Transforming Homeschooling with Unit Studies – Lydia Rosado (Hosted by Cindy West) - Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Oh. We started with school at home, homeschooling. I'll just be
honest. Okay. I want to know why you changed.
We changed because no one was happy. I literally just
said one day, we're not doing any of this. We're not. We're just going to
read books. And the unit study grew because
they kept saying, we want more of this. And I thought we were

(00:21):
done. I'm like, I don't know what else to do with this topic.
It was a real process. But we started because we
were miserable. We were making each other miserable. And
naturally. As to what else can I add in? How can I keep
this going? Because they're excited. Hey, everyone, this
is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. I

(00:44):
hope you're enjoying the new format this year. I'm so excited to turn this
week's show over to Cindy West. I know you're going to love her. Enjoy
the show. Hey there, everybody. I am Cindy
west of Our Journey Westward and No Sweat Nature Study. And
I'm really excited to be here on Schoolhouse Rocked for
my very first episode as a

(01:06):
host. And today I have with me a super
exciting guest named Lydia Rosado.
And she calls herself a partial nomad. She says that's
a hazard of being an Air Force wife. And
she's a homeschool mom to four. We're going to chat today a little
about unit studies, why and how she

(01:28):
has done those for so many years in her homeschool. But first, before
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(01:51):
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(02:36):
Equipping families, inspiring learners, and teaching
truth. Alrighty, let's get right into our
episode with Lydia and Lydia. As we get started, what I
would love from you is kind of the 30 second overview
of you as a homeschool mom in your homeschool family.
Well, as a homeschool mom, I'm just juggling all the things I think

(02:58):
is really what it boils down to. I have four kids, they are
16, 14 and 12. They are my boys and then I
have a nine year old daughter and they are all so different.
And it's all about trying to meet each one of
them where they are with their interests and strengths and
weaknesses and using as much

(03:21):
creativity as we can to do that. So
that's where I am. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I first found
you, as you well know, on Instagram,
@HappilyEverCaffeinated. And first off, that is the
cutest handle ever @HappilyEverCaffeinated. And you know,
you guys, she. She just captured me

(03:43):
with her unit studies that she does. She is
the most creative mama that you can tell. She's
not only pouring herself into the schooling
that she does with her kiddos, but she's doing that in a way that not
only involves everyone at one time, or mostly everyone, which I'm sure we'll
get to it at some point because you do have an older one who might

(04:04):
be moving onward just a little bit. But you've used
unit studies for a lot of years to kind of incorporate everybody and
get them really engaged in what meets
each of their needs. Not just the family's needs, but each
of their needs in really awesome ways. And you know
that that is a learning style after my own

(04:26):
heart. But we're not here to talk about me today, we're here to talk about
how you have done this. So first and foremost, what I'd love to know is,
are unit studies your main
modality of learning? That's the first part. And
if so, or if not, maybe go
into a little bit of that. When, how and why

(04:49):
did all of this come about? We do
still use unit studies, although right now it has
really changed because I do have a
10th grader and then I have a really.
My nine year old learns very differently. So I'm
not using unit studies with her right now. But traditionally

(05:12):
we have done it where I put all of them
together and we all learn about the same thing
and we do it with as many subjects as possible. So
the idea is that you take one topic and you add
history and science and music and art all together
because it's going to interest somebody

(05:35):
and it's gonna tie in the connections so that it makes
sense historically. It makes sense
with the biographies or the famous people you're learning about.
And so that's kind of what we've always done. And then we layer
in projects. And the projects is really where I
can work with their strengths, their weaknesses.

(05:58):
And that's one reason why we do the projects is because it's a fun
way to address all of those
things, either sneakily when it comes to the
weaknesses, as well as letting the
kids know, hey, this is a strength for you. Go for it, Keep building
it, and encouraging those talents and

(06:19):
giftings. And so that's one reason I love unit
studies and one reason I chose to. To do it that way, I
guess. So have you been doing that from the very beginning, or was it something
that you started homeschooling one way and found that this was a better way?
Oh, we started with school at home, homeschooling. I'll just be
honest. Okay. I want to know why you changed.

