A book, a movie, and a field trip about the same topic equal an easy summer family unit study! 

Summer brain drain–ugh! For 3 months the kids run around from camp to craft to sleepover wanting fun and games and play time all day, every day because SCHOOL’S OUT so we don’t have to do any more of “that learning stuff.” Um…not around here! So what’s a busy, working mom to do besides frantically shuffle the kids from one STEM camp to another and continue to spend her nights tracking reading logs and worksheets?

Here’s a better idea–how about a couple easy, fun, family unit studies over the summer? The key is to not ruin it by over-scheduling (poor momma!) or forcing the education components (poor family!).

The Goal is Learning, Engaging, and Inspiring

We spend a lot of time going our separate ways during the school year. Different grades, different schools…the summer is a great time to bring everyone back together and fit in some high-quality family time. Do your summer unit study as a group! Read together, watch movies together, take field trips together–talk about your topics together.

Keep the goal in mind! The idea here is to have fun learning and engaging on the topic together–not an in-depth study with a standardized test and essay at the end! You want the kids excited about what they’re learning. You want them to see that there is SO MUCH beyond what they learn in school to be discovered on every topic!

No Grades, No Worksheets, No Red Pens

Our idea of fun and easy means I don’t have to spend my time correcting everyone all summer either. Our family unit studies don’t include any work that involves RIGHT or WRONG answers. We’re just taking new information in. Don’t worry about it coming back out at the moment. That will come naturally as you go through the summer, I promise. Start by just exploring information that’s new and capturing family memories along the way. Use conversation to push the critical thinking, not formal school work.

This also keeps things simple because I’m not worried about finding as many different levels of activities to do to meet everyone’s needs. I don’t need worksheets on pirates for a 4th grader, an advanced 5th grader, and an 8th grader. We all do the same activities, at the same time, to the best of our abilities. That minimizes the comparisons between your little learners and lets them enjoy working, playing and learning together.

So how do you do one of these easy family unit studies–especially if you’re not an experienced homeschooling family?

The basic idea is that you pick a topic, round up a bunch of multi-media resources on it, and spend a few weeks going through them together at your leisure. It can be as simple as a book and movie that go together, or as involved as the two units I’ve got going this summer–but that’s really it. And you just temper your books and movies to your age group. This will work with any age child.

As I’ve gone along (with the help of Pinterest!) I’ve gotten a little more detailed and involved in some of our units. I just love learning–and love learning with my munchkins–and there are so many great ideas out there! Plus my kiddos are hands-on, audio/visual and experiential learners so this works so much better for them than the classic school setting they struggle through each year!

Remember: A book, a movie, and a field trip about the same topic equal a family unit study!

But let’s get a little more detailed about how to set one up in case you’d like to try it this summer. And you’ll find a couple FREE planner printables at the end of the post to help you out if this is your first time.

#1 Pick a Topic

Since it’s for the whole family, I try to steer towards something our family has a particular interest in. We’re history and nature buffs here. We’ve done pioneers, Jamestown, horses, Vikings, American Indians, samurai, bald eagles, wolves, the Revolutionary War…we also do a lot of nature study. You can ask the family, or take a poll for ideas. The topic can be as narrow or broad as you want. We tend to stay kinda broad to keep it fun and relaxed, but dive in later on some cool little tidbit we found–like Old Abe the Eagle.

This year we’re doing a Space/Astronomy unit study and Pirates. I picked without input this time because I happened to have run across several exciting opportunities in each of those subjects that will occur this summer in our area that I thought we could take advantage of. 

I also get a lot of our kids’ books from the local thrift stores and library book sales, so sometimes we just do whatever I have on hand. We have a lot of homeschooling families around here, so there’s a good chance we’ve cycled through someone else’s unit study before because I found their supplies on the DAV shelves! {smile}

#2 Pick out Books

Usually, the spine of our unit study is a FICTION story that I use as a family read aloud. Historic fiction and classic fiction are our favorites, but anything wholesome, rich and fun will work. The fiction is meant to suck the children into the era, the environment, or the excitement of the topic. For our Pirate study, we’ll be using the Peter and the Starcatchers series as our spine. Fun, engaging, adventurous, with pirates and ships. We’ll read it out loud together for bedtime, quiet time, during lunch, in the car, while camping…whenever we can squeeze it in. In between those stories, I’ll work in The Pirate Patriot and The Barbary Pirates as easy-to-read, narrative non-fiction to give some realistic context to the topic.

Then I hunt up graphic NON-FICTION materials to keep around for informal perusal. Picture books, small independent readers, atlases and encyclopedias and coffee table books…whatever I can scrounge up on the topic. We don’t make them read these, we just have them in a central location so that when someone has a question they can go flip through them. Believe me, after an exciting passage of the story or a good movie, you’ll find them piled up in bed going through a graphic non-fiction book without having to ask!

