Author: Amanda Bennett

Trying to be standard is not the goal in homeschooling. The dreamers, healers, builders, and inventors are never “standard”. Give your children the chance to discover their God-given talents and gifts.

Every time I see this text from an Apple ad from more than 20 years ago, I think of homeschoolers and the fantastic potential that they have:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.  About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.”

Trying to Be “Standard” is Not the Goal in Homeschooling

Homeschooling provides untold opportunities to awaken their creativity and give them the chance to discover what their God-given gifts might be. But you, the parent, have to be brave enough to step away from a “standard” education. The dreamers, healers, builders, and inventors are never “standard”, and the sooner they could move away from “standard”, the sooner they were able to explore the universe, create things, connect ideas, and chase their dreams.

More Homeschool Helps

Learn more about the unit study approach to homeschooling – where standard is not the goal:

• What is a Unit Study?
• How Does this Method Compare to Others?
• Take the Tour: Learn About Unit Studies
• Using the CAT Test for Homeschool Testing
• A Mom’s Helpful Homeschool Habits for Standardized Testing
• 3 Tips to Start Your Homeschool Day: What About You Mom?

Helping parents follow that new path now for over 20 years and blessed to be be able to help.

Happy homeschooling,

Find 3 tips to start your homeschool day. Practical and encouraging for the day to day to help you take care of yourself so that you can be your best – to take care of your crew!

When I was young, I remember my mother getting up before daylight, quietly going to the kitchen and making coffee. She would sit at the kitchen table with her coffee, staring out of the back window into the woods, enjoying the silence for a while, before we all woke up. I never understood just how important this time was until I had my own children, and now I appreciate her exasperated look when one of us would wake up early and wander out before daylight!

3 Tips to Start Your Homeschool Day: What About You, Mom?

Here are a few ideas to help you begin taking care of yourself so that you can be your best to take care of your crew:

• Try to get up early in the morning to have some quiet time before everyone wakes up – read the Bible, pray, and listen.
• Keep a journal — write in it every day. Not only does it help you see all that has been accomplished and record the daily happenings —the simple act of journaling provides a constant steady reminder of the passing of time. As homeschoolers, we tend to get wrapped up in marking time by years until graduation, instead of enjoying the value of each and every day.
• Make time to see just how far you have come. Go back through photos from the past occasionally. Look back over goals from years past. See just how far your family has come, and you will also notice some new directions that need to be taken.

When you begin to take care of your needs, your children will learn a valuable lesson — that everyone has needs that are very important. As parents, our needs tend to get pushed to the background and set aside, and this isn’t healthy for the individual or the family.

You know the safety talk that the flight attendants give, just before you take off? They always remind us to fix out own oxygen mask first, then take help a child with theirs, should the oxygen masks come down during the flight. This is so that you are prepared to take care of the child with a clear head and focused thoughts. That same principle applies in many areas of parenting.

More Homeschool Mom Helps

• Help for the Anxious Homeschool Mom
• Devotionals for Homeschool Moms
• Just Step Outside: A Break for the Overwhelmed Homeschool Mom (take a quick walk!)
• Relaxing Art Activities for Busy Moms
• Homeschool Mom Helps
• How to Make a Schedule for Your Homeschool Day
• A Homeschool Mom’s Routine

I hope you enjoy these tips to start your homeschool day. As my mom is always reminding me, I will pass her question along to you. My mom is wise. What can you do to carve out a bit of time for yourself?

Blessings,

One of the best ways to approach learning in your homeschool is through a cross curricular unit study. In this post, we walk through how to use a unit study in your homeschool, using our “Ocean Study” as a guide. 

Remember the first time you “heard” the ocean in a seashell or felt the sand shift from beneath your feet as the surf washed by? The cry of the gull, the steady rhythm of the waves on the shore, the sting of salt on your face—all of these and more remind us of the tranquility you can experience when seeing the ocean.

When warm weather approaches, the call to the water becomes louder and more appealing to families everywhere. We think of vacations and heading to the beach, while the children imagine who will collect the most seashells, climb to the top of the lighthouse first, build the biggest sandcastle, and kick the surf the highest!

