The Best Way To Plan A Unit Study ~
Written by Jessica Waldock of The Waldock Way

Unit studies are an excellent approach to homeschooling because it’s simple to focus on your child’s interests and passions. Plus unit studies get the whole family involved in learning together and building connections. 

I really love the way unit studies weave together lots of different subject areas. We can incorporate art, music, history, science, and more with a great unit study. Planning a unit study can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a challenge.

We like to focus on literature-based unit studies that incorporate all the things we love like art, field trips, and hands-on activities.

Want to learn more about how we do it? Keep reading to discover the very best way to plan a homeschool unit study for your family this school year.

Why Unit Studies Work So Well

Why do unit studies work so well for homeschool lessons? They give us the opportunity to connect, learn new things together as a family, and share our passions. 

In our own unit studies, we like to add art activities because it’s something our daughter, Emily is passionate about.

Her dad loves art too, but I’ll admit it’s not my favorite. Adding art to our unit studies gives me a chance to explore an interest that we don’t normally share and experience it through her eyes. 

I love that I can use unit studies to teach important academic skills and subjects that Emily might not otherwise be interested in by focusing on something she loves.

For example, a unit study all about survival can be built around Emily’s favorite survivalist: Bear Grylls. I can add science experiments and geography lessons to our unit study for even more learning fun.

The Best Way To Plan A Unit Study

So what’s the best way to plan a unit study? I like to focus on a really great book and build around it. Choosing literature as a spine for our unit studies opens all kinds of doors. 

When you begin planning a unit study, talk with your kids about their interests. Your kids will love talking about their passions with you and it’s a great opportunity to get to learn more about them as people. Take what they love and run with it!

If you’d like to see my step by step process on how I plan an in depth unit study you can do that here.

Literature-Based Units For Your Homeschool

Beginning with a literature-based unit study makes planning a homeschool unit easy. You can add lessons about the author, the setting of the story (or stories), and all kinds of creative stuff! Don’t be afraid to dive deep into the world of the book. 

In our Harry Potter themed unit study, we focus on all the aspects of Harry’s world to create a comprehensive unit study that incorporates science, history, geography, literature, and more! We began by celebrating the start of our year at Hogwarts with a fun sorting hat activity, dress-up play, and decorations. 

We read all the books together, enjoyed recipes from a Harry Potter cookbook, and learned about subjects focused on different aspects of the world at Hogwarts. For example, science lessons focused on herbology, alchemy, astronomy, and magical creatures. 

Another literature-based unit study we are really excited about is our new study built around the Percy Jackson book series.

This new homeschool unit study will give us an opportunity to dive deep into Greek mythology and Ancient Greece. In this adventure, we can learn about Greek architecture, mythology, and Greek culture.

I’m really excited about the opportunity to connect and learn together as a family in this way.

Is there a book your homeschooler really loves or a series you’d like to explore as a family? That’s the perfect place to begin building a unit study for your whole family to learn together this school year!

Finding out what interests your child has will give you insights into what specific topics to explore as a whole unit. From there, the adventures are awaiting you and the sky is the limit.

What’s Your Child’s Learning Style? Take Jamie’s new quiz now and set yourself up for homeschooling success by understanding the way they learn best!

4 Reasons Why We Love Using Unit Studies In Our Homeschool ~
Written by Erin of Nourishing My Scholar

My children have always had intriguing interests: dinosaurs, the ocean, national parks, mythical creatures, WWII, frogs, and many more.

Sometimes their interests are fleeting, like when they watch for the spring birds to arrive. Other passions last for years, like my son and his obsession with WWII or how both children have been raising goats for several years.

Most interests fall somewhere in the middle, and many start with a simple book or question that needs answering.

Unit studies are different from traditional homeschooling because kids focus on a single subject, such as birds, gardening, the black plague, or ancient Egypt, to name a few. My children often learn reading, writing, history, and science by studying a single topic!

I like to start by strewing interesting items, books, and hands-on activities. Then I gauge my children’s interests. I don’t go all-in at once, but “feed” them a bit more of a subject as they digest what’s already been served.

Sometimes my children discover new interests all on their own, but the best unit study covers a subject my child is passionate about.

