Netflix and Homeschooling

A couple of months ago, some friends of ours were talking about a terrific documentary they had seen.  We were fascinated by what they were talking about and this was probably the third conversation we’d had with them regarding different documentaries.  I asked the mom where she had seen these, was there a new documentary channel or a website?  No, she was getting them through Netflix.  I had toyed with the idea of Netflix, but for one reason or another had never signed up.  I decided to give it a shot and I am so glad I did!  (This might be the biggest homeschoolers’ secret yet!)

We all know that Netflix will send you DVDs, but what I wasn’t really aware of is that not only can you download streaming content on your computer, but you can do it via XBox 360, PS3, a Roku box and coming this spring the Wii.   With an instant queue that you can access online, or directly on your TV screen, you can choose from a seemingly endless supply of movies, documentaries, and TV shows and in between sharing movies from my childhood, as well as the latest action flick, we’ve also watched a ton of documentaries, ranging from historical to scientific to social.  All for less than the cost of going to one movie.

Not everything is available on streaming, new movies are DVD only, so I chose the account that allows one DVD out at a time with unlimited access to streaming (on however many devices, or computers that you have) for $8.99 a month.

I was pleased with the service immediately, but when I realized that there is a social community as well, I was even more thrilled!  You and your friends can create profiles and share movies, recommending things to each other.  We’re even talking about co-ops where we all watch the movies at home and then get online to discuss our thoughts about them.  You can also connect your account to your Facebook account, sharing your choices and ratings with all your friends.

Additionally, as you watch and rate more movies, Netflix will recommend other things that are similar to what you’ve rated.  I’ve found that the recommendations are pretty spot on.

In a time when we’re all tightening our belts and trying to save money, even on curriculum and learning tools, I’ve found Netflix to be a great source for low cost learning opportunities.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this review in any way.

The Room to Grow

Last week my daughter announced that she was going to give a concert at the park.  Ok, I thought, I’m just going to roll with this. She had put a couple of songs together and she planned that she would perform at the next park day.  She asked my advice about how to get started and I suggested that she just take out her guitar and start playing;  If people were interested, they’d listen and if not, she shouldn’t take it personally and to just regard it as practice.  She seemed ok with the idea and began to plan her “set”.

When we got to the park, it was mobbed!  We hadn’t realized that the public schools would be off that day and there were dozens of kids running all over the place.  We got out of the car to go play and she left the guitar in the car, she hadn’t counted on so many people being there and was unsure about whether she wanted to follow through.  Trying to give her the room to make more of her own decisions, I stayed silent.  She played with her friends and met some new children, we had lunch and then she whispered to me, “Can I have the keys?  I want to go get my guitar.”

She got her guitar and walked over to a picnic table that was just a little outside of the play area.  She opened it, set up and began to strum.  I stayed at my table so that I could stay out of her way and let her figure out what she wanted to do on her own.  After a couple of minutes, she started to sing.

Her friends were already gathered around her (we have the most supportive group, ever!), but then an interesting thing happened; more children started coming over from the play area and sat down on the ground in front of her.

At this point, I decided to set the camera to video and record a little bit:

She was so good and so brave that I thought my heart would burst!  After she was done the kids ran up to her and hugged her and told her what a good job she had done.

On the way home that day, she said, “Mom, I thought I was going to throw up, but in a good way.  Do you know what I mean?”
I do indeed sweetheart.  I do indeed.

Socialization, Really?

I’ve been homeschooling for a fairly long time; we’re in our 8th year.  In the beginning, it was difficult to tell people.  I wasn’t very confident and was just muddling through some very murky waters and at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like justifying myself to strangers, but still I tried.  A couple of years and some great experiences into it, I was much more confident and could hold my own in any discussion or debate, whether it was friendly or not.  The most common argument I faced was the socialization issue.  Total strangers would confront me in the supermarket and demand to know what I planned to do when my children couldn’t handle public places.  Never mind, that we were in a public place and my children seemed to be “handling it” just fine.  I had some real experience to share with people and some pat one liners for the rude questions, but as time wore on and homeschooling became more of a mainstream choice, the rudeness stopped and people, when they even mentioned it, were more curious and open and truly interested in what we were doing.

I enjoyed years of no confrontation.  People would comment on how well my children behaved, how polite they were, how well they spoke.  It happened so often, that while nice to hear, it became a bit trite if I’m being completely honest.

Recently, in the last six months or so people are starting to confront me again.  Again, it’s the socialization issue.  I can’t wrap my brain around why people
a.) feel that it’s any of their business
b.) think that they can say things without any real data to back them up
c.) are so blind that they can’t see what’s right in front of them

My children have lots of great friends from all different walks of life.  We see them very often.  They have different backgrounds, different religious views, different political ideas, different everything.  The children that I have met (and I have met hundreds of them) are by and large the most social people that I have ever seen.  They can speak publicly, they can have conversations with adults and very small children and everything in between.