The ocean was the topic of the very first unit study I attempted because it was just a short walk from our door, and the children were enamored by the beach and the water. They have always been so curious about the things we found or saw on the beach. I had a new baby with severe colic that was soothed by long beach walks, two fascinated and eager students anxious to leave textbooks and busywork behind, and a huge field trip arena at our doorstep—the Atlantic Ocean!

Interest-Led Learning Through Unit Studies

I always try to begin a unit study by asking the children what they’d like to know about the topic at hand, if they haven’t already demonstrated specific interests or mentioned questions in our daily conversations. We have already determined that we would investigate sea life, so here are some of the questions that they had about this topic:

1. What is the biggest animal in the ocean?

2. What kinds of animals live in the deepest part of the ocean?

3. How long can a dolphin and whale stay underwater?

4. Where does the great white shark live?

There, that’s four questions that we can tackle during this travel through the Oceans Unit Study Adventure!

From this point, I would proceed to the study outline and find the portions that would provide answers to the children’s questions as well as stretch their interest into other applicable areas of the topic.

Ocean Unit Study: Resources and Activities 

What do I do next?

After deciding on the areas we would address in our study, I would start selecting appropriate resources from the Reference Resources section of the study. (This list contains numerous books for the various outline sections, including the grade level suggestions, publisher information, etc.)

Choosing Resources

Here are some suggestions of what I might choose to investigate their questions and interests:

•     Fish, Shark, and Whale, all from the Eyewitness Books Series, Grades 4–12. Published by Alfred A. Knopf (Subsidiary of Random House).
•     Let’s Investigate Slippery, Splendid Sea Creatures, by Madelyn W. Carlisle, (Let’s Investigate Series), Grades 3–7. Published by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
•     Don’t Blink Now! Capturing the Hidden World of Sea Creatures, by Ann Downer, (New England Aquarium Books), Grades 5–8. Published by Franklin Watts.
•     How Did We Find Out About Life in the Deep Sea?, by Isaac Asimov, Grades 4–7. Published by Walker & Company.
•     Strange Eating Habits of Ocean Creatures, by Jean Sibbald, Grades 4–8. Published by Silver Burdett, Simon & Schuster, Inc.
•     Deep-Sea Vents: Living Worlds Without Sun, by John F. Waters, Grades 5 and up. Published by Dutton Children’s Books, Division of Penguin USA.

We will begin reading through these, both together as a family and as the children read and study them on their own.

In addition to reference resources that will help us learn more about sea life, I usually select some classic reading material that we can all enjoy. Looking under Reading Resources, I see that Moby Dick by Herman Melville and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway would be good choices to read together over the study. During a unit study, the children read plenty of fiction that relates to the topic, and here are some titles that they might like from the list:

•     Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea, by Frank Peretti, (Cooper Kids Adventure Series), Grades 4–7. Published by Crossway Books, Division of Good News Publications.
•     Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell, Grades 3–7. A Dell Yearling Book, published by Dell Publishing Co.
•     The Lighthouse Mystery, by Gertrude C. Warner, (Boxcar Children Mysteries Series), Grades 2–7. Published by Albert Whitman and Co.

Selecting Activities For Your Ocean Unit Study

Now that we have our reference and reading materials selected, it is time to begin planning some of the hands-on fun from activities included in the Activities sections. I always try to choose some that are “pre-made” (coloring books, models, simple projects that require minimal assembly) as well as some that we do all on our own. From the resources of pre-made activities:

•     The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities and Ideas for All Ages, by the Center for Marine Conservation Staff, Grades PreK–6. Published by John Wiley & Sons
•     The Marine Biology Coloring Book, by Thomas Nielsen, Grades 7–12. Published by Harper Collins.
  • Dover Coloring:
•     Whales and Dolphins, by John Green
•     Sharks of the World, by Llyn Hunter
•     Tropical Fish, by Stefan Bernath
•     Fishes of the North Atlantic, by Thomas C. Quirk, Jr.

