Interest Led Learning :: Making Movies

One of the myriad of things I love about homeschooling is the opportunity for my children to discover and pursue their passions.  If you have been reading our blog for any length of time, it's no secret that Jonah is an outdoor enthusiast and an animal lover.  Nature is Jonah's passion.  Jacob, not so much.  As much as Jacob loves to be outside, he is outside with a purpose, riding his bike, playing football, playing baseball etc.  He would much rather follow Jonah around with a video camera than handle any creatures that Jonah might unearth.


Right now Jacob is passionately interested in movie making.  He used to take short movies with his point and shoot camera, now he likes to make movies with the Flip video camera he received at Christmas.  He will import his data into iMovie and then make all sorts of movies.



I got a great tip from Mary @ Homegrown Learners who mentioned her husband makes photo montages at the end of each year for family members.  I mentioned this to Jacob, and he took the idea and ran with it.  He made a customized movie for each of his grandparents for Christmas.  He loved picking out photos, arranging them, and choosing music to go along with his movie.


His other interest is making stop motion Lego videos.  This really takes some patience as you have to take many photos, moving the Legos every so slightly with each photo, to make it look like they are moving in the movie.  We are constantly amazed at the stories he comes up with and his execution.




All of his movie making has been completely self-taught.  Neither his Dad nor I know anything about using iMovie or making stop-motion movies.  I'm not even sure I knew what a stop-motion movie was before he started making them.  Of course we have provided the equipment, and most importantly the encouragement, but all of the rest he has done on his own.  He still has much to learn, but is always looking for ways to improve his skills.


While I know he is gleaning so much from making all kinds of movies, the movie making is something that happens in the afternoons, evenings and weekends. Because we never have homework, he has time in the afternoons and evenings to pursue his passion. We strive for the balance of getting in the less exciting, but equally important, subjects in the morning like Math, History, and Religion.  


 These subjects are the blocks that he can build upon for the rest of his life, whatever his passion happens to be at the moment.    



On Wednesday I will share how we have extended some of the movie making into other areas of learning.