One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that learning can start with something as small as an ant crawling across the sidewalk.
Instead of having a science curriculum tell us what we’re supposed to learn about this week, I love being able to follow the things my kids are actually curious about.
That’s how our ant study came together.
It wasn’t a huge unit study that took weeks to plan. I simply pulled together a handful of resources and created a little rabbit trail for us to follow.
And this is actually how I put together most of our interest based studies.
How I Put Together an Interest-Based Study
When my kids become interested in a topic, I usually start by gathering a stack of books.
I don’t necessarily read every single one from cover to cover, and I don’t always know exactly where the study will go. I just like having a variety of books available so we can follow our curiosity.
For our ant study, we used books about ants and insects and looked through them together, picking out the things that caught our attention.
Then I like to add a video or two.
This time we watched episodes of Elinor Wonders Why and The Magic School Bus that tied into what we were learning. I love adding videos because sometimes seeing a concept in action makes it click in a way that another book doesn’t.
Then I try to include some kind of art project or hands-on activity.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. I just want the kids to have a chance to do something with what they’re learning rather than only reading and answering questions.
Finally, we usually have a simple notebooking page where they can record something they learned, draw a picture, label something, or write a few sentences.
That’s it.
Books + a couple of videos + something hands-on + a notebooking page.
I don’t need a perfectly planned unit before we start.
And honestly, that’s one of the things I love about this approach. I can put together a study in an afternoon and then let the kids’ interests determine where we go next.
Our Ant Books
We started with a stack of ant books and spent some time reading and looking through the pictures.
One of our favorites was Are You an Ant? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries.
Books like this are perfect for our homeschool because they give us enough information to get curious without making the whole thing feel like a textbook lesson.
We talked about ant colonies, the different jobs ants have, how they communicate, where they live, and what they do throughout the day.
And, of course, once you start learning about ants, there are about a million little questions that come up.
That’s the fun part.
Adding in Some Screen Time
For this study, we also watched episodes of Elinor Wonders Why and The Magic School Bus that connected with our topic.
I love using shows like these as part of our homeschool because they aren’t replacing our learning—they’re another way into it.
Sometimes we’ll read about something and then watch it on a screen.
Sometimes we’ll watch something first and then pull a book off the shelf afterward.
Screen time doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There are some really great resources that can add another layer to an interest based study.
Making Our Own Ant Colony
Then we moved from learning about ants to making something.
We used brown paper to create our own underground ant colonies. The kids crumpled and tore the paper to make the different layers and tunnels and created their own little representations of what an ant colony looks like underground.
It was simple, inexpensive, and didn’t require a special craft kit.
But it gave us a way to visualize what we’d been reading about.
That’s really what I’m looking for with our hands-on activities.
Notebooking What We Learned
We also used a simple notebooking page to record some of our learning.
The kids could draw, label, and write about the things they found most interesting.
I really like notebooking for this kind of study because it doesn’t have to be a long writing assignment.
One child might write several sentences.
Another might draw a picture and label it.
Another might copy a few facts.
The point is simply to process and remember what we’ve learned.
What I Love About This Approach
The beauty of an interest based study is that it doesn’t have to become a giant unit.
We could have spent weeks studying ants if the kids were still fascinated by them.
We could have gone outside looking for different kinds of ants, learned more about the queen, studied the life cycle, looked at ants under a microscope, or researched how ants communicate.
Or we could decide tomorrow that we’re done with ants and move on to something completely different.
There are no unfinished lessons staring at me from a teacher’s guide.
We’re just following an interest until we’re ready to follow the next one.
And that’s really how I want our homeschool to feel.
You Can Do This With Almost Anything
The thing I love most about this approach is that you don’t need a curriculum specifically designed for every topic your kids become interested in.
Your child is suddenly obsessed with birds?
Pull together some bird books, watch a couple of bird videos, go outside with binoculars, make a bird craft, and have them draw and label a bird in their notebook.
Dinosaurs?
Same thing.
Space?
Same thing.
Volcanoes?
Same thing.
You don’t need to create an elaborate unit study from scratch.
Start with good books and curiosity, then add a few different ways to explore the topic.
My Basic Formula
When I want to put together an interest-based study, I usually look for:
📚 A stack of books
Picture books, nonfiction, reference books, stories—whatever I can find that gives us different ways into the topic.
📺 A video or two
Elinor Wonders Why, The Magic School Bus, documentaries, or other kid-friendly resources.
🎨 An art project
Something creative that connects to what we’re learning.
🔎 A hands-on experience
An experiment, nature walk, observation, model, game, or real-life experience.
✏️ A notebooking page
A place to draw, label, write a few facts, or record what they learned.
And then I let the kids’ questions take it from there.
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