Author Archives: Lisa @ Me & My House

This article is part of a series for new home educators. In this, and several other articles, we cover What style of education is right for our family? And where do I get our curriculum?

Unit Studies are catching on even in institutional classrooms, as a more effective way to teach. Unit studies integrate several subjects in the study of a certain topic through real books and (usually) hands-on experiences. Studying the topic within contexts and relationships, with varied types of activities, with good literature, and to a deeper level, all contribute to a more memorable (and enjoyable) study. Unit Studies can be parent designed (meaning you make them up for your family) or a published program you purchase (probably written by another home school mom).

Because a Unit Study can be based on virtually any topic and can utilize various methods, there is a wide difference in published Unit Studies and their foundational philosophies. Most are multi-level, rather than individual grade-level based, meaning your whole family is learning together–everyone learning the same topic, each on their own level. This makes them much more family friendly than textbooks/ workbooks or delight directed learning. Mom is not forced to keep up with the many different subjects and topics of many different grade levels. Many of the full curriculum Unit Studies (as opposed to just individual units) are based on a rotation plan of generally about 4 years, and cover all topics in all subjects within that rotation.

Some drawbacks to Unit Studies are: some can be time and labor intensive for mom to plan or gather supplies, the integrating of the subjects can sometimes seem forced, sometimes the activities (and even whole unit studies) can have very little educational value and just be time wasters.

Published Unit Studies give recommended book lists of Real Books to read, to go along with the activities/assignments (along with any background information or other lesson) they suggest. Some list mainly books you can find at your public library and note that you can substitute any book your library has. Others list (and possibly include in their package) books that would be harder to find in your public library, but are more assuring of providing appropriate content than just choosing any library book on the topic. Some are full programs for all grade levels, all subjects for a full year, or even multiple volumes covering all years. Others can cover just one topic, or only include a few subjects, or only cover a couple of grade levels. The ones listed below are more inclusive.

Resources for helping you design your own Unit Studies:

• Unit Studies Made Easy by Valerie Bendt is a guide to creating your own literature based unit studies just for your family. Many of her educational ideas are based on Charlotte Mason’s and Ruth Beechick’s philosophies.
• Design-A-Study guides by Kathryn Stout help you design your own studies/ curriculum in most subjects. They don’t give specific information on creating Unit Studies, but can be helpful guides for those just starting out on their own.
• Annotated book lists, or Books of Books as I call them, can be a great help in designing your own Unit Studies. These are some of our favorite books for helping us choose literature for any type of Real Book education.

A few popular Unit Study programs:

• Tapestry of Grace is biblical worldview based, utilizing classic books of Western Civilization. It covers all grades through high school. Progresses chronologically through history. Science is not included, but history of science is intertwined. Writing program is integrated.
• Far Above Rubies and Blessed is the Man are gender specific unit studies for high school students, based on Scripture – girls, Proverbs 31:10-31, and boys, Psalm 1. All subjects are covered, but they are very life prepatory focused. Though written from a Conservative Christian viewpoint, the author does not make your decisions about these issues for you, she urges you to research and come to your own conclusions.
• KONOS is a  hands-on activities oriented Unit Study program, based on character traits, that covers all grades up to 8th, in 3 Volumes covering approx. 2.5 years each. 4 Volumes of KONOS History of the World is available for high school students to complete through independant study.
• Weaver is a more structured Unit Study program based on workpages and grade level oriented assignments. It has 5 Volumes for grade school, and 5 Supplement Volumes for high school. Although there are hands-on activities included, it is more seatwork oriented and “schoolish” than KONOS. Units teach chronologically through the Bible.

Aspects of Unit Studies that are used in Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ are: focused topics of study (providing greater depth of understanding); family study (everyone learning the same topics together); integrated subjects (where applicable).

This article is part of a series for new home educators. In this, and several other articles, we cover What style of education is right for our family? And where do I get our curriculum?

Unschooling or delight directed learning is “child led” education, focusing on the interests of the child. Usually the real books and resources utilized in this type of education are whatever the child finds in the library or on the internet or perhaps his family’s library that is of interest to him, in addition to activities and projects he chooses. Obviously, there is no written curriculum or book list for this. It flows as the child’s interests come and go, in whatever the topic may be–not just recognized school subjects. Some parents help guide the child into turning these interests into a type of Unit Study.

John Holt defined this approach, believing that people have an innate curiosity and desire to learn, unless it is destroyed by the usual ways of teaching; that when given a good environment in which to learn, he will love to learn. This educational belief stems from his foundational belief that people are good and will choose what is best and right for themselves.

Although there are parents that truly leave their children to themselves without that rich learning environment, to just play video games and watch TV all day, that is not the intent behind this approach. Still we see that unschooling even in its intent, although it has some good components, is not a Biblical approach. A child cannot appropriately direct his own education. He is not a pure, blank slate but rather has sinful, selfish tendencies. Proverbs tells us that a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. And Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and Ephesians instruct us to diligently teach our children, guiding and directing their education. In addition, the “go your own way” approach can promote selfish individualism rather than family unity. In general, most Christians recognize the faulty foundation of pure unschooling, and choose rather an adapted version that is more Biblical. In The Relaxed Home School Mary Hood presents an adaptation of this approach to education for Christian homes.

Sometimes Delayed Academics is considered unschooling. We believe that is more of a Discipleship approach. Parents are still guiding learning; it is just not focused on “book learning” in the early years.

