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I think KONOS is a great unit studies curriculum. I bought my first volume back in 1993. It was the first curriculum that we bought. I decided on unit studies since they seemed to be a great way to learn--hands on and integrated. My children were 5 and 3 and turned ages during the year.
So we bought Volumes I and III and set out on our adventure! We did quite a few units that first year--kings and queens, waiting constructively, handicaps, solar system, calendars/seasons, speech, and more. I'd like to list some of the activities, but don't want to get into copyright infringement--maybe they give that info at their web site (link below). We did some very memorable activities that first year.
The way KONOS is set up is that each volume covers six or seven character
traits.
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Then for each character trait there are a few unit studies. So
for the character trait "Patience," Plant Growth and Gardening is
a whole, complete unit. The character trait "Patience" is taught
while also learning about plants and gardening. Below the character
trait "Inquisitiveness" there are a few unit studies (see below) and the
same applies for the character trait "Determination." If a unit study
on the topic of Atomic Research were to be your choice, you would be also
focusing on the character trait of "Determination."
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Many school subjects are taught in each unit. In the Plant Growth and Gardening unit these school subjects are covered: Bible (11), History/Social Studies (10), Science/Math (62), Health/P.E. (6), Practical Living (9), Arts/Crafts (20), Music (1), Language/Literature (22), and field trip ideas (2). The numbers after each subject indicate approximately how many activities are listed in the unit for that subject--some activities cover multiple subjects (e.g. weeding and learning about the weeds is listed as a Science, Reasoning, and Practical Living activity). As you can see, Plant Growth and Gardening is a "science" unit. Some of the other units focus more on History. A few focus mostly on Language Arts. Most of the units have very little Math. KONOS recommends a separate Math program and so do I! KONOS also says that supplements should be found for Phonics, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar. KONOS Compass (handbook) contains a 17-page chapter called, "How Do I Teach Writing Skills." Overall, KONOS (with supplements for Math and some Language Arts) presents a well-rounded and stimulating curriculum.
If you use the 4-step method of lesson planning--Objective, Method, Materials, Evaluation--then you'll want to know that very broad objectives and questions for evaluation are listed for each character trait. The methods/materials are the individual units--for example: the character trait of cooperation is learned through the unit studies on systems of the body, bees, states/regions, town/community, and family/church.
Here's the way each unit study is organized:
1. BIBLE (verses pertaining to the unit topic and/or character
trait)
2. EXAMPLES (people that have displayed the character trait)
3. VOCABULARY
4. RESOURCES (long list of predominantly books, with a few songs,
tape sets, etc.)
5. ACTIVITIES
There are lesson plans for each of the units. They are included in each of the KONOS volumes. A week's worth of work is on each lesson plan page. The lessons are split up into sections titled: Materials, Bible, Songs/Poetry/Artworks, Books, Family Reading, Writing, Activities, Family/Co-op Activities. There are subdivisions for younger children (5-7), middle children (8-10), and older (11-14+). These lesson plans are very loose since the authors of the program want to preserve the individuality of each homeschooling family. They don't want to impose or dictate a restrictive or inflexible schedule on homeschooling families. KONOS is about flexibility and choices. Since all families are different, each family will make different choices and will use KONOS in a way that is most beneficial to them. I'm sure that these lesson plans can be useful to some, however, we didn't use them.
When we were using KONOS, I just read through the activities section and picked which ones we'd do. We did a few activities a day depending on how much time we had after language arts and math. I tried to use the resources list to find the recommended books at our library when we did the first couple of units. We had a pretty good library where we were living, but our library didn't have a lot of the books listed on the KONOS list. So I ended up just going to the library and getting a number of books on our unit topic. And I would try to get some of the books that looked especially good on the KONOS resources list through interlibrary loan. We often ended up doing some of the activities listed in the library books that we checked out even though they weren't in the KONOS activities list. It was always interesting to start a unit and watch it evolve.
I don't think that you need the timeline and figures. I think they're a little too pricey, but that's probably just me. So you can't really use that as a basis for your decision making. I really truly feel that some sort of timeline is extremely valuable, though, so if you want to just get the package deal, KONOS timeline would be a convenient option. We ended up with a simplified timeline years ago that we add our own pictures to. It's shorter than the KONOS timeline, which I decided would be too long for our house size. Our timeline is about 13 feet long and is in our dining room. The last 400 years is getting a little crowded, so we're going to have to put up a separate U.S. history timeline soon. The kids used to draw pictures for our world history timeline--and still do at times. But now we usually use old history books and cut pictures out of them. We don't always find the people/events that we want to put up, but that's okay. If we had a KONOS timeline, we wouldn't have all the people we'd want to put up either.
KONOS Compass really helped me out with scheduling and planning when I was using KONOS. (I highly recommend it.) I bought it when I was still fairly new to homeschooling, so maybe old-timers wouldn't find it as useful as I did. The Compass covers so much. Here's a list:
What KONOS is and what makes it distinctive
What KONOS is
What grades it covers and what is included
How KONOS compares with a typical course of study (about 24 pages)
What you need to supplement and what results you can expect
Why KONOS was written
Why you should use KONOS
How to teach the same unit to multiple grades
How to get started using KONOS
How to set up yearly, weekly and daily schedules
How to plan the units
How to teach writing skills
How to co-op with other families
How to use the timeline
Math and language checklist for grades K-8
KONOS overview (20 pages)
We've not used the tapes or KONOS in a Box, so I can't comment on them. Nor have I attended a local video seminar since I had already been using KONOS for a year or two when we got a local KONOS rep. We do have the KONOS Index, and it's helpful when I want to look up an activity for a unit of our own we may be doing. But beyond that, we don't have any other KONOS products.
One question I've heard more than once is: Can non-religious folks use KONOS? While it's definitely written with the Christian in mind, I think all the Bible-related activities can easily be skipped. The units (Books, Business and Advertising, Expeditions, Atomic Research, Emotions, Speech, Systems of the Body, Bees, etc.) cover the topics well without the Bible activities. As for the character traits ... well, I'm not sure that these can be learned if you skip the Bible activities. But in all reality, I think that learning character traits through unit studies is a little bit of a stretch anyway. So the unit studies sans the character traits and the Bible are really good and can stand on their own.
All in all, KONOS is a good unit study curriculum. You get a lot of units for your money. They're well laid out. The units have lots of activities to choose from. Kids enjoy the activities (especially when they help choose the activities). Its positive aspects go on and on.
NOTE written in 2007: One of my students is finished with school and the other has a year left. If I had it to do all over again, I'd still use something like KONOS during the elementary years. Some of our children's best memories of homeschooling occurred while using KONOS (and those activities are still discussed). I think letting the kids choose the unit study topic plays a big part in their retention of the info. Regrets: I didn't take enough photos.