Has anyone used Konos Unit Study?

Question

I realize that all families and situations are different, but if you used Konos, did you and your kids enjoy it? Was it easy for you? A lot of work and preparation? Did the kids learn by doing? It seems like a good aproach and I like the subject matter and method of teaching, but not sure If I want to drop the big bucks on it. What is preventing me from developing my own unit study based on similar subjects? Is there any prep work done for you?

Sorry for all the additional questions! Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

I used it a few years ago...it sounded perfect for my family. I have 5 children all studying together, so the unit study was the best way to go for us.

The Konos program has a lot of great suggestions, and I found that I was able to put together a very fun, hands-on unit for my kids with little effort. I could/would never have used all the ideas in the books.

What I did not like about it, was how they organized the program. It is done by character traits, and this didn't work for me. I have since "discovered" that learning history chronologically is so much better. It helps us learn WHY things happened (hard to fully understand WWII without knowing the impact of WWI, early European developed, etc.). So, we switched to unit studies that followed a chronological history and have done much better.

To answer your question about developing your own unit studies....nothing is stopping you. In fact, after using other unit studies, I realized that I could put together a program that fit my children much better than anyone else. It gets easier once you've done a few unit studies with your kids, but you can buy a short unit study for under $10 to give you a little practice. There are also tons of free resources online.

I gave away my KONOS after a few months.

Answer 2

I have never used it but the people who did were spending a lot of time and money getting prepared for the lessons. I think there are some good ideas in it and I like the unit study approach, but I don' t like someone telling me what to do and when and how to do it. So I would say just use the ideas in it if you can get it cheap, but develop your own units around your interests and you will accomplish the same thing for less money and the same amount of work.
There are lots of unit studies in the teacher supply stores - browse through those to get ideas, or buy the best ones. Be careful about putting too much time into "teacher prep" instead of learning. :)