| Author |
Message |
    
Bev in Canada (Bev)
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 09:07 am: |     |
Excellent Jo Dee.
I got it thanks, yep I like all the above suggestions. Suddenly I am feeling okay about this like i now know what to do. Phew!!!
Paula
You are an inspiration to me. Even if you don't feel great as things get frustrating, you are doing fantastic just to be trying. Go girl. I think with this group we are all blessed for the excellent support. So in God we will continue to trust. Look at what he has provided in this group for us. It is so wonderful. So lets focus on that and build each other up. All things are working to gether for good. Yippee!!!!
bev |
Jo Dee (Jodee)
| | Posted on Saturday, July 27, 2002 - 04:08 pm: | |
My unit study, since we are getting ready to do some of this (but a bit more in depth): Weather
Build a weather station and track the weather by recording actual readings.
Subjects: math, observation, penmanship, science, reading
Other assignments: 7 & 8 year-old are to choose a topic in weather and tell me about it so I can write it for them. They can then copy it if they want (my 7 yo loves to write out stuff and copy things) into their own book to illustrate. They can create their own weather map and give their own forcast.
11 year-old to choose and write about a weather topic. Create her own forcast and compare with the actual. Comment on the large differences and orally give an explanation as to why she thought she was off.
Just FYI, we purchased from Sam's Club for less than $10, "Weather" an Inventor's Handbook by Tim Walker. It either includes all you need or tells you how to build it with household materials. We also have "The Weather Book" by Michael Oard which is written from a Biblical perspective. We also have other books including one with experiments.
Jo Dee |
Jo Dee (Jodee)
| | Posted on Saturday, July 27, 2002 - 03:58 pm: | |
For my 17 yr old. I will get him to make a sword and helmet and all the armour as well as sling shot like David or maybe this suits my 12 yr old.
You may want to have your 17-year-old make two, one for each of his younger brothers, and have the two younger brothers help him. That's building something, teaching, and getting along (character) all rolled into that one activity.
I just wanted to make one comment about you not having your 17-year-old doing writing because he doesn't like it. Writing is important, no matter what field he goes into. if you don't incorporate writing in this study, you may want to include it in something else. For example, in the other thread you mentioned his construction interests. He will have to be able to write proposals, letters to prospective customers, letters to banks, letters to customers who don't pay on time (or pay at all), letters to thank customers, etc. You may want to look into business letter writing.
Just remember, your child may not like to do something, and has no interest in it, but there are some things they have to learn and do. It is best if you can show the need and then they get interested, but it doesn't always happen that way.
I remember quite a while back someone had a problem with one of her sons not wanting to do math, because he didn't see the need. He wanted to own his own baseball card shop, but would hire an accountant to do all that for him. I pointed out to his mother, so she could point it out to him, that his accountant may not know how much to charge for the cards as some may be worth a lot, and his accountant may not know how much to pay for something, and his accountant may not be honest (like recent events point this out so clear.) Suddenly he had an interest in math!
Jo Dee |
Bev in Canada (Bev)
| | Posted on Friday, July 26, 2002 - 03:47 pm: | |
Okay here goes.
Taking the historical biography to look at David and Goliath. For my six year old
Have him retell the story cuz he knows it by heart but he can't read nor write yet. So I will have him draw out what he told me and have him act it out for family worship. I will show him which book in the bible it is and encourage him to learn the verse that talks about David's faith in God to help him. So I have History + Art+ Drama+ Memorizing
For 12 yr old. I would have him write out the character traits of David that he sees, pointing out the ones he admires the most and would like to be and the ones he thinks were the ones that made David successful.(That covers penmanship, language arts, grammar punctuation, spelling etc as well as observation skills and skills of perception) I would have him do some background research on the times of David, what living might have been like and how difficult it was for David to do what he did or how easy based on the times he lived. Then have him tell this to the family. (So that covers research history and communication skills). Finally he will write a poem about David putting it to song.( So that covers music and poetry and language arts too.
For my 17 yr old. I will get him to make a sword and helmet and all the armour as well as sling shot like David or maybe this suits my 12 yr old. I have no idea what to do for the 17 yr old since he does not like anything to do with writing and language arts, he likes to build and do stuff. Maybe I could get him to do research on what housing and constructing was like in those days and what tools they used. But where does one find out those type of things? This is gonna be interesting. I will have to think about the 17yr old some more.
This is my homework for now then.
bev |
Susan (Susan)
| | Posted on Friday, July 26, 2002 - 09:28 am: | |
Cheryl, you have the right idea! You included science, geography, art, and language arts.
The "homework" was one content subject plus one skills subject, so let's narrow it down a bit for the novices who aren't quite ready for such expansion...
