What child doesn’t love a good story about a dog?  Though there are a number of great dog stories out there, learning about Beagles and one young boy’s love for a mistreated animal makes for a great homeschool unit study.  When coupled with the schematic setting in rural West Virginia, and the culture that surrounds that area the book Shiloh lends itself very well to a full on study. This study delves beneath the surface to include not only question and answer from the book for comprehension, but also allows for learning about the state of West Virginia, the Beagle breed, Veterinary  Medicine and morals.

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Amazon describes the story as this:

“Marty will do anything to save his new friend Shiloh in this Newbery Medal–winning novel from Phillis Reynolds Naylor. When Marty Preston comes across a young beagle in the hills behind his home, it’s love at first sight—and also big trouble. It turns out the dog, which Marty names Shiloh, belongs to Judd Travers, who drinks too much and has a gun—and abuses his dogs. So when Shiloh runs away from Judd to Marty, Marty just has to hide him and protect him from Judd. But Marty’s secret becomes too big for him to keep to himself, and it exposes his entire family to Judd’s anger. How far will Marty have to go to make Shiloh his?“

• Click for a great discussion guide for comprehension on the novel.
• If you round out your reading with a follow up to watch the movie, here is a guide to comparisons between the two
• A story about the dog that inspired the book series
• Now, have the littles do some coloring while the older ones learn more facts about beagles
• Beagle Facts
• a short and sweet (and so adorable) Beagle video
• Some notebooking pages about dogs
• Learn about becoming a vet
• How about the setting?  Learn about West Virginia
• More about WV
• And more about WV

Many a homeschooling mom may not even realize just how far reaching a unit study can be.  They are fun, yes, informative, definitely, but let’s think about just how far reaching the information really goes…

In a unit study, like this one, you are covering:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Literature

Comprehension

Vocabulary

SCIENCE:

Animal breed/type

Veterinary medicine

GEOGRAPHY:

The setting of the book

ART:

Coloring or drawing the character

Give yourself credit you amazing homeschool mama, this Shiloh Unit Study was even fun to boot!

 

Dawn is a homeschooling mom living out her dream of a simple life on a small farm with her husband and 5 children. She is an avid gardener, a lover of simplicity, and blogger of natural living at Incidental Farmgirl.

 

P.S. – Get your FREE CATS AND DOGS NOTEBOOKING PAGES HERE! (The dog pages within this set are perfect for this unit)