I have my kids running around outside and learning at the same time by sending them on a treasure hunt. I make up clues with different subjects. They need to have the correct answers to find the next clue.

For example:
5 + 8= ?
If the answer is 10, look under the apple tree.
If the answer is 12, look in the garden.
If the answer is 13, look by the swing set.

If all the answers are correct, they find a fun prize at the end. This would work well with any subject and they beg for more!

Source: http://www.homeschoolfreestuff.com/issues/Tips40/Tips40.html

This site provides a long list of holidays with learning projects for all ages. I like to drop in a few weeks ahead of time (or even longer if I'm planning ahead :) and set up a few extra activities to bring the holiday to life.

We have a rule in our house: If you don't know why it's a holiday, it isn't!

If you need to know something about a country of the world--this is the place to start! You'll find maps, statistics, the flag, demographics and more. A great help when you need something quickly.

If you'd like to try a unit study, but want it a bit more organized than just a list of ideas, this might be the answer.

Although designed with younger children in mind, this approach used to wean a family from TV Dependence may give you an idea or two for your own family!

I don't know about your kids, but mine love TV. But I closely control what they watch, and I found out a great way to do it!

If they achieve their goals for the day, I give my kids one hour of TV time. This is the hour I run around the house getting things done. Of course in that time, they want to watch cartoons. I tried to get them to watch educational videos during that time, but they just complained. Plus, I have a 3 year old along with her two older brothers. And you know, left to their own designs, the two older boys would be watching shows the 3 year old girl should NOT be watching.

The problem is that the shows they show children today are so intense, and sometimes offensive that children get desensitized. Then they need more and more intense shows to stay interested. I'm not going to play that game.

I wanted to reset my children, and get their brains back into control.

So here is the secret how I did it. First is to first go "Cold Turkey". I turned off the TV for two whole weeks to completely wean them from it.

After two weeks of absolutely no television, they were very grateful for anything they got to watch. So I made sure ALL the TV's they could get access to were completely disconnected from the wall. The only shows they could watch were from the videos I DECIDED TO give them.

Now here's the real trick. I went to the public library and selected 4 videos for the entire week. One cartoon/entertainment video and three educational videos pertaining to what I'm teaching. These are the only videos for the entire week.

Then during TV Time, I tell them, okay, here are four video tapes, you can watch any you want. Of course, they all fall over themselves reaching for the cartoon.

Now it's important that you choose a very, very tame video for the cartoon video. It should not overpower the educational videos, and should not overexcite. My favorite is a series called Little Bear. They are slow, no violence, no foul language, and no poor behavior.

So here's what happened. Monday, of course, they are all watching a very gentle cartoon. As I walk past their room, I am amazed to see my older boys watching a nice, gentle cartoon along with their younger 3 year old sister.

After they've watched that cartoon over and over, of course they all get bored of it. So now they start to wonder what the other videos are about.

I was amazed (and relieved) to see my older boys could watch and enjoy a gentle cartoon, but here's what astonished me. By Wednesday, I saw my 3 year old little girl sitting enraptured watching an advanced video on the concepts of magnetism with her older brothers.

I have been doing this for a while, and it's worked great. They are watching what I want them to watch, with no complaints. Every once in a while they will tell me they don't like what I pick.

No problem, okay, no videos for that week. A little bit more of no TV, and by the following week, the appreciation is back in full swing.

SIDE NOTE: I also get a 5th video. It's another gentle cartoon. But I don't give it to them during the week. I put it on top of their TV Friday night after they go to sleep. So Saturday morning when they wake up, it buys my husband and I a few more minutes of sleep time Saturday mornings.

~Jeri R~

Because we have 3 boys at three different age levels, all homeschooling at the same time (Grades 2, 4 and 6), along with an 8th grader in public school, and a 5 month old who loves to have more than her share of attention -- we devised a system of school where each child knows exactly what is expected of him throughout the week.

We start our Monday morning with a printed agenda listing all of their assignments throughout the week. We do a lot of unit studies, so there is a tremendous overlap in the work that is assigned.

On Monday morning we review their agendas with them and they jump right in. As they complete each assignment, they cross it off their agenda, and then we review the work and the agendas at the end of each day. This allows time in the day for group teaching time, individual teaching time and plenty of time for each child to work independently.

There is a huge built-in motivator in this system because, they all know they will not have any additional work assigned during the week, and can complete it as quickly or slowly as they wish. For our 4th grader, that means much more playtime on Thursday and Friday, and for our 6th grader it means knowing exactly how to pace his work so that he can accomplish it all in one week. We build field trips and other special things right into the agendas, so they all know that they must have finished with a certain amount of work before doing the art project or heading out on the field trip.

Letting them know what to expect ahead of time allows them to learn how to set their own pace, knowing that "homework" in our house means work completed on the weekend because it wasn't completed on time. So far we have never had to assign homework! Most of the time, they instead finish more than a weeks' worth of work by late Wednesday, and allow much more time to do the fun all day projects later in the week.

The other benefit we enjoy of this system is that it forces us to plan ahead and allows the weekends to make sure we have gathered all of the needed materials for their plan of study. When we jump into a unit together, we surround ourselves with everything we can find in that unit, and incorporate every subject into that unit.

When they review their agenda on Monday morning they immediately look ahead to see all of the fun activities we have planned for the week, and are actually excited to get through some of the more "mundane" (grammar, spelling, etc.) stuff to get to the hands on things we can work together on as a family. And none of them have to simply wait when we are doing individual teaching time with a sibling. They simply go on to their next assignment until it's their turn. Setting up this system has allowed us to truly enjoy our time together, and make every minute count!

~Paula - Stockbridge Georgia~