I could take the low road here and attack other education choices, but I won’t.  I think that’s really what the problem is.  People aren’t respecful of other people’s choices and their rights and that’s a bigger problem than any socialization issue.  Supposed free thinkers, who I thought were progressive are spewing the same rhetoric at me that I heard 8 years ago.

The difference is that I no longer feel the need to justify my choice.  If someone has questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. The real question is, do you want to discuss it, or do you just want to fight?  I’m ok with it either way, but be clear what your intentions are.

Give Unschooling A Try

Please welcome my very good friend Joanne Greco, who is not only a terrific writer, but a wonderful advocate for unschooling and adoption.  Her experience and strength are a great resource to me and I’m thrilled to be able to share her with you!  She has a wonderful website dealing with all things “unschooling” at AnUnschoolingLife and a very popular adoption forum at ForeverParents.

Unschooling. Just the word alone can make some homeschooling parents sweat. I’ve seen it. But then again, I live in Florida so anything can make us sweat.

In it’s simplest terms, unschooling is homeschooling without a formal curriculum, and the tests and grading that usually goes along with it.

The term “unschooling” was coined by former teacher, John Holt. He became a fierce advocate for education reform, but eventually became disillusioned and decided that schools could never be reformed because they were so flawed. He then became a supporter of homeschooling but urged parents not to recreate school at home. Holt believed that children didn’t have to be coerced into learning. He said that given the freedom to follow their own interests, along with having access to a rich variety of resources, children will naturally learn.

For those of us that unschool, it’s more than not following a curriculum. It’s about how we, the parent, view learning and it requires a shift in your own thinking first. What are your personal views on learning? Are they based on your own school experience? When I removed my children from school and began homeschooling, I went through a deschooling process (which still goes on in some form or another to this day, five years later). During that time I read a lot of blogs and sites by unschooling families about how their kids were learning, and it interested me.

I started to see learning in things I hadn’t before. I realized that:

Real learning is not being able to memorize or regurgitate facts and meaningless information.

Real learning requires interest and meaning to the person learning.

Real learning requires access to the real world (something school can not offer a child).

If you’re thinking of relaxing your homeschooling methods and giving unschooling a try, here’s some tips for you to help make the transition smoother.

1. Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Apply that to your homeschooling. Be the change you want to see in your kids. If you want children that are interested in life and learning, be that kind of parent. Wonder about things outloud, ask questions, learn new skills and invite them into your world.

2. Be interested in what your child is interested in. If your child likes cars, taking him to the library to borrow books on cars is fine, but don’t stop there. Go to antique car shows, rent movies about cars and visit a local race track.

3. Look for learning in things your child does. If you’re having a hard time seeing the value in their interests (such as a video game), look for it. It’s there. Keep a notebook to help you remember it all.

Unschooling can be a wonderfully rewarding experience for you and your family. It has been for us. It’s not as scary as you might think.

Joanne Greco has been unschooling her kids since 2004 and writes about it at An Unschooling Life.

How to Create a Killer Report

Recently I became a contributor to Blissfully Domestic and while familiarizing myself with their guidelines for posting, I came across a terrific article about how to create more compelling blog posts using Flickr.  As I take most of my own article photographs, it never occurred to me to use Flickr for photos… and while I upload all of my images as creative commons licensed images, I never thought about using other photographer’s cc licensed photos for myself!

You should really read the article, it explains so much better than I ever could.  It’s alright, I’ll wait here. I even set it up to open in a new window, so that you can find your way back here when your done, by simply closing the new window.

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Hi.  Welcome back.  Great article, right?

So the other day the boy child needed to create a report for his virtual class and needed to use images to get the full credit for the assignment.  I had, what I thought, was a brilliant idea so I taught Travis (and Haley) to use Flickr as well.

I bookmarked (favorited, whatever) in their browsers, the direct link to the creative commons search page on Flickr, and typed in our first subject, “Hammurabi“.  It returned beautiful images that he could use in his report.  I taught him how to link the picture to the proper page as well as add a text link to give credit.  He created a terrific report with stunning images and the teacher gave him the maximum number of points and even had some lovely comments.

Since then we’ve used it for assignments about weather and religions and I can’t imagine a topic that wouldn’t return at least a few images.  In addition to the reports, it also gave me the opportunity to talk about copyright, and usage and protecting your own original content as well as that of others.

’cause as a Homeschooling Mom we’re all about combining lessons, aren’t we?

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