Netflix to Home School

When teenagers are home-schooled, sometimes it takes a little more effort than a book and some paper to make school interesting for them. If you use Netflix watch instant videos, you can use the educational videos to supplement your curriculum. I use many supplements for my curriculum with each of my home-schooled teenagers, and Netflix has helped out a lot during those busy days. Netflix is great for science, and history and we use many instant videos to work out too in the mornings (good for those rainy days). If you watch the video with your home-schooled teenagers or younger home-schooled kids, you can build assignments and quizzes along with the show, which makes your job easier.

Set Up Netflix

I purchased a subscription that is monthly and costs me around $20 a month, I get all of the instant movies and three movies sent to me at a time. I purchased the Roku player, for my family for Christmas, which allows you to watch the instant movies on a TV, instead of a computer. The Roku player costs $99 and it has been well worth the purchase, I like movies more than cable so we actually just use Netflix as our entertainment.

Choose a Subject

There are several subjects that you can supplement with Netflix, like Literature and Shakespeare, or Science and magnets. If you already have a curriculum built brows Netflix for movies or documentaries that you can fit into an assignment. If you are like me and have the ability to build your own curriculum, you can use Netflix to find many assignments to build. I have my home-schooled kids work out with me each morning to a video off of Netflix, which is great if you live in a big city or somewhere with bad weather.

Results

Make assignments and quizzes around the Netflix movies your teenager or child watches for school, to make sure that they understand and are learning from the movies. I have my home-schooled teenagers do verbal or written reports, depending on the subject, so they can carry the lesson into Language Arts. Discussions about what they watched are also a good way for you to interact with them while they learn, and add some input to their ideas.

Using Netflix to build or supplement a curriculum is a good way to change the way home-schooled students think of school, when they get older. If your child isn't happy with school work, give him something to do that is a little out of the ordinary to spark some curiosity. The monthly cost is small and the amount of education and entertainment your home-schooled children will get out of it, is well under what you would pay for a cable bill. Keep in mind that to be sure your home-schooled teenagers are actively watching a movie. They need to know that they will be tested or challenged in some way after watching it. If you are planning on starting a home school, or already do, be sure to consider optional ways of teaching so your children can get the most out of the resources around them.

Sources:
Netflix, http://www.netflix.com