Homeschooling fun: Learning about animation

Each day, I'm learning more and more about the beauty of homeschooling. Last Sunday, I was attempting to get my boys to sit down after church, and teach them a scripture story. We talked aout Noah and the ark, looking at the LDS art app on the Ipad. Talked about the importance of listening to a prophet, and when God speaks, we better listen up.

We then flipped to a picture of Moses parting the Red sea. We talked about that story, and the power of God. Of course, in my head I immediately thought of the awesome part on the old movie 'The Ten Commandments'. I'm such a media/movie lover. After I teach something to the best of my ability, and we do some type of hands on learning for the topic, I love to finish up with a movie clip. Seriously, think back to your days in elementary school. Wasn't it the greatest when they wheeled in a TV for some learning? :)

We found the part on Youtube, thanks to the fantastic Movie Clips channel that always has the favorite movie part I'm looking for. The boys loved the high tech 60's special effect of the water parting. I was reminded of how cool Yul Brynner is. Seriously sweet actor.

We watched the same part on 'The Prince of Egypt'. Then, I asked them 'Do you guys know what a cartoon is? Did you know it's made up of people's drawings?'. Well, that started a great learning moment with them. I told them about artists, animators, and the amazing tools of a pencil, a piece of paper, and someone's imagination. I told them that every time the character is moving around in a scene, it's a ton of drawings. Told them that before Toy Story and Shrek brought the overhaul of computerized kid movies, animation was king, and how much work it takes to create a cartoon movie.

I found the perfect video to show them describing this with the great legend animator, Glen Keane. He drew Ariel, Alladin, the Beast, and many more Disney characters. He's up there in my book:)

Anyways, just another discovery for me about how fun homeschooling is becoming, and how natural it's beginning to feel on the second year for us.