(06:42):
We changed because no one was happy. Everything was
miserable. But we changed in that
I literally just said one day, we're not doing any of this.
Not we're just going to read books. And the unit study
grew because they kept saying, well, we want more. We
want more of this. And I thought we were done. I'm like, I don't know

(07:03):
what else to do with this topic until
I happen to start seeing that there were. I think it might have
been ancient Egypt we were learning about. And I was out of ideas.
And then I found that there was like a mummy book or a book about
ancient Egypt and shapes. And I thought, well, that's math.
And then if you learn about the science behind mummification,

(07:26):
that's science. And so you can start going down each of those
rabbit trails, and it becomes much
more exciting for both me and the kids to see
how all of those things fit together. And over the
years, I've learned that it's really God's
story. And if he created math, then it's beautiful.

(07:48):
And how does it show up in these topics? If
he created the universe and science and nature,
then how does that affect what happens in the
historical events? And it's his story. So it's really fun to
see, oh, you know, learning about, say, the French
Revolution. Suddenly you can learn about simple machines

(08:11):
with Legos, and you realize, well, that's a horrible thing
that humans did with the guillotine. But it
really also shows the simple machines and how God created
science in a way that we can utilize it for
other things as well. And so it was a real
process to learn how to do that. But we started because

(08:34):
we were miserable. We were making each Other miserable.
And naturally, as to what else can I add
in? How can I keep this going? Going? Because they're excited.
Yeah. So do you have. Would you
consider yourself a unit study mom or is there
another kind of overarching homeschool philosophy

(08:56):
that you adhere to? Here's
the reason I ask. As an
eclectic Charlotte Mason homeschooler myself, unit studies
and project based learning became one of the main things that I used
within that modality. And a lot of people would say, wait a
minute, Charlotte Mason and unit studies and project based learning do not

(09:18):
go together. And I'm going, oh, but they do.
But they do. So that's why I was wondering, do you have an overarching.
I don't really. In fact, I kind of made the choice to
not have anything because any kind of
one thing that I relate to because I felt like when I started to
do that, I tried to do it correctly, whatever

(09:41):
the expectation was of that, and that didn't fit
for us. Instead, I kind of just say that I wing it.
That's my homeschool mom identity is I wing it.
I'm pretty good at doing things on the fly and pivoting
and switching things up pretty quickly. And
unit study has taught me how to make connections so I can

(10:04):
see something, kind of file it away and then pull it out at the
right time or see something as
I'm reading through a read aloud and say, wait, that's a
connection in this history book to science. I'm going to have to
go look at that. And then the kids and I go look at it. Where
do you put that? Where? So are you following that literally in your brain or

(10:26):
do you keep a little notepad? No, literally, it's literally in my brain. In your
brain. Okay, well then let's talk to the moment who
can't file away like that, who can't even necessarily
go, how, how are we pulling these
together? How do you know? Because I know everyone's going to ask this,
how do you know if you're winging it, that you're

(10:48):
covering all the things over the scope
of a year or several years or whatever? Because I write it down
after I do it. So, for instance, this past fall, my
kids got really into gothic literature. So think
Frankenstein and Dracula. Ok? Things like that.
So they were reading lots of things like that. Well, then I was like, how

(11:11):
are we going to do science? How is the science?
And so we did some anatomy with
Frankenstein, but we also looked at things like
genetically modified. You know,
anything that's genetically modified. Well, that brings us a little bit of food
and science. And so that also brought us to genetics

(11:33):
and engineering, things like that. So I'm writing that down and
while it's not all, say, biology or all,
you know, anatomy, it's covering a lot of those
topics. And so when you write it down and then you look
afterwards and kind of can separate it, you say, okay, we
just covered genetics. We covered. From there, we

(11:55):
covered genetically modified things. And that's actually a little bit of
health for me that I would consider that part of his health class.
Absolutely. So we did that. We covered
mental health and loneliness and things like that, as
well as how would you actually put someone
together? Or can that technology actually be

(12:17):
used? Which, I mean, yes, you can actually kind of. That's what they do in
the ER when somebody stops breathing, you know, they use a defibrillator and they
bring them back. So that idea with electricity,
you can cover electricity, you can say, well, that's some physical science that we're bringing
in. And so after the fact, you
look at it and you just look at what I wrote down for each week

(12:39):
and I say, okay, here we go. That's checking these boxes.
That's a lot of science. It's just not in a
linear fashion. Yeah, yeah, it's adapting to
that. It's getting used to the uncomfortability that it's
not. Not a table of contents, I
guess instead you just, you start to see it and you

(13:01):
realize, oh, that's it. That's what it is.
That's it. Well, for the listener, I have an awesome
resource to share with you that might help you have
a brain that works a little bit more like Lydia's. But I'll tell you about
it right after this break. We'll be right back.

