A Gather Round Homeschool Review of NAB…Here’s Why You’ll Love It.
North American Birds. This is the unit that started it all for us. It was our first experience homeschooling. Our first pick for a curriculum. Our first Gather Round unit. Just an all around first!
I decided to begin by doing the Year 1 units in order because of the scope and sequence of the Pre-Readers, although it’s not necessary (and doesn’t even apply anymore unless you have the older versions of the Pre-Readers).
Because of this decision, we were starting with North American Birds and I went into it myself rather unexcited because birds had never really been my thing. Skeptically, I thought my girls were likely to get bored with it, too, and I was nervous that it was going to be a poor decision to kick off our homeschool with. Just being honest here!
Even with these hesitations, though, I went with it and decided to see what would happen.
WELL. I was wrong. That’s all I’ll say for now. We’ll discuss more about that later.
If you’re already using Gather Round and want to see how we went about this unit, or if you’re still considering whether this curriculum is right for your family or not, then keep reading! That’s where I’m going to start.
I hope that it can be a help to you in some way!
Gather Round Homeschool Review: NAB Unit
what we did
PREP:
Before I start every unit, I spend a little time doing the following:
- Get student books printed (I use Barnes and Noble Press usually. For this unit, I just printed them myself and spiral bound them…using this printer paper as a short cut! If you didn’t buy the digital version then you don’t need to do this step!)
- Create a YouTube playlist to go along with the different topics throughout the unit (feel free to browse the one I made for this unit here!)
- Check out books from the library
- Buy any books/games/etc that I want to use
- Scope out potential field trips
- Gather ideas for enrichment activities and/or projects
Remember, though, that one of the beautiful things about this curriculum (and homeschooling in general!) is that you can keep it super simple or add in whatever interests you and your kiddos. All that’s necessary for this unit is the Teacher’s Guide and Student Books. If you are a busy mom or dad that doesn’t have a ton of time to add in a bunch of extra things, that’s ok!! Don’t let that discourage you from doing it! 🙂
EXTRA SUPPLIES/MATERIELS:
GATHER ROUND HOMESCHOOL NAB UNIT ACTIVITIES:
FIELD TRIPS:
Here are some suggestions for bird watching outings to get you started:
- State Parks
- National Parks
- Nature Preserves
- Beaches
According to lovethebackcountry.com, the 6 gorgeous places to birdwatch in North America are:
- Everglades National Park, Florida
- The Sierra Vista, Arizona
- Cape May Point State Park, New Jersey
- Yosemite National Park, California
- Grand Manan Island, Canada
- Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Pennsylvania
AND don’t forget about Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Goose Island State Park in Texas to see the Whooping Cranes…that’s now on our “must-see” list!
If you’re lucky enough to find yourself near one of these places, then what an awesome way to connect what you’re learning to real life. 🙂
BIRDS WE SAW:
Themed Snacks:
If you’re doing this unit around Easter and can find the chocolate eggs, those would work perfectly for the bird nest snack! We were doing this unit in September, though, so I just colored some mini-marshmallows that I had and called them robin eggs. 🙂
what we thought
At the beginning of this post I said that my preconceived ideas about this unit were wrong…so let’s chat about that!
Since this was my first Gather Round Unit, I didn’t know what to expect. Combine that with what I already personally thought about birds myself (not that interesting) and I didn’t have the highest expectations for the kids enjoying this unit.
I suppose I thought it would just be facts about birds and habitats…and that it would get kinda boring quickly.
But again…I was wrong!
Yes, we learned about birds….20 North American Birds to be exact. We talked about characteristics, habitats, colors, diets, differences between males and females, and how they raise their young. But that’s certainly not all!
This unit also covered:
- Aesop’s Fables
- Writing Skills
- Lots of Geography
- William Shakespeare
- Light Refraction (The Blue Jay…it’s super interesting!)
- Treaties
- Types of Government
- Trade/Export
- and MUCH MORE
We ALL came away from this unit more fascinated with birds than ever before. We notice them more often even now. I even have a bird identifying app on my phone and we still pop it out to identify birds we see when we’re at the beach or at the park or on a hike!
I was also pleasantly surprised at the variety of information that was presented throughout the unit….even if it didn’t go into great detail, it still introduced my children to lots of different things that they will hear about over and over again.
Once we finished this unit, I knew that this was the style of teaching that I enjoyed and my kids seemed to enjoy. I was completely satisfied with our decision to use Gather Round Homeschool and we were excited to start our next unit.
You guys, if you’re the kind of family that likes themes and/or gets bored with doing the same things over and over again, then give unit studies a try. Eight units later and it’s still my favorite way to homeschool!
Whenever you plan on working on this unit, make sure to check out this post for some organized resources to help you plan! There are also resources for Asia, Space, Europe, Oceans, Africa, Earth Science, North America, Human Body, South America, and Australia & Oceania.
Make sure to check out my other unit reviews, too!
If you’d like to follow us through these units in real time, then hop on over to Instagram and find us @theleadlearnermom.
Have you done the North American Birds Unit? What kind of activities did you do? Are you still considering this unit and have questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!
