Favorite Non-Fiction and Based-on-a-true-Story DVDs and Movies

* = some mature content, ** =  parents strongly cautioned
This page is a work in progress.

For more lists like this, please see the Our Favorites section on this blog.

Documentary-ish (and Courses):

Cooking!

Alton Brown's Good Eats!

Geography:

Rick Steves' Europe *

History:

Ken Burns' Baseball *

Ken Burns' Civil War **


Nova: Secrets of Lost Empires Series

Nova: To the Moon

PBS New York *

The Shroud of Turin (Ignatius Press) *

This is America, Charlie Brown

Religion:

Catholicism Series (Fr. Robert Barron)

Chosen Series (Ascension Press)

Footprints of God Series (Ignatius Press)

Science:

Africa: Eye to Eye with the Unknown (BBC)

Building Big with David Macaulay *

Disney's Earth

Earth: The Biography, BBC (Previously Known as The Power of the Planet) Watch section online

Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe

How the Earth Changed History (BBC)

Magic School Bus

Microcosmos

Fully-acted Movies based on True Stories  

(does not include Historical Fiction - which I hope to put together in a separate post):

 

 

Bible History:

The Greatest Story Ever Told *

Jesus of Nazareth *

Joseph, King of Dreams 

One Night with the King *- Queen Esther

Prince of Egypt

The Ten Commandments *

Biography:

42 *


The Blind Side *

Boystown *

Cinderella Man *

The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler *

The Diary of Anne Frank *

Edison the Man

Gandhi * 

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story *

The Glenn Miller Story


The Imitation Game **


The Kings' Speech *

A Man for All Seasons (Paul Scofield)


The Miracle Worker (Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke) *

Miss Potter - Beatrix Potter

Molokai * - St. Damien of Molokai

October Baby *


Pope John Paul II (Jon Voight, Cary Elwes) *

The Pride of the Yankees - Lou Gehrig

I Remember Mama

Restless Heart * - St. Augustine

Sergeant York *

The Song of Bernadette - St. Bernadette Soubirous

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days *

The Spirit of St. Louis - Charles Lindbergh

The Stratton Story - Monty Stratton

We Bought a Zoo *

Young Tom Edison

History:

The Agony and the Ecstasy * - Painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Amazing Grace * - The Abolition of Slavery in England

Anna and the King *

Apollo 13 *

Awakenings *

Band of Brothers **

Chariots of Fire

Gettysburg *

Of Gods and Men *

The Great Escape *

Henry V (1989) ** - The Battle of Agincourt (based on the Shakespeare play)


Joyeux Noel ** - The World War I Christmas Truce

Miracle - The U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's Gold Medal Victory over Russia in 1980

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

The Mission *

The Monuments Men *

October Sky *

The Scarlet and the Black

How Many Countries Can You Name in Five Minutes

89

hat-tip Chez Ouiz

The Extent of My Travels...

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

And that's it. Never been out of the country.

hat-tip My Garden in Garmisch (which is in Germany!)

National Geography Bee Prep

Cross-posted from Love2learn Blog

We're preparing to participate in our local homeschool group's Geography Bee as part of the National Geography Bee. My oldest participated last year while #2 (the geography buff of the family) watched eagerly from the side-lines. He's finally old enough this year, and we just had to miss the practice round (my nephew Ruben's funeral was the same day - please keep him and his family in your prayers) so I'm putting some extra effort into sources of Geography practice for both of our participants. I did come up with a little incentive - especially for them to work together. We promised to take either of them out to ice cream if they make it into the final round of our local homeschool group's Bee. But if they BOTH make it into the final round, they get a bigger treat. :)

We've always had a lot of maps, map puzzles, atlases and other geography books around. These are some websites (mostly quizzes) which my children love and seem to be highly motivating. They're also an easy way for me to keep up just a little bit with my kids on this project. Since I thought others might be interested...

GeoSpy Game (this is where I learned the locations of all the countries of Africa!)

GeographyZone (country quiz - compete with others and yourself - this tracks scores by state and country - but practice at GeoSpy first so you don't bring the score down too much - it's hard! - especially the islands in Oceania, whew!)

Fun Brain Geography Quizzes (Practice Capitals of States and Countries - and much more - on several difficulty levels)

Info Please Geography Quizzes (Quizzes and Crossword puzzles on a variety of geographic topics)

Matt Rosenburg's Geography Quizzes (These are tough!)

Online Maps and Puzzles (hat tip Ana Braga-Henebry)

I don't remember where I read this, but in any case, keep in mind that the purpose of the Geography Bee is to get more people to study and care about Geography, which has been long-neglected in schools. This means that parents should make an effort to do some learning themselves and everyone should remember that any extra effort put into Geography for the sake of the Bee is a very positive thing. It should be fun and a source of motivation, not a cause of stress and pressure.