4 Reasons Why We Love Using Unit Studies In Our Homeschool

1. They are all-encompassing

When integrating math, reading, history, science, social studies, geography, and art, you encompass the subject in a real-world learning style.

My children have always learned best this way, and they retain more information the more in-depth their study.

2. Everyone is learning together

Children of all ages and different levels can learn together with unit studies which makes it great for families with varied age ranges. I’ll never forget the time we made a unit study out of getting a Great Pyrenees puppy! 

We learned the history of the Great Pyrenees dog breed, the geography of the breed, the children tracked the growth of our new puppy with charts, and we read great books and watched videos about Great Pyrenees and basic dog training.

3. Unit Studies Allow for Deep Dives

Unit Studies bring out the best in a subject. You never know how deep a dive into a topic you will go or how much fun you’ll have. Follow all the rabbit trails of learning you like when diving into an interest.

Whether my children are interested in geography, science, history, or anything in between, unit studies help us travel paths unknown through their interests.

Unit studies in our homeschool offer a way for dynamic and engaging learning that is curated specially for my kiddo’s unique needs.

4. Our interests, not a rigid curriculum, lead our learning

I talk with my children about their interests, then map out the different subjects I’ll cover with our unit study.

Once I have a topic in mind, then I feed my children’s passions with some of the following:

• Read alouds and books on the subject
• Hands-on activities that include art, origami, puzzles, science experiments, etc.
• Worksheets if and when they suit us
• YouTube videos, movies, and documentaries that fit our theme
• Educational games
• Field trips to zoos, museums, 75th D-Day celebrations, the beach, etc.

It’s simple and inexpensive to steward this process, and we don’t need a curriculum!

Unit studies in our homeschool have worked well for my family’s learning style. We have reaped so many educational benefits as well as building life skills. What’s not to love about that?!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Written by Cait Fitzpatrick Curley of My Little Poppies

My oldest son has always been fascinated by animals and the natural world. His interests aren’t your typical run-of-the-mill animals and insects. Oh, no. He goes for the more obscure. Cuttlefish. Ring-tailed lemurs. Crayfish. Bushbabies. Caddisflies. Phyllobates terribilis. Pronghorns. You get the idea.

When he was six-years-old, he was obsessed with the Humboldt squid. He talked about it all the time and often pretended to be a Humboldt squid. (This phase was hilarious, you guys!)

I’ll never forget the time I created a Humboldt squid unit study for him. I kid you not! I found books featuring squid, documentaries that talked about Humboldt squids, a video of a squid dissection… and I even had a craft project!

Once I’d finally found all the books and documentaries and created the craft, I discovered that he’d moved on. In one fell swoop, he went from being obsessed with the Humboldt squid to losing himself- for many, many months- in the world of Greek mythology.

Has this happened to you, too?

As a mom and educator, I know the importance of following a child’s lead. Children learn so much when we follow their interests! A wonderful way to embrace rabbit holes and follow your child’s lead is through unit studies.

Unit studies have many advantages including:

• The opportunity to cover multiple academic and nonacademic subject areas.
• Appropriate for use with multiple ages.
• Reader and non-readers can enjoy a unit study together.
• They help to create a family atmosphere of joyful curiosity and lifelong learning.
• The ability to document delight-driven learning for required year-end homeschool evaluations.
• The ability to follow a child’s lead and study an area of interest.

Traditional unit studies are fantastic, but they can be time-consuming to plan, prepare, and execute. At times, these traditional unit studies can also be costly… especially if you have multiple children and/or your child loses interest halfway through.

Plus, when your kiddo is obsessed with random animals, it is impossible to find a unit study on that topic of interest!

Children are amazingly curious little people. They have unique and varied interests and these interests can sometimes change by the day! They can be hard to keep up with at times. If I had to create a unit study for every interest my children have had, I’d be pulling my hair out!

And that’s why I’ve learned to embrace the Lazy Unit Study. And when I say “lazy,” what I mean is simple.

Lazy Unit Studies have all the advantages of traditional unit studies but without the overwhelm. With a Lazy Unit Study, you can focus on a child’s current area of passion without the hours and hours of planning and prep. The result? More joy for everyone involved!

Lazy Unit Studies are super-simple. You start with the easiest thing and then layer on the learning until your children are ready to move on to the next area of interest. Best part? You can learn alongside your children and create memories together!

