Wherever your child learns, be it a public or private institution, or in the comfort of his own home, he has probably experienced some form of a unit study (even if neither of you knew it). Perhaps his class studied Native Americans (history), and built teepees (math, construction, engineering), evaluated a tribes hunting patterns (math, science, conservation), and tried a recipe or two (math and science). Students may have been asked to research tribes that once lived near their current home, and create a presentation. This assignment would likely include elements of art, reading, writing, and public speaking in addition to history, and social sciences. ‘Unit study’ is just a way of expressing the steps one would normally take to obtain knowledge about a specific topic, and incorporating a variety of academic subjects into the study of that topic. These are gaining popularity among educators and parents because they so accurately simulate the way children naturally learn. A variety of subjects such as art, science, math, history and language are all covered when we venture to find out how trains really work. Imagine this: A family crowds around the computer oohing and aahing at the WDW (Walt Disney World) website as they check out Magic Kingdom’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Dad just read "Vacation Education destination Magic Kingdom" and begins to discuss the back story of this attraction (an abandoned gold mine), and someone asks, “What was the gold rush like?” The next thing they know, the whole family is on an adventure through cyberspace to figure it out, and they don’t even realize they are doing “school”. Sound to simple? Here’s a true story of unit study success. "Our fourth grader cried at the sight of her math book until we replaced it with a cookbook. After two weeks of menu planning, budgeting, doubling recipes and creating nutritional meals, fractions no longer seemed an impassable roadblock. In the process, we also learned the joy of giving as we shared our creations with others. When I suggested that we return to the textbook, she replied, “Yeah, I better. I haven’t done any math in two weeks.” A unit study encourages the use of local and often free resources. The library is a great place to start. Once that source is tapped out, it’s time to turn to friends, family, and neighbors, the church library, and search for sources online. It is not necessary to cover every detail of every subject, but instead to have a mastery of topic’s basic information. Most unit studies are naturally open to application of a variety of subjects. In the cooking for math example, fractions and measuring were emphasized in the process of preparing a variety of recipes. If science had been the focus, more emphasis would have been on the chemical reactions of different ingredients. A good unit study should include elements that cover a variety of subjects such as history, art and music; science, chemistry, biology and creation; literature, writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation and comprehension; math and phonics. There are numerous ways of incorporating these subjects including biographies and historical novels, fine art and artists, audio and video cassettes, computer software, poetry and song books, cookbooks, science experiments, theater (both live and on film), websites and games. Just as one mom uses a cookbook to teach math, you can use whatever you have at your disposal to impart knowledge to your children. The following is an example of an unplanned unit study. "After reading the American Girl series of books about a young girl named Kit who grew up during the Great Depression, it was all our first grader would talk about. She wanted to know everything about Kit; what would happen to her family, what she would be when she grew up, what would the rest of her life be like, would the Depression ever end, and so on. Our desire to find probable answers to these questions led us to non-fiction books about the era including biographies [history]. She read aloud and copied paragraphs from them [reading and handwriting]. We tried and compared recipes from then and now [math and history]. She contacted and interviewed people who had lived through it [communication and social skills]. She shared her knowledge with others [public speaking]." The best way to gain and retain knowledge is to put it to practical real-life use. Vacation Education Books contain plenty of activities to help you do that. Each topic can be worked on as a comprehensive unit; various activities can be chosen individually or you can select a key word and run with it on your own. These key words are printed in bold type throughout the chapters and are suggestions for vocabulary assignments, spelling lists, search engines, library hunts or as a specific topic for a research project. The chapters are filled with activities to try at home as well as fun and informative things to do during your visit. There are explanations for many of the exhibits in the park and ways to relate them to your study. Home educators will be satisfied with the depth of the study even if they never visit the park, yet it is concise enough for the family who has just seven days to make it around the world (Walt Disney World) and back. The material is designed to be flexible, and used by anyone. Now that you have a basic idea of how it all works, choose a unit and get going. Remember to have fun and the learning will take care of itself. Corinne Johnson is a home educator to her five children, and the author or Vacation Education Books: Travel Guides for Families who love to learn.