Along with these activities, we would also work on some from the Activities Suggestions section. One of these recommends using fishing to supplement this study. Whether freshwater or saltwater fishing, there is so much that can be learned by spending time out with a fishing pole and a bucket of bait. The successes of different kinds of bait (natural and man-made), the concept of the food chain, the battle to catch a fish, as well as all of the fun to be had while watching life in the water are all part of the fishing experience.

Another activity includes hands on art lessons and tidal pool exploration!

The students can track their progress in fishing over the summer by keeping a fishing journal, detailing the variety of places that they try, the types of bait and results, the time of day, and other factors. In the journal, they can also describe their catches, possibly sketching the whole fish as well as the anatomy of the fish if they dissect their catches!

Internet Research to Complement the Unit Study

We realize that there are good and bad sides of the Internet as there are with any other resource, we have spent the time searching out “safe” suggestions that would add value to the learning experience, and they’ve been included in each of our studies. Our suggested Ask AI Prompts give you the latest research, so your study never looses it’s value!

Having been born and raised in Florida, I have spent much of my life within the sound of the surf and the call of the seagulls, and I find it difficult to function when I stay away too long! In this study, I have tried to share this broad and exciting learning experience with you—the history, the marine life, the explorers, the shipwrecks, the shells, and of course the sights and sounds we experience as we walk along in the sand.

I hope this article will help you see a small portion of the learning potential with Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett.

Grab a towel, a pail and shovel, throw some sand in the back yard, and come join the quest.

Part of the fun of summer is the pure celebration of the season! Make some memories with these best summer activities with kids!

Summer Traditions For The Whole Family

Consider adding a few new traditions-making the summer family friendly!

Perhaps a bike ride and ice cream sundae party every Friday evening or movie night and popcorn at home on Mondays. Summer is a great time for making memories together as a family.

The 20 Best Summer Activities with Kids

Here are a few of my favorite summer activities for kids for inspiration:

•Build tree forts together and watch out! This is always a very popular summer project, and the kids love to have input along the way. Let them “plan the fort”, then help them figure out lumber needs and work together with you for the construction of the tree fort that they will never forget.

•Take bike rides together, and don’t forget helmets or whatever else you all may need. Perhaps go down new streets or visit a new park.

•Sunday sundaes are something that they can look forward to, when they get to create their own ice cream masterpieces.

•Spend a day blowing bubbles or flying kites together. Remember to take pictures of the fun!

•One afternoon, go cloud-watching together. Watch the clouds for wild animal shapes while lying flat on your back in the grass. Take sketch books or notebooks along and let them draw the shapes that they see.

•Spend a day creating a make-believe town with chalk on the driveway or sidewalk together, letting imagination run free. Don’t forget to take pictures before the rain washes it away.

•Have s’mores nights throughout the summer. Enough said. S’mores can fix anything. 😉

•Laugh through watermelon seed-spitting contests in the back yard.

•See who can carefully capture the most fireflies in a plastic container (to be released that same evening).

•Spend as many nights as possible, getting out of the house to go star watching. Using a picnic table or blankets and pillows, build a comfy family spot to watch the stars come out at night. Be sure to take along a children’s book on constellations and stars, along with a flashlight and get them searching for constellations in the sky. By the end of the summer, they will be able to point them out on their own. Perhaps the end of the summer could be spent learning to use a telescope or binoculars, letting them see the rings of Saturn, and so much more.

•Make homemade ice cream with a hand-crank ice cream maker.

•Run through a sprinkler in the yard on hot afternoons, creating an obstacle course to run through while getting soaked by the sprinkler.

•Let every person decide a dinner menu for his/her Chef Night. They get to pick the dinner menu, make a grocery store list of the things they will need for their creation, and then go (with the family) to purchase the items they will need from their lists. Then, each person makes dinner one night a week for the whole family. This can be hilarious, and so what if they want to have ice cream sundaes for dinner? Just have fun with it.

•Our sister site hosts an Online Summer Art Camp! art gives children the chance to be creative, carefree, and engaged. Your child will gain self-confidence as they develop the skills and techniques to bring their creations to fruition. No artistic talent needed. Just an openness to creative expression!

