Surprised by my title? You're probably wondering if I've completely lost my mind or if we really don't do school and just play Xbox and watch movies all day. Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. Actually, the truth is that my kids aren't allowed to play Xbox during the school day and prior to living our life on the road, they weren't even allowed to play Xbox in the evenings during a typical school week. It's been pretty rainy lately, so we've gotten a little bit lax in our rules over the game systems.
The Xbox does come in handy for school though because one of the downsides of our traveling lifestyle is that I'm not always able to secure a library card when we're on the road. In fact, most of the places we've been won't give me one. Not free of charge anyway. Though I have paid to have one in the past, I've discovered a few ways to adjust without the library. Finding the books we need isn't normally to difficult. Between friends, Paperback Swap, thrift stores and used book stores, I can usually find the exact title I'm looking for or at the very least, something that will make a good substitute.
But movies are a different story, until recently. Renting from Blockbuster gets expensive and they don't often have the educational titles that I'm seeking. Recently my kids purchased an Xbox Live account and were given a free 14 day trial of Netflix, so we took advantage of it and I am so impressed! I've not signed up in the past because I mistakenly assumed that the only way to receive movies was to have them mailed to you. That doesn't help when your address always changes. But Netflix has an awesome alternative to mailed movies, they also offer many titles for instant viewing on your computer OR Xbox, which is why to my children's disgust, I now view the Xbox as a teaching tool. Because it enables us to find wonderful educational movies and documentaries to enhance the subjects we're interested in at the time. And I don't have to worry about late charges!
Do you incorporate educational movies into your homeschool curriculum?
We got rid of our cable a couple of months ago and only watch DVDs or shows through Netflix. We've had Netflix for years and LOVE it! There are some great educational movies out there. I search for our subject matter and add them to our que. Netflix is awesome!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't gotten satellite here (too expensive) and we can't have cable in this mobile home park (not wired for it), so we signed back up for Netflix (closed account while we moved ... then couldn't afford to have it for first bit while settling here).
ReplyDeleteWe LOVE Netflix here. I watch some things on the laptop ... but we don't usually watch stuff together as a family on here because the sound stinks lol
But we get 3 dvds at a time. Jason picks one, I pick one, and the girls get one. When we're not schooling, I'm pretty lax on what they get to pick. Often it's a new cartoon. When we're schooling, though, we try to get an educational one every other choice.
I don't bother with the library dvds anymore. People around here don't take care of them AT ALL. I can't tell you how many we've been excited to watch only to find they're scratched so bad they will.not.play.
The Wii works the same way for instant viewing. You can also hook a laptop to the television and watch over the computer- but that is something Hubby does because he is the electronics guru.
ReplyDeleteI am loving our Netflix. We just got it streaming through our Wii a couple of months ago and it is sooooo great! We are loving the documentaries and the BBC dinosaur shows.We watched volcano documentaries all year long. (www.snagfilms.com is another free documentary site.)
ReplyDeleteThey are very cool. And the History channel things are awesome. Plus, Dad and Mom can sneak in a little "date night" on the couch after bedtime and that ain't bad, either. :) Netflix is the bomb.
My kids would love to use this as ammo in their "We really, really, really should get a Wii and Netflix" arsenal. They know the educational argument is a good one. I am seriously considering it.
ReplyDeleteWe love Netflix also. We have had a Netflix Acount for three years and get three discs at a time. This week cancled the cable and purchased a roku box to watch instant viewing on the TV. So far everyone loves it that way. Also don't have to sit through the bad commercials.
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Diane
We love Netflix too. We have it on our cable box now--used to use the xbox. Over our "summer break" my son and I watch old sitcoms. Last year we watched every single episode of Gilligan's Island. This summer we are planning on watching "Mork and Mindy."
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and during the school year we supplement with tons of documentaries and historical movie--after the readings, as dessert.
Our television was relegated to a closet when we moved 4 years ago. For awhile, the DVD player and VCR worked with it (no cable/satellite/antenna for us!). Then it died completely. Yay! I signed up for Netflix about two months ago because I was so impressed with their Watch Instantly documentary section (and a fair amount of their Children & Family section). My oldest LOVES all the nature documentaries...we love Netflix here!
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