Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments calling all homeschoolers...help...

Learning on a line reminds me of unit studies. But then someone showed me the official definition of unit studies and it wasn't what I thought lol.

child-centered learning, yeah, that sounds like us..I do make my kids brush their teeth and no they wouldn't brush their teeth unless I did!

What's the "official" definition, Dazed? Because that's kind of what I think of as unit studies, too.

I think often people formalize it so they buy a prepackaged unit, but the concept is the same: teach everything focused on one thread of thought or topic.

Am I way off?

No, I think you have it right. I thought of a unit study as just studying some topic in depth. FOr instance, you might do a unit study on WWII. You'd read non-fiction books, historical fiction books, perhaps incorporate some writing....as opposed to having a textbook and moving superficially from one topic to the next.

Well, my current understanding of unit study is that you'd study WWII but it would encompass history, math, science, geography, social studies, art, music, and probably PE lol.

I guess it's a bit like FIAR where using one book you do math, science, social studies, geography, lit study, art.

Okay, you got me: what's FIAR?

http://www.fiveinarow.com/ ?

Thanks! That one is new to me.

I have a friend that uses Five in a Row and really likes it. Curriculum depends on temperment more than anything in my opinion. Some people like lots of structure, some don't

Hi minnie -

Have you purchased that microscope yet? With Christmas right around the corner, I think a microscope is our next purchase. Our DD4 has started asking about cells and the DNA inside them and wants to see cells divide and replicate. I have no idea where to start in regards to choosing a microscope. Any helpful hints?

I have a microscope - in fact I have two - and DS was the excuse. Can I help? I am no expert, but I did a lot of reading around before buying. I'm afraid I'm not sure about seeing cells divide and replicate: that's pretty hard to achieve outside a serious lab, I think, though I'm not saying it's impossible. What I got first was a good stereo microscope with a zoom, the kind sold to schools. This is good for looking at whole specimens (pieces of leaf, insects, twigs, hairs, needles...) rather than things having to be prepared on slides (though we do look at things on slides too). I do also have a compound microscope, with higher magnification, but that actually isn't so much fun at this point. Here's one site that may be useful - there are lots of others of course:
http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/microscope-facts.html

Key message from everyone seems to be: avoid anything which is a toy; don't worry too much about magnification, quality of optics is far more important.