Hana, I think the unit study approach for science and history is the most logical way to go about teaching multiple grade levels at once. I think you are meeting the needs of each grade. I like how you tied in the explanation of the Waldorf sequence of topics. That really helps me understand the Waldorf philosophy too. Thanks for this information. I'm saving this video and your unit review on Geology under "Curriculum: Geology" playlist. I think your videos will really help many other homeschooling families.
Thank you Tonya! I appreciate you sharing this video. This approach has worked great for multiple grades, but this year I think I stretched it too far, my 9th grader needed to do his own work and my KG wasn't interested. Sadly, I mostly did this with my 5th grader. But if the grades were closer together, I think this method works very well. -Hana
Thanks Kristy :) Hand-me-downs make there way around our homeschooling friends pretty frequently, and with my unit studies coming with 'video instructions' (lol), those now get passed around, too ;) -Hana
Have you done a unit study on physical science, if so could you link that to me. I look through your different unit studies and I didn't see one, but I don't know if I've missed it or looked over it. Thank you.. by the way your videos are amazing so much awesome information!!
I'm really drawn to this way of planning units and I enjoy how through you are! How do you choose the books for your units and what suggestions would you have for scope and sequence if you don't have a reference curriculum? I get so caught up in the "correct" order of presenting the materials....like I'm going to miss something....very frustrating lol!! Thanks!
Salam Hadiyah! You ask a great question. I'll make a video to explain because I think I could be more thorough, and it's been on my mind to explain my process of putting together a unit in general. -Hana
Yay! I hope you do. Plus there's so much you can do to enhance your units because of where you live. You have access to so much! Do I remember correctly that you wanted to keep one day a week to explore the city? I hope you do :) -Hana
Yes, so she going to do 4 days in the house work and then 1 day we going out to explore. She wanted to do human body, so i was going to do it as a unit study. We have a great human body museum. She wants to be a doctor. You have giving me great ideas. I'm putting all the subjects we doing together now. Goal is to start by 9/12. public schools start 9/8 in nyc
That's fabulous, I'm so happy to see your homeschooling coming together. I think you are taking perfect advantage of the homeschooling lifestyle by really meeting the interests of your daughter :)
Do you do science unit study or do you do history unit study as well? If so do you alternate each unit? For example do a science unit study for a month or two and then history. Or do you alternate within the week with the two? Hope this made sense? I am just starting out with unit studies for my kindergarten and grade 1 boys. It is a fun way to get them to learn, but at first it seem so overwhelming. Thanks for the videos they are very informative.
Great question! Okay, so the Waldorf curriculum I use for inspiration has some suggestions on how to schedule the 'main lesson blocks', which I view as similar to unit studies. They recommend breaking up a large unit into two smaller units and spreading them out. I prefer to follow a different schedule that I've see works pretty well for our family. I like to start off the year with more head learning (math and grammar), then move to heart learning (history in the winter) and finish off the year with hand learning via science in the spring. So I'm not alternating the units, rather I'm placing the units where I think they'll be most effective for us. In the winter we do a lot of reading so history seemed good them and by spring time, the kids do not want to be cooped up, so we do nature study or science or just get out of the house. For the past few years, we've started out our school year with a science unit because it's rolled over from the previous year. But you might find that with young children, alternating the units and keeping them short works better for them and their attention span. I'm going to make a video about this because I think it's a good question and deserves a bit more explanation :) -Hana
Thank you so much:) I look forward to the video. You have so many tips and tricks. Plus you explain very well. I just recently found your vlog and really enjoy it. I like the style and freedom to chose our topics of a unit study and how it's real life learning. We learn so much more when we are interested and willing to learn. This way the kids can be somewhat of our guide to which topic to study. I figure younger kids it's more general and then as they grow it gets more focused. I think you did mention that in one of your videos. May God bless you!
I had to look it up in my scrapbook!! That's how long it's been since we've gone to Gems Of Pala...so long I forgot. Pala is in San Diego county. Gems of Pala is a small place near a big casino, so it's not hard to get to. I really enjoyed going with my kids, but my younger two haven't gone, so I think a field trip is due. Let me know how you like it :) -Hana
Thanks for the heads up, I just watched it :) Nice bins! The lids were a great idea for stacking. Plus you have such a nice collection of materials. I finally had to move some of my larger units into legal sized boxes with lids and store them in the hall closet right off our school room. What units are you doing this year? -Hana
Right now we are still on nature studies, botany. Not sure what is next but, it maybe dinosaurs. They were not that interested in it before so I will reintroduce it to them and see. We may go to the Museum of Natural History again now that they are a little older.Thanks for watching!
Hana, I think the unit study approach for science and history is the most logical way to go about teaching multiple grade levels at once. I think you are meeting the needs of each grade. I like how you tied in the explanation of the Waldorf sequence of topics. That really helps me understand the Waldorf philosophy too. Thanks for this information. I'm saving this video and your unit review on Geology under "Curriculum: Geology" playlist. I think your videos will really help many other homeschooling families.
Thank you Tonya! I appreciate you sharing this video. This approach has worked great for multiple grades, but this year I think I stretched it too far, my 9th grader needed to do his own work and my KG wasn't interested. Sadly, I mostly did this with my 5th grader. But if the grades were closer together, I think this method works very well.
