;eUnit Study Homeschooler
Jessica Hulcy
Books Fuel
Unit Studies
A;er a seven-hour seminar about KONOS, I plopped into a chair at my friend Bev’s house while she ;xed dinner.
From the kitchen she yelled, “;ere is a
box of books beside your chair to look
at, if you feel like it.” Books? I sat up
and pulled the box onto my lap and began si;ing through the stack. ;e books
Books make
homeschooling
moms happy.
were all books referenced in my KONOS
units, including books that were out of
print! Bev related how she had seen an ad
in the paper announcing schools closing
and free library books being given away.
When the sale commenced, she was there
with boxes in hand.
At ;rst, she selected books recom-
mended by KONOS and the Honey for
a Child’s Heart bibliography, Newbery
Award books, and Caldecott Medal win-
ners. ;en she began pulling classics such
as Heidi. She kept pulling for days—until
she ;lled her garage! When her husband
lost his job, she tried to sell the books to
an online used bookseller but was of-
fered only pennies a pound. Before I
knew it, a friend and I had bought ;ve
thousand books and were selling them in
my backyard to homeschoolers in Dal-
las—but not before we had each chosen
three hundred books with which to start
our own personal library! Books make
homeschooling moms happy.
Units Need ;ree Types of Books
Pre-Internet times and homeschooling on a shoestring made library cards
golden in those early homeschooling
days. Since I lived at the library 24/7,
;nding books to go with each KONOS
unit, I should have earned a degree in
library science! Each unit needed three
types of books: information books, classic literature books, and easy readers.
;e easy readers were great if you could
;nd them on the unit topic but not
worth straining over. ;ere are tons of
information books about the American
Revolution, but be careful! Look for information books that teach you tidbits
that you did not know, such as ;e Colonial Cra;smen: And the Beginnings
of American Industry by Tunis or the
Picture Book of the Continental Soldier by Wilber, where he shows musket
loading and cartridge rolling. I ;nally
learned why soldiers bite the end of
their cartridge and what a “;ash in the
pan” meant literally!
;e classics and award winners pro-
vided unit literature books. Of course
;e Secret Garden by Burnett is a must
for the “Orderliness: Plants” unit, while
. . . And Now Miguel by Krumgold about
a 12-year-old boy who wants to help
with the sheep in the mountains ;ts the
“Trust: Sheep” unit perfectly. Excellent
book choices don’t merely match unit
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