(14:30):
So I promised you guys a resource.
Lydia and I have actually talked unit studies before and
project based learning before. And there's a resource that I always
tell parents about when we're talking about how do you take
what you do in a unit study and know
that you're covering what needs to be covered? And I'm not sure there's a

(14:52):
perfect anything out there for this. Just like I'm not really sure there's a
perfect curriculum that's going to cover everything you need. But
there is a lady named Cindy Downs. D
O W N E S and. And she has created
a downloadable called the
Checklist. And the Checklist literally has

(15:14):
checklists, you guys, of
historical things and scientific things
and all the things. And when you teach
about them, you can go in and you can check off.
Oh, we covered anatomy, we covered
genetics, we covered mathematical shapes.

(15:36):
And you can see that through the elementary years, I think you. There are
two columns in the checklist. You can keep this through all
of homeschooling, and literally with everything you do, check it off and you
can see. All right, I've covered all of this once through
elementary, and then again through middle and high school. We've
covered these. These things. It's. It's a pretty cool resource.

(15:58):
Okay, so let's go back to the
secondary part of that question that I was asking you. So you've
already told us how you're kind of taking
this overarching. We sort of go, because
I know how to pull unit studies together. And we see that we're
covering things that need to be covered.

(16:19):
How are you building
these in a way that you can help people
do it if they're not like you and it doesn't come
naturally to them? Well, I don't think it always
came naturally for me, but it's a lot easier
now. So I do just kind of file things away

(16:41):
in my head. But how I do it is I kind of think of it
as a mind map. So you have something in the center, and
then everything branches off, and each branch would
be a subject matter. Science or nature,
math, history,
art, music. Language arts.

(17:03):
Language arts, exactly. And from there, even if
I don't write in each thing in my mind, this is just what's
happening. But I used to write it down, and I would say, what
could I possibly add in where it
relates anything? It's like a big brainstorming
page. We may not do all of the things. It's almost like just

(17:25):
a brain dump where I'm categorizing any
idea, anything I've seen,
anything we might read the books I have,
and I just kind of all consolidate it in that
way. Or if you. If
I think about it in that sense. But you can also just do it as

(17:46):
a list. Sometimes I just make a big list and I
don't categorize it until I've got it all out of my brain.
Yeah, that's exactly how I used to do
it. Both of those. Honestly, what ended up working better for
me was the mind map. Because I'm a very visual person
and like you, I would. I would first write this down. And

(18:08):
guys, it's literally a map where she said, you draw
the. A little circle in the middle, and it looks like spokes of a wheel.
And you just are writing down all these ideas around that
wheel for various subjects. And as you do
that, it does become easier just
to be able to pull these things together without making the

(18:31):
plan to begin with. You start grabbing things and you go, oh, here's
history, oh, here's science. And then if you're
writing it down on the back end, what you've done,
that's another good place for you to take a second mind map
and start adding the things you've done to say, okay, we have covered a lot
of history here, we have covered a lot of science. We're

(18:53):
kind of missing some math. Do we want to add some math here? And I
mean, I will say we do use math curriculum. So I'm not
just hoping for the best, hoping that it, you know, matches
up with what we're studying. But anytime I can
bring an extra piece of math or the beauty of math in,
or a famous person that has done math, I will try to

(19:15):
do that. Because it tends to stick in their heads a little bit
easier because they can relate it to all the different
things that we, we learned about with that. And so
connections seem to make it more meaningful and therefore
they retain the information a little bit better along with the
projects or the activities that we do. And I would say the exact same

(19:38):
thing about the reason I chose to use unit studies and project based
learning is because there are just
unbelievable real life connections in comparison to
just doing something out of a textbook.
A lot of times kiddos will learn out of a textbook and then
if they have to take a test, they will remember for the test and then

(20:00):
it's gone. But when their hands are in a unit study, particularly when it's
project based, which we'll get to in just a second,
that allows them to make those real life connections that you're talking about.
So I too always used mathematics curriculum, but
the reason I would include math in a unit study
is because it made that real life connection

(20:23):
or that interest based connection to where they owned it.
Absolutely. And that's what I've always called living math. Living
math is real. It's living. It touches
them versus just a rote thing, thing they do.
Okay, we've mentioned project based learning a lot. We
probably ought to have a little discussion about

(20:45):
what that is. So would you like to describe what
you're talking about when you talk about projects? For us, a project
can kind of be anything that is
outside, like a paper worksheet type learning.
So it could be a writing project, it could just be a building out
of recycling project, it can be an art

(21:09):
project. And it's
usually, it's not always my
idea either. It might have been my
ideas. No, not even then. I was going to say maybe at the
beginning more, but I have a few that have very,
very strong opinions on what they should do.

