Compare homeschool unit studies vs. other homeschool approaches and learn why homeschool unit studies may be the right choice for your family.
Homeschool Unit Studies vs. A Traditional Homeschool Approach
Take a minute to compare a more traditional approach to unit studies. Textbooks are one form of curriculum used for education, and most of us were educated using textbooks. They are written from the perspective that everything in the world fits neatly into one of several categories, like science and geography. Textbooks include a collection of information that is to be read, memorized, and repeated for a test or exam.
The main problem with textbook learning is that the student becomes well trained at memorizing information, but unfamiliar with how all of this information applies to the world around him.
By coming from a different perspective and teaching about a complete topic, unit studies offer the advantage of helping children grasp the big picture and then apply what they have learned to other areas and other topics.
How Do Unit Studies Compare to Other Homeschool Methods?
A frequently asked question about the unit study approach is if there will be holes or gaps in a child’s education using this method. Let me ask you this, how many textbooks did you finish in your own education? Most of us never finished a single one. We have huge holes in our own education and no matter the method, your child will too. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the year to cover everything.
So what can you do? You can teach your child that learning is an incredible adventure. A journey that you get to go on together. We want our children to be lifelong learners but we don’t present learning in such a way that children would want to do it their whole life.
It is vitally important that we teach these bright young minds how to think and find answers. In this day and age of information explosion, textbook publishers rush to keep adding new information to textbooks, further abridging, condensing and modifying or deleting what they deem less important or not politically correct. Many textbooks now read like encyclopedias, with little interesting reading included, just facts, figures and condensed material.
If we can teach our children with interesting materials, challenging them to think, reason, analyze and dig deeper for further information, we will find them to be well-educated and ready to move on to a lifetime of challenge and questions and adventure. While we will never be able to teach a child everything, we can certainly teach them these things, providing a strong foundation and knowledge base for the future.
More Homeschool Helps
Learn more about the unit study approach to homeschooling:
- What is a Unit Study?
- How Does this Method Compare to Others?
- Take the Tour: Learn About Unit Studies
Enjoy the journey,
