Keeping Dad Posted

One of the many reasons I love homeschooling is that everyday life can be used for learning. This past week, for example, we were able to really focus on writing - in a fun and non-schoolish way.  In fact, I never even told the kids that we were "writing" - or that we were doing "school!"

Here's what we did...

Dad was out of town for work.  That meant two things: he wasn't going to get his daily newspaper and he wasn't going to be around for whatever we were doing.  The solution was obvious... make him a newspaper! 

First, we took a gander at the newspaper.  We observed that it was divided into sections and that the sections were divided into articles.  We also observed that the journalists used short and catchy titles for their articles and that they wrote about real-life events. Then we discussed how journalists answer the 5 W's - Who, What, When, Where, and Why.  My son pointed out that "how" was a good question too!

Over the next two days, after we drafted an outline for our newspaper and decided on a title for the paper, the kids each wrote an article per day for Daddy's newspaper.

The newspaper, or rather, At Home Times, ended up being 2 pages.  The front page news featured the most exciting event - a roadrunner in our neighborhood!  Also, from the pictures you can see that they even included a 5-day forecast (in case Daddy wanted to golf) and a comic strip.  Daddy loved his newspaper.  And the kids were super proud of their work. 

The best part of the whole project?  Not one complaint!