When you embrace rabbit holes and surrender to delight-driven learning together, you are teaching your children how to be lifelong, joyful learners. 

And, because your children are interested in the topic, they are more likely to retain the information and experiences from these Lazy Unit Studies.

When I create a Lazy Unit Study, I first identify an area of current interest. Next, I take a moment to brainstorm and plan a little bit. I gather books on this topic and read aloud.

If kids are still interested, I sprinkle in some strewing. Then, I add in some audiovisuals, experiential learning, and games. We may create a project together or go on a field trip. I keep adding layers and layers until we have had our fill and then we move on to our next area of interest.

If you’d like to see an example of what a Lazy Unit Study looks like in our home, you can check out this article I wrote about our super-simple science Lazy Unit Study. It’s a perfect example of a recent Lazy Unit Study.

Lazy Unit Studies have become a huge passion of mine. I’ve talked about them on Instagram for years, I’ve mentioned them in podcast episodes, I did a talk about them for our first-ever Kindred Collective conference, and I’ve even written an ebook about them!

I am passionate about Lazy Unit Studies because I honestly believe homeschooling can be almost all fun and games.

Is every day perfect over here? Far from it! Still, I wouldn’t change this journey for the world. Most days, I can’t believe that I get to read amazing books, play fantastic games, and dive down rabbit holes with my children.

I think, as homeschool mamas, we tend to overthink everything. We let that Ghost of Public School Past whisper worries into our ears. We spend so much time planning, preparing, executing, and cleaning up that we barely have a moment to breathe… let alone enjoy ourselves!

Sometimes, as a homeschool mama, it can be hard to sit back and let learning happen. We want to cross off the to-do list and finish that textbook before month’s end.

The thing is, children don’t follow to-do lists and timelines. They learn at their own unique pace.

Why not embrace it and have fun along the way?

But, let’s be honest: Sometimes, homeschooling is not all fun and games…

Sometimes, for whatever reason, you find yourself deep in the trenches. Maybe you’ve just moved. Perhaps you’ve experienced a recent loss. Or, maybe your homeschool is struggling with something else.

And that’s where we are at right now. 

I’ve mentioned before that one of my kiddos struggles with anxiety. Well, we are deep in the throes again. It started in January and it’s been relentless. I wanted to write about it here, but we are still muddling through the muck.

We’ve set most of our homeschool “must dos” aside to focus on what matters most. I find myself, once again, thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling offers. I can slow down- or stop entirely- so that we can focus on these important matters. There is no falling behind or catching up.

When we’ve found our footing, we’ll simply start back up and carry on. Like we always do.

In the meantime, we’ve been enjoying Lazy Unit Studies. We’ve jumped down several rabbit holes of late: crayfish, eastern newts, beavers, cryptids, cartography. We might be deep in the trenches, but the kids are learning.

Sometimes it helps to remember that children are really good at this learning thing. It’s the adults who tend to get in the way.

If you’d like to learn more about how to identify your child’s passions, brainstorm and plan super-simple Lazy Unit Studies, layer on creative resources, and document the process for those looming year-end evaluations, you can learn more in my Lazy Unit Study 101 book.

This book was a labor of love and features real-life examples of Lazy Unit Studies, 12 printables, and countless free and affordable resources.

I want every homeschool mom to have more joy and less overwhelm and I believe Lazy Unit Studies can help make homeschool life easier, and sweeter!

Tell us: What Lazy Unit Studies have you enjoyed lately? Share here so that we can all learn from each other!

If you enjoyed this post, check out Jamie’s book, Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet Joy.

We are currently inhaling all things Little House, in preparation for our upcoming site tour this summer. Every day we learn something new about Laura and the Ingalls family, and for this homeschooling mama it’s a dream come true.

In a few months our family will be visiting three Little House sites: Pepin, Wisconsin; Walnut Grove, Minnesota; and De Smet, South Dakota. If you want to take a sneak peek and visit them virtually–as well as all the other Little House sites, make sure you check out the virtual field trip I created earlier this year.

Right now we’re rereading all of the books–one each month–and creating our own unit study to go along with them. This has sent me on a search for the best books, sites, and resources to help us learn more, and I thought I’d share my discoveries with you.

