An old post, that I thought you might enjoy.
When the Jor Man was seven, he had informed me that he did not want to study the Revolutionary War. He wanted to study baseball, and the history of baseball, instead. We homeschool. And one of the many things that I love about homeschooling is the ability to tailor the curriculum to fit the student. That said, I wasn't about to give up on studying the Revolutionary War as planned. After all, we had just moved to New England from San Diego. Here we are, right in the middle of so much history. The very town we live in was mined for iron ore that supplied the cannons and munition that won the war. I am learning more about the beginnings of our country from just living here, than I had ever learned in American History classes in school.
So I told my boy that he could study baseball history for school. I thought that was a great idea. And then I went to the library and checked out Felicity: An American Girl's Story. It's a movie - not very good, but interesting enough to catch my son's attention. And halfway through it, he said, "Mom, is this about the Revolutionary War?" "Yes." I said. "I thought you said we weren't going to study the Revolutionary War!" "No," I corrected him. "You said that you didn't want to study the Revolutionary War. I never said we weren't going to."
He was perplexed. But he kind of liked it. And when Johnny Tremaine, the old Disney movie, arrived from Netflix, he was thoroughly hooked. "Mom?" He asked. "Can we study the Revolutionary War next year, too? I really like it!"
So, this mom who left her TVs in San Diego, has signed up with Netflix. And we are watching Revolutionary War videos until Christmas. Today we finished 1776. Really fun - although I could do without all the cussing. The music is wonderful. And my son loves a good musical. The queue at Netflix is all set with 75 movies; most of which are about the Revolutionary War. Some are for the hubby and I to watch, and quite a few are about baseball. He's going to love this schoolyear, and I think I will, too.
4 comments:
I LOVE this idea! I will be doing this myself, I'd love to see a list of movies based on different Wars or different 'ideas'. Do you do anything besides the movies?
I allowed my son to watch a lot of garage shows on tv and his favorite was Junkyard Wars. He's very mechanical, so this was right up his alley!
You are inspiring me to think outside the box.
Christi,
Such a book exists. I don't own it, but I remember seeing it awhile ago in one of the homeschool catalogs. When I find it, I'll let you know. In the meantime, you can go to www.imdb.com and search by keyword for any time period you are interested in. I typed in Hitler and it brought up 80 movies - of course not all are suitable for homeschool - but it's a start. Have fun!
Found it!! http://astore.amazon.com/hillegeistfam-20/detail/0975392239 Learning with Movies by Beth Holland
Hope it's helpful.
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