I am going into our 2nd year of homeschool. This year Sophie will start kindergarten and Bella is going to do some preschool along side her.
We homeschool interest led – which is a fancy way to say “un-schooling” since I don’t like that title. {grin} Sophie learns best when I follow her lead, and admittedly I stress less when I see that she’s having fun while learning.
However….I am also a type A personality, which means that I like to have everything planned out….or at the very least a game plan in place. Some days that happens, some days it doesn’t. Sigh.
I was excited to review The Joy of Discovery {How to teach with Unit Studies} as well as Learning Objectives from Hewlett Homeschooling Resources.
There was a lot more reading upfront than I was expecting, especially since this book covers K-6 grades. It was a little overwhelming for me, so I took my time and made a LOT of notes in the margins.
Creating a unit study was brand new to me, and while at first I wasn’t sure I would be creative enough to do it, after reading the book I am now confident that I can! The book broke out the steps to creating a unit study into simple, easy to manage steps.
I really like the idea of picking a topic{Thomas Edison}, defining a question {how did he live} and then planning social studies, science and language arts lessons around that topic. As interest led, I was worried about how to cover all the bases with a topic that Sophie picked…and this book makes it easy!
I studied the learning objectives quite closely. I’ve been wondering where Sophie is right now, and was pleased to see that she has already mastered quite a few of the objectives listed for Kindergarten. I realize that these are just guidelines, but again, as a new homeschooling mom it’s helpful to have some idea of where we should be. They will be very useful as we are traveling along the coming year!
You can purchase The Joy of Discovery and Learning Objectives here. The original price is $21.00, but it’s on sale now for $10.50! What a great price!
To see what other members of the TOS Crew thought, click here.
Disclaimer – As part of the TOS Crew I was provided with a copy of the above titles in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The End.
