As unschoolers, we like to let our kids follow their interests and develop their giftedness. We let them explore and discover, and we offer suggestions and guidance. And once in awhile I feel like it’s time to have some concentrated, directed, purposeful education going on. That’s what this post is all about.

This is a one-week unit on missions, done in unschooling style. It’s pretty laid back and flexible, but covers a lot of territory.

Day 1 Collection and Reading: Choose a country, go to the library and check out several books about the country and its people. Children’s books are best, but also look for large “coffee table” books in the adult section. Check out or borrow a missionary biography or missions/related fiction that takes place in your country of choice. Don’t forget to look for ethnic music and nonfiction videos. When you get home, enjoy looking through all the books and begin reading the biography to your children (this will probably take longer than a week).

Day 2 Geography Day: Find your country on a map or globe. Talk about bordering countries, climate, natural features (rivers, lakes, mountains, deserts). Ideas: work a puzzle that includes your country, create or find a coloring page that is an outline of your country, make a relief map out of clay. Talk about how long it would take to get to your country. What time is it there? How do time zones work? What kinds of animals and plants would you find there? Older children could have a list of questions to research from the books you got yesterday at the library, then give a little oral report.

Day 3 Cultural Distinctives: Find information about your country’s native clothing, food, language, writing, homes, games, sports, government, celebrations, festivals, religion. All this will probably be in your library books. Ideas: look for a native game to play, try to recreate their clothing, find recipes you’d like to try on Day 5, make a model of a typical home, learn a word or two in their language (Voice of the Martyrs activity books are great for these).

Day 4 The Church: How many Christians live in your country? What is the major religion(s)? When did missionaries first come to this country? What Christian organizations would you find there? What are the greatest needs? Look at the book Operation World or go to their website for easy access to this information. Make prayer cards for the people of your country. Cut out pictures from missions magazines or print them off the Internet. Glue the picture on a 3×5 card and write a prayer request and fact on the back. If you make several, punch a hole in one corner and attach them all with a key chain ring. Use these cards to remind you what to pray. Make a plan to come up with some extra money to send a missions organization that works in your country.

Day 5 Celebration Day: Plan a special meal to show off what you’ve learned. Find recipes to represent your country, dress like them, play ethnic music in the background, make name cards with a fact and prayer request on each one. Display any coloring, drawings, posters, crafts or reports you did this week. Take the library books with the best pictures on the fronts and stand them up around the room and/or on the table. Use mealtime to talk about the most surprising, funny, interesting thing you each learned, and talk about the physical and spiritual needs of the people you studied. And of course, pray for them.

Everyday: In your personal prayer time, ask God to give your child a love for the people they are studying.

This is just the beginning. Who knows what this experience might lead to!

Jena is a homeschooling mom of three teenagers (one off to college and one checking out public school this year). She has been relaxed/unschooling for most of her home school career. She writes at www.yarnsoftheheart.com, runs http://www.dailylearners.com, and writes at http://lifewithoutschool.typepad.com/.