my boy and i are still in the middle of our homemade unit study: the 21 balloons. it is SUCH a good book! without giving too much details away.... let me just share something that we... yes, "we" did... we lettered a sheet of paper a thru z.... then with our big floor map spread out on the living room floor, we both had to come up with ethnic restaurants: a-american, b-british, c-chinese, d-denmarkian (i made the suffix up!) and so on. fun? yep. and covered social studies and geography, too. try it.... it's a fun way to school!