The Very Best Movies for Children and Families

Today I’m going to break from my usual content and style.  Back in 2008 I reviewed David Gilmour’s interesting memoir The Film Club, which describes an experiment he conducted with his teen-aged son where he “homeschooled” him for three years, the curriculum being nothing but movies.  I commented there that I thought there was much of value that could come from incorporating film into a child’s education, noting specifically that carefully selected films can 1. introduce children to classic literature, 2. give children insight into other cultures, and 3. expose children to the history of film-making, and, by extension, of popular culture.

In the years since then our family has seen many, many films.  In today’s post I’d like to share with you the very best of what we’ve seen in hopes that others looking for intelligent movies for children will benefit.

Last post of the year

In a moment I’m going to post the last of my entries for this calendar year.  I’ve got a busy January coming up as well, so it may be February before I’m back.  But when I do come back there will eventually be a major post that updates one from a few years ago, giving the complete data available from all of the states about homeschooling enrollment rates.  Stay tuned!

Homeschooling and the European Union

This post reviews Colin Koons, “Education on the Home Front: Home Education in the European Union and the Need for Unified European Policy.” Indiana International and Comparative Law Review, 20, no. 1 (2010): 145-174.

Koons, a recent graduate from Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, here explains the diversity of homeschooling law in various European countries and tries to figure out what the European Union’s legal paramaters would be for the practice.

How Homeschooling Mothers Deal with the Time Crunch

This post reviews Jennifer Lois, “The Temporal Emotion Work of Motherhood: Homeschoolers’ Strategies for Managing Time Shortage” in Gender and Society, 24, no. 4 (August 2010): 421-446.

Lois, about whom I’ve written before (in one of my most popular posts since it contains the provocative heading “deviant homeschooling moms“)  here gives us another fascinating look at some of the struggles homeschooling mothers go through.

How Commitment to Homeschooling Grows

This post reviews Leslie Safran, “Legitimate Peripheral Participation and Home Education” in Teaching and Teacher Education 26, no. 1 (2010): 107-112.

Safran, a British researcher who has written a few other works on homeschooling and in 2008 completed her doctoral dissertation, titled Exploring identity change and communities of practice among long term home educating parents, here introduces an interesting theoretical concept that she thinks helps explain how novice homeschoolers only marginally or temporarily committed to the practice become more engaged and committed practitioners.

A New Children’s Book with Christian Homeschooled Characters

This post reviews Angie Renich, The One and Only Miss Violet Remy (Wildwood Digital Publishing, 2011).  [Digital Download available here].

A couple of weeks ago Angie Renich contacted me and asked if I’d like a free copy of her book for review.  It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a piece of children’s literature, though I have done so on many occasions before.  A summative post that has links to most of my reviews of children’s books where homeschooling features is available here.

I googled Ms. Renich and couldn’t find much except that she doesn’t like Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and that she composed some music for a ballet version of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  That last one is relevant to the story, so here goes…

Homeschoolers and Higher Education

This week-end I’m at the History of Education Society Annual Meeting and don’t have time to do a post.  Thankfully, a reader volunteered one.  So without further ado, here’s Elaine Hirsch’s survey of some research on homeschooling in higher education:

Three Types of Homeschoolers

This post reviews Ruth Morton, “Home Education: Constructions of Choice” in International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education 3, no. 1 (October 2010) Available Here.

Morton, a doctoral student at the University of Warwick whose dissertation is a qualitative study of homeschooling motivations and practice in the United Kingdom, here gives us a taste of what the dissertation will contain, describing how there are three basic motivational types of homeschoolers.

What Happens when Divorced Parents Disagree about Homeschooling?

This post reviews Charles J. Russo, “Is Home Schooling ‘in the Best Interests of the Child?’ The Supreme Court of New Hampshire Answers – Not When Divorced Parents Disagree!” in Private School Monitor 33, no. 2 (Fall 2011).

Russo, a prolific scholar on legal issues in education who has had several occasions in the past to turn his attention to homeschooling, here examines the legal status of homeschooling in light of the recent In re Kurowski (2011) case (which I discussed here before it was heard by the State Supreme Court) in New Hampshire that pitted a divorced homeschooling mother against her ex-husband who disapproved of the practice.

Home Study Programs in the 1920s-1930s and Today

This post reviews Robert Hampel, “The Business of Education: Home Study at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s.” in Teachers College Record 112, no. 9 (September 2010): 2496-2517.

Hampel, a professor at the University of Delaware and respected colleague, here provides a fascinating look at a once popular but now largely forgotten form of education that was based in the home.  In the early 20th century millions of Americans enrolled in all sorts of programs by correspondence.  Most of them enrolled in classes with for-profit companies who often promised the moon, used aggressive recruitment strategies, and played hardball if you failed to make payments.  But several thousands of Americans also took study-at-home courses from the nation’s universities.  In earlier work Hampel has given us fine history of the for-profit companies.  Here he looks at the universities.