We are nearing the end of our school year. For a variety of reasons, I feel like we had a very blah school year. I'd like to end on a better note. Even though I am technically still homeschooling three of the kids, my son is tied up with college classes so I mostly have my daughters, ages 15 and 12, in mind. One of the problems with unit studies that I've looked at, is that they seem to be geared toward the very young. So, I'm looking for some ideas from you, oh wise ones, for slightly older students. I'm planning to do 4 weeks. Each week take a different country. Each country would be from a different continent. I'm thinking Africa, Australia, Europe and South America, but I'm open to changing those. I'm not much of a crafter, but that's what I think my girls would like and that I know they miss out on. I'm not interested in including math. So, any ideas that you have for unit studies that you have done involving countries, I'd appreciate hearing about. I'm especially interested in art, food, music, videos, books (fiction and nonfiction), mapping or geography activities, and ideas on what to do for writing that would be challenging enough for 12 and 15 year olds, but not take more than 5 days to complete. TIA!
I also should mention that I don't plan on buying a unit study. I plan on putting it together myself using library books and websites. Here's what I have so far for Australia: - pick an Australian animal (eg. Tasmanian devil, koala, kookaburra) and research and write short (1-2 page) paper - print out map of Australia - mark major cities and bodies of waters - color and hang up flag of Australia - Australian art project from Global Art book (which I own) - listen to Call It Courage from book-on-tape - find a video related to Australia in some way - history? person? opera? geography? Great Barrier Reef? animals? - music - listen to Waltzing Mathilda??? (that's the best I've come up with so far) - research Ned Kelly - have them do another paper? just read about him? dunno - food - make pavlovas Hmmm. I'm not sure if it's enough or not. It doesn't seem academic enough to me.
I've been putting together a geography study for next year, and although my kids are younger than yours, I've found some free resources you may be able to use: http://www.worldatlas.com/cntycont.htm http://www.birthdaycelebrations.net/traditions.htm http://www.national-anthems.net/ http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/pdf/mww_worldphys.pdf http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/pdf/mww_worldpol.pdf http://www.homeschoolcreations.com/Geography.html http://images.search.yahoo.com/sear...rintable+country+flags&fr=yfp-t-701-s&imgc=bw
There is a bunch of info on Sri Lanka here. It is a study designed for elementary-aged kids, but many of the resources would be appropriate for older kids as well. Globe Trekker videos are quite good too
Hey there, if you're going to do this, I totally recommend checking out http://www.historyscribe.com/ to do along with it. I got their full set one year, and the year we did continent/country studies, this was invaluable to have!!! My kids did the country reports. They also did the geography/land formations stuff, etc. It was GREAT.
I think a week per country, on countries from completely different continents, is a great idea. I actually am Australian, so I have a few bits and bobs to add to your fine-looking list: - Waltzing Matilda is a fantastic song. Just about every Australian knows the words. To put this in perspective, most Australians don't know the words to our national anthem. Waltzing Matilda has already filled that position in our hearts. Although the livelier tune probably helps - Maybe spend a teensy bit of time learning about why marsupials have pouches and give birth to basically embryos in the first place - why is this a useful trait in an Australian environment? Or include this question in your animal report. - The gold rush was a pretty big thing here. The population beforehand was too small and we actually needed the mass immigration it lead to. - For art, do you have anything that is Aboriginal in your book? - Aboriginal dreamtime stories (basically traditional mythology) are good fun. Very similar to Kipling's "Just So" stories, and they also describe a lot of the bizarre attributes our wildlife have. Or at least learn about what a bunyip is, or the rainbow serpent. - Finally, if you have time and are interested, you can watch "Australia: The Time Traveller's Guide", a great program that aired recently. It covers Australian dinosaurs and so on over 4 episodes. http://www.abc.net.au/iview/?series=3463233#/series/3463233
Thank you, everyone, for all your help. There are definitely things here that I'll use. I'll be coming back to this list often as we work our way through the countries. Thanks so much!
Your plan looks good, and you have some great advice. How about a social study aspect? Government type, leaders, education system, economy, most common languages, currency, tourism, population stats (rural, urban, etc), sports, etc. That would involve some great research and expand their knowledge. Have them make a game board or game for their information as they learn. Flash cards with questions and correct answers move them forward. Stopper spots with another set of "harder" questions. Rest cards for landing on a national landmark. With four countries to use by the end of the month the game could change each time they play! MT3
mrdonn.org has a lot of cool stuff on the countries/continents. It covers all ages. I was going to suggest Amanda Bennett's studies until I read your second post We're about to start her UK study to kick off the London Olympics.
sounds fun!I used Trail Guide to Geography as a bouncing point last year. It was fun! We watched videos from U Tube on the people and places we studied as well as the map studies. I can give you links to maps if you need them, but look up on youtube for the countries you want to learn about, I saw everything from a travel photo to Greenland to an exclusive story about people in South America, we saw a fly over of the tribe but that is as close as hey will let photos be and the arrows were shot at it!
I should say History Scribe is NOT a curriculum at all! I don't' know if I made that clear in my last post....and it is SUPER CHEAP download. The geography one has country reports - it has a spot to put a map, put the flag and then finish off the page, and a 2nd page with additional information about the countries. It's really cool. The year we did My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures, I used it a lot. My kids did a country report for every country we "visited". I loved having a "passport" too. I got free ones, as well as downloaded pictures we could use as the "stamps" from I think the Lutheran Missouri Synnod? Maybe? When I ordered they sent me a whole bunch of stuff!! then they also sent me more when I decided to do them with our coop class, too. Each country we would enter we'd put the "stamp" on it. Now my kids have this passport with all the countries they learned about. My youngest still plays with hers! There are TONS of library books about other countries that read like story books, too. You could also check out www.homeschoolshare.com for some suggestions, they have some because of how they connect to the books in Five In A Row. There's also a cookbook, I think it's Called "Eating your Way around the World" or something like that. it has recipes from all over the world, broken down by country and such. Really neat.
