5/18/2011

Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett Review

A new friend of mine (homeschooling mom of 7 children - 5 of which are ages 10 and under) recommended The Magnificent Moon Unit Study by Amanda Bennett.  Since we were almost done with our curriculum for the year and needed a fun boost to keep up our spirits, I decided to spend the $7.95 and see how we'd like it.


We loved it!

The Magnificent Moon unit study is a 5 day lapbooking study that you "Download 'N Go".  There's no prep for mom, which I love.  I tend to like learning along with the kids instead of researching everything first.  Then it's new to me as well as to them.  I may have to change my tactic as they get older, but for now this works.    I did this study with my first grader and not yet kindergartener (sometimes, when not napping, my 3 year old would join in and he thought it was super fun - especially the online videos).  The kids asked to do it as soon as they woke up in the mornings - even on Saturday!  I didn't oblige them on Saturday...  :)
  

We had never done a lapbook before, but really enjoyed it.  I love how they get to cut, color, paste, and write, as well as use it as a creative memory tool.  One of their favorite parts was assembling their lapbook - making it look exactly as they wanted.  Their next favorite part was showing it off!  My favorite part was the amount of information they could share.  They learned a lot and were able to remember it - all in a very fun way!




After finishing the moon study, we had a moon party complete with a moon cake.  The following Saturday we went to the public museum and saw a show at the planetarium.


The kids were asking (begging!) to do another unit study, so we bought Davy Crockett and we were equally impressed. 

Each unit study has videos you watch (one or more per day - these may be long or short), articles to read, and questions to answer - all done online.  I printed off the first day of papers for the moon study, but quickly realized that I didn't need to do that for my children because of their ages.  We discussed what we read and only wrote on the lapbook components. 

There are also practical, hands-on things to do (ex. "go outside and draw the moon" or "this is how you can find your way if you're lost in the woods...go outside and find the north star...").


Overall, I highly recommend these unit studies.  Amanda Bennett's website is www.unitstudy.com.  She seems to have deals fairly regularly.  I'm a fan on facebook, so I see the deals on there.

However, even though I really like these, I'm not a fan of spending $7.95 on each one.  So, I did some online searching and found this website with free lapbooking unit studies. I've checked out some books from the library for the Leonardo unit study.  We'll see how that goes compared to these! (Here is what I thought of the free unit study on Leonardo that I tried.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

Sounds like fun! I think I would like "learning with them" instead of a lot of prep work as well. Do you know if that website has studies geared for younger kids? Lapbooks look so fun! - Amber

Heidi said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

No, it doesn't. It starts at K. However, this website http://www.homeschoolshare.com/level1.php has lapbook (LB) unit studies based on a book. I just started one about Leonardo today (it's geared toward middle el., but I think Emilia and Jonny will like it. :)

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