We have a smart tv in our living room… actually we have a Kindle Fire, a Roku, an Apple TV, and a few other things. The smart tv though is one of my favorites. It is all built into the tv, meaning one remote. Around our house remotes are lost easily and then we have to play the game where we pull out the couch and look under everything. It gets really tough when the remote is lost inside the couch!
Our smart tv let us pull up Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix and more. Besides the videos to let me get a break, there are also lots of great educational shows… some aren’t even made as educational but can be made into educational with the right spin. Take the movie Shaun the Sheep. My son loved that movie when we watched it last week. Normally I wouldn’t say this was an educational move, but besides the discussion about farming, sheep sheering, what the dogs are used for on a farm and why the rooster crows in the morning – there is also the fact that the movie is clay-motion.
The movie has no spoken parts and is made up with clay characters that are moved a little at a time and then pieced together with individual pictures. That’s a lot of pictures. There can be math involved besides the experience of planning and making your own stop motion movie. I’ve seen this type of movie done also with Legos. If you search stop motion Lego movies you will find lots of tries from kids (and adults) that have decided to give it a try.
When it’s Legos they actually are nicknamed Brikfilms. Tutorials are available all over the web on how to make your own movie!
We love turning the shows we watch into educational opportunities for our kids. When my little one really finds the show interesting and funny it makes it all the better. Our smart tv makes it a little easier to keep everything in one place. – I do like our Apple TV which will let me put my phone onto the TV and can play from iTunes which the smart TV doesn’t… but the Smart TV is just one tool that makes life easier.
I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 13 to 29. We are working on saving enough for college at the same time as dealing with school and our older independent kids. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid's in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now work as a computer consultant, run a handmade home business, and am available for workshops. Life here is always an adventure!
