Micah watching "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" on YouTube
Continuing on with our series on Homeschooling and the Internet…
The next topic I am going to address is the very reason I moved my laptop back out of my bedroom and closer to our school space. (Thankfully, it has not been a temptation to me, but I am keeping an ever-watchful eye on my internet usage during times when I should not be online!)
This summer we played host to a family of 5 for 3 weeks while they waited for the closing of their new home. The mom of the family, Carrie, let me in on one of her favorite homeschooling tricks…supplementing with online videos. This has now become one of my favorites!
Here is a good starter list to finding videos (thanks to one of my readers for this list–I searched to see who it was, but couldn’t find the original comment–sorry!) :
tangle.com
teachersdomain.org
teachertube.com
thehomeschoolchannel.tv
YouTube.com (I hesitate to add this because of the junk that pops up on this, but there is a lot of good content there. Parents, please use caution and discretion!)
BrainPop.com (this site requires a subscription, but there is a free trial & a free lesson per week–Thanks, Jennifer!)
OK, so how do you make this work? It’s really very simple! Watch me…
We are reading about Australia right now. My children have looked at Australia on a map, but they have no real concept of the country outside the cartoon version portrayed in Finding Nemo…sad, I know. So, I go to TeacherTube.com and I find this video:
Simple as that!
Let me give you an example of a less general topic that recently came about during our homeschooling day, so you can really get a feel for how this can work. We were reading a story about missionaries. It was mentioned that the man in our story had to take a class on chalk talks. Well, my kids gave me this blank stare when I read that part and I realized it would be a great opportunity to show them yet another way they can share the gospel while making sense of what we had just read.
So, I go to YouTube and find a video of a man doing a chalk talk to teach the gospel. The children were gripped by this new-to-them evangelism tool. It was so much fun to watch their faces as they looked on in awe!
And then there was our recent Mission India program. Sonlight
gave us the opportunity to raise money and have that gift matched in order to bring the gospel to India. As part of this program, we got to see day by day events in India and learn more about the culture and the work being done there via online videos. It really brought our offering to life for the children!
We’ve also been captivated by Africam, a live webcam in Africa where if you time it right, you can see everything from elephants to hyenas near watering holes throughout Africa. Even if you don’t actually see any animals, just the audio alone is worth it! Africa is noisy!
And finally, there is Netflix. A few years ago, on a whim, we got a subscription to Netflix. While I must admit, there is a great deal of junk on there, there is also a great deal of good. Basically, anything that has ever been made into a DVD is available through Netflix. For $9.99 (the price just went up), you can watch unlimited online (Note: not everything is available for Instant Play) and 1 DVD sent to your home at a time. There are other plans, but this is the one we currently use. We have talked about getting rid of it because there are some unseemly video “suggestions” that pop up; however, we’ve found a way to police it that so far, has worked nicely. I go through and find the Instant Play videos for the kids and put them in the Instant Queue. The Instant Queue is bookmarked, so instead of going to the home page of Netflix, we can click on the bookmark and land right on our Instant Queue, bypassing the other junk. We also keep a running Queue for movies that will be sent to us. The Indestructible Book is up next (we are currently watching The Widow’s Might).
So, do any of you use the internet for video purposes? If so, how do you police it? What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it? Any sites or uses I didn’t mention that you could share with others here?
These are great resources – I’ve never seen the Africam before; we went and took a look… I wondered what you meant about Africa being noisy; I assume you mean the bird and insect noises? Australia has similar bird and insect noisiness in at least some areas. I noticed when I visited America that there just isn’t the wildlife noises like we have here… That is strange to me – I love the noises of the Australian bush!
If you have any questions to ask about different countries (eg. Australia!), make the most of your blogger readers!! I know I wouldn’t mind answering any questions you or your kids might have about my country!
Awesome, Clara! Yes, we would love to ask you questions! Let me ask the kids what they would like to know and I’ll drop you an email.
Thanks so much!
I’m in Australia too and I’m with Clara, I’d be happy to answer any questions or send your children any information they may need!
I’m usually a lurker and love reading your blog, but when watching the video you linked to, I had to say something. Just thought I would point out that one of the “famous landmarks” in the video is listed as Summer Bay. That’s actually a completely fictional name made famous due to a (extremely trashy) nightly soap opera – it’s not real at all!! And certainly not a famous landmark!!! The beach where the soap opera is filmed is called Palm Beach, but even that’s not really a famous landmark. Just don’t want your little ones to be learning about an area that doesn’t even exist in real life.
LOL-Thanks for clarifying for us! When my kiddos get together their questions, I’ll drop you an email too! I have the most awesome readers…may need to add BLOG READERS to my list of internet resources!
Thanks for this post. I had no idea where to find videos of things. I have been using Youtube for my searches. I just signed up for every site you listed:)
Anna-Marie
Great post!! I’ve bookmarked many of these links to use in our homeschool
Thanks for the websites. BrainPop is a website that you can subscribe to and they have videos and activities around lots of educational topics. There is also a Brainpop Jr. for K-3. They each have one free lesson per week.
Thanks, Jennifer–I’ll add it to the list!
Thanks for listing The Homeschool Channel! My husband heads it up and my oldest son works on editing the “in-house” productions. Did you know that it is a project of The American Family Association? It has been a real challenge getting things going and we hope to that as it grows we will be able to reach more and more folks with quality programing for their homes. Again, thanks!
You are welcome, Anita!
my pre-readers and early readers really like http://www.starfall.com/
I’m so glad to hear that My Passport to India was such a great resource. I’m excited to see what God does in India because so many families took part in that opportunity.
~Luke
Thank YOU for the opportunity to participate.
We love internet videos! We have used them to help learn about the solar system (hubblesite.org) and we have found several videos on youtube to help supplement our study of Holland/the Netherlands
Hi Amy,
We also utilize Netflix. I keep wishing someone (besides me, of course) would start a list of all the good, clean, and edifying stuff that they offer, that we could all add to. It’s so hard to tell sometimes whether or not something is going to be appropriate to watch. I was just wondering if you knew of any such list.
For now, we are enjoying Leave it to Beaver as a half hour of quiet relaxation together in the evening. I never realized that show was so funny!
Thanks for the post. I will check out the sites you mentioned. We also use Starfall, as one of the previous posters mentioned.
Blessings,
Shani
I do know of someone who is working on a list right now. She hopes to have it up by the beginning of the year on her blog:
peacecreekontheprairie.com
Other than that, I don’t know of any sites that have a list. What I do is whenever I hear of a movie that has been recommended for Christians, I look it up on Netflix and add it to our Queue.
We use You-Tube a lot, but the kids aren’t allowed to open anything themselves (since they wanted to watch something called “The NAUGHTY Little Mermaid…). It’s easier to watch some things e.g.glass blowing, than explain how they work. Also, when watching DVDs we have the subtitles on, I reckon it helps with their reading skills.
I think I was the reader who gave you some of the suggestions – glad it has been working out for you. Another one I use is United Streaming. As a public school teacher I use it, and our district has a subscription to it. Not sure if they do individual subscriptions or homeschoolers, but there is a ton of great videos. It’d be worth it to check it out!
Thanks so much, Linda! So glad to be able to pass this on to my readers.
Great links!!
As you mentioned, Netflix is a fantastic resource, and we use it all the time. Now that we can instantly stream, it’s fast and easy to pull up a relevant video! I’m actually sitting down to eat lunch now, and they’re learning at the same time! 
Woot, woot!
I also use You Tube, but have to be careful of the little video tabs and headings on the sidebar.