Podcasts for Middle Schoolers
Let’s start with the basics in case you don’t know what a podcast is. A podcast is an audio ‘episode’ that you can listen to on your computer or download to your music player. For most, that means downloading via iTunes to your ipod. Many podcasts have recurring episodes so you can subscribe and get new episodes as they are ready.
Depending on your student’s learning style, podcasts can be a wonderful way to augment your lessons with your kids. My kids have especially liked history or science podcasts. One son watches video podcasts of Nova and other science related casts. My other son listens to history.
Here is a list of podcasts we listen to:
History of Rome – The author goes into great detail on each podcast and my son finds it riveting. He’s had some breaks in between podcasts but generally does them weekly or bi-weekly, and the podcasts last around 20 minutes.
In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg – These cover a wide array of topics from The Great Fire of London to Neuroscience to Dante’s Inferno. The site says it best: “The history of ideas discussed by Melvyn Bragg and guests including Philosophy, science, literature, religion and the influence these ideas have on us today.” These are usually produced weekly or bi-weekly as well, and run about 40 minutes.
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TPN :: Napoleon – The Napoleon podcasts, well you can imagine what they are about. The authors cover Napoleon’s reign in great detail. The podcasts generally run an hour or so, and the podcasts are updated frequently. Note: the authors often relate things that occurred during Napoleonic times to the current US administration, so if you are offended by that, caveat emptor, but I think it’s worth it regardless of your politics, they do a great job.
The History Network (military) – With military in the name, my son loves this one. It is updated ‘fortnightly’ as they say and the topics are usually about a specific battle and covers the battle in detail. Very well done.
Carpe Diem: put a little Latin in your life – This is an audio book that costs 8.95 and is about 5.5 hours long, but I’d be remiss not to list this. My son takes Latin once a week, and this book seems to be made just for him. It is not a boring litany of translations. The author tells funny stories with Latin tie-ins (including quoting a Monty Python bit) and then jumps into Latin lessons, the classic head fake.
All of the above are available on iTunes, but the links I’ve provided are to their respective web sites. If you have podcasts your homeschool students listen to, please list them in the comments.
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Great post.
We use our MP3 players daily. My 7 and 9 year old memorise Scripture, multiplication tables and listen to classics. I sleep with mine.