Before I type out our homeschool schedule and courses for this school year, I would like to say that if your children are not in high school, there is no reason to do more than one unit study at a time. Do math first thing in the morning; then an in-depth unit study should include (over the course of the year) history, science, literature, reading, writing, and art. Unit studies are the best way to learn, where you splash into one topic and surround yourself with it. All high school and college courses are in-depth unit studies. There is no other way to learn something in a thorough fashion. If you are interested in gardening, and you voraciously read everything you can get your hands on about gardening, you are doing a personal unit study on gardening.
Textbooks are thin rocks skimming upon the surface of a pond, never going deeply enough to give true knowledge that can be remembered for the rest of your life. Textbooks are churning out illiterate children in our public school system (a failing system), and the only reason private schools are successful with textbooks is because the creative teachers make the material into unit studies. I’ve seen it with my own eyes when I was a teacher in the schools, and I’m telling you the truth.
My 10-year-old and 12-year-old have been ready for high school science for years because they have done all the sciences in depth already through unit studies. (My Unit Study Treasure Vault includes our unit studies we’ve done over the years to get to such a high level so young.) My 10-year-old and 12-year-old both read on a college level. I believe their deep knowledge in all subject areas is due to the great unit studies we’ve done.
I don’t feel comfortable sending young teenagers to college to be influenced by ungodly professors at such a formative time in their lives. For this reason I did not start high school biology when my older two kids were 8 and 10, even though they were ready. After praying about it and not wanting to hold them back any longer, I’ve decided to teach high school biology this year, using Apologia Biology.
This year we are doing a Renaissance Unit Study. It’s really a literature unit study, since Shakespeare is the main topic we will be covering. We’ve already watched our first Shakespeare play, and the kids enjoyed it. We will be doing lots of art this year, too.
Bryan (12 years old)
- Algebra
- Biology
- Shakespeare/Renaissance
- Karate/Swimming
Stephen (10 years old)
- Pre-Algebra
- Biology
- Shakespeare/Renaissance
- Flag football/Basketball/Swimming
Nathaniel (9 years old)
- 6th grade math
- Science kits and unit studies, delight-directed
- Shakespeare/Renaissance
- Flag football/Basketball/Swimming
Rachel (7 years old)
- 3rd grade math
- Science kits and unit studies, delight-directed
- Shakespeare/Renaissance
- Gymnastics/Swimming
SCHEDULE:
- 7am-8am: Math
- 8am-9am: Bible/Breakfast/Reading
- 9am-10am: ~break~
- 10am-11am: Biology
- 11am-noon: ~break~
- Noon-1pm: Shakespeare/Renaissance/Lunch
- 1pm-2pm: ~silent reading~
My older two sons are reading G.A. Henty historical fiction books during “naptime,” when it is quiet at my house. They are reading through the Renaissance time period. (Last year they read the Henty books set during the medieval time period.) My sons just read a fun book about microscopes during their silent reading time as well, since the first chapter in biology includes becoming familiar with microscopes.
My younger two children read to me right after breakfast. I sometimes throw in a craft for the kids to do around 9am. If any of the kids woke up at 8am instead of 7am, they do their math after breakfast. I sometimes work one-on-one with a child for writing. Otherwise they relax and play. My 3rd son played with snap circuits during part of his free time this week. My daughter had a tea party with her dolls. My oldest son likes to draw during his free time, and my second son loves reading Calvin and Hobbes comic books during his free time, giggling to himself. This is my day in a nutshell.
Tags: Homeschooling, Organization, schedule, unit studies
‘Just wanted to say I love what you’re doing. Am enjoying reading through all the stuff on your site(and youtube). 😀 As for studying Shakespeare, just wanted to offer something: one of the things my kids really loved when we looked at Shakespeare was that, for instance, after we read through the plays aloud, and discussed them(also did some story maps from LOGOS), we watched some of the movies: Taming of the Shrew(Elizabeth Taylor), Much Ado…(Keanu Reeves, etc.), and Romeo and Juliet(many to choose from), and Midsummer Night’s Dream(Mickey Rooney!). My memory is slipping as to which, but there are more contemporary movies that just rewrote Shakespeare’s idea. That was fun to pick out the underlying things in them, etc.
Just a thought…
Thank you. Yes, watching a performance of Shakespeare on DVD can really help in picturing the play. Some of the Shakespeare movies have nudity, so always check them before showing them to your kids!
You start nice and early! Since we have kids in 3 different schools, in addition to homeschooling, we start *after* morning car pool. We’re usually done with our group activities by lunch time. I’m sure we’ll tweak our usual routine a bit, since we’re throwing a new mid day preschool into the mix, and we have one less student at home this year, but we’ll find our new normal fairly quickly.
Schedules are different in every home. The good thing is that you can tweak it until it works for your family.
I really need to buy some Genty books, I’m pretty sure they’d be a huge hit with my boys.
We’ve really loved the Henty books that we’ve read.