Using *videos* as a history spine...

[ereks mom]

Just wondering how it would work to use videos (History Channel, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, etc.) as a history spine instead of a textbook or other book. We will be doing Ancients next school year, and there are lots of good videos out there about the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc. (We subscribe to DirecTV, and I often record history programs to DVD, so I have a lot of them already. The problem would be paring down to the best ones from the many, many choices!)

 

I like the idea of "bringing history to life" with a video that introduces a topic/person/time period, and then going on to read some really good historical fiction rather than doing it *all* with books. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone here tried this?

[Linda in NM]

Yes, many times. We have a Bible series and the Timelife series (Ancient Mysteries?--it's packed, so I'm not sure of the name). We also used Ken Burns' videos on World War II (and similar videos on WWI) for study of the 20th century...we also use Cosmeo to add to our understanding of any time period. As a "professional educator," one of the techniques I try to follow with my son (in spite of his being an auditory learner) is to provide opportunities for learning using at least the "big three" modalities--visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

[ereks mom]

As a "professional educator," one of the techniques I try to follow with my son (in spite of his being an auditory learner) is to provide opportunities for learning using at least the "big three" modalities--visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

 

 

I am also a professional educator, and was trained to accomodate the "big three" (and, of course, as many as possible of Gardner's multiple intelligences). Like your ds, my EK is also an auditory learner. But she also responds well to visual and kinesthetic (as well as Spatial, Musical, and Interpersonal) learning opportunities.

 

Thanks for responding to my post! :)

[MIch elle]

I've done that for years and I think many homeschoolers do that with Discovery Education Streaming. Schlessinger Media videos (from the library) were the videos of our choice for many years before we subscribed to Discovery Ed.

 

For summer review of Biology we're doing the opposite, watching the Hippo Campus biology online videos & then finding the info in the text (Prentice Hall Biology) and discussing.