Ideas To Go Beyond the Textbook

Are you stuck in a textbook rut?

Here are two dozen activities and ideas to do that don't involve a textbook! You can customize these ideas for the age and learning style of your child.

1. Plan a week's menu and budget shop for 1, 2, 4, 8.....people. You can include coupons, sales papers and comparison shopping.
2. Compare/contrast alphabets from different countries or cultures or time periods.
3. Make a timeline. You can print off clip art to include for a little extra visual appeal.
4. Research and write biography reports on artists, musicians, mathematicians, missionaries, world leaders, presidents, first ladies, etc.
5. Make a timeline or write an autobiography of your own life.
6. Interview an older family member or friend and write a biography of their life.
7. Research your family tree.
8. Make a sketchbook of Jesus's life-maps of where he went, sermons, key people in his life.
9. Make a sketchbook of key verses from each book of the Bible.
10. Do a country or state study. Don't forget to include maps and an authentic meal.
11. Make a travel guide collage for each of the fifty states or maybe even some countries.
12. Memorize states/capitals, countries/capitals, major oceans, locations of major land forms.
13. Make a critique notebook of books, movies, plays, poems, songs and hymns.
14. Start a nature sketchbook.
15. Research some famous poets and try to imitate their style, then find your own style.
16. Write a script and make a home movie. This could be a period from history, a scene from a famous person's life or something from your own imagination.
17. Make a Rube Goldberg machine.
18. Research the holidays you celebrate and why you celebrate them.
19. Make a journal with an important news clipping from the newspaper each day. You could also print out a story from an online newspaper site.
20. Play some educational board or card games.
21. Get out and visit the zoo, museums, nature centers and festivals. 
22. Take a co-op class or educational class offered in your community.
23. Start a new hobby-photograpy, sewing, letterboxing, or historical reinacting can all be educational.
24. Start a collection-coins, bugs, leaves, or favorite words.