found these unit studies searching online. She told me about them and I instantly knew we had found a winner! Her studies range in length from a few days to a a few weeks. Each one is unique, captures our kids interests, and let us explore learning in awesome ways. Each study comes with book and activity suggestions. I am excited for this new school year and it is in huge parts to these studies. Here are some of the unit studies we will be doing: Moon, Prairie Pioneers, Pioneers, Crazy Cartoons, Twisting Tornados, Summer Sensations, and Dogs.
We are excited to bring you along as we dive into Amanda Bennett’s unit studies! Stay tuned as we bring you along for our Unit Study Adventures! You can connect to her Facebook Page or her website.