How we do our unit studies.

When we started homeschooling, it didn't take long for me to decide that I wanted to do unit studies. All 3 kids can work together on the same project for at least part of the day. That helps when you have 3 different ages. I started with Konos and we did love it. Some of our best memories of homeschooling will be from Konos. I still have the books, although I'm not using them right now, I will probably use them again, maybe after Christmas. I have also been a fan of the Homeschool Estore for a while now and I have gotten some free units from there that I have enjoyed very much. I downloaded a unit from Christian Cottage on the ocean last January and we had a great time with that. Then, I ordered the units on the Americas. We had a great time with South America and Central America but it kind of leaves off after the Revolutionary War. So, what I'm doing this year is using my son's 9th grade American History textbook as a spine and using other activities with it sometimes.

For example, I read the chapters on the American Revolutionary War and the forming of the new government (my kids actually like me to read stuff like this to them). We've watched Johnny Tremain on video. We read The Magic Treehouse Revolutionary War on Wednesday and now we're listening to a book about George Washington as a spy. We've used a map page out of the Christian Cottage unit, we've done coloring pages from Crayola.com and other sites. I searched for and found a lesson plan and song about the Bill of Rights, we've done notebook pages on the 3 branches of government, a crossword puzzle about the constitution, a word search about Benjamin Franklin - all of which I've found on-line, a coloring page of George Washington. We did quilling which is a form of paper art from the colonial period and drew our silhouettes on black paper (see pictures further down the page) which was also a colonial art form.

With the book as the spine, I read a bit, take a few little notes and do an internet search such as 'coloring page George Washington" or "lesson plan George Washington" or "George Washington printable" or "George Washington worksheet" or "art colonial america" or "music colonial america". You get the idea.

I usually plan in the morning for the afternoon, I'm THAT organized, LoL.