Guest Blog: Learn About It Using BrainPOP Jr. for Homeschool

Jenny Williams, our Homeschool Advisor, shares her tactics for delving deep into BrainPOP Jr. and each of the interactive features. Join our free webinar next Wednesday for more on Using BrainPOP for Homeschooling, and today for Using BrainPOP Jr. to Enrich Home Learning.

BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. are perfect tools for homeschooling. They present subjects in a fun and informative way, yet leave the door wide open for further exploration when something piques your children’s interest. If you use BrainPOP materials along with your children, you can then immediately answer any questions they have, and help them along with the activities if they get stuck.

While the more advanced BrainPOP is full of informative, fun, and useful videos and activities, for the most part my children aren’t quite old enough yet to make the most of it. So we have spent most of our time with BrainPOP Jr. For each of the subjects we have tackled, we have started with the faster options of watching the video, reading Pop a Joke and Belly Up, playing the Game, and sometimes doing the Activity. I have also had them do the quizzes. But for the most part, we have left the Draw About It, Write About It, Read About It, and Talk About It sections alone. This gives us the opportunity to go back to each subject again, learning about each one in more detail.

The way we will go about that is to start with Read About It, and to have a visit to the library. Each BrainPOP Jr. page lists several books which are a good introduction to that particular topic. That naturally leads into all of the other “…About It” activities at the bottom of the page. For young kids, Draw About It allows them to draw something from one of the books, or something they already know about the topic. Older kids can draw detailed, labeled diagrams of things such as the digestive system or different patterns they see in their life. Talk About It gives parents and young children an opportunity to do an activity together, talking about what has been learned. Older children can do the Talk About It activities on their own, then discuss with their parents what they came up with. Write About It gives younger children a chance to write what they learned, mentioning important vocabulary words. Older children can take all the new information and write a paragraph or two, summarizing the lesson. They can also draw connections to other parts of their education.

For any age of children, if these activities spark more interest or curiosity in your children, you’ll know, and you can easily dig deeper into the subject at the library, bookstore, or on the internet. Since so many subjects are covered on the BrainPOP Jr. site, chances are that there will be several things about which they are passionate.

BrainPOP Jr. is a fun introduction to dozens of subjects and gives a positive starting out point for children, even those who are reluctant learners. It will help remind them that learning is fun.