Although accused many times of being “unschoolers”, Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ is not a child-led approach. But we do believe a child’s interests and learning styles/abilities should be taken into consideration when planning his curriculum, as those interests and abilities are God-given and indicators of God’s design for his future. We also believe he needs to grow in learning how to direct his own education, under our guidance, through his teen years. Including children in the real world of life and providing rich learning and play opportunities and resources, as well as lifestyle natural methods of learning, are foundations of L.E.D. (and views proposed by Raymond Moore that we agree with) that would also be espoused by most unschoolers.

This article is part of a series for new home educators. In this, and several other articles, we cover What style of education is right for our family? And where do I get our curriculum?

Using Real Books is an alternative to using textbooks in your family’s home education.  By Real Books I mean books that were not written as educational texts. But this doesn’t not in any way mean that real books don’t educate! As John Taylor Gatto (a former New York teacher of the year) says, “Real books educate. School books school.”

Real Books are the types of books you find in a bookstore or library. They are usually written by one author. They usually are about a specific topic, but not necessarily a school subject. Many times the topic is much narrower than a “subject” would be. Generally they are more deep than broad. They are not grade leveled. They do not have quizzes or tests at the end of the chapters. The best of them are enjoyed by all ages, and are interesting and delightful and/or thought provoking to read.

There are many educational approaches that use Real Books rather than text/work books, ranging from very unstructured unschooling where the child may just check out books from the library on anything he is currently interested in to highly structured classical curriculum that uses specific great classical literature. There are many other styles in-between these two that use Real Books. In the next few articles I will describe several of these educational approaches that use Real Books, including Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ that you can learn much more about on this site and through our Exclusive Resources.

Home education resources have become so numerous that I will only be able to scratch the surface of what is available for Real Book learning. But I will share the major approaches and links to several examples of them in each article. Some approaches will be grouped together, as they have similar traits. This means that there may be aspects that more or less apply to a specific style or curriculum within the group. The goal of this article series is not to dig deeply into every individual approach, but to give you an idea of what is out there, and help you see how they compare to Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ so you can determine if L.E.D. is the right approach for your family.

Finding Real Books to use in the approaches listed below

Unschooling or Delight-directed

Unit Studies

Living Books/ Literature-based – Charlotte Mason, Ruth Beechick

Classical/ Great Books

Christian Discipleship/ Worldview

Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™

This article is part of a series for new home educators. In this, and several other articles, we cover What style of education is right for our family? And where do I get our curriculum?

Textbooks and Workbooks may be the types of curriculum that you are most familiar with. If you are new to home education, they may be the only type you are familiar with. They are they type used in government and most private schools. This method uses one text or set of workbooks, perhaps with teacher’s manuals, test and quiz booklets, and lesson plans, for each subject in each grade level.

This is not an approach we recommend for home educating families, for several reasons, but it may be one you choose to use. If you plan to return your child to the government system soon and if it is important to you that your child follows the lock-step regimen of this type of education, this method may be your choice. Others may choose it for other reasons.

Some conservative, Christian choices you have in this category are:

ABeka – Christian, grade level, subject specific textbooks. They also have ABeka Academy, a distance learning program available by DVD or streaming.

Bob Jones – Christian, grade level, subject specific textbooks. They also have a satellite program for distance learning available by DVD or online.

Alpha Omega – Christian, grade level, subject specific workbooks and computer based learning. Alpha Omega LifePacs are worktexts designed as a mastery approach to self-directed learning. There are generally 10 consumable workbooks per subject, per grade level (rather than one textbook). Horizons is another curriculum option through Alpha Omega. These workbooks are teacher directed and follow a spiral approach to learning. Switched on Schoolhouse is Alpha Omega’s computer based curriculum, and Monarch is their online program. Alpha Omega also has an online, distance learning program.

Accelerated Christian Education’s (ACE) PACEs are similar to Alpha Omega’s LifePacs. Christian Light combines LightUnits (workbooks) and some texts.

There are many more, but these are some of the most popular choices.

Although I can’t deny that there can be some good information in these Christian texts, I believe texts are not the best way for children to learn or parents to teach. Just a few of the drawbacks can be: the lock-step manner of expecting all children of a certain age to progress through material at a specific pace and order; non-family-friendly method – everyone’s learning going in different directions; mom burnout (especially when teaching several different levels), uninteresting presentation of bite-sized facts to be learned for a quiz or test (not out of interest or for the love of learning). These drawbacks may or may not be in the program you choose, and may or may not be an issue for your family.

If you’d like to step out of the textbook box and avoid these drawbacks, we encourage you to take a look at Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ for Freedom & Simplicity™ in Biblical Principles home education and read on about other Real Books approaches.

This article is part of our series for those New to Home Education.

Where do I get my homeschool curriculum? is one of the first questions most parents ask. Some parents, new to home education, have the misconception that there is some set standard of books to use and information that needs to be learned at certain ages, or even one set curriculum that all homeschoolers are required to use. Although the government is working hard to make such a requirement for their schools, there is no such thing for home educators. God has certainly not ordained that every child of age Y must learn X material or they will be “behind”.

There are as many ways to home educate as there are home educators, and although there were only a handful of resources available when we began in the mid-1980’s, there are many thousands available now. To narrow those choices down, before you start searching through, you must first determine what type of curriculum will be right for your family. Your educational philosophy (go back and read First Things First if you haven’t read it yet) will help you narrow down what types of approaches are going to best achieve your goals.

The first division in types of curriculum is  Textbooks/Workbooks vs. “Real Books”. If Real Books are your choice, there are many methods to further divide that category. Although we don’t recommend all types, homeschool resources for all types are available through our Partners listed in our sidebar, such as ChristianBook.

Let’s take a look at these two divisions, and then the various approaches based on Real Books.

Textbooks/Workbooks Approach

Real Books Approach