The educational approach you choose can significantly shape your homeschooling experience. If you’ve been wondering what a unit study is, you’re in the right place. In this article, I’ll explain what it means to use a unit studies approach and how you can integrate this style of homeschooling into your children’s education.
My name is Jackie, and I’m a longtime homeschooling mom, the founder of HomeSchool ThinkTank, and the host of the HomeSchool ThinkTank Parenting Podcast. I’m going to explain the following aspects of unit studies.
- Definition of unit studies
- Benefits of unit studies
- How to plan your own unit study
- Unit study ideas
- Curriculum options for unit studies
p.s. Be sure to watch the unit studies video and listen to my podcast episode about unit studies. Keep scrolling and you’ll see them further down this page.
What Is a Unit Study?
Unit studies are an educational approach in which multiple subjects are taught in relation to one theme.
Relating different subject areas to a single topic helps children connect the lessons they learn and improves their comprehension.
For instance, when studying Ancient Egypt, you might incorporate lessons about the country’s history, geography, art, and science. By linking all of the lessons to Ancient Egypt, your child will be able to connect what they are learning and will retain more about Egyptian culture.
Benefits of Unit Studies for Homeschooling
- Multi-Age Learning: Unit studies are popular for families because kids of multiple ages can learn about a topic together but do age-appropriate projects and assignments.
- Family Inclusivity: Unit studies are suitable for families with multiple children. This approach allows each child to engage at an appropriate level while exploring the same central theme. Alternatively, each of your kids could work on separate unit studies that are especially interesting to them.
- Personalized for Your Family: You can personalize unit studies for your family and choose a topic that everyone is interested in learning about.
- Individualized for Each Child: While your family can study a topic together, you can tailor lessons so they align with each child’s interests and learning pace.
- Flexible Timelines: You can adjust the length of a unit study from days to weeks. Some parents plan an entire school year around a centralized theme, and then create smaller unit studies within that theme.
- Skill Development: Promotes essential skills like critical thinking, research, and problem-solving.
- Subject Integration: You can include a variety of subjects into each unit study to ensure a well-rounded educational approach.
- Integrated Learning: Unit studies allow you to offer a holistic learning environment where subjects complement and build upon each other.
- Improved Comprehension and Retention: When kids can connect what they are learning to something else, this helps improve comprehension and retention.
- Increased Confidence: The act of researching, learning, doing unit study projects, and then sharing their work will help your kids build confidence.
Video About Unit Studies
Unit Studies Approaches
One of the benefits of unit studies is that you don’t have to purchase a specific curriculum.
There are two main ways to approach a unit study.
- Decide what you are interested in and find supporting resources.
- Notice what’s easily available to you and base a unit study around that topic.
For example, I could decide we’re going to study Greece and find resources to support a unit study about Greece. While we could travel to Greece, it might not be realistic for my family at this time. On the other hand, I could decide that we’re going to study Native American Cultures. We live in the Southwest and there are ample resources, nearby museums, ruins, and other places to visit that might make this unit study more interesting and memorable for my kids.
With these things in mind, we might choose the unit study that is easier to gain resources for and visit. Now, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t study Greece. We could still have an excellent unit study on Greece. Likewise, just because we won’t be going to outer space doesn’t mean we shouldn’t study it. The availability of resources is simply something to keep in mind as you choose your unit studies.
My Daughter’s Unplanned Unit Study
When my oldest daughter was around middle school age, she became very interested in the Russian Romanov family. She first learned about them from one of Rick Riordan’s 39 Clues books. This led her to research the family extensively, read historical books, write papers about them, and draw them. This became an individual, interest-based, unit study for her and it was incorporated into her homeschooling day. While we didn’t actually plan this unit study, it definitely turned into a unit study.
While my daughter ‘stumbled’ upon this unit study, when homeschooling parents use a unit studies approach, they generally plan it with intention. I’ll explain how to do that in the next section.
How to Plan a Unit Studies
Whether you supplement your homeschool curriculum with unit studies or you completely use a unit studies approach to homeschool your kids, planning can make a big difference. In the example below, I’m assuming that you’re planning your unit studies with your kids, but it might make sense to plan the unit studies on your own.
- Hold a Family Brainstorming Session: Everyone shares ideas of things they are interested in learning more about.
- Family vs Individual Unit Studies: Decide if the entire family is going to study the same thing and work collaboratively or if each child is going to do their own unit study. Either way, the more buy-in you have from your kids, the more they will learn about the unit they are studying. While the possibilities for unit studies are endless, these ideas will help get you started.
- The bullet points below are linked to books for kids on Amazon.
- The ocean
- Space
- An animal
- A sport
- Computers
- Your town or state
- A country
- Your family history
- Integrating a Variety of Subject Areas: Consider ways to integrate required subjects such as math, writing, reading, history, and science. This is especially important if you are not supplementing your child’s education with other curricula.
- List Resources for Your Unit Study: Make a list of resources that you could use for your unit study.
