Wanna Be a Steader!

Anyone Use Multi-Year Unit Studies?

This is our 16th (and last ) year of homeschooling and up until this past spring, I was the county homeschool coordinator for 11 years. During my first couple of years as coordinator - and while our girls were still little - I noticed that many wonderful homeschool families were graduating students that made awesome grades and many were going on into college or trade school...but...even though they "made the grade" they couldn't fry an egg or change the oil in their cars!

It was then that I decided that little by little as we progressed through life and school - and MOST ESPECIALLY when they were in Jr and Sr high - that I was going to concentrate on Life Skills along w/the academics!! I have all girls and we have raised them to aspire to be wives/mothers...if they have some sort of career before then or find something they can do for pay at home, fine...but I wanted my daughters to know more than I did when my hubby and I were married! My mom was a working mom and if I hadn't had home ec in school, I probably wouldn't even know how to read a recipe. I didn't want my girls' husbands to suffer through all their 'experiments' like their sweet Daddy did w/me! lol

All that to say that I found a couple of really neat multi-year life skill unit studies!! (Maybe I'll post my reviews of them here sometime.) One is Far Above Rubies which can be used for 7 (YES!! 7) years! Through Jr & Sr high years. (It also has a boy's counter-part: Blessed is the Man which can be used along w/a girl using F.A.R.) This is a great product but once I got it, it had too much reading and research for what I wanted. THEN...I found out about Training Our Daughters to Be Keepers at Home. This one is a 4 year study - basically the high school years. Now, when I got this one, it was a little too much hands-on than what I wanted. What did I do?

For the last few years we have worked through it combining the two. When I start my planning I look through both studies and decide which units for each study can be used together and assign them that way. Mind you...this is done VERY loosely!! These books are basically - in our household, anyway - a guide.

What we have been doing over the last several years (and our oldest daughter who graduated from our homeschool in '06 is still doing) is as we study something we are adding to each girl's 3-ring notebook and making them each a Life Skills Manual as we go!! They will have these manuals to take w/them into THEIR homes when they leave to become keepers of their homes!

We have covered so much already...we have added recipes from the studies, themselves, plus our own family favorites and favorites passed down through the generations (each one of these recipes is made the day we add it to the binder); we have taken a tour of a funeral home and learned about what happens to the deceased, pricing, the process of grieving...we opened this up as a field trip w/others and as my pastor is the funeral home director he spoke about the difference in how a saved and unsaved family grieves, the promise of heaven for the believer...basically we wanted to take the mystery and scariness out of the process. The reason behind this is that my husband and I lost our 1st beautiful daughter to SIDS when she was 3 months old (22 years ago) and we had to make all those must-be-made-NOW decisions in the midst of our grief and inexperience. We have covered different home repairs projects, courtship and marriage, childbirth/child care, caring for the elderly, gardening, knitting, sewing...and so much more w/much more to do.

We also have written some of our own unit studies...some of which are expanded ideas from what we were working on w/the other studies.

So...I am wondering if any of you have ever used any multi-year unit studies and what your experiences were like.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf

The last year to homeschool

10:57, 2008-Aug-14 .. Posted by Vickie

Wow. I still have 8 years until our homeschool will be completed.
I like that you see how important home ec/lifeskills are. I totally agree with you on that!
I learned some from my mother, but mostly I have taught myself by reading things on the computer & books.
I really like your idea about making their own book. I am planning on doing something like that too. I ordered a book called Home Economics for Homeschoolers. It is a guide for some basic things to teach our children. It is back ordered so I think others are sharing in this as well! When it comes I'm planning on making a scrapbook of the steps so my daughter can hopefully share it with her own daughters one day.
Hope you have a wonderful day!

Untitled Comment

03:26, 2008-Aug-14 .. Posted by homesteadinthemaking

I know exactly what you are talking about with the life skills lessons. I too had a working mom and didn't have home ec. in school. I was clueless when we married 18+ years ago. It has been a rough road that I pray may girls do not go down.
Blessings,
Trixi