(21:30):
But it's their ideas really, and it's me
working with that to say how can I
incorporate language arts? Or how can I incorporate
other things like science? Or even honestly, fine
motor skills sometimes get incorporated into these
things. It could be a science book that they're

(21:53):
writing and illustrating. So it's more than
just, you know, an essay. It's a full,
let's think about this topic, let's think about illustrations, let's think
about opening hooks and things like that. Or
it could be, let's build a LEGO guillotine and see if we can make it
work. Yeah, and yes, you

(22:14):
can. Yes. So it can
just be a lot of, I mean really anything that they're really
into, where they're spending their time with their hands and they're
thinking about the subject and they're creating something,
is what I consider a project. I've always called them
show what you know projects. And I have kind of

(22:37):
spoken about them as kid friendly research projects. So that,
you know, when you think about a research project, you do think about, well, I
have to go research and I have to write an essay. Well,
no, you don't have to do that. You can still immerse yourself. So
the projects a lot of times are taking an extension of what
we've been learning in the unit study. And it's saying, okay, now you go

(22:59):
discover some more about this and
create something to show that you have discovered more about
it. And I love you just used the word you and
we. So I got the feeling that maybe sometimes you're
sending the kiddos to do some of these projects on their own and sometimes you're
actually working with them. Is that true? Absolutely,

(23:21):
100%. I would say the ones
that really, when they're, when they're weaker and I'm
kind of using a product to help the weakness. For instance, I
have a kid that has dyslexia and some other learning
differences. So research with,
with words, anything with words. And writing is

(23:44):
much harder for him. And so I will help him
go, or I helped him go through those, those steps that you
would do and we would just take them one at a time or a kid
that isn't quite at that research stage but wants to
be part of the project. So I helped them do that. And then
while they did that. My other son, who was very language

(24:05):
arts gifted, he just went off and did that. On the
flip side, we illustrated that same
project, and he was not as comfortable creating
his own papers or his own art, and the other two
were totally on it. So we would do things together. And
I would just keep asking questions, which I think that's a

(24:27):
big thing. You don't have to know the answers,
but you can ask the questions and they might not know, or they
might say, I don't want to do that. I'll go this direction. That's fine.
But it's the constant conversation with them. Yeah. Where you're
there for support and to bounce ideas off and
yes, to ask the questions or even encourage a direction and

(24:51):
say, well, what if you thought about this?
And that I've learned really helps them own it
still, but move forward with the project. That's
right. Okay, so you and I are having this conversation
about unit studies as if they are super simple and easy.
And I recognize that some people listening will not be

(25:14):
where we are on this. So do you have any
advice for someone who says, you know, this is really
intriguing. You have kind of talked me into the why of it. You've kind of
talked me into the how of it, but I am not
jumping all in to unit studies. Do you have any
advice for them to maybe dip their. Their toes in?

(25:36):
Yeah, just. Just start small with a topic. I would say
either something that interests you, because if you're
interested in something and excited, it's a lot easier to get
the kids excited about it as well. That doesn't
mean it's always going to happen. I've had some fails,
but you just let those go and move on. It's fine. But if you're interested

(25:58):
in something and you just get a few books, just try it out, like,
see where it takes you. I think picture books are a fantastic
place to start. There's no
commitment to those. You read it, and if it seems exciting, you keep
going. Or if it was a complete dud, you can just
return it to the library. It's totally fine. Or you can even choose a

(26:20):
read aloud and see where that goes. Is there interest in that?
But I don't think you have to start with a
giant planned unit study. In fact, I would say don't
do that, because if it doesn't go well, you're going to be upset. You spent
all that time getting ready for it, and then you're going
to, you know, why aren't. Why aren't you excited about this because I

