Hey there! Today we’re going to talk about all things unit studies. Let’s start with pros and cons. Buckle up because this is a lot of information - and it’s worth bookmarking this webpage to come back to whenever you need to!

Pros of Unit Studies

Extremely flexible learning (use only what you want)
Family style learning
Makes interest-led learning easy
You make the plans for use to suit you
Only print what you need and will use

Cons of Unit Studies

Not always prescribed use (they don’t tell you how you should use them always)
Not reassuring to someone who wants a checklist
Don’t always follow scope and sequence
Digital purchase means you pay to print or print at home

Defining unit studies:

True Unit Studies: these are marketed as covering all subjects within one unit study, so they will cover math, history, english language arts, and science connections all in one study.
Deep dive unit studies: These are an in depth dive into a single topic, and while they may have all the above subject connections, they may not.
Studies as a single unit: This is what you will find most unit studies to be these days as sold by curriculum companies. They are akin to being a single chapter of a book and are a very broad overview of a single topic within a subject like science, for instance.

Why unit studies?

With multiple children being homeschooled at once, unit studies come in really handy.

At this point I probably have a good 400-500 unit studies hanging out in my google drive.

If that sounds like your nightmare, please remember I work on curriculum bundles and as such store them in my personal google drive. As an upside, whenever my children ask for a study on a specific topic, chances are really good a google drive search will turn up something that piques their interest. That’s a benefit to bundled unit studies.

What kinds of unit studies are there?

There’s a unit study for any interest or course of study you may want to take.Topics we’ve done studies on:

Axolotls
Video Games
Grammar
Nature Study Club units: Insects, polar animals, great white north, night sky, and so many more
Farm Animals
Spanish units
Literature studies
And almost anything you can think of!

Visit more unit studies

My favorite kind of unit study

Has a good mix of hands-on and workbook style work
Gives me freedom and flexibility to use it how I want to use it
Allows me to do things in 4-6 week chunks as opposed to one huge book all year.
Has fun activities we can use for warm-ups, practice, and more

Do you buy bundle studies personally, since you also work on them?

I do not personally purchase bundles I have products in, as a writer. Otherwise, yes. I purchase them.
I do purchase other bundles besides those I work on, because they offer a different mix of products than those I participate in. (My favorites being the wildfeather edu bundles)

But don’t curriculum bundles have units you will never use?

Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: I don’t use every page of every workbook or book we purchase either, so this isn’t something I am personally bothered by.
Even longer answer: When I purchase a bundle for $10-25+ I am expecting to use at least five units, sometimes more. And $5 a pop does not bother me when it comes to unit studies.

Click through to see what is in a curriculum bundle!

Do you purchase units outside of curriculum bundles?

Yes, absolutely. I have purchased unit studies for Spanish from Cedar Hill Kids, I buy everything that Wonderhouse Creative makes for middle school, and I am always on the lookout for unit studies that correlate to books we want to read or are reading.

Why would you buy unit studies when you write them?

Because other people are better than me at writing certain things, and my children and I gain value from their writing and their care in crafting their unit studies.

Also, everything costs time or money so I have to choose which I’m willing to spend and how I’m willing to spend it.

Who are unit studies best for?

I’d say unit studies best serve families who do not mind planning their own studies and doing some legwork on assembling materials.

Unit studies might also work best for interest led learning.

Finally, unit studies are fun, and a great way to ease into the idea that you do not have to use every single page of every single thing you purchase.

Practical unit studies #1: Printing

Unit studies are rarely one click printing. You have to look through them and if you want to save paper/ink decide what pages to print.
Do not print every page of every unit. Look at them on your computer first, then print what you think you will use.
Do not be swayed by pictures. Marketing sells how a product looks ideally, but not necessarily how it is used. So keep how you will use it at the front of your mind.
Be creative with how you print by printing things 2 to a page or 4 to a page if they work as a flashcard size.
Keep in mind activities that need cutting and don’t double side them when printing.

Practical unit studies # 2: Digital Storage

My preferred organizational method is google drive, where you can up storage as needed. The storage they have goes a long way.
Storage is easiest when you go from the BIGGEST idea first to SMALLEST idea last.
Ex: Homeschooling - Math - Math by grade levels - activity topics (decimals, fractions, etc.)
This folder system of google drive is how I stay organized as well.
You can download whole bundles as zip drives but they will still need to be stored on your computer or in a portable hard drive and unzipped. Unzipping is a high power memory process that can take a while depending on storage and internet speed.

Practical unit studies #3: Physical Storage

I personally keep unit studies ready to go in page protectors within a binder, with all pieces cut out and in the page protector alongside worksheets and other parts of the unit.
If a have different units for different children, these go into their individual school binders.
If I had a dedicated schoolroom with filing cabinets, I would keep them filed with biggest to smallest storage rule from tip #2 above.
We recycle our paper and laminate mostly what we know we will be keeping.

If you can think of any other unit study questions you have, you can email me at hello@mytexashomeschool.com and let me know what you’d like me to cover here on my website or on instagram.

Your complete guide to homeschool unit studies