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• Encyclopedia

Where can you read all about your hometown? In your home reference library—with supplemental materials written by your child, of course.

Your child first finds out whether your set of encyclopedias contains an article about your hometown (or perhaps a place you've visited, or one in which friends or relatives live). If it's not there, he or she writes an entry, using an actual encyclopedia article about a city or town as a model. Younger children can illustrate the piece.

If there already is an entry for the chosen town, your child can embellish it with such "inside" information as what it's really like to live there, which season is the nicest, which ice cream shops and playgrounds are the best, and so on.

Your child might also interview older relatives and friends to get additional information, such as what the city or town was like twenty years ago, which buildings have the most interesting histories, and how the community overcame its biggest challenges to get where it is today.

Before long, your child's reference book will contain all the answers about his or her hometown. So, what do you suppose a kid-improved encyclopedia set ought to be worth these days?