I just replied on another list to a question about writing Unit Studies. As most of you probably know, we don’t write “Unit Studies” per se, but we do base our planning on Topical Studies. My answer includes some of the differences (as I see them) – mostly having to do with the amount of structure and mom burn-out, and includes how we believe Topical Studies can be written within the context of the Freedom and Simplicity of education LED by the Spirit, through Lifestyle Education through Discipleship. It obviously is not as thorough as our publications on this, but it gives a simple overview. I feel the post is appropriate to send to this list, and hope you can glean more about L.E.D. through it. God is ever impressing me to mentor other moms/parents in MORE than just the philosophy of L.E.D. and pass on, in a practical way, what I have learned.
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Dear —–,
Writing a unit study is a trade-off like anything else. Which do you have more of – free time or money? Is your only motivation to save money, or do you have other philosophical reasons for writing your own study? How structured do you want your family’s education to be? How old are your children and how many do you have? How in-depth do you want to go? Are you looking at writing a complete – several years, covers everything – curriculum or one unit on a topic of interest?
Trying to write a completely integrated (all subjects), full curriculum (one year or several, to cover everything, for all children) is a LOT of work and probably not worth it, if you don’t have philosophical reasons and it’s not a love and burning desire for you to do it. Burn out is a common result for mom’s who try to do this. IOW, $70 is a small price to pay for such a thing.
OTOH, pulling together topical studies for the whole family (even for their ENTIRE curriculum), in a family that has a “relaxed” approach needn’t be a big deal. It all depends on whether MOM is up to doing a whole lot of studying and writing and planning herself (the previous paragraph’s way) or if she’s going to facilitate the children doing the learning, yet provide some direction (this paragraph’s way).
For philosophical reasons, I write our own Topical Studies. Because I have teens, I base our whole family’s studies on them, and utilize a cycle approach to make sure that everything (that *I* deem necessary for high school) is covered within that cycle. Our younger children’s approach to this is much more relaxed, and I probably wouldn’t have even the stucture that I do in it if I had ONLY little ones. Since this list is about Hi-School, I’ll try to keep things geared toward it (and try not to veer from [list name’s book] principles :- ), but the principles apply for the whole family – using [list name’s book] or not. I think, [list name’s book] is a good way to pull it all together for documentation, credits, etc. [note to l.e.d. list = I DO NOT feel this book is NECESSARY for this in a L.E.D. education.]
What I have learned over the years in writing Topical Studies, to prevent stress and burn out is:
1) I don’t try to force every subject to integrate into each study. If they fit in naturally, they are included. If it’d cause me to have to spend much time and stress trying to figure out how to get a certain subject to “fit in”, I don’t force it. I believe many published unit studies REALLY STRETCH to try to create a relationship between things, just because they “have to” cover all the subjects, and all areas of each subject, throughout the curriculum, and they want it to all be integrated. LIFE is integrated and not fragmented into “subjects”, but it is also RELATIONAL not forced.
EXAMPLE: Learning about a certain composer and his music during the time period he lived is relational. Learning how to cook the meals that our family eats can be learned quickly on its own without “integrating” it into a History or whatever unit, although if a child WANTS to cook some time-period/ethnic food that relates to the study, they are free to do it.
2) I don’t stress out trying to rack my brain for a list of endless activities for my children to do related to the study. IF there is something that comes to me as important and relative that I want them to do, I include it. If not, they think of their own activities, if any. They are usually required to do certain TYPES of projects within the study, but not certain ACTIVITIES themselves – especially, to use a C. Mason term, “twaddly” ones. Again, most published unit studies have long overwhelming lists of activities, but many are irrelevant to learning the material and time wasters. IOW, an activity must produce something worthwhile (not a project to be trashed when done, because it has no future relavence) OR it must be something that the child just WANTS to do, because it is relevant to him from this study.
EXAMPLE: They are not required to “write a fictional journal of a girl that came to America on the Mayflower”. They ARE to write various narrations, summaries, essays, etc. and to keep a Book of Time (timeline) …. They ARE required to demonstrate certain science principles, but not to do SPECIFIC experiments. Communication skills (language arts/English) is NATURALLY integrated into EVERY Topical Study, through Notebooking, and other natural methods.
