I have decided, for now, to go with Unit Studies as our form of homeschooling. With Unit Studies, you pick something of interest, it can be anything, like dinosaurs, the moon, colors, farming, transportation, really anything and then you come up with activities in all subject areas to explore the subject.
So, for us, L and I made list together of everything she wanted to learn more about. Then, she picked one to start off with. You can guess from the title of this post what she chose. 🙂 We plan to explore horses for about a month depending on her interest level. But so far, here is what we have come up with for activities:
- Reading and Writing: This one is easy, reading horse books and practice writing horse words found in those books.
- Real life: We will be visiting a real horse, hopefully of a family friend. If that doesn’t work out, then I will arrange a visit at a local stable. They can see how they are brushed.
- Math: Hmm.. nothing really academic, but L and B both get to choose out one of those little play horses to buy. I will use that opportunity to have them count out money beforehand. Also, we will be talking a little bit about weights and measurements as we discuss how much food a horse eats and how big the Clydesdale is compared to the Shetland.
- Social Studies: We are learning about the different jobs horses have had in the past and how they were important in agriculture and as a means of transportation. We are also learning about the different ways of riding horses. L is real interested in learning the terminology of riding horses.
- Science: A little bit of horse anatomy. L got a great book at the library that shows the skeleton and muscles of the horse. She is more interested in this then I thought she would be.
- Art: Creating a stable/diorama for her horse to “live” in.
This is just a basic outline. We are bound to come up with a bunch of other ideas as we go along.
In addition to doing the Unit Study, I plan to have L continue with her phonics workbook on a weekly basis, using the Starfall reading program on a weekly basis and bible stories study every week. As for outings, we will try to make it to the Indoor Playground and the Library storytime every week as well.
In the next few weeks/months, I plan to get L started in some kind of class. She has expressed interest in gymnastics, yoga and acting. There are also a couple other free activities going on that I would like to attend as well. So, our plan is ever-evolving but this is our basic homeschooling plan for now.
Little Red Brick 