Aspiring Week 10: Documentaries

For us there is always the question of what to do after we have been in town.

In the past I often came home and then pushed the kids to complete all the things we didn't have time for and we were often exhausted by the end of the day. Then while reading Large Family Logistics I realized we needed to take a break. 

"When you arrive home . . . let everyone go to Quiet Time. They need a break from running around and sod do you!" pa. 177 of Large Family Logistics 

I however didn't want to "waste" valuable time just 'relaxing'. I remembered remembered Erika at Large Familes on Purpose who shows her family documentaries on a regular basis.


When
This year I've decided to incorporate documentaries into our homeschool. We decided that on Wednesdays after Piano lessons (assuming the child has completed their work for the day) we relax and watch documentaries.

What?
We are currently working our way through the BBC's "The Planets". Right now we are watching the BBC Series Planets and the kids have really enjoyed the different episodes. I've enjoyed listening to the kids hollering back and forth "Remember it's jovian, a gas planet!", "Isn't Mercury Hot" they are assimilating the information that they learned in science. 

Please be advised we are creationists, but BBC The Planets is from an evolutionary stand point.Our family enjoys apologetics  and we use it as an opportunity to sharpen our arrows against propaganda.

Right, now it looks like our next documentary series will be Barbarians from the History Channel, although it arrived from Netflix I have not yet reviewed it. But I am hopeful that we will be able to watch Generally, when I'm reviewing a documentary I am looking for too much violence, sexually explicit scenes or a hard driving humanism/evolution bend.

How?
I do not spend lots of time planning which documentaries we will watch. I go to Netflix type in a topic we are currently studying or have already studied and look for a video I can stream (normally). I simply preview them in the evenings and the kiddos watch them.  If I have not had time to preview a new one then we watch a video from our collection which includes Creatures that Defy Evolution and other creation based science choices from our collection.

On  a busy day watching these documentaries allows our family to unwind and to still be engaged in learning.

Documentaries for Families

Homeschool Happenings:

Math
 I made an amazing purchase for our Homeschool. We acquired a 3rd Edition Saxon 7/6 for Bullet for only $15 and she threw in the Dive CD for another $10.  If that was not enough I found the rest of the Saxon package  for $5.These two items retail for $101.50, yes Mam' that is a 75% savings. So I got the whole kit and kaboodle which retails for $196.80 at Rainbow Resource that's just 15% of retail. Please excuse me for a moment while I do the happy dance.

Then my oldest daughter, who is autistic and thus never misses any detail says..."Mom that means you have three kids all doing different math programs." Although, I was stunned but she is right Curl does A.C.E., Bullet will do Saxon Math 7/6: Homeschool Set/Box  & Sweetie does Christian Light Education.

Excellence in Writing

One of my major goals for this month is to get IEW-SWI-A/ Medieval History Writing going. So far we've pulled it out, I figured out what we are supposed to do and where we need to start. I also need to figure out where I am inserting Medieval Writing into the mix. The Big girls are working on their reports(which we've been doing slowly since Mid September <sigh>  ) and my middle one is starting on lesson 1 of SWI-A. For us once we get into a routine with a curriculum we are normally able to maintain the momentum.

         

Co-op Week! 

I am going to do a complete curriculum overview in the next few weeks. We've made several changes that have really been wonderful for our family life and homeschooling.

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