Science + Language Arts = Unit of Study
For a simple unit of study, you might have your daughter read one book about dolphins either from the library or look up some info on the internet, then make the poster, labeling the body parts. When dad comes home from work, she could explain to him what she has learned using the poster as a visual aid.
Just that simple unit would cover research, reading, art/writing, and language arts and communication skills.
Although for the purposes of this discussion we are making up these hypothetical unit studies, and therefore making all the decisions about subject content and activities ourselves, the optimal way to do a true unit study is by making your children part of the decision-making process, letting them choose topics and have input on how to show what is learned.
Even the creation of a unit study is a valuable learning process that shouldn't be ignored. (I have ignored it for a long time and done most of the planning and execution.) |
Cheryl Z (Cherylz)
| | Posted on Friday, July 26, 2002 - 07:59 am: | |
My 9yod wants to learn about dolphins so...
We will go to the library and find books about dolphins, and check our little home library and encyclopedia for information. For language arts she will read the books, articles, etc., and then write down what she's learned about them. For social studies she will look on a globe to find the areas that different dolphins live in and around. She can draw a dolphin or make one from play dough for art. What she learns about the dolphins' anatomy, behavior, life span, etc., will be science. A poster with her drawing that is labeled with parts and other information will be art/science. We could culminate it all with a trip to the zoo or aquarium to see a dolphin show.
Cheryl Z. in IL |
Susan (Susan)
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 24, 2002 - 08:53 am: | |
Hello, Friends!
How are you? Ready to learn how to "do" unit studies?????
Application One:
Using 3 steps, we are told how to create a simple "unit of work" for our student.
1. Pick out a historical biography. (For right now we choose the subject matter, although the ultimate goal will be allowing our students to choose their own areas of interest. But while we are learning too, it is easier if we choose.)
2. Ask the student to write a paragraph explaining some aspect of the reading.
3. Correct the paragraph looking for correct content (information), sentence structure (composition style), colorful adjectives and verbs (grammar), and punctuation and spelling (language).
By combining History and Language you have created a Unit of Study.
It can be just that simple.
Lets Look a Little Closer
Content Subjects (history, geography, science, health, Bible,
Literature, Art or Music)
Skill Subjects (language/grammar/punctuation, spelling (phonics), map study skills, penmanship, math, art, music)
Content Subject + Skill Subject = Unit of Study
This simple formula is helpful in preparing meaningful units of study.
You can combine more together, such as history + bible + art + math. This is just the simplest method to begin preparing unit studies.
Now We Expand Just a Bit:
Return to the original history lesson. What if the student didn't write a wonderful, thoughtful paragraph? Has your unit study failed? NO! This is the learning process.
<<FAILURE IS NOT IN OUR VOCABULARY>>
Your job now is to work with the student on the areas he is having difficulty with. Have the student return to his paragraph, and together work on fulfilling your requirements.
Each time you go through this process you will see improvement and an encouraged child.
Now We Add:
Map Study Skills: For instance, on a map of the United States find the birthplaces, battlefields, etc. mentioned in the reading, and note the geographical formations such as mountains, lakes, rivers, fields).
Art: Build a model of an army fort or Indian village or a Viking ship or whatever pertains to your reading. Or paint a picture, etc.
Take a Look At Our Unit Study:
History + Language + Map Skills + Art = Unit Study
Many of us do this type of teaching already, and just don't realize it is unit studies! Why? Because it is the most natural way of learning and teaching.
Discussion Time! :
I guess what struck me the most is that last statement, that it is the most natural way of learning. We see it in the animal world all the time, when we talk of food webs, the circle of life and death, etc. Nothing in real life is separated into little boxes because life is a series of relationships.
The example above is for a student who is already writing and reading. I think it would be harder for me to incorporate language skills for my son who isn't writing, but because I have two students, one could do the writing as an extra assignment (there is no way she would let her brother do the art project without her!).
Homework: Let's each try to write an outline of a simple unit of study, following the above formula (content subject+skill subject), and post it here within the next couple of days. This way we will already have quite a few to pull from. It doesn't have to be elaborate, in fact, the simpler the better. One content subject + one skill subject, and then we will work to expand them together.
This should be a skeleton of a unit study, an outline. Give a little bit of detail to us, for instance, don't just say "history" but tell us what specific history subject, don't just say "art", but tell us what specific art activity.
Also include a brief description of how you see these two things relating, so that we know where you're coming from, and also the ages of the children you have in mind for doing this unit study. A simple unit study for a kindergartener will be different from a unit study for a high school student.
We did this the first time we went through the manual, and it was the most helpful thing to many of us. Feel free to make suggestions to each other about our unit studies, so that we can all learn together. |
|
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page