If you belong to Netflix or Blockbuster Online, you can  browse movie titles from your home computer and arrange to have them delivered to your home.  A little extra planning can help turn any family film night into a dvd homeschool.

Let's face it; kids love television.  All those amazing documentaries that play on cable television throughout the year can be strategically ordered from online movie rental membership clubs and delivered to your door.  A little planning and a little research can turn movie time into dvd homeschool time.  Watching movies together as a family can be an entertaining way to snuggle up and learn something together.

Adding Movies to Your Homeschool Curriculum

Peek ahead in your lesson planbook (if you use one) and browse the available titles for relevant documentaries.  Both Netflix and Blockbuster have huge documentary databases.  For example, if you're studying Ancient Egypt, you can enter the words "Ancient Egypt" or "pyramids" or even "mummies" into the search box and find films that can enhance an investigation into Ancient Egypt. 

If you're not using a predetermined lesson plan; browse through the available selection and choose titles that coincide with your child's interests.  If your child is web-savvy they can probably manipulate the Queue themselves.  You might want to note that their system allows you to see if the title is currently available, estimate a delivery date, and rearrange titles in your queue whenever you want.

Internet Streaming Video School

If you have a high speed internet connection, Netflix currently offers some titles in an online streaming format.  Blockbuster is expected to follow suit.  For the price of an annual membership, Discovery Channel has "Discovery School " streaming movies with built in lesson plans.  Expert Village offers free online "how to" videos that teach everything from french braiding to boat building. 

 DVD Homeschool Teaching Ideas

Add the movies that coincide with your studies to your queue (list of movies they plan to send you) and read the information page to  create a lesson plan.  Sometimes, the company that produced the video (National Geographic, Discover Channel...) will have created teacher materials especially for the video.  Sometimes these kits will contain downloadable worksheets, quizzes, additional resources like link lists, books or biographical information.

You can use videos at the end of a lesson; to sum up what was learned.  You can use homeschool videos at the beginning of a lesson to help define interest levels and spark an initial base of understanding.  You can use videos instead of lessons and review the teachers materials yourself; using them as a guide to having a "teaching conversation" with your child.  

You can even use fictional gilms as a teaching tool.  A side-by-side (OK, rainy day) viewing of the 1953 War of the Worlds and the 2005 version of the same film is a great way to learn about special effects, and spark discussions about the differences between the 1953 audience and the 2005 audience.  Read press clips from the 50's, read the H.G. Wells book and discuss how each movie strayed from the original story (or didn't) and when Grandma calls the kids to ask how school is, you can say "We're doing a multimedia lesson in comparative science fiction literature through the ages."

Try Using Homeschool Videos, streaming videos or DVDs to supplement your homeschool curriculum. 

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