If you’re looking to get the most out of Little House, here are the resources we’ve been using:

The Little House Guidebook

This book contains beautiful colored photographs from each of the Little House sites. Designed for those who plan to visit, it includes information about the history of the site, how to find it, and what to do at each spot.

Having read this title myself, I think anyone who loves the idea of touring these locations would enjoy it–whether or not you actually make the trip. Pair this with my virtual field trip and you’ll feel like you just stepped into the prairie.

The Prairie Primer

I first heard of this unit study curriculum years ago and loved the idea behind it. It’s a nine month unit study based on the Little House series. This year I bought a used copy.

The Prairie Primer includes ideas and potential assignments/projects that connect many different subjects to Little House–including science, writing, and history–basically everything but math and spelling/grammar.

My kids have enjoyed the discussion questions for each chapter, but we haven’t used the rest as much as I anticipated.

Like many unit studies, it suits a certain type of person/family well–one who enjoys preparing activities and pulling together different threads. The Primer comes from a conservative Christian perspective, so keep that in mind as you determine if it’s a good fit for you and yours.

My idea of a good unit study is to read books, then read more books, then discuss, then watch some YouTube clips, then bake something =), but I know many folks who rave about this resource.

We Love the Prairie Primer

This blog was created a few years ago by a mom who was following the Prairie Primer curriculum with her kids.

She embedded many YouTube clips that go along with the various chapters of the books – and we’ve enjoyed watching some of them. It’s saved me the work of finding appropriate clips myself–she also includes crafts and other ideas.

Little Passports USA edition

I’ve been raving this year about our Little Passports subscription–we’ve had fun learning about different countries around the world through these monthly packages delivered to our door. And when it comes to our upcoming Little House trip, our USA edition of Little Passports has been an excellent resource to add on.

Each month we receive a packet that highlights two different states–it just so happened that the first one featured Wisconsin–while we were reading Little House in the Big Woods! That gave us plenty of good direction for extra study as we learned about the state.

The Little House Cookbook

If you love both Little House and cooking/baking, this book is a must-have! We’ve had it since the first time we read the series a few years ago, but this year we have used it more than ever.

Not only does it have recipes for almost every dish mentioned by Laura, it also includes them in the style and manner that they most likely would have been prepared during her time. We’ve made butter, pumpkin pie, hasty pudding, and more, and have learned a lot along the way.

Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder?

This book was just published at the end of 2013, and I bought a copy a few weeks ago. It’s a short overview of Laura’s life–with interesting text boxes that highlight historical information and facts that coincide with the time period in which she lived.

We read a few pages each day and it adds another dimension to our study of her life. As a side note, all three of my kids like the whole “Who Was” series–look for these titles at your library.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Country

I was on the fence about buying this book–did we really need another book about Laura’s life? The answer – yes!

This oversize paperback goes into detail about “the people and places in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and books” and features gorgeous color photographs of the landscapes as well as photographs and momentos of the Ingalls/Wilder family through the years.

Think of it a bit like a Laura scrapbook–a must-have for serious Laura fans and students.

Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder

If you want to find out more about Laura’s development as a writer and the history behind the Little House series, make sure you check out this hour-long documentary about her life and work.

It introduces fascinating details about the working relationship with her daughter Rose, who at the time was a more famous writer than Laura. Plus it’s all filmed on location in the beautiful spots Laura called home throughout her life, and narrated by Dean Butler (who played Almanzo in the TV show)!

Little House Paper Dolls

I don’t know if I can genuinely consider paper dolls a part of our unit study, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to mention these. In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura describes how Ma made paper dolls for her and Mary to play with. We gave this set to Trishna (age 10) for Christmas and she loves them.

The dolls actually stand up and have different clothes, furniture, and a fold up indoor/outdoor cabin as a backdrop. Adorable!

And if you’re the crafty type, take a peek at the Little House Crafts Book for ideas to go along with your readings. (I can’t give a personal recommendation on this one, since I am decidedly not the crafty type–LOL!)

It’s impossible not to feel inspired in our homeschool these days. Our days are far from perfect, mind you, but I love what we’re studying so much–and enthusiasm is contagious.

I hope this list points other Little House fans in the direction of inspiration and love of learning as well–enjoy!

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful.

They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breathe it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”
~ Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder – Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues