Expanding the Concept Weeks

Concept Weeks are something that have been slowly evolving since they have started. It began as an additional unit the first week of each month to help us cover things that they were either interested in or things that were not covered in our workbooks but I felt were important. However, I've wanted to expand them for a while now. Then, last summer the first opportunity came about when we spent three whole months working on dinosaurs. Then, this quarter another opportunity came about with a new unit each week.

However, lately I was thinking I'm tired of doing workbooks. Then I realized that most of our Concept Weeks revolve around either science, holidays, history, or mythology. And then, a new idea popped into my head.

Starting next quarter I'll be assimilating the Concept Weeks into our regular units, starting the process of phasing out workbooks and shifting the emphasis towards more reading - whether it is me reading to them or them reading on their own.

The ultimate idea here is two-fold:

1. Come 3rd or 4th grade most of our focus is going to be on reading with less time spent on workbooks. This will help prepare them for that.
2. Concept Weeks are blended units, a single theme or idea covering a wide range of subjects. Once Concept Weeks are fully blended into our regular units this pattern will continue. For example, for 3rd grade science I have a book similar to our 1st grade Science book covering animals by continent. Once Concept Weeks are assimilated into our regular units when we do this Science book we will also be covering Geography, making that Science unit more like a Concept Week that covers multiple subjects while remaining in the same theme.

So, next quarter all of our Concept Weeks will be science based. 12 separate science units that will be treated more like Concept Weeks. The following quarter we will begin switching over more subjects that way so that by the time they are ready to begin chapter books on their own all subjects that can be switched will be switched.