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If you are new to homeschooling, or are burned out on the method you are currently using, you may be considering a switch. This article highlights some of the advantages of the unit study method of homeschooling.

Unlike other methods of teaching, a Unit Study is an integrated approach to learning. Also called by the names Thematic Unit and Integrated Unit, it uses all of the subjects to create a theme-based study that is both relevant to the child and applicable to the Learning Goals you have created. A Unit Study takes all of the subjects, such as Science, History, and Language Arts, and focuses the lessons around one central theme.

When you do a unit study, the books, activities, and trips for school are all related around a central theme. It’s a much more natural method of learning than breaking each subject up into bite-size pieces that need to be reassembled to be truly understood. Therefore, children who learn using this method often have a more thorough understanding of the material and often retain the information they’ve been taught longer and in a more practical manner.

When you teach using the unit study method, it is easier to teach multiple grades simultaneously. If you have 3 children, it is entirely likely that while one is studying ancient Egypt, another is on the American Revolution, and the third on WWII. With the unit study method, you are all on the same page, just in differing degrees.

Unit studies are also more economical than most other methods. When you use a traditional approach, you need to buy textbooks for each child for each subject, and textbooks can get quite expensive. With the unit study method, you can invest that same money in high quality books that can be added to your library to be read year after year, used on field trips, or spent to engage in learning filled hands-on activities. Unit studies are also practical for the frugal homeschoolers, allowing them to make use of the library and free resources to provide an education that is nearly cost-free.

In addition, many families report that unit studies are just plain more fun. In many cases you all learn together, children and parents alike, doing activities that hardly seem like ’school.’ You can tailor the busy work to the tolerance level of the child, giving Susie who loves language arts lots of worksheets, and Bobby the crafts he desires.