Greetings Eddies,
Somewhere, right now, there’s a child sitting at a table with a worksheet in front of him, and little intention of doing it.
His parent has already asked twice, and is dreading that the third ask is going to come out sharper than anyone wants.
Cynthia Holt and Justine LoMonaco hear about that table all the time. When parents ask Cynthia how to get their kids to sit down and do their work, she answers with another question:
“Well, why are they sitting?”
You can stand. You can sit on the floor. You can go outside and do the lesson on the grass. Maybe don’t even call it a lesson (in my house, we call them “activity pages”).
Cynthia and Justine run The Learn + Live Letter – a membership of hands-on unit studies for ages 3 to 12.
This week on the podcast, they explained how unit studies work using a combination you rarely see together: dinosaurs and math.
“You’re not saying we’re gonna sit down and do math,” Justine says.
With unit studies, “You’re saying, ‘Well, we’re gonna go measure some dinosaurs and see which one is the biggest.’”
Reading a picture book about one of the world’s first paleontologists covers reading and history.
Finding letter sounds inside dinosaur eggs is phonics.
And yes, pitting a Brachiosaurus against a Triceratops in a height contest is a perfectly valid way to teach counting and number sense.
The next question families ask is whether this approach could possibly be enough. When learning feels like play, parents worry it doesn’t count.
Does it?
Listen on…
In this episode:
What Cynthia says out loud the moment tears start over a lesson (and why she stops immediately)
Which child to plan for when your kids are years apart
The paragraph printed at the start of every single unit they write
Enjoy! And send us your guest suggestions – we read every reply.
– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)
P.S. For another look at unit studies in action, check out our piece by OpenEd Oregon Ambassador Brettani Shannon on her slow-morning homeschool day. When her 9-year-old gets fascinated by a topic – whether it’s pet adoption, volcanology, or Selena Quintanilla – Brettani prompts Perplexity to spin up custom 4-day unit studies complete with book lists, hands-on activities, and math tie-ins.
