Here are some features listed in Homeschool Legacy’s list of Why Once-A-Week Unit Studies?
- They engage the whole family, so each child studies the same material,
at the same time, on his or her own individual level: Grades 2 -12.
● Once-a-Week Unit Studies are cross-curricular, incorporating a wide variety of subjects while focusing on one particular topic:
BIBLEQUALITY LITERATURELANGUAGEHISTORYSCIENCEGEOGRAPHYRESEARCHARTS & CRAFTSART APPRECIATIONMUSIC APPRECIATIONLIFE SKILLSFIELD TRIP SUGGESTIONSFAMILY GAME & MOVIE NIGHTSSTUMP YOUR DAD TRIVIA!
● Each unit study’s fun, hands-on approach increases better memory retention of the material studied.
● Once-a-Week Unit Studies accommodate all learning styles by providing a wide variety of creative assignments.
● They give your family a breather from textbooks.
The book that I was able to review is called Early Settlers In America. The retail price for this is $17.95 and it is for an actual hardcopy of the book. (Please note that they offer free shipping with orders priced $50 or more!) The target grade range is 2nd-12th grade and I can say with certainty that you can include younger students as well. I did this with my 2nd grader and a kindergartner and preschooler as tagalongs. In it, the weekly topics discussed are: The Lost Colony, The First Successful Settlement, Holland, The Pligrims, Pennsylvania, and New York, making it a 6 week course.
We used our online reservation system through our library to place a hold on the library books mentioned in the reading lists. Of course, not all of the books listed were available, but the author listed them according to the Dewey Decimal system. It was very easy to browse through that section of the library when we went to pick up the books that had actually been on the list in order to choose a few more appropriate selections. It was also nice to do this to choose lower reading level books for my younger kiddos that got to tag along while I taught my 2nd grader. I love being able to teach everyone a subject together!
The program is touted as a Once-A-Week program, which we tried for the first 2 weeks. It was nice because I was able to work on my meat and potatoes of the curriculum and then teach history intensively all in one day. We did a devotional, read several books, discussed and looked at geography, worked on a timeline, participated in activities and crafts related to the subject being studied, and even ate like the people we were learning about all within one school day.
Then I started to feel like it might work better for us to stretch it out during the week for better retention and easier time blocking. I appreciated the scheduling tips suggested for doing this. I found that, for my family, spreading it out just seemed to help the information click better for everyone. It also made it easier to make sure we fit in history even though we have a very busy social schedule throughout the week! We could complete activities and read great books in bite size snippets instead of throughout one full day.
Overall, we enjoyed this book. It gave a great and thorough look at the life and times of the early settlers in America and included enough activities that my kids felt really involved in the learning process. I love that they were able to participate in memorable lessons and they’ll likely have much better long-term retention because of it. We also enjoyed the faith aspect, but I realize that not every family will feel the same way. I am going to hang on to this resource to use again in a few years with my other children! I love when I can keep and reuse resources for other children in the future. I think my oldest and possibly my next oldest child will likely remember the material and what we did to learn it, but by going over it again with my younger children, I will still be able to engage the eldest children again at their higher grade and ability levels. That is the beauty of this family-focused, highly customizable curriculum!
If you are interested in reading more reviews about Homeschool Legacy products, including this one and other titles available, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew. If you have more questions about Homeschool Legacy and their Once-A-Week Unit Studies, I suggest reading their FAQ!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of my participation in the Schoolhouse Review Crew. All thoughts, opinions, and ideas are mine alone. Thanks for reading!