How to Create a Homeschool Unit Study

Wanting to create your own homeschool unit studies, but not sure where to start? Here’s how we make ours and it’s super easy!

 

 

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the ability to choose what my kids learn and when. We can pair our studies with their interests, tie them in to the season or a holiday, and organize them in a way that fits the needs of our individual learners.

We have never relied on a curriculum to teach our kids. With the use of books, workbooks, and videos, we have covered different topics with the kids in our own way. Not that there’s anything wrong with curricula, but the price has always been prohibitive, so we’ve made our own way.

If you’re interested in making your own homeschool unit study, I’ll show you the easy way that I organize ours so I know exactly what I’m doing each day and make sure I don’t miss any important points along the way. Really, it’s easy and most of the resources we use are free, such as the library and YouTube.

Unit studies typically cover either books, social studies, or science subjects. We mostly use them for the latter two, so that’s what I’ll focus on here. But you can adapt this method for any unit study you’d like to create. Here’s how to do it…

 

How to Create a Homeschool Unit Study

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Choose a unit study topic

What is it that you want to study? It could be as broad as the Civil War or it could be as specific as the monarch butterfly. Whatever topic you choose, make sure it is something that is age appropriate and interesting to your children. You don’t want to do all this work for them to be bored!

I choose my topics based off a list of grade-appropriate topics in the book Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp and based on the World Book curriculum. These are good for guidance, but they don’t have to be your Bible.

Define the subtopics

The easiest way for me to choose the subtopics that we will study is by looking through a textbook. I look at the table of contents, then thumb through the chapter to see what names, events, etc. are highlighted to make sure I cover those things, too.

For example, when working on our Civil War unit study, I read through the table of contents in Everything You Need to Know to Ace American History in One Big Fat Notebook and What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch. I also checked Home Learning Year by Year. Doing this gave me a list of names, dates, and events that I made sure were covered in my unit study.

 

Find worksheets that pertain to your unit study

One of my kids loves worksheets. She learns best when she answers questions about a topic, so I make sure to include these in every unit study. My go-to sites for these are EdHelper and The Mailbox. Both are excellent for finding worksheets that pertain to the subtopics you need to cover (and they are also a great help with fun math puzzles and language art worksheets, as well as lesson plans). They aren’t free, but the price is nominal and I use them enough to make them well worth the subscription.

Find books, movies, videos that cover the subtopics

Since we have a visual learner, it’s important to include videos and movies with our subjects. I scroll through Netflix, our library’s Hoopla catalogue, CuriosityStream, and YouTube to get pertinent visual aids to help my kids see what they’re learning. Again, some of these aren’t free, but if you use them over and over for your unit studies, then they’re worth the price.

As for books, I get great recommendations from Home Learning Year by Year for both fiction and non-fiction on a given topic. I also like to stroll the aisles of our library in the children’s area. Since they are organized by topic, I can easily find great books to read to the kids on whatever subject we’re learning.

Choose projects/field trips

Some kids are very hands-on, so it pays to include projects and field trips in your unit study. When we studied Native American tribes, the kids each chose a tribe and built a replica of their housing from materials found in our backyard. For astronomy, they created 3d models of the solar system. When we studied pioneer life, we went to a hands-on exhibit called Boomtown that was made to look like an entire town in the mid-1800s. The kids loved these things and that cemented their learning.

Look around to see what opportunities for field trips are available in your area. Check out blogs and other resources for suggestions on projects that would fit into your unit study. This can sometimes also tie into your art studies.

 

Create writing assignments that encourage critical thinking on the unit study topic

Writing is a very effective way to see what your children are retaining from what you’re teaching them. Create writing assignments that require them to do a little research on their own, or form an opinion on a controversial topic in your unit study. I have had the kids tell me if they could live a year in solitude like Henry David Thoreau or what were the difference between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock.

If you’re not good at writing these prompts, then go online and see what other homeschoolers are doing. There are so many resources out there and teachers willing to share their expertise.

 

Assign dates for everything in your planner

I don’t know about you, but when I sit down with my kids, I need to know what I’m doing. That means, what books are we reading, what video do I need to have queued up, and what topics we’re covering. So I plan out what we’re doing each day, usually for 2 weeks as that’s about the length of time I need to accomplish one of our unit studies.

I assign a certain amount of material based on how long it will take us to cover it. I don’t want to overload one day and have another be super light. Make sure you’re planning things out evenly, allowing more time for difficult or detail-heavy topics that you may get more questions on.

 

And that’s it! Following these steps will help you put together a homeschool unit study with ease. I hope this gives you the inspiration and guidance you need to create thoughtful and interesting studies that your children will love.

 

Have any advice for making a great homeschool unit study? Share with us your tips, tricks, and resources in the comments or on social media!

 

Looking for more on homeschooling? Check out these posts:

10 Things to do Before You Start Homeschooling

How to Homeschool on a Shoestring Budget

10 Resources that Will Save Your Homeschool Money

7 Self Care Routines You Need While Homeschooling

 

[Disclaimer: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission, at no additional cost to you. All opinions are my own and I never recommend anything I haven’t used myself and loved.]