You have probably heard the term "Unit Study", but maybe you are not quite certain all that that term entails.  The purpose of this guide is not only to familiarize you with the different components that go into a "good" Unit Study, but also to show you why Unit Studies are far superior to standard textbook learning.  So grab a cup of coffee and let's dive in!

First, a Unit Study is a method of learning that incorporates as many facets and subjects--focusing on just one area.  Let me explain:  Let's say that your student wants to learn about horses.  Typically, you would check out a book at the library on horses and that would be it.  But a Unit Study on horses, would have all disciplines of study focus on the subject of "Horses";  in other words, it would incorporate:

• history
• geography
• science
• literature
• grammar & composition
• art
• and any other means of enriching this study.

Also, the Unit Study comes with a daily lesson plan that allows you to "break" the Unit Study into managable assignments, and allows the instructor to guage how much time to spend on the Unit.  (A typical Unit Study will take a week or more for younger students--all the way to entire semester-length Unit Studies for Older grades.)  Teacher's Guide, Extra enrichment projects, tests, reports and papers are included--which also makes this an excellent bargain for the material you get.  And in many--supplemental literature lists and video lists are supplied, again enabling the instructor further opportunities to bring all the subjects and information together in more meaningful ways.

Alot of Unit Studies have traditionally used textbooks and literature books.  But with the opportunities that a computer can add, now a Unit Study can add the dimension of multimedia, actual documents, image-rich texts, etc--making the subject literally come "alive" for the student!