•Summer Nature Studies at Homeschool Nature Study! Fireflies are fascinating! In this study, learn if there is a pattern to the light flashing. Enjoy an up close fireflies and moths summer nature study.

•Create a scavenger hunt for your back yard, writing down tips and hints and picking fun prizes for the winners. Pinterest has loads of scavenger hunt lists to help you out.

•Family jigsaw puzzles can be a great distraction when you want to leave the television turned off and the conversations to increase. Set up a card/folding table if you don’t have a place to leave the puzzle up for a few days, until it is completed. Use puzzle glue so the puzzles can be preserved and hung in the hall, basement, or wherever they can see them and remember the time together.

•Thursday Night Bingo Night can be fun, too. Collect some interesting small prizes and put them in lunch-size brown paper bags, stapling them shut as you collect them. When someone yells “Bingo”, they get to choose one of the paper bags to open and see what they have one. From flip flops to inflatable beach balls, funny t-shirts to wind-up model airplanes, the prizes can be so funny!

•Of course unit studies are perfect for summer and such a fun way to learn and to make memories together!

More Summer Fun Ideas: Making the Summer Family Friendly

• Summer Reading Inspiration for Your Homeschool
• Summer Homeschool Ideas and Encouragement
• How to Make a Homeschool Family Summer Wish List
• Summer Ideas for Kids: A Chalkboard List for Your Family

This summer will be memorable, and it is my prayer that you and yours make time for fun, set aside time to help others that are struggling, and pray together to share everyone’s concerns and praises.

Blessings,

Practical tips for keeping the hands-on part of unit studies simple. These activities help children learn and retain information even better!

Activities and field trips have played a key role in our use of unit studies. The more hands-on that the study is, the better they seem to retain the information. Now, I’m not talking about extravagant or complex activities or field trips. Here are a few that we have enjoyed over the years for many of our studies.

Keeping the Hands-On Part of Unit Studies Simple

Surrounding the child with the theme of the study is always a helpful way to stay focused on the current topic, but even at bedtime? Oh yes, wait until you try this – it’s one of the best projects that we began as we worked on unit studies.

Simple Examples of Hands-On Activities: Pillowcases and Tablecloths for Homeschool Learning

I would watch for inexpensive fabric at a local discount store that went along with the theme of an upcoming unit study (planets, whales, sharks, etc). Using the fabric, I made a pillowcase for each child to use during the study. For example, we had cowboy pillowcases when we studied the West, autumn pillowcases when we studied Thanksgiving, fruit and flower pillowcases for Gardens, and so on.

My linen closet shelves are quite colorful! There are pillowcases with bugs, whales, stars, sharks that glow in the dark, planets, dogs, horses, maps and many more. We still use these to this day, and have fun remembering all that we did and learned during the studies.

I also purchased inexpensive flat twin sheets to use for tablecloths that we made while working on a unit study. After placing cardboard between the sheet and the table, the children would develop a collective tablecloth that contained their:

• spelling words
• maps
• sketches
• handprints, and who knows what else!

By letting them use fabric paint and indelible markers, I could wash these tablecloths in the washing machine, and enjoy them for years to come.

Experiments and Field Trips

After volcano experiments, developing a litmus test from purple cabbage, carving bars of soap into famous ships, watching meteor showers in the middle of the night and shuttle launches from the swing set, I can honestly say that the hands-on activities and field trips were the icing on cake of learning.

When studying oceans, we explored a tidal basin with manatee. When volunteering for a local vet, one of the children turned her attention to animals and this eventually developed into a career in veterinary medicine.

You never know when your unit studies will uncover a gift or talent in a child. When studying nature and leaves, one child became fascinated with the different ways of propagating plants, which eventually turned into a fascination with botany and all things of the outdoors. He went on to college and has established a thriving tree business with his father, loving every moment of doing something he truly loves.

The Value Of Hands-On Unit Studies

As a parent, I can say that this is one of the best rewards that you will experience as you homeschool – watching your child discover and pursue the gifts and talents that God has given them. This is an indescribable blessing – and one that I hope you all get to experience.

Get ready for a wonderful time of learning and exploration, and a shower of blessings!

Enjoy the journey,