Greatly Blessed: Homeschool Legacy

This year, we're studying California history, which tied in nicely with the opportunity to review Many Nations, a once-a-week micro study from Homeschool Legacy. Homeschool Legacy offers unit studies on a wide and growing variety of science and social studies based topics.

I love the concept of unit studies. My inner Ms. Frizzle shines when I can pull together thing after thing that all relate to the same topic. But I also like the structure of using curriculum. Doing a micro study gives me the chance to enjoy a unit study feel for a short time and then get back to our regularly scheduled programming, so to speak.

Homeschool Legacy unit studies are downloadable directly to your computer. When we started our study, I printed one of the included maps for each of the children. I vastly prefer printing multiple copies of something to standing at the copier making copies from a book.

As we learned about the tribes in each area, the kids would color in that region and label it with the nations who resided there.

We enjoyed following the links within the study to print, color, and assemble a cardstock model longhouse, such as the Iroquois people built. We also learned where the term "bury the hatchet" came from, and we watched a video of a buffalo roundup.

Many Nations micro study took no prep work on my part, and used ordinary materials we already had around the house. I'm all about products that are easy on the teacher!

One of the most fun projects in this Homeschool Legacy unit study was Navajo sand painting! I had the kids use Mod Podge instead of the suggested white glue, simply because we have an abundance of Mod Podge.

I printed the included Thunderbird image onto cardstock for each of the kids. They would paint a section of the bird with Mod Podge, then sprinkle sand onto it.

After tapping the excess sand off onto the cookie sheet, they would go on to paint the next section.

I think they turned out really nice. We all enjoyed the way Homeschool Legacy combined multiple subjects into one fascinating look at Native American cultures. Not just history, but geography, Bible, art, vocabulary, reading, and more.

This study not only pointed us toward new resources, like Sing Down the Moon (right), which I ordered from Amazon because it was suggested reading for this study, it also reminded me of resources we already had, and allowed me to pull those out to enrich our study of Native American history.

Many Nations micro study was designed to be used three times per week for four weeks. We worked through it faster than that, but the beauty of homeschooling is that each family can go at their own pace. My students are first, fourth and seventh graders, so they all fall within the 1-8th grade range suggested.

When we finished our study, there were still 4 blank sections in our map. I would have liked to have learned about the remaining areas, as well. It felt like we weren't really done yet. Had I not been about to leave the country, we probably would have continued our study on our own, just to be able to color in those regions.

Homeschool Legacy unit studies are a fun way to change things up a bit and draw the family closer together through a shared learning experience. Our Many Nations micro study gave me the basic outline of things we could pursue as deep as we wanted to. Perhaps you're feeling stuck in a rut. The Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims study might be just the thing to get you and your kids excited about homeschool again, or be a great transition to holiday break.