While traditional hobbies are good to have, some new ideas that help the homeschool students think for themselves are always welcome. Everyone loves a good mystery. Get your homeschool students involved in solving mysteries in different manners. Here are some activities that will teach them to think in a logical manner and follow up on information leads. Putting together these projects will allow them to turn detective on their own.
Tracing Family History
There are a number of Genealogy websites that offer to trace your family history for you. Rather than calling in professionals ask your children to see what they can find out about the family history on their own. Have them speak with older relatives and assemble the family tree. Have them write about the different professions their ancestors were in, where they lived and where their descendants ended up. It’s a time consuming but enriching project that everyone can participate in.
Finding Online Ponzi Schemes
Fraud Busting is a good project to take on. We often get mails that are obviously phishing for information. Let them study these emails and find out why they are fake. Allow them to figure out what the person would be able to do if they really did impart with the information that they are asked to divulge. A great way to teach them cyber security and make them aware that not everyone online can be trusted.
Exposing Fake News
This is becoming a huge problem for the current generation. So many snippets of information pass through the internet that may be half truths or simply false altogether. Give them a list of sites where they can go to check for such urban legends and other fake news. Allow them to keep a record of the news that they read, and what they checked and found to be untrue. Ask them to come up with reasons why this fake news is circulating on the internet and who is likely to benefit from this.
Can you think of other things that your homeschool students would love to investigate? Add them to the list. Let them have fun exploring!
