How to plan a unit study

We love unit studies! I think it’s a great way to wrap several subjects up in one study! It is not hard to plan one as long as you do a little planning first. I have included some steps below that will help you plan your next unit study. I will try to keep it short and simple because if you are like me you don’t have tons of time!

1. Pick your topic!

This can be anything! You can pick something that your child likes or something that follows what you are teaching in school.

Example- I wanted to teach the human body in a fun way to my kids so I decided to do a human body unit study.

2. Decide what you want to cover with that topic!

For our human body unit study I wanted to cover the major body systems and make sure the kids had a basic understanding about what each body system was responsible for. If you don’t really have anything specific that’s ok! When we did a unit study on dinosaurs I really didn’t have anything specific that I wanted my son to learn about. I just knew he liked dinosaurs so I just decided on a topic and went from there- so don’t worry if you can’t answer this question, you will be able to later!

3.Search the internet to get ideas!

My favorite place to search for ideas is Pinterest. If you don’t have a Pinterest account please get one! It is free and it’s a great way to keep up with all those websites, ideas, crafts, and recipes that you come across. I couldn’t homeschool without mine!

If you are searching Pinterest just type in whatever unit study into the search box up in the left hand corner. I typed in human body unit study and found tons of great Pinterest boards and pins dealing with just that subject!

If you are searching Google or another search engine just type in free your topic unit study. Typing in free is very important or you will get more offers for curriculum then good ideas. I typed in free human body unit study and found thousands of links.

4. Pick a couple of fun ideas to do for your search above.

I like to pick one or two easy crafts or hands on projects, lapbook or notebooking pages, an educational game, and a video or TV show.

For the human body unit study we did the following-

-made a model of a human bone (see pictures below). I found this idea on Pinterest and I adapted to what I had on hand, which was toilet paper rolls, playdough, pipe cleaners, and streamers form a birthday party the week before.

We also made a model of the bones in the hand with sugar cookie dough, then cooked it and had a tasty snack!

I found all of these ideas and more on Pinterest. I also found a couple of movies on Youtube to watch with the kids.

5. Hit up your local library and find some great books to add into your study!

Learn how to use your library!! This is the most important thing as a homeschooler you could do. Nothing will save you more money than learning how to use your library! Our library has a feature on their website that allows me to search through the books they have on certain subjects and request them. Then all I have to do is go to the front desk and they have them waiting on me! If your library doesn’t have that feature it’s ok! Ask the librarians for help in learning how to look up books on certain subjects.

Pick a few books on your subject. You don’t have to read the whole book, just pick the parts you find interesting or the parts that pertain to your topic specifically. When I first started homeschooling I thought I had to read every book on a topic, or my kids would miss out on something. All that gets you is burnt out!

6. Come up with a basic plan of what you want to read and what project you want to do on what day.

Don’t try to do too much in one day! And most importantly –

DON’T BE SO STUCK ON YOUR LESSON PLAN THAT YOU MISS A GREAT LEARNING OPPORTUNITY!

I used to think we had to stick to my lesson plan, we had to read every book I had on my plans, and do every craft I had found online. What happened when my kids would ask a question about something they read or we read aloud was always- we will talk about that on Thursday or we will look it up later. After awhile the kids stopped asking questions and they just let me spoon feed them information. That is not my idea of creating a love of learning. That created a very boring school day and the kids lost enthusiasm which lead to bad attitudes about school work. So what did I do? I took a week off and regrouped. I started again and this time I asked the kids questions and got them thinking. When they asked a question we would go and look it up. If it meant we didn’t get to that super cute craft but they dived deeper into their topic then it was a good day. Slowly their love of learning came back. What is my point to all of this? Learn from my mistakes! Make a basic plan and don’t be afraid to dump it and go another way!

7. Put it all together in a basket so you can find everything you need when you need it. 

I have lost the wiggly little boy so many times just because I couldn’t find a book I wanted or the glue I needed for a project. Have it all ready to go and you will be able to have a smoother day!

8. Get started and enjoy your kids!

Have patience and take your time. If you have little ones make sure you have some busy bags or busy boxes to keep them happy while you work with the older kids. I let my little one sit right at the table with us so she gets in the habit of learning how to sit with us during school. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. One of my mistakes is I had way too much writing and a kid who hated writing so he whined, complained, and drained me of my energy and patience.  I lightened up on the writing ( he got practice other times of the day) and we got back to making learning fun for everybody again.

Remember keep it simple and have fun. One of the great parts of teaching a unit study is you get to learn at the same time!

The more unit studies you plan the better you will get at it! If you need some ideas please feel free to message me and I can try to help give you some ideas!

Do you need some inspiration for a unit study? Check out my Pinterest boards and follow me– click here to go straight to them!

Do you want to see what we did for our human body unit study? Click here to read the guest post I did for my friends website. I also did this with our Human body Unit-  How To Make An Edible Cell Cake. I have a Pinterest board that I pinned most of my ideas for the Human body Unit Study. (Click here to find it)

Happy Homeschooling!

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How to plan a unit study