Unit Studies

So I'm a newbie at this whole homeschooling thing and I've recently found something that I really like (all you seasoned homeschoolers can roll your eyes if you want) it is The Unit Study. 

Yep, I was browsing on my favorite homeschool blog and by following a rabbit trail I found Homeschool Share and I feel like I hit the jack pot!  I've been trying to decide how to incorporate a little bit of each subject each day and keep it light and fun and avoid the feeling of drudgery.  My kids love to read books and have books read to them. Studying one specific book all week and basing lessons upon that specific story keeps them interested no matter what subject we're covering. I'm still trying to get the hang of Lapbooks, but I feel like I've found something to keep me moving forward with our fledgling attempts at "school".  I keep getting advised to take it easy, keep it simple, teach to the heart, and so on.  I'm wondering if I might be taking it to easy and slacking off.  It's easy to let school slide when you do it at home, and with us doing Kindergarten and PreK it's even more "acceptable" to do a little here and there with out much structure.   This is fine by my kids, and they are actually doing well and are making progress in their reading and writing and counting.  I struggle though.  I crave structure and order and routine.  Since I got married I have learned to tolerate less and less predictability in my life, but now I'm starting to feel like I'm just drifting along with no goals or purpose or accomplishments and it's a bit stressful and frightening.  I mean, I always have goals but they have become quite general:

1. get out of bed
2. feed children
3. feed self
4. pick stuff up
5. put stuff away
6. clean stuff up
7. move stuff around randomly if you don't know where to put it.
8. feed people again
9. catch up on the news Face Book
10. talk to my 5 on the phone
11. feed people again.
12. get children back into bed
13. get self to bed before a new day dawns.

These unit studies give me a  way to get focused.  We can do school in a way that I actually enjoy and relate to.  I'm so thankful that I live in the information age or I'd be lost. 

This past week we did a Unit Study on Boxes for Katje by Candace Flemming.  We read the book each school day.  Through the week we made a box for Operation Christmas Child, we planted a bulb (An Amaryllis not a tulip), colored the Dutch flag and looked at traditional clothing and other symbols of Holland.  In between all the fun stuff we squeezed in the usual stuff (printing, phonics, counting/grouping, cooking, cleaning, etc).  The week before we studied Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindburgh.  We counted apple seeds daily, sang the prayer, watched the Disney Tall Tales excerpt about Johnny Appleseed, did an art project on the changing seasons and apple trees, colored a facts booklet about apples, had an apple tasting and finally ate apple crisp. 
Next week we are going to examine pioneer life with The Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
I've chosen our books based on the season, and have tried to order them from the library well in advance so we have them when we are ready to study them.

Our lap books are a bit sloppy.  I'm hoping to learn a bit more about what other people do to keep theirs from looking like the photocopier threw up into a file folder and then my kids scribbled on it. Until then, I'm happy to have a record of our weekly progress, so I'll keep the lap book in what ever form it comes.
So that's what we've been up to this week and last, and I'll try to post a bit more about our special projects as we go.