Billy and Blaze.  Three boys.  Do I really need to say more?  You can imagine.  There’s Billy, wishing he had a horse.  And then, he gets one for his birthday.  It was bound to plant an idea in someone’s mind.  And it did.  William is positive he’s going to get a horse for his birthday.  I am positive he is not.  So in lieu of a real horse, we’re going to spend the next 6 weeks on a horse unit study…I know, I know…a horse unit study?  Really?  Doesn’t really compare to the glamour of a real horse.  Well, let me repeat…there will be no real horse for this kid.  But at the end of the six weeks, when William’s birthday arrives, there will be the surprise of horse riding lessons!  So I figure the next 6 weeks Horse Unit Study will not only beef up our science (we finished our chemistry book and we’re just continuing with experiments throughout the year), but it will also prepare the boys for an exciting spring treat.

So here’s the plan (3 days a week for 6 weeks):

We’re using Amanda Bennett’s Horse Unit Study as a guide.  We’ll use her copywork and vocabulary lists as well as her research points.  They’ll keep all their horse related work together, which I had planned to bind at the end of the study, but today I found these adorable spiral notebooks at Walmart (okay, I realize the cow notebook is totally not related, but there was only one horse notebook and sweet Joseph said, “That’s okay, this one will work for me!”)

Research will be done with the following nonfiction books:  Kingfisher Illustrated Horse and Pony Encyclopedia; Horses; Album of Horses; National Geographic Ponies; Usborne Horses and Ponies; H is for Horse; I Wonder Why Horses Wear Shoes.

Every day, each child will be required to choose a book from the fiction basket (lots of Billy and Blaze adventures; Cowgirl Kate stories; A Perfect Pony; A Horse Named Seabiscuit; Five O’Clock Charlie; Wild Horses of Sweetbriar; James Herriot Treasury)  At the end of the week, they’ll be required to choose a book from the week to do a narration and illustration.

We’ll also be listening, as a family, to two audio read-alouds…Misty of Chincoteague and Black Stallion (this picture shows Black Beauty on my Kindle because the book and audio were free for the Kindle, but I plan to use an audible credit for Black Stallion once we finish Misty.)  After each read-aloud, we have the movies to watch.

In addition to our reading, we’ve got lots of horse puzzles, a horse card game, Horse Crazy activities and some art lessons on drawing horses.  And like I said, horseback riding lessons to finish it all up.  So if you’ve got a horse question, give us 6 weeks and then surely someone around here will be able to answer you.