(26:42):
put this together and spent all of this time and effort
instead. Or ask the kids, what would you like to
learn about? And it could be super random. I mean, it does
not have to be
pilgrims. It could be. Well, I'm really curious about
how faucets work. Yeah. You know, and then you say, cool,

(27:04):
let's see. And there are actually, I'm sure you can find. I can actually think
of a few books that you could find that. That dive into things
like that as you do it. Then you can
say, I wonder if history can play into faucets
somehow. What was life like before faucets? How
did they get water? You know, and you can go to where it was just

(27:26):
the well that they're pumping outside. Then you can go even
further back and you can do a little bit of a history of how does
that work? It's just one step at a
time, one subject at a time. And also,
I would say just keep your eyes open, because
sometimes opportunities present themselves and

(27:48):
it's up to you to grab on.
I can just give a quick example. We were doing an art unit,
learning about Dutch artists, and before
I knew it, we were in the middle of microbiology
because they were talking about the technology of the
day and how Vermeer may or may not have painted.

(28:12):
And he lived at the same time as Anthony
von Leeuwenhoek, father of
microbiology, but he was
creating microscopes at the time. And so
it's very possible that they lived in the same. They did live in the same
city, but that they worked together to kind of add this

(28:33):
technology to art. Well, suddenly we're in microbiology
and in art. And so I. I didn't have any books.
I didn't have anything. So I used my library and I found some
books. But you just kind of notice things,
be aware of what you could connect. There are
times, too, that I notice something, and we don't do it. Not every

(28:55):
unit has to have every subject. Yeah. I love
how you say, you know, we ask questions. So that
is where the turning of the unit study can
occur. You someone asks a question, and then that leads to this. And then you
find this, and then you find that. You do have to come to a stopping
point on some of these and say, okay, well, we've done enough on this.

(29:17):
So one tip that I have for folks if
they want to dip their toes into a unit study, is
to maybe take your history book and say, you know what? For this next
chapter, we're going to put the chapter aside and we're
going to try to do a unit study on the topic so you're not really
straying too far. You'll stay on that topic and then maybe go

(29:39):
get a couple of library books, maybe some historical
fiction, maybe a
documentary, maybe a field trip. Those
few little things. Do that instead of
that single chapter and you will have just tried a
unit study. Absolutely. And it. Yeah. And it's. You'll see how easy it is

(30:00):
and how fun it is. And we don't do them projects with every unit study
either. Yes. You do not have to do a huge
project to call it a unit study. That's just one thing that
we do to show what we learned, like you said. But it's not
required. Yeah. Because it's your homeschool and you get to do things the way
you want to do them. Okay. So do

(30:23):
you. Thank you for being here. By the way. You and I are going to
chat on another episode. You guys. Lydia is a
military wife. The wife of a military man. And
she is sort of a nomadic homeschooler because of that
sometimes. So we're going to meet again next week to talk about that. But I
want to thank you for being here for this discussion today. You and

(30:44):
I could talk lots more about this with
folks. Do you have anything besides you guys? For
sure. If you are on Instagram, go follow her at
@HappilyEverCaffeinated. She is often putting
up some of the projects and books and things that she's doing
during their unit studies. Do you have anywhere else,

(31:06):
Lydia that they can find help
or see how you're doing things? Yeah.
On substack. I am @HappilyEverCaffeinated on substack and
you can find units there. Just homeschool
encouragement and often extra things that I write about
that has to do with homeschooling but life as well. So that's

(31:30):
also where I am. Awesome. And you guys, I am Cindy West.
At OurJourneyWestward.com you can find lots
of unit study and project based learning resources for
yourself there. And then I'm also Mrs. Cindy from No Sweat Nature
Study and Lydia has been just brilliant in
using some of those No Sweat Nature Study classes in

(31:51):
the midst of her unit studies. And she'll put
on Instagram that she has connected. I don't. I guess it was
our probably Gregor Mendel class about genetics in
the study that you were just talking about. So she will even take things that
you're going nature study into her history study.
Follow her. It's. It's pretty amazing how she makes all of these connections.

(32:14):
All right, well, thanks for being here, everybody. And the two of us will meet
you back here again next week to talk more about homeschooling
on Schoolhouse Rocked.

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Transforming Homeschooling with Unit Studies – Lydia Rosado (Hosted by Cindy West)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Transforming Homeschooling with Unit Studies – Lydia Rosado (Hosted by Cindy West)