HOW TO CREATE SIMPLE UNIT STUDIES

Do you enjoy exploring topics with your kids? I have the perfect solution for you on how to create simple Unit Studies for you and your kids!

I really enjoy finding a topic and then pulling it all together with research, finding websites with info, YouTube clips, a TON of printables, then add in a field trip and “wa-lah”, a complete Unit Study.

The problem was the execution!

Anyone else?? Am I the only one who loves the planning part, but struggles with execution?

Well, even if that is not you, even if you don’t like the planning either, I have got a simple solution for you!

I was totally over-complicating things!

Often, I would just have too many printables, or coloring pages, or even too many books to read from. Then my expectations would just be off the map, thinking that we could accomplish 4 weeks’ worth of study in a week’s time.

What happened time and again is that we started a Unit Study and never finished. Total drag!

WHY CREATE SIMPLE UNIT STUDIES?

As a homeschool mom, you spend a lot of time “teaching” your kids. When you create simple unit studies you get to spend time “learning” with them!

This is one of my favorite things to do with them.

HOW TO PLAN SIMPLE UNIT STUDIES

I have learned that less is more when it comes to creating simple unit studies that will truly inspire my four littles.

My children are at different learning abilities due to their ages, and their interests vary too. So, by simplifying our Unit Studies we learn more and enjoy it so much more too.

Keep scrolling for the FREE “How-To” Printable.

What I include in a Simple Unit Study consists of:

Books to read and with visuals
Coloring Pages
Hands-on Activity
Other Crafts
YouTube clips
Websites for kids to do their own research

You can get a them each new folder with clean paper, new colored pencils, and other topic appropriate gadgets like magnifying glasses, compasses, nature guides.

All of it this is part of the fun!

SIMPLE UNIT STUDY TOPICS

Nature is always a great place to get a simple topic, but there are some good history and other fun science topics too! It is a great way to take a break from the routine, or do a fun unit over the summer months.

Here is a simple list of fun Unit Studies:

Ocean Seashore
Trees & Leaves
Birds
Butterflies
Worms
Snow Science
Rocks
Vikings
Knights
Magnets
Weather
Biomes/Ecosystems

We have really enjoyed so many of these topics and we revisit them regularly. (See where I put my units once we complete them here).

UNIT STUDY SAMPLE

An example of a simple unit study could be on the topic of Butterflies. What kid doesn’t love watching and chasing butterflies, right?

You can easily learn the Butterfly life cycle from egg, to caterpillar, to cocoon, to butterfly by using one book, one life cycle printable – grab my FREEBIE below, and watching a YouTube clip from SciShow Kids (one of our favorites).

From there you can easily add a single craft to make a butterfly with a coffee filter – The Simple Parent has a cute how to. That’s it!! You could easily complete this in one afternoon with different aged kids.

They retain so much more than I realize when I add just a few different dimensions of learning and let them get their hands “dirty” in the process and explore.

I have found that the less time I spend pulling together a simple unit study, the more my kids (and me!) actually enjoy it.

UNIT STUDIES THAT GROW

You can make a simple study more elaborate. Some topics just naturally grow into areas of more interest. When you see that your child has a greater interest in something – keep on it and explore further.

The possibilities are endless.

One summer my son could not get enough of digging for worms! So, I hopped online, checked out a few books, and got a little YouTube clip on the parts of an earthworm. He LOVED it. We even made a worm jar so that we could watch the patterns the worms made as they dug through different layers of dirt. So simple, yet he talks about it all the time to this day and can’t wait to get back out there.

There are seriously amazing resources out there to create simple unit studies! I have tried to pull some of the best – and simple – ones together for you in each of the Units I put together above.

Remember FUN! By trying to focus on the fun of learning about a topic, it helps limit the resources.

Below is one of our FAVORITE books used to explore many of the topics above – Nature Anatomy. It has beautiful pictures with simple details that the kids can sketch themselves.

I hope this spurs your imagination with ideas and helps you to remember that enjoying the learning process is more valuable than teaching about the topics.

To help you get started here is a simple printable to get you going too!