Homeschooling with DVDS and Netflix.

6:56 PM
My 7 year old has been learning his states and capitals for MODG 2nd grade. Found THIS DVD at the library and now he's faster than ever! He exponentially learned all 50 almost immediately after watching this and singing along! His 4 year old sister was sitting beside him as he watched...guess who else now knows her states and capitals! This stuff is brain candy! Decided to order it, the DVD that is, one for retention and another to give as a gift.


On the topic of excellent learning DVDs I must also recommend the complete School House Rock (all 46 songs from our youth on grammar, math, history...) and The Standard Deviants. We've watched their Shakespeare and found it very illuminating for the older student and they also have many other topics.



Some of our other favorites - Magic School Bus - Adventures in the Book of Virtues cartoons - Bill Nye the Science Guy - 100 Greatest Discoveries hosted by Bill Nye - Wishbone - BBC's Planet Earth - PBS Lewis & Clark - Jesus of Nazareth - John Paul II movies and documentaries - St. Anthony - St. Francis - St. Paul - St. John Bosco... (We also like and use http://www.faithandfamilyflix.com/, Pro Multis Media videos)

*UPDATE* Joined PiusMedia.com today - all Catholic and so excited about their collection!


Did you know that Netflix has a hundred pages of educational videos and documentaries? These DVDs can come right to your door, no getting everyone out the door and into the van. My kids DO learn this way; so a part of our homeschool week will always include a "movie". When we used CHC, we loved that the history book, All Ye Lands, had movie recommendations to correlate with our studies and discovered many a classic that way...The Inn of 7th Happiness, Keys to the Kingdom...which lead me to google movie recommendations for other educational interests.


Would love to hear what educational videos you like to share with your family. :)

11 comments:

Jenny said...

Don't you love how the state songs "stick" in your head looong after you've listened to them! My kids walk around singing them, even the 3 year old! Thanks for reminding me about the Lewis and Clark PBS series. We are getting ready to start studying them.

~Kathy~ said...

What a wonderful, and super fun, way to learn Geography! As a Geography major/teacher, it always excites me to see people teaching their children geography. Great job mom! I think I might get these for my son. I have found this is a very effective way for him to learn things as well.

Blessings,

~Kathy

Nope said...

wow, youare having fun can u join!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Allison for posting these awesome recommendations. We use Netflix too.

Christy said...

Do you use MODG curriculm for all of your children? I am going to be homeschooling all of my children next year and trying to decide what curriculm to use. Any suggestions are appreciated. We live in California so I have to either register with my state as a private school or go under a school like MODG, Seton etc. I would probably perfer to sign up with a school.

Christine said...

I just might have to check Netflix out.

Your kids are so blessed.

Learning should be fun fun fun!

Unknown said...

Christy,

I use MODG with my 5 children.
One has graduated and is now in college. I love it!

For movies also check our Pius Media. It's run by a beautiful Catholic homeschooling family.

Kelly said...

We love the School House Rock, Magic School Bus, and Bill Nye stuff too - very helpful! School House Rock was the only thing that helped my oldest learn her multiplication tables!

Anonymous said...

i am definitely going to check that out, my kids are learning their states right now and it seems like such a daunting task. i remember learning the song...alabama, alaska, arkansas, california....etc. but i'd like them to know the locations on the map as well.
and netflix is great! i have been wanting to rent the John Bosco movie.
the magic school bus is great too and so is discovery streaming.
have a blessed week! =)

Renee said...

We use the Mr. Wizard science videos from OLV, National Geographic anything of interest to our days, many biblical/geographical or historical movies (we collect them and have hundreds to date mostly VHS. We love Charleston Heston here!! ) and anything family or liturgical from zip.ca which is Canada's version of Netflix. Pius media looks great, but boohoo they won't send to Canada.

Other media; We have collected upteen hundred cassettes with character building stories, just plain old good books on tape, Catholic saint stories, skip counting and math tapes, and so many more over the years (yep, dates us but heh just found a great buy on a used cassette player on a half price thrift store day. Can't beat that!)We scout our library for vacation or nature type videos that let you travel by armchair, and what would life be like without both board game version and DVD version of "Are you smarter than a fifth grader"...LOL

In this more modern day, we fill up Ipods with books on tape and learning things to use when traveling also. Excellent websites out there to search for the best of the best for cheap.

Allison said...

O Christy I apologize for taking so long to get back to you!

Yes, I am enrolled in MODG for my 2nd, 6th and 8th grade sons. This is our first year doing so and we really like it! They are flexible and supportive. We'll re-enroll for next year as well, adding my K daughter. Most of the moms in our local group use MODG and that's what led me to it.

I do use some Seton as well and think very highly of that program.

You may want to join some of the yahoogroups to ask questions, like HeartofSeton and DYOCC. They are a great source of encouragement and support. I'm on both.

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