Everyone is going to try and tell you why you should choose a particular curriculum.
There is nothing wrong with that, in theory. I love their excitement and enthusiasm! How wonderful to find something that works. How wonderful to find something that fits your personal learning statement.
It's just that sometimes that excitement works in two ways.
1) It might make you run screaming because you just don't want to hear about it anymore.
2) You might get overly excited yourself and join in without giving it the proper thought, thus dooming yourself to failure.
With that, I'll give you my top reasons for why you should consider doing unit studies.
(See, I didn't say you have to do them. You don't have to.)
Natural Learning
Is there a difference between learning a thing and knowing a thing?
I think so. We talk about natural learning, but I think we also might be talking about 'natural knowing' as well.
The best way to spot natural learning is to spot unnatural learning first. Unnatural learning is being forced to learn something you don't like. It's being bribed to do the work anyway. It's having a sad and resentful heart towards the work. It's going through the motions to please whoever is in charge.
It's also being fed snippets of information with no time to reflect on it. No time to ponder is allowed and no time to explore the connections of things is common.
That's a sad state of affairs. If you were in an environment like that, how much would you know later if I asked you about it?
Natural learning takes over when you feel excitement about a topic. Or maybe you've really related to a topic. Or maybe you've connected some new piece of information to something you already knew or read about.
Natural knowing is a whole different thing. It's the extension of learning.
If you read a book about driving a car, do you KNOW how to drive a car?
If you read a book about building a raised bed garden, do you KNOW about raised-bed gardening?
If you read a manual about putting up and maintaining a pool, do you KNOW how a pool is put up and how to maintain it properly?
Sometimes book knowledge is enough.
But sometimes, it's better to solidify learning into KNOWLEDGE.
Unit studies that contain activities, active activities not passive activities, help build KNOWLEDGE.
Is there a difference between learning a thing and knowing a thing?
I think so. We talk about natural learning, but I think we also might be talking about 'natural knowing' as well.
The best way to spot natural learning is to spot unnatural learning first. Unnatural learning is being forced to learn something you don't like. It's being bribed to do the work anyway. It's having a sad and resentful heart towards the work. It's going through the motions to please whoever is in charge.
It's also being fed snippets of information with no time to reflect on it. No time to ponder is allowed and no time to explore the connections of things is common.
That's a sad state of affairs. If you were in an environment like that, how much would you know later if I asked you about it?
Natural learning takes over when you feel excitement about a topic. Or maybe you've really related to a topic. Or maybe you've connected some new piece of information to something you already knew or read about.
Natural knowing is a whole different thing. It's the extension of learning.
If you read a book about driving a car, do you KNOW how to drive a car?
If you read a book about building a raised bed garden, do you KNOW about raised-bed gardening?
If you read a manual about putting up and maintaining a pool, do you KNOW how a pool is put up and how to maintain it properly?
Sometimes book knowledge is enough.
But sometimes, it's better to solidify learning into KNOWLEDGE.
Unit studies that contain activities, active activities not passive activities, help build KNOWLEDGE.
Easy to implement
Unit studies are easy to implement. Pick a topic and study it, learn it, know it.
What can get too complicated is everything else. (planning, printing, crafting, reading, role-playing and what-not)
Don't let it get complicated. Stick with your personal learning statement and it will be easy.
Any topic is available to study
Any topic could be looked into. Any topic can be made age appropriate.
We can't know everything anyway, but you can sure plow through a heck of a lot of topics!
And if it doesn't go anywhere (like I mean more bunny trails and more activities and more interest), then you are done. Don't beat a dead horse.
So that's it. My three most favorite reasons that unit studies rock.
Do you agree?
Then get busy planning them into your personal learning statement!
To your unit study success,
Suzanne
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