Saturday, October 6, 2012

Shiny!

We are a family of TV watchers. And I have no shame in admitting that. I know, I know. We're homeschoolers! How could we partake of such uselessness?! Pfffft. Not only do we enjoy watching TV shows, we learn from them, and with them, too!

We have every season of Mythbusters, and many of the seasons of How It's Made. We constantly watch nature and cooking shows. We travel around the world, while sitting on our couch.

But, we can take shows that really have no educational value, and use them in our homeschool as well.

How, you ask?

I'm going to use one of our *most* favorite family shows, Firefly (fans will now get the "Shiny" title). It was only 14 episodes (and later, a movie - Serenity), but we have seen every episode half a dozen times, lol. I have several fan tshirts. I treasure my Jayne hat (and thanks to an incredible lady, this past Dragon*Con our group of 12 or so ALL had Jayne hats!!!). We even started watching Castle a few years ago, simply because I wanted to see Captain Tightpants again. :D

This week, my trusty UPS driver delivered to my door a book that made us all have a little geek squee. It's a beautiful 10 year anniversary special.


Besides being 542 pages of YAAAAAAY, this book will provide us with some spelling and vocabulary this week. Cause I'm awesome.

Instead of the spelling lists by grade that I was going to use for the boys, we are going to go through and find words in here to make our word lists! There are actor interviews, producer/director interviews...even the shooting script for every episode!


Outside of spelling and vocabulary, Braeden is going to work on his reading fluency with this book too. No, he's not going to finish it any time soon, lol, but with so much to read, it will be a fantastic reading resource for a while to come.


*Sigh*

Yep.

Big damn book for big damn heroes.

This week will definitely be fun! Go me! ;)

6 comments:

Emily said...

Love, love, love! This kind of validates my choice to let Grace use D&D manuals for "research." ;) Enjoy your swanky new book!

Unknown said...

D&D manuals are excellent "research" materials, lol! Thanks for stopping by, Emily! :)

Twisted Cinderella said...

I use tv as a part of our homeschooling. For example, when we are studying a country this year, I look for shows that are about that country (shows like documentaries, food shows, and even age appropriate movies set in those countries. It reinforces the things we are learning in a way that books can't always do and it shows her what people from that country are like.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Twisted Cinderella! I totally agree...I love what certain TV programs can bring to our school. :)

Thanks again, for stopping by!

Simply Homeschooled said...

Love this post, we do a lot of Tv and youtube ourselves :)

Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog, I have added you to my blogroll!

I will have to check out Fireflys, my daughter I think would love it!

Unknown said...

Thank you, Simply Homeschooled, for stopping by here as well! I will also add you to my blogroll and I hope you and your daughter enjoy Firefly! :)