A fresh stack of newspapers sits next to my front door waiting to be recycled. The small black print mocks me as I realize we pay good money for a resource we barely use.
I sit in a chair at the dining room table with a cup of coffee, as Genius is busy doing her lessons; as I try to picture in my mind what else I can use all those papers for. I’m still trying to find some more uses for them, and I don’t think I ever will exhaust the wonders of what you can do with them, but I’ll share with you a few things I’ve thought of to do with them.
Grammar – This is the first thing we did with the newspaper. I picked out some short articles from the paper, and had Genius diagram sentences with them. It was especially useful for picking out prepositional phrases, as well as subjects and predicates.
Math & Health – My favorite part of the paper (shh…) is the circulars, and it’s great to do math with these. Take your local grocery store advertisement, give your children a budget, and send them to town buying groceries. Remember to have them include the tax if your state charges it. Also you could have them break down their “purchases” by days, by requiring them to fit in healthy foods for each meal based on the food pyramid.
Geography – There is never a lack for learning about geography with the newspaper. Fascinating stories about countries and cities we have never heard of before cross our paths each day. Find the countries on a map. Then find out a little bit more of the culture and people that live there if desired.
Science – I have Genius look through the paper to find science articles that interest her. After reading them, I have her research more about the topic or the scientists or researchers named within on the internet. Many of them have websites of their own that explain the subject at hand in depth or links to other great websites that are interesting to explore.
I’d love to be able to use our newspaper to its full advantage in our homeschool and maybe you can help me with that! So, what else do you use the newspaper for in your homeschool?
———————————————————–
You can hang out with Tammy at Three Different Directions where when she is not reviewing products or entering contests, she just might be posting poetry about spiders.
photo by from a second story.
No related posts.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I like using newspapers too but my son is a little bit younger. Here are my top ideas:
look through and identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, compound words, contractions, etc.
Make up silly headlines with the pictures for creative writing or use different letter fonts to cut out the child’s name.
Use the coupons to match the amounts with our plastic money set.
Of course, we like to just read the articles of interest too, and discuss…
The newspaper is definitely a great tool in LOTS of ways….great post!
well, I am not homeschooling formally yet with a 3 year old and a newborn, but I have a couple ideas to share.
When I was having trouble spelling my teacher told my mom to have me read a few articles in the paper looking for typos and spelling errors as the paper goes to print so fast it is often loaded with them. She was right and to this day it still makes me nuts when I see them. Web site news is even worse if you want an easier start. It really helped my spelling and my ability to proof read my own work.
Also, it is great for paper mache
Also, it is great for crafting in general! (Like stuffing paper made seasonal projects).
Oh, and you can always throw some in your composter…
We shamefully don’t do anythng with the newspaper, though it’s on my “could, would, should” list. However, a couple of years ago we went to the local newspaper office for a tour. There was a guy there who would come out to the local schools or a homeschool group’s parents night and talk to the teachers about how to use the newspaper in the classroom. It might be worth checking into with your local newspaper office.
Great ideas!
Don’t forget using them for arts and crafts! Have them make clothing out of newspapers. We’ve done that with our Girl Guides and they love it!