#3 Pick out Movies

Feature length movies, animated movies, TV series, YouTube videos…hunt up some media that goes with your topic and enjoy it together. We usually pick a feature length movie for Family Movie Night enjoyment and then I’ll use some documentary materials (if I find some) during the week as extra screen time. This year I’ve also lined up a list of FREE Prime shows about our topics and loaded them into the kids Watch List on their Fire tablets for them to watch independently. (I’ll let you know how it goes!)

Look for things that are either historically-based or have a good period costume and set design going on to immerse the kids in the topic. The idea is to give a sweeping introduction to the culture or topic and spur their interest. We’ll be using Apollo 13 and Hidden Figures in our Astronomy unit this year. We used Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai in our Samurai unit, and Dances with Wolves in our Indian unit. Cartoons will work too! We’ll be included Treasure Planet as part of our topic movie list. (Pirates AND space in the same movie–WIN!) **Edit these as needed for your family. I’m a big fan of the FF on the remote.**

#4 Plan Some Field Trips

Summer is a great time to find special events happening that will go with your topic. Studying pioneers? Go to a frontier or farming museum. Sailing or naval history events? Go to the Mariners Museum. Nature study? Hit the zoo. Find a science center or children’s museum or art gallery. Look for a Renaissance Festival or Tractor Pull or add a free summer concert series to your classical music unit study! Check for a war reenactment, or an air show, or in our case a Blackbeard Pirate Festival. Take a train ride or go camping in the backyard for a survival-themed study. This is the fun stuff! Just keep an eye on costs, these events can get pricey!

You can stop there if you want to. During the school year, I usually do. I read a book at bedtime, we watch a movie that goes with it, and I hunt up a family outing. The end.

But as I’ve gotten more confident in knowing what my kiddos will enjoy before they hit the “this feels like school work” point, we’ve added more activities and crafts to our summer adventures. To keep our plans relaxed, we just spread the unit study out over more weeks so there’s no pressure. I also think ahead more so I can gather up additional supplies with discounts.

Here are some other elements you could add…

Read-Aloud Activities

When I’m reading aloud, the kids are allowed to do other activities at the same time as long as they are quiet and can answer questions to show they are still listening. My favorites are to add some educational coloring books or topical sticker books and let them work on those while I’m reading. I also let them build with Legos, draw and paint, use clay, sew, or any other quiet, hands-on activity while they’re listening.

Crafts and Experiments

This year we’re scheduling in some time for hands-on play related to our topics with some fun family craft projects–like making a pirate ship and a rocket out of cardboard! That certainly doesn’t sound like school work! It would be easy to make cardboard swords and shields for a Middle Ages study or a whole suit of Samurai armor! (What a fun way for Dads to get in on the action!)

Food Adventures

Food is another great family “craft.” We’ll be making time for some freeze-dried ice cream and marshmallow constellations for our space unit. We’ve done jerky for a pioneer study and hardtack for a Civil War study. I’ve always wanted to have a tea party for some Revolutionary War background. These are not hard or complicated to pull off.

Journals and Notebooks

We’ll be making astronomy notebooks to track our observations over the summer. I’ll also use a “field trip notes” sheet for them to write down some things they saw when we took field trips. (You’ll find them in the printable pack!) We never use these as requirements. We approach it as more fun–more like arts and crafts. No grading, no “feedback” from me on how it should turn out. Just a way to jot down their memories of our fun activities over the summer. I’ll print them pictures from our trips and adventures for them to glue in as well. They tend to store them as summer keepsakes when we’re done. It’s working on their reading, writing, and science skills without feeling like assignments or work.

I also like to use these as a way to share what they’ve been up to with Mr. Fix-It because, unfortunately, he has to miss a lot of the daily activities and about half our field trips. Sharing about their day and their notebooks with him gets that “reporting back” effort into the learning without any pressure on them.

Extra Non-Fiction Resources

As I said, I scrounge in thrift stores, used Amazon books, borrow from friends and the Library…you never know what someone has that might be helpful. Old National Geographic posters and maps. Audiobooks. Atlases. Flashcards. Board games–our Catan will go great with our unit study this summer! Puzzles and word searches. There’s tons of material out there if you spend a little time looking.

I put a few hours a year into planning our summer unit studies in April and May, using a calendar and some note sheets. Then I tuck it all in a plastic folder along with event information, membership forms, registrations, tickets, etc. that might be needed and keep it with me all summer long.

Need some help putting it all together? I’ve made up a 4-month planning calendar and unit study planning sheets, a field trip notes sheet, and a short book and movie note sheet for independent work for ya! Sign up for our newsletter and receive a link to download them now!

I’ll be sharing more of our specific units for this summer soon. I’d love to hear your great summer ideas!