Crew Review: Homeschool Legacy: Native America
When I think of Unit Studies I think of a study that encompasses multiple subjects while focusing on a single topic. For example you might have math, history, science, and language arts assignments all focused on frogs. I’m not a fan of “true unit studies”, but I do like short, focused studies that encompasses one unifying topic that may have multiple disciplines. Let me introduce you to Homeschool Legacy and the idea of a Once-a-Week Unit Study.
Sharon Gibson, a veteran homeschool mom, created Homeschool Legacy and the Once-a-Week Unit Studies from her “passion to help families build a strong, Godly, family legacy.”
Homeschool Legacy offered 10 different studies from the crew. We love history and we love studying other cultures so I requested Native America to review. Because I am only focusing on the product I received, you’ll want to be sure to check out the Schoolhouse Crew Reviews to see reviews of all 10 studies.
The Native America study is a 6 week study for grades 2-12. With this product you will encounter tribal nations in the following geographical areas: The Northeast Woodland Nations, The Southeast Woodland Nations, The Southwest Nations, The Plains Nations, The Pacific Northwest Coast Nations and The California/Plateau/Great Basin Nations.
Homeschool Legacy provides suggestions for scheduling. The idea behind the Once-a-Week Unit Study is to set aside your regular work for 1 day a week and do the activities in the study. It’s not quite once a week though because you would do a family read aloud as well as individual reading daily. Also there are field trip suggestions and Family Night suggestions which should not necessarily be done on the day you do the activities.
How the Study is Laid Out: (Please note, these details refer to the Native America study and may not pertain to other studies. Be sure to read the other reviews for more information about the other studies!) When I first received this product, I noticed how well laid out the book list was. The library books list wasn’t just one massive list of titles with author names. There were organized by books for younger children, books to supplement your study and books for each “week”. In addition the book list didn’t just include a title and author but also included the Dewey Decimal numbers for each book and an asterisk next to each title denoting that book would be necessary to complete an assignment.
But what if my library doesn’t have that book? This was where those Dewey Decimals come in handy. You can use those to locate a different title containing the same information so that you can complete the assignment!
At the beginning of each week, Mrs. Gibson includes the list of books to choose from for that week. She also includes a supply list for any supplies that you might need.
The Once a Week Activities begins with a devotional. For the Native America study these are character traits such as kind or brave. The Once-a-Week Activities will also state the subject area, such as history, language, art and will also tell you whether it meets a Boy Scout or American Heritage Girl requirement.
Timeline suggestions are also noted throughout the study with the letters TL.
How We’re Using this Study: After taking the time to read through the whole study, I knew that there was so much meat that I was going to want to take longer than 1 week per geographical area. I have two high school students and I wanted to go deeper and broader with this study so that I could give them high school credit. In order to have enough time to write some of the compositions I required and in order to have enough time to read the books necessary to write those papers we needed at least 2 weeks for each area.
We’re still following the pattern of daily reading and setting aside 1 day per week for activities. We are finding that we do need at least 2 days to do the activities so we do half of them one week and the other half, usually the papers, the next week.
I love that Homeschool Legacy includes the BSA and AHG requirements because those have made it easier to add assignments (activities). Included in this study is a worksheet for the BSA requirements. We’ve been filling out that sheet for each nation that we read about, usually 2 or 3 per geographical area.
Inspired by one of the AHG suggestions my 17 year old created a costume and dressed up her sister.
Thoughts from BooBear (age 17): “It is very interesting study. I love to study different cultures and this study offers a wide variety of Native Americans to look at. I enjoy the assignments. It is an enjoyable way to better understand Native Americans and their cultures.”
Thoughts from Turtlegirl (age 15): “I liked that they had question sheets that you could make copies of for each nation. I liked that I got to spend more time with BooBear when we did the questions. I have always been interested in Native American cultures, so this was really interesting for me. I liked that there was both individual reading, family read-aloud, and compositions.”
Thoughts from Tailorbear (age 13): “I love how this product is teaching about the Indians. It is showing me what each nation is, their culture, and where and when they were moved if moved. I also love the projects and the question pages. Overall I really like it!”
My Bottom Line: I have found this study to be flexible and easily adaptable for my family. I love all the choices of books. I really appreciate that I am not having to come up with activities to do or having to search for DVD’s or books. It’s all there. There are books to read, DVD’s to watch, hands on activities that my girls are enjoying and the ability to go deeper and broader on our own to learn more. Even the writing assignments that I am requiring are based on the suggested activities given by Mrs. Gibson. This is easy to use and ALL FOUR of my girls are participating in some way.
The Native America Once-a-Week Unit Study is for grades 2-12. It retails for $17.95. Other Unit studies may vary in age range and price but most are listed for grades 2-12.
Visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew to see what other Crew Members had to say about Native America or one of the other 9 Unit Studies from Homeschool Legacy:
You can read my other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews to find more great products.
I do have to admit that I like the headband better on Tailorbear than on the piece of paper, where it looks like a snake and kind of made me jump :)
ReplyDeleteSounds really fun!