One of the beauties of schooling LuLu in a one-on-one environment, is the concept of unit studies. We structure her reading, language arts, social studies and science lessons around things of great interest. Once I started to get the hang of how to do this, it’s been kinda’ fun.

We’ve done a unit on volcanos: reading books about them (for reading); researching on the internet about where volcanic activity occurs (geography and research skills); building a working volcano (art and science). We’ve done a unit on bones (reading about it; researching calcium (health); and doing an experiment where we made chicken bones soft (science); and of course skeleton assembly (LuLu’s favorite). We did a mini-unit on holiday traditions. And of course, we do stories about the trips we take (field trips and vacations).

We are just starting a unit on American Girls. LuLu has the Kirsten doll and we picked up one of her books at the library. Much to my surprise (because LuLu generally does not like fiction) she was drawn to this story…it was a Christmas story, but she was intrigued by it. What a great opportunity for a history lesson! So we’re reading more. And, thanks to LuLu, we have a writing/language arts idea.

“Mom, is there a Chinese American Girl doll?” she asked.

“Not exactly. There’s one that looks Asian, but she doesn’t have any books.”

“Why not?”

“Because in history there weren’t that many Asian girls who came to America during any one period,” I reasoned (as floods of Japanese immigrants fill my brain or the influx of Korean adoptees in recent times.)

“I’m here,” LuLu reasoned, “and I’m Chinese.”

So, LuLu and I are writing her American Girl book. It’s an interesting project. We will continue to read about other American Girls. Her interest is now on Addie, the black girl during Civil War times. And that interest has doubled since she found out we will be taking an educational vacation to Philadelphia this summer in conjunction with Super Dad’s conference. Addie and her family moved to Philly after the war.

Unit studies are all about seizing the opportunities of daily life and tying curriculum to them. For the American Girl book we will do pre-writing, writing and editing steps, allowing opportunities for specific language arts lessons. And the history lesson opportunities are obvious as well.

But a book on LuLu’s own history is even more. I suspect (and we’ve already started to explore) many emotional moments as well. Yet, it was her idea, and I love that. And, like her mom, LuLu tends to be a rather candid, matter-of-fact writer. LuLu's intent is to share her "book" with her penpal buddies, two girls adopted from China as well. It is going to be a FUN project.

As reluctant as I am about this homeschooling stuff, it does have some very interesting benefits.