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Once-A-Week Unit Studies

Publisher: Homeschool Legacy
Author: Sharon Gibson
Review last updated: August 2011
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Once-A-Week Unit Studies

Once-A-Week unit studies primarily serve as complements to your curriculum, enhancing a traditional textbook or working within the context of a broader unit study or real books approach. Any four science or history studies might be combined to create a year-long course for either science or social studies. All of these studies are designed to also satisfy requirements for Boy Scout Merit Badges. Whether a student is in Boy Scouts or not, the merit badge requirements outline excellent topical studies and can be profitably used by all students. Those in Boy Scouts have the additional motivation of working toward earning a badge for each study.

Once-A-Week studies are intended for use by the entire family, with learning activities targeting the needs of students in grades 2 through 12. While the title says, “once-a-week,” activities related to each unit study are actually spread out over the entire week for a period of four to eight weeks depending upon the study selected. However, only one day a week has concentrated learning activities, with independent reading and read-alouds on four other days. Each week is designed to culminate with family activities that might include a field trip, family movie, or game night. This allows time for work in other core curricula in science and/or history while completing one of these studies.

A year-long course using four of these books might be sufficient for grades 2 through 8, but high school students will need to be challenged to go deeper on many topics than is suggested in the guides. Also, high school students need to be concerned with science lab courses for which they can earn credits. This means that it makes sense to use these as a supplement for high school students but as a more comprehensive option with younger students. In addition to covering topics in social studies or science, each guide also provides work in reading and language arts as well as some work in art and/or music.

Titles available thus far are and the merit badge that may be earned:

Birds of a Feather – Bird Study Merit Badge
Horsing Around – Horsemanship Merit Badge
Forest for the Trees – Forestry Merit Badge
Weather on the Move – Weather Merit Badge

Knights and Nobles – Art Merit Badge
Early Settlers – Reading Merit Badge
Christmas Comes to America – Music Merit Badge
Native America – Indian Lore Merit Badge
Revolutionary Ideas: the Story of the American Revolution – American Heritage Merit Badge
We the People: Getting to Know Your Constitution – Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge

Note that the first group of titles is science related while the second group is for social studies.

These studies really do involve the whole family well. You can select from the recommended read-alouds for non-readers, although you might also read aloud other books just to enjoy them together. Recommended history books are a mix of fact books, historical fiction, and biography; many titles are classic literature. Science books include fact books, field guides, biographies, and nature/science related fiction. Reading level is not indicated for the books, so you will have to check them out yourself to determine which are best for each child. Dewey decimal call numbers are listed alongside recommended book titles, and books are listed in alphabetical and numerical order to minimize the time you need to spend hunting for library books.

Field trip ideas range from simple to major trips, depending upon where you live and the time of year. For example, one suggestion in the Weather on the Move study is to take an early-morning walk with a camera to shoot pictures of dew or frost. In Revolutionary Ideas, the only suggested field trip is to visit a site from the revolutionary period; obviously, that might be a major trip for a family on the west coast or only a day trip for a family on the east coast. Movies are recommended for family movie night; some of these are major films while others are documentaries.

Multi-sensory activities suggested for your concentrated activity day are also great for involving all ages. In Birds of a Feather, one week’s activity suggestions begin with a family devotional from Scripture. (Each week’s activities begin with a devotional.) Following the devotional, you might create a bird feeding station, construct a simple birdbath, start a nature journal, research your state bird, make a scarecrow, or make hummingbird nectar. Other lessons include crafts, games, cooking, timeline creation, and many other ideas from which to choose. Instructions are provided for all activities. Prep time will primarily be spent gathering resources for the activities and locating books and videos. Required resources are mostly easy-to-find or household items such as rope, dowels, plastic milk jugs, a deck of cards, star stickers, balloons, straws, modeling clay, a leafy house plant, funnel, and binoculars or a telescope.

The family devotionals provide a Christian base for these studies, while it might be possible to skip these they set the tone for the following activities each week.

Once-A-Week units studies are a great way to try out unit studies, and they also make it easy to incorporate the excellent Boy Scout Merit Badge booklets into your curriculum.

Pricing

$14.95 - $19.95

Instant Key

  • Suitable for: group/family plus independent work
    Audience: grades 2-12 (plus the rest of the family)
    Need for parent/teacher instruction: moderate to high
    Prep time needed: moderate - for gathering resources
    Educational philosophy: unit studies
    Religious perspective:Christian (Protestant)

Publisher's Info