Counting Pinecones: WORLD Watch ( A Homeschool Crew Review)

DISCLAIMER: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

When I was in high school, every morning at the beginning of class, we would watch a now defunct news program called Channel 1. It was designed to introduce students to daily news events as well as other stories of interest to help students develop interest in the world around them. As my own homeschooled children got older, I really wanted to find a program very similar in format that would grab their attention and provide quality stories from around the globe. I had looked at various options available for homeschool students but found that most of them came from a very slanted worldview and covered topics that I felt really did not reflect well from a Christian outlook.

When we were given the opportunity to review WORLD Watch, a daily news program from a Christian worldview, I was pretty intrigued. Reviewers were given a 6 month subscription of WORLD Watch that allowed the whole family to view the programing. For the last month, we have been using the daily, ten minute program before our class, much like I use to view the other program when I was a student, as a way to start our day with current events and other stories of interest.

WORLD Watch is a 10 minute daily broadcast that offers a wide array of stories of interest. Each episode covers topics such as current events, history, science, technology, world cultures, government, economics and more while presenting material with a Biblical worldview. Hosted by Brian Basham, AKA "The Big Bash" who is also the program director, WORLD Watch programing believes that "Whatever the news, the purpose of the Lord will stand".

How We Used It

During the first half of this review period, we would routinely watch the daily program during our dinner time, while everyone was together. We would get our plates, sit at the table and I would turn the program on and we would watch together.

This quickly became a highlight of our dining time, as both kids would remind me that we had to watch the daily news.

Once our school started up full time, we switched to watching the daily show at the beginning of our day as a way to get into the educational mindset. I simply log into the website and find the days broadcast and hit play.

When we first started watching the program, the kids would find the stories about animals of the most interest. I remember there was a story about scientists observing a glass octopus for the first time and the kids really enjoyed that story immensely and couldn't wait til their dad returned home from work that evening to be able to tell him all about it. At first, the world event stories did not really stick with them, although they were paying attention.

However, as world events transitioned to events that actually affected their lives, I noticed they paid more attention and were discussing those events more in detail. This played out with the stories involving the conflict and withdraw of our troops from Afghanistan.

We live on a military base - Holloman AFB in New Mexico to be exact. Holloman is one of the 6 bases who have been receiving Afghan Refugees and life on base has changed in the last few weeks for us as we have brought in both refugees as well as outside military members who are part of the Task Force to take care of them. The kids are able to see the Task Force "tent city" that was erected down the street from our house.

Tent City for Refugee Task Force on Holloman

Because of this, I noticed they paid much closer attention to stories about Afghanistan, the refugees and the military task force taking care of them. Granted, they still liked the stories about the migration of right whales, but their attention seemed to focus more on the current events being shown.

The kids also really like "The Big Bash" as the host. Brian Basham tends to throw in a big of comedy towards the closing moments of the show, which the kids enjoy a lot. As a host, he's engaging and charismatic, drawing them into the stories. The other reporters are also very engaging and relatable, which I think helps them to pay attention - as opposed to stuffy reporters at a news desk just reading a story in a pretty monotone voice. WORLD Watch has a mix reporters of various ages and races of both sexes, giving both Ashleigh and Garrett a diversity of people to watch and learn from, showing them that again, you don't have to be a stuffy reporter at a news desk to tell the news. I personally like this, as someone who studied journalism in both high school and college, because it shows them both that they don't have to check off a specific box to report the news or to be in a news program.

As a parent, I appreciate the fact I'm not having to prescreen each broadcast for questionable content. While I know "alternative lifestyles" and the LGBT+ community are a part of today's society, I really don't like having my kids bombarded with it on a daily basis in every program they watch. I definitely appreciate the God centered view this programming holds to, without all the secular stories that are common in today's world.

Overall, I'm very happy with using this as a quick ten minute morning program to start our day off with world events and more, without any questionable content, and I look forward to continuing to use it even after our 6 month subscription is ended.