Homeschooling with Katniss

We decided they were ready, old enough. So as part of our New Year’s Eve movie marathon, Dad and I added The Hunger Games to our cinematic lineup. Two of our kids gave the movie a thumbs up. But not twenty minutes in, our oldest was appalled. His not-so-inner-dialogue for the next two hours went something like this:

This movie is horrible. This is not entertainment. We’re supposed to enjoy this?

I knew we were taking a chance on a dystopian movie, especially with our sensitive, vividly-imaginative son. But I also knew he would respond to my agreeing with him. So to answer his question I said:

No. We’re not supposed to like this. Sometimes movies are made to make us think.

Now my son’s wheels were turning.

But for days after he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t like The Hunger Games. It wasn’t fun to watch. What a terrible movie.

But I held my ground. I agreed with his distaste for how Panem controlled its citizens, subjecting children to unspeakable duress, and their families to constant fear and submission.

Then out-of-the-blue:

You have The Hunger Games books, Mom. Can I read them?

Well, ok. Something clearly clicked with my son, what for sure I don’t know. But he was inspired to read, and he knew what he was in for after watching the movie The Hunger Games.

So I handed over the first thick volume. He devoured it, eschewing iPad time for turning the pages of a nouveau classic. He asked for Catching Fire. Ripped through faster than flames through dry kindling. Then Mockingjay. He dashed through that, too. Our son was a boy obsessed. He couldn’t stop talking about colorful Effie Trinket, what district each tribute came from and what each district’s industry was, and how he just didn’t trust President Coin from District 13. I think to date we’ve watched the movie Catching Fire (my son’s and my personal favorite of the four) five times.

This obsession couldn’t have come at a better time. Homeschool felt uninspired, rote and just plain boring, to both my son and me. I’d given us permission to take school off the rails and follow a less conventional route, but I was unsure what direction to take. We were in uncharted territory, planning on blazing a new trail of inspired learning. But how?

Enter Suzanne Collins’ masterpiece.

First, once he finished one of the books, we watched the movie version as a part of school. But neither of us was just passively watching…I had my son take notes (mental and written) to compare and contrast the book with the movie and turn his notes into a writing exercise. And he was to do an analysis of a character of his choice. My job was to find specific topics to explore in terms of the books and movies. For example:

1. Post Traumatic Stress. We talked about triggers, signs and symptoms and found some short videos of real-life situations of PTS, making our way back to The Hunger Games and examples of the syndrome within the story.
2. Survivors’ guilt. We followed the same format as we did with PTS.
3. Lightning. (Spoiler Alert: At the end of Catching Fire Katniss shoots an electrified arrow at the force field surrounding the arena, the electrical source being lightning.) So my son and I studied lightning, finding a really good illustrative video that explains it.
4. Electricity. Playing off the premise of electrifying the water source in the arena, we are getting ready to study charges and conduction as part of a robotics unit, where we built our own robots.
5. Genocide. Yeah, heavy topic. We had planned to attend an exhibition of learning at a local high school on the subject of genocide, but nasty weather kept us home. I figured if young teens can tackle this topic, my old-soul son could handle it as well. And we will talk about it, I just need to figure out a junior high-appropriate plan B to start our discussion and how genocide relates to The Hunger Games.

The topics my son and I are exploring in school because of The Hunger Games isn’t appropriate for all kids, homeschooled or otherwise, but neither is The Hunger Games. For us, this series just happened to be what my son, surprisingly, is really into right now. Whether you homeschool or not, find what your child is loving at the moment and turn it into a learning experience. You’ll find there’s a lot to explore in a related vein. And if you do homeschool, don’t be afraid to break tradition and let your child follow his nose. Kids will love learning when inspired by their own interests to do so.

So, to mess with the iconic quote:

Happy Reading of The Hunger Games, and may the joy of learning be ever in your grasp.