Can I turn my daughters love of films into anything educational?

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my 6 year old daughter is a real film buff. All she'd do all day (if I let her) would be watch films, often the same ones over and over.
I have to limmit it to one a day as a reward for behaving well or compleating all her work etc. When she's left to play on her own or with me, all she wants to do is act out sceens from films. It's very repetative and booring for me but she loves it.
She's become quite interested in the making of films recently. I've been showing her the extras and the making of the films but I'm not sure she really gets it.
Is there anything we could do together that would incooperate some learning into her love of films? She's already able to spot mistakes, which I find funny. Is there anywhere we could go to learn about film making?

Thanks

You could visit somewhere like the National Media Museum (it's in Bradford)?

My DD is exactly the same as yours - she now writes her own stories starring her favourite characters. Her literacy skills are excellent so I quite often ask her to make up a song or a poem about Flynn and Rapunzel, or write me a letter and pretend it is from Cinderella after she marries Prince Charming etc.

TV and film is my DD's big love in life - we were burgled in the summer holidays and she was distraught when she saw that the TV had been taken!!

You could get her a video camera and encourage her to make her own movies or a movie diary. There are a lot of films that are fun and educational (alot that cover history, nature ect...). Also encourage the acting out, maybe in the future she would like to go to a drama club (stagecoach or similar)?

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear you were burgled. My daughter would've been destraught at loosing the TV too.

It's good that it can lead to excellent literacy skils. My DD hasn't learned to read yet, but she likes me to wright her storys and leave space underneith so she can coppy it. She's just started seing a tutor for literacy and supprisingly loves it. She even loves doing the practice sheets with me.

I like the sound of the Media Museum. She's love that. I'll look it up. It is a long way from us, but might be worth it.

Thanks Marne, she does love her acting. She used to go to Stagecoach but left as there was a very disruptive boy there who had behavural difficulties and she was scared of him. He once grabbed her around the neck and they fell on the floor. The teacher stopped it very quickly but it terrified her. (She is quite a wimp I'll admit)
There is another acting group she could go to but I'll wait a bit longer and see if she's interested.

I would just let her watch her films and ask about stuff in her own time, DD went through a phase of watching ice age 3 every day, this lead to an interest in carnivorous plants.

Don't discuss this with her as something educational, but just quietly put the closed captions on while she is watching (even better than subtitles, because they have description)

That's how one of mine learned to read.

And give her unlimited access to internet resources relating to all her favourite films and shows - there are so many great games out there.

Let it be. Imaginative play centred around dora the bloody explorer is still imaginative play. Buy the figurines, buy the soft toys, buy the branded colouring books - just pursue the interest with her in whichever ways stimulate her.

Me, I have films I watch round and round and round. It is obviously serving some purpose for me - why wouldn't it for my children?

she is slightly younger than the target age for the 8 and a half foundation (clue is in the name!) but it was founded by Tilda Swinton with the aim of encouraging children to enjoy wide varieties of films.

Their website is eightandahalf.org/get_involved

In selected areas in scotland they will be giving kids the chance to be sent a free film on their "movie birthday" i.e. the day they turn 8 and a half, but even if you're not based up north they have a good site with recommendations for good films for kids. It would be great to see this campaign be successful and spread to other parts of the UK too.

I don't know whether she would yet have the patience and attention to detail to make films using stop frame animation, but apparently it doesn't require very expensive equipment - just a basic digital camera, a little tripod, and the software. Use cuddly toys or creatures made out of clay or cut-out drawings which can be moved around relative to each other.

Perhaps she'd be interested in entering the Young Film Critic competition.

"To enter, learners must present their response to a film they have seen at the cinema during the last year, either independently or at one of Film Education?s cinema events. Reviews can be submitted in written, filmed, audio or Braille format or, for pupils under the age of 7, presented as a drawn response to the film."

www.youngfilmcritic.org/

give her freedom to explore sketch star

really really good free software (it's worth registering to get the capacity to save)

And relax - she may use it only as a drawing pad for months and months, but she'll discover the animation possibilities in her own time. (at that point she might like shooting a video of the running animation while she does a voice over. again give her total editing powers, including deleting everything if she wants)

Is she learning another language? Watching films in her 2nd language could be a really good way to practice the language.

Go to the films for schools website. A lot of the films listed have worksheets that you can print out. Some of them have really fun, interesting projects

My DC enjoy watching bits and pieces on you tube too. When we were talking about solar and lunar eclipses, we watched you tube videos of both and it really made it come alive. We did the same for the history of ancient China - found lots of great videos on you tube.

My son - very typically for a 7 year old boy loves Pirates of the Caribbean and we then sparked a Pirate topic from this, and are going to the London Museum at Docklands who have an exhibition on right now all about Captain Kidd. There are many educational games and print off's linked to various films, and we find this gives us an idea, and then many other spin off ideas come from these. It's lovely to have a child ask a question and then delve deeper, if it comes from any interest. Far better that than 'dry' learning, just because they are supposed to learn something at a given age. Right now it's planets and, of course that means Prof. Brian is the hero!

Don't know if there is anything here that may be age appropriate. It is in London so maybe worth it as part of a short break. I remember one of the topics dc have done in the past is to look at variations of fairy tales based on the same story. Maybe you could choose a theme like Cinderella and view different versions (including Enchanted for example, as well as the more obvious) You could compare them and think about which she prefers and why then make up her own version. There are simplified versions of the stories which may inertets her more for reading. Local library might be a good source of dvds and books. Also could you go to the theatre or ask a local school if you could attend some their productions?