The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [32]
Commercial unit study packages are widely available. Unit studies on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books and on the American Girl history books are popular. Several companies also produce entire curricula based on unit studies. Konos, for example, centers its units around various character traits, such as patience, trust, and obedience. Such programs can contain huge selections of activities and resources from which to pick and choose, making them far more flexible than traditional packaged curriculums.
Advantages
Unit studies are a way to tailor your curriculum to your child’s specific interests, reducing potential boredom and restlessness, especially if you allow your child to help plan activities.
Because of the variety of possible activities, unit studies can be adapted to use simultaneously with children of different ages and with larger groups of children when families try cooperative learning.
Unit studies are inherently flexible and can last as little as a few minutes or as long as several months or more, depending on the depth of the student’s interest.
Drawbacks
Unit studies can be just as dreary as the dullest packaged curriculum. It’s possible to take a child’s merest offhand remark on a topic and, with a blizzard of worksheets and readings and field trips, completely crush whatever interest existed.
Sometimes it’s difficult or expensive to find materials for some activities you’d like to try.
If your child’s interests change before the unit is completed, and if you’re not willing to drop it for a new topic, you may have to deal with a bored or resentful student.
“Eclectic” Homeschooling
Eclectic homeschoolers are the middle-of-the-roaders, the folks who mix and match their methods to suit their needs. They may tackle some subjects in a highly structured manner and leave others for their kids to pick up as they happen to become interested in them. The structured subjects, typically math and writing, are usually those that parents are unwilling to risk having their children learn more informally, either because important concepts could be missed or because the parents feel the topic requires an ordered, sequential approach.
Eclectics pick materials from a variety of sources. They may purchase a curriculum and use only parts of it, forgoing any grading or record-keeping services. They might devise their own materials or adapt existing materials.
We don’t adhere to any particular educational philosophy, at least not consistently. The past two years we have actually purchased a few textbooks, which the girls selected based on their interests or preparation for an upcoming trip. For instance, we are casually studying American history in preparation for a trip to the east coast, and our older girl decided to tackle algebra, so we bought a text that serves her needs well. But the girls’ main curriculum at the moment seems to be pen-pal letters, both e-mail and the old-fashioned way.—Barbara, California
Advantages
Learning can be tailored to the interests and needs of the child.
Parents can assure themselves that material they believe to be essential is covered thoroughly.
Drawbacks
Kids sometimes resent the mandatory portions of their curriculum.
Other advantages and disadvantages depend on the specific choices eclectics make.
Unschooling
Unschooling, also known as “natural,” “interest-initiated,” “child-led,” or “learner-led” learning, is a deceptively simple concept that defies easy definition. Those of us who consider ourselves unschoolers are often baffled when people