- Books
- Printables
- Documentaries
- Websites
- Games
- Museums
- National Parks
- People
- Stores
- Organizations
- Nature Centers
- Resources Near You
- Length of Time for the Unit Study: When it comes to unit studies, there aren’t any rules. You and your children can study something as long as it interests you. With this in mind, prior to beginning the unit study, decide how long you want it to be and whether you want to be flexible about your time frame.
- Decide When to Do the Unit Study: If you are planning for an entire school year, then you might want to take the progression of your unit studies or the weather into account. For example, if you are doing multiple unit studies based on history time frames, it might make sense to do the earlier era first. On the other hand, if you are doing a unit study where the weather is important, then you might plan that unit study at a certain time of the year.
- Plan for Your Unit Study: Before starting the unit study, order any necessary materials, plan field trips, and borrow books from the library.
- Build Anticipation: If you’ve planned for the unit study without your children’s input, be sure to start talking about it with them ahead of time. It’s important to build anticipation for the upcoming lesson so that they are excited to do the unit study.
- Do the Unit Study: The day is here and it’s time to start your unit study. Even if you don’t feel completely ready for the unit study, get started. Starting builds momentum and you can complete the process with your kids.
- Record the Unit Study: While it’s not necessary to save every scrap of paper and project, years down the road you’ll be glad to have a few pictures and videos of your child’s development through their unit studies.
- Share What You’ve Learned: Whether you have a small gathering or share on social media, allow your kids to show their friends and extended family what they’ve learned.
- Review the Unit Study: Most families stop at the previous step, but it’s important to review what went well and what could be improved. Use this information to improve your next unit study.
Allow your kids to take as much ownership of their unit study as possible. Remember to take plenty of pictures and have lots of fun so that your kids have fond memories of their learning adventures!
Unit Study Homeschool Curriculum
While you can create your own unit studies, you can also purchase pre-made unit studies that are designed for homeschoolers. Here are a few good options.
- Backpack Sciences: Take eight weeks of outdoor science skills lessons, the science behind cooking course, or join the program for fun science unit studies. This program is perfect for elementary-age students.
- Build Your Library: A Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum that uses literature to explore various subjects. Kindergarten to 12th Grade.
- DK Books (on Amazon): These books are an excellent starting point for any unit study. They are loaded with pictures and lots of interesting information.
- Five in a Row: Uses children’s literature to explore various subjects. Suitable for students 2-12.
- Moving Beyond the Page: This is a literature-based curriculum that encourages critical and creative thinking, provides challenging projects, and supports different learning styles. Preschool to High School.
- Trail Guide to Learning Series: This homeschool curriculum uses an integrated approach to teach every subject except for math. Grades K-8.
- Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett: Offers various themes like geography, history, and science, suitable for Grades K-4.
If you want to incorporate pre-packaged unit studies into your homeschool, be sure to check out each of the programs above. While some offer small unit studies, others are designed as a comprehensive homeschooling curriculum.
Two Weekly Podcast Episodes for You!
Our Monday episodes are designed to inspire and uplift parents, while the other episode is about homeschooling, education, and parenting.
Subjects to Incorporate Into Your Unit Studies
Whether you supplement your unit studies with other curricula or use them as a comprehensive education plan, be sure to cover the subjects mandated by the law where you live.
You can discover more curriculum here.
Here are some subject areas to consider including in your children’s unit studies.
- Reading
- Handwriting
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Language Arts
- Literature
- History
- Geography
- Social Studies
- Economics
- Math
- Science
- Art
- Music
- Drama
- Physical Education
- Health
- Nutrition
- Cooking
- Sewing
- Woodworking
- Agriculture
- Foreign Languages
Unit Studies Ideas
- Animals
- Plants
- Seasons
- Weather
- Earth Science
- Art History
- Holidays
- Transportation
- Famous People
- Historical Eras
- Literature
- Solar System
- Inventions
- Scientific Topics
- Anatomy
- Technology
- Countries
- Ancestry
- Careers
- Sports
- Games
Click here to discover 100+ ideas for unit studies.
Get Started with Unit Studies
Unit studies are a flexible and fun way to homeschool your kids. By focusing on themes that interest the entire family, unit studies not only promote educational depth but also foster a supportive and collaborative learning environment.
Whether you decide to use a unit studies approach as the primary means of homeschooling your kids, or during summer and holiday breaks, remember to make this educational experience enjoyable so that your children develop a lifelong love of learning.
Click here to discover 100+ ideas for unit studies.
Do You Need Help with Homeschooling?
Whether you’re just getting started with homeschooling or you’re a seasoned homeschool parent, I can help you. I combine my homeschool consulting services with my life coaching services to help parents like you.
So whether you need help figuring out how to homeschool your kids, or you need help in other areas of your life, I can help.
Learn more about my homeschool coaching services here.
2018-2024+. HomeSchool ThinkTank, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2018-2024+. HomeSchool ThinkTank, LLC. All Rights Reserved.