Use Cable in the Classroom in Your Homeschool

When I was in school I remember watching a lot of educational videos on a TV on a cart that the teacher would wheel into the classroom for that day. A lot of times these movies were from Cable in the Classroom (CIC). Well, good news. Cable in the Classroom is available to home educators as well, provided that you have cable or satellite.

What Cable in the Classroom Is
In a nutshell, CIC provides educational programs that you can record on your DVR and then play in your classroom or homeschool. Anyone can tape the programs without requesting permission as long as the programs are used for educational purposes only. Copyright clearance varies, but all programs can be saved and used over and over again for a minimum of 1 year.

What's Available on Cable in the Classroom
You can record educational programs on many different school subjects including English, math, science, and history. Go to the monthly program listing on the Cable in the Classroom website to find out what programming is available for taping each month. No schedule is listed during the summer months.

How to Use Cable in the Classroom in Your Homeschool
Towards the end of each month I go to CIC online and print out the following month's calendar. Then at the beginning of each new week I set my DVR to record any programs that I want to use in our homeschool. You could even have an older child set up the recordings for you.

There are a of couple of ways that I have used CIC. When I first learned about it, I used to record educational programs and then save them until we got to a lesson where the video was applicable. The main problem with this method is that I found several great videos that did not pertain to topics or subjects we were studying any time soon.

So, that is when I switched to the method I currently use. I record the programs and then let the children watch them when we have some free time in homeschool. It doesn't matter if the subject of the program is currently being covered. The children still get a wealth of knowledge from the educational programs.

You may want to maximize the dollars that you pay for cable by recording and using educational programs that are made available by Cable in the Classroom.

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