Homeschooling through Chaos...Using Videos for School
I was so excited to start homeschooling this year. With having successfully graduated three kids and having the last two in high school I thought it would be a piece of cake after 14+ years of doing this. Then chaos life hit fast and hard and what I thought would be my easiest year yet, became my most difficult. It started with unexpectedly deciding to sell our house in July and went from there. Between getting a house ready to sell, getting rid of farm animals that you can't take with you, an engagement and wedding that we had less than 10 weeks to prepare for and hubby's job situation suddenly becoming unknown after almost 27 years with the same company, I'd say I've deserved many "Calgon take me away" moments.
We did go into the school year knowing some of this was going to happen so we started back to school in August to prepare for the move. That's the beauty of homeschooling, you can work around the unexpected life things that do happen in all our lives.
We did finally move two weeks ago, and I'm struggling with what to do at this point. Both kids had finished a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace course right before we moved, which in my book is so much more beneficial than Algebra 2. Each of them had other subjects or books they had completed also, so to jump into full on school for about four weeks (we typically wrap up our year mid-May) didn't make sense to me.
What I've decided to do is utilize Netflix and Amazon videos to create a video curriculum for the next few weeks. Along with drivers training going on almost daily the next three week for both of them, a bible study we are doing together, their own books they are working through, and these history and science videos I've found, we should have a well rounded few weeks. This takes some prep time and grading time away from my long list of to-do's now that we've moved.
I realize some will frown at the thought of letting their kids watch videos for school but I have found some amazing documentaries and series on both sites. And one of our kiddos is very much an auditory learner, to the point that she hears something once and can repeat it back verbatim (usually only songs or movies...not when telling her to do something:)) So watching National Geographic, History Channel, or PBS documentaries will really be something that sticks for her.
Don't make life more chaotic thinking the only way children learn is through text books. Life is so much more than just sitting at a table filling in the blanks. This is what homeschooling is all about! Make it work for you, not against.
Here is the links to two of the videos we started today:
God of Wonders This video is really well done, informative and biblical. It contains interviews with believers who are also scientists and the cinematography is amazing!
The Civil War I had watched this before and know that Ken Burns always does an amazing job on his documentaries. This is a 9 part series and if free to watch if you are an Amazon Prime member (which I also HIGHLY recommend for homeschool families)
I will continue to let you know how our last few weeks go and link the shows we watch!
Count it ALL joy!
We did go into the school year knowing some of this was going to happen so we started back to school in August to prepare for the move. That's the beauty of homeschooling, you can work around the unexpected life things that do happen in all our lives.
We did finally move two weeks ago, and I'm struggling with what to do at this point. Both kids had finished a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace course right before we moved, which in my book is so much more beneficial than Algebra 2. Each of them had other subjects or books they had completed also, so to jump into full on school for about four weeks (we typically wrap up our year mid-May) didn't make sense to me.
What I've decided to do is utilize Netflix and Amazon videos to create a video curriculum for the next few weeks. Along with drivers training going on almost daily the next three week for both of them, a bible study we are doing together, their own books they are working through, and these history and science videos I've found, we should have a well rounded few weeks. This takes some prep time and grading time away from my long list of to-do's now that we've moved.
I realize some will frown at the thought of letting their kids watch videos for school but I have found some amazing documentaries and series on both sites. And one of our kiddos is very much an auditory learner, to the point that she hears something once and can repeat it back verbatim (usually only songs or movies...not when telling her to do something:)) So watching National Geographic, History Channel, or PBS documentaries will really be something that sticks for her.
Don't make life more chaotic thinking the only way children learn is through text books. Life is so much more than just sitting at a table filling in the blanks. This is what homeschooling is all about! Make it work for you, not against.
Here is the links to two of the videos we started today:
God of Wonders This video is really well done, informative and biblical. It contains interviews with believers who are also scientists and the cinematography is amazing!
The Civil War I had watched this before and know that Ken Burns always does an amazing job on his documentaries. This is a 9 part series and if free to watch if you are an Amazon Prime member (which I also HIGHLY recommend for homeschool families)
I will continue to let you know how our last few weeks go and link the shows we watch!
Count it ALL joy!
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