3) I don’t spend weeks/months? covering a topic with the above activities and rehashing things over and over and reading EVERYTHING we can find on the topic, when it can be done in a short amount of time through a few EXCELLENT books, resources and projects. NEVER drag anything out. IF our children are interested in learning more and deeper things about the topic we continue as long as interest AND new, deeper learning is taking place – but we don’t continue just because I planned for it to last a certain amount of time. IF interest has waned and we’ve used some EXCELLENT resources to learn the important things, we move on. Our children don’t have to know EVERYTHING about EVERY topic.
4) I don’t think that EVERYTHING that our highschoolers “need” or want to know can be learned through “integrated unit studies” – at least through ones that all the subjects aren’t forced into irrelevant places. They will undoubtable have outside (the topical studies) interests (and perhaps even “needs”) that they pursue.
5 – ?) I’m sure I haven’t remembered everything.
Here’s one way to plan a complete curriculum based on Topical Studies:
Working from the “Big Picture” perspective – i.e. you have a list (loose or detailed) of what you want your child to “cover” in high school and the credits you want them to earn. You begin with the “Big Picture” and work your way down to the details, in your planning.
BIG PICTURE PLANNING (based on Pro. 24:3-4):
1) Determine what courses you require and how many credits in each for their total high school requirements. (Other, teen chosen, courses can be electives.) EXAMPLE: History/Social Studies – 1 credit US, 1 credit World, 1/2 credit Government/Civics.
2) Break each course down into Topics (usually 3-7 main areas or so). EXAMPLE: Divide World History into 5-7 time period Topics. Divide Life Science/Biology into Plant and Animal and Human Topics.
TO PLAN THE TOPICAL STUDIES THEMSELVES:
1) Write a “Learning Map” (outline) for each Topic of what points you think are important for high-school “coverage”. Some teens can do this for themselves and can just be given a list of “topics” and your “required” book/resource list. Others want more structure and like having this guide. Some could even be just given a list of required courses and could design their own Topical Studies and Learning Maps and Resource Lists, BUT in our home we believe it is OUR job to teach and train our children and have some guidelines and requirements, even through high school. This is guided preparation for their own future self-directed studies and home educating their own children.
2) Search out EXCELLENT Living Literature/Real Resources (books, places, people, and experiences) that present the Topic in an interesting, godly (Biblical WorldView) way. (Every resource may not have a Biblical Worldview, but the foundation for the topic must be presented through it in a Christian education. i.e. a field trip may not be to a place with a “Christian Worldview” but it is not the foundational source of their study.) We usually have some *required* resources, some *optional* resources, and of course, they are free to add other resources (within our guidelines – such as not ungodly, not “twaddly”/dumbed down).
3) Find enough of these resources to cover the topic as thoroughly as you think it needs to be covered, (or require them to find other resources.)
4) As the Topic is covered, you will branch out across “subject” lines. Document each part of the Topical Study under the proper “Course”. Don’t get too stressed out about this; they can be moved around later, if need be.
5) As Topics naturally integrate you may find that you don’t have to “do” a certain Topic because you have already covered it through its natural relationships with other Topics. That how “credits” add up in [list name’s book] [AND L.E.D.].
Having said all that, I do believe that there are good published unit studies – complete curriculum – for even high school. I have only used one of them (several years ago), but I’ve seen others that look good. All that I’ve seen have had some of the drawbacks I’ve mentioned, but IF you are looking for a complete, stuctured integrated curriculum [rather than creating a Lifestyle Education through Discipleship]- and you are not a HIGHLY CREATIVE WRITER with a BURNING DESIRE, and MUCH TIME to do this, I think they are worth the money.
If you are comfortable with the relaxed approach [of L.E.D.] and want more info on writing your own – from MY perspective anyhow – (I’m sure I haven’t covered this thoroughly) I invite you to check out our website: [website updated] and ed blog here or join our elist [elist changed and blog sites added]. You are invited to ask questions.