-Hana
Thank you so much for the shout-out! And for all you do to put together such incredible science units!
My pleasure!
Great video & This is going to be an amazing unit!!!!! Love all the kits and thoes hand me down are amazing :)
Thanks Kristy :) Hand-me-downs make there way around our homeschooling friends pretty frequently, and with my unit studies coming with 'video instructions' (lol), those now get passed around, too ;)
-Hana
Have you done a unit study on physical science, if so could you link that to me. I look through your different unit studies and I didn't see one, but I don't know if I've missed it or looked over it. Thank you.. by the way your videos are amazing so much awesome information!!
Thank you for sharing.
I'm really drawn to this way of planning units and I enjoy how through you are! How do you choose the books for your units and what suggestions would you have for scope and sequence if you don't have a reference curriculum? I get so caught up in the "correct" order of presenting the materials....like I'm going to miss something....very frustrating lol!! Thanks!
Salam Hadiyah! You ask a great question. I'll make a video to explain because I think I could be more thorough, and it's been on my mind to explain my process of putting together a unit in general.
-Hana
Thank you, Great video again. Great ideas, i been thinking about how to do unit studies. thanks for sharing
Yay! I hope you do. Plus there's so much you can do to enhance your units because of where you live. You have access to so much! Do I remember correctly that you wanted to keep one day a week to explore the city? I hope you do :)
-Hana
Yes, so she going to do 4 days in the house work and then 1 day we going out to explore. She wanted to do human body, so i was going to do it as a unit study. We have a great human body museum. She wants to be a doctor. You have giving me great ideas. I'm putting all the subjects we doing together now. Goal is to start by 9/12. public schools start 9/8 in nyc
That's fabulous, I'm so happy to see your homeschooling coming together. I think you are taking perfect advantage of the homeschooling lifestyle by really meeting the interests of your daughter :)
Do you do science unit study or do you do history unit study as well?
If so do you alternate each unit? For example do a science unit study for a month or two and then history. Or do you alternate within the week with the two?
Hope this made sense?
I am just starting out with unit studies for my kindergarten and grade 1 boys. It is a fun way to get them to learn, but at first it seem so overwhelming.
Thanks for the videos they are very informative.
Great question! Okay, so the Waldorf curriculum I use for inspiration has some suggestions on how to schedule the 'main lesson blocks', which I view as similar to unit studies. They recommend breaking up a large unit into two smaller units and spreading them out. I prefer to follow a different schedule that I've see works pretty well for our family. I like to start off the year with more head learning (math and grammar), then move to heart learning (history in the winter) and finish off the year with hand learning via science in the spring. So I'm not alternating the units, rather I'm placing the units where I think they'll be most effective for us. In the winter we do a lot of reading so history seemed good them and by spring time, the kids do not want to be cooped up, so we do nature study or science or just get out of the house. For the past few years, we've started out our school year with a science unit because it's rolled over from the previous year. But you might find that with young children, alternating the units and keeping them short works better for them and their attention span. I'm going to make a video about this because I think it's a good question and deserves a bit more explanation :)
-Hana
Thank you so much:) I look forward to the video. You have so many tips and tricks. Plus you explain very well. I just recently found your vlog and really enjoy it.
I like the style and freedom to chose our topics of a unit study and how it's real life learning. We learn so much more when we are interested and willing to learn. This way the kids can be somewhat of our guide to which topic to study. I figure younger kids it's more general and then as they grow it gets more focused. I think you did mention that in one of your videos.
May God bless you!
I have to ask - where in San Diego? I'm in east county and I'm doing a Geology Unit (we are actually doing Earth, Astronomy, Geology and Weather)
I had to look it up in my scrapbook!! That's how long it's been since we've gone to Gems Of Pala...so long I forgot. Pala is in San Diego county. Gems of Pala is a small place near a big casino, so it's not hard to get to. I really enjoyed going with my kids, but my younger two haven't gone, so I think a field trip is due. Let me know how you like it :)
-Hana
How can I buy those books?. I'm in Vietnam.
Please help me.
Thank you!
I wish I could help, but I don't know where you might buy the books. Do you have access to a library? Similar books would do just fine.
onlinegeologytutor@gmail.com
This guy has a big geology library you can purchase at great discounts here.
Awesome. Pals is about 45 minutes from me. I'll check it out.
Fun to see - thanks for sharing! Wendy
Hey Wendy! Glad you enjoyed it. This is turning out to be a really fun unit :)
-Hana
I did my last video on how we store our unit study supplies as per our last conversation. Come check it out!
Thanks for the heads up, I just watched it :) Nice bins! The lids were a great idea for stacking. Plus you have such a nice collection of materials. I finally had to move some of my larger units into legal sized boxes with lids and store them in the hall closet right off our school room. What units are you doing this year?
-Hana
Right now we are still on nature studies, botany. Not sure what is next but, it maybe dinosaurs. They were not that interested in it before so I will reintroduce it to them and see. We may go to the Museum of Natural History again now that they are a little older.Thanks for watching!
Oh what fun! I think a trip to the Natural History museum is a great idea :)