Writing Your Own Unit Study

The house is still and quiet.  Your children are asleep.  You grab your morning coffee and sit down with the shiny new Teacher Guide from your most recent curriculum purchase.  You run your hand over the book’s smooth and unblemished cover.  That cracking sound you hear as you break open the book is so satisfying.  You enjoy the aroma and flavor of your coffee as the mug warms your hands.  The pages of your new book beckon.  You’ll start from the beginning tomorrow, right now you just want to wander through the pages, absorb the beautiful illustrations, skim the headings, daydream about the learning…

…Tomorrow comes, the honeymoon ends and the work begins.   You begin at the beginning, thoroughly reading each section and taking copious notes.  After finishing 3 or 4 different sections of the new Teacher Guide, you re-read your notes.  You realize that many of them aren’t just ideas on field trips and enrichment to expand this curriculum, but comments like;

“D bored? Change to ___”

“J did last year. Do ___ instead”

“Too wordy. Use ___”

“Re-write quiz questions”

Because you know what types of learners your children are, you know you will be re-writing so much of the new curriculum that the shine is quickly fading.

The idea of creating your own curriculum can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.  Think about it for just a minute.  

Do you act on any of those notes you made while perusing the new Teacher Guides?  

Do you pick and choose what you use out of any textbook, workbook or teaching plan?  

You probably even change things around inside a Unit Study based on your children’s interests and learning styles.

So…have you ever thought about writing your own Unit Study? 

“From scratch?” you ask. 

“But…I’m not a curriculum expert…where would I start?”

“But…there are already plenty to choose from, even free ones…why should I write my own?”

You can, and you should, at least once!

Please don’t get me wrong, there are many, many inexpensive (or even free!) Unit Studies that are great resources to use, either as-is or with some minor tweaks.  I’m not suggesting that using a published curriculum, literature guide, Unit Study or textbook is bad!  Not at all!  We’ve used all of them in our home with our children.

But…if you’ve ever thought about creating something for your children to use, you really should give it a try!  

Don’t be afraid that you can’t write a Unit Study.  

Google.  There are websites with free guides that can help.  

Go to the library or bookstore.  There are books that can help.  

You can take a class or seminar in writing one.  Many of my favorite homeschool support sites offer guides and courses.

Whether you want a short and simple extra project, or a week-long, all-subject curriculum around a single topic, there are really 5 simple steps to develop a Unit Study.  (Although in our house, Unit Studies never stay simple or on a single topic.)  We have created Units around people, places and things; events in history, family trips, the Olympics, various novels, science topics, countries, and even math.

You can do this!