Teaching Co. DVDs - World Hist. Fertile Cr.-Am. Rev.

[Susan C.]

Hi everyone,

Have any of you viewed these DVDs from Teaching Co. and are they good? We are doing World History next year and my dd would like some interesting dvds to watch with it. These are on a one day sale for 79.99!

Thanks!

[Caroline]

Hi everyone,

Have any of you viewed these DVDs from Teaching Co. and are they good? We are doing World History next year and my dd would like some interesting dvds to watch with it. These are on a one day sale for 79.99!

Thanks!

 

 

I am looking at these, too. I would be interested in what you all have to say.

 

Also, do any of you buy Teaching Co CDs for listening in the car? What would you recomend?

[Corraleno]

:thumbdown:

I'm probably in a minority, but we HATED the Linwood Thompson world history course. He dresses up in costume, but often not what you'd think -- e.g. for Egypt, he doesn't dress as a pharoah, he dresses as an archeologist and talks with a thick Noo Yawk accent (why???). IMHO the "lectures" are heavy on amateur dramatics and light on information. For example, here's what my kids remembered from the Egypt lecture: "Deese Phay-rows, see, dey t'ought dey was gods, see" and [during embalming] "dey pulled yer brain outta yer nose." For each lecture, my kids could have learned more from a single page in an Usborne book than they did from the whole lecture.

 

I can see why he'd be a popular teacher in a California public school, but for me the whole point of classical education and homeschooling is to avoid that kind of dumbed-down non-education. I haven't seen the other other Linwood Thompson course -- the first was so bad we didn't even want to try the second. I own about 20-25 other Teaching Co courses and IMHO the two high school history courses are not remotely on the same level as the others. (In fact, I'd say they're about 4th-5th grade level, if that. Even my 11 year old thought they were completely lame.)

 

Jackie

[Susan C.]

:thumbdown:

I'm probably in a minority, but we HATED the Linwood Thompson world history course. He dresses up in costume, but often not what you'd think -- e.g. for Egypt, he doesn't dress as a pharoah, he dresses as an archeologist and talks with a thick Noo Yawk accent (why???). IMHO the "lectures" are heavy on amateur dramatics and light on information. For example, here's what my kids remembered from the Egypt lecture: "Deese Phay-rows, see, dey t'ought dey was gods, see" and [during embalming] "dey pulled yer brain outta yer nose." For each lecture, my kids could have learned more from a single page in an Usborne book than they did from the whole lecture.

 

I can see why he'd be a popular teacher in a California public school, but for me the whole point of classical education and homeschooling is to avoid that kind of dumbed-down non-education. I haven't seen the other other Linwood Thompson course -- the first was so bad we didn't even want to try the second. I own about 20-25 other Teaching Co courses and IMHO the two high school history courses are not remotely on the same level as the others. (In fact, I'd say they're about 4th-5th grade level, if that. Even my 11 year old thought they were completely lame.)

 

Jackie

 

Jackie,

Thank you for posting, I think I would agree with you and you saved me! Could you suggest other Teaching Co. dvds to use for World History?

[Caroline]

Thank you Jackie. What about Foundations of Western Civilization? Or Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity?

Edited June 6, 2009 by Caroline
Another question

[Laurie4b]

:thumbdown:

I'm probably in a minority, but we HATED the Linwood Thompson world history course. He dresses up in costume, but often not what you'd think -- e.g. for Egypt, he doesn't dress as a pharoah, he dresses as an archeologist and talks with a thick Noo Yawk accent (why???). IMHO the "lectures" are heavy on amateur dramatics and light on information. For example, here's what my kids remembered from the Egypt lecture: "Deese Phay-rows, see, dey t'ought dey was gods, see" and [during embalming] "dey pulled yer brain outta yer nose." For each lecture, my kids could have learned more from a single page in an Usborne book than they did from the whole lecture.

 

I can see why he'd be a popular teacher in a California public school, but for me the whole point of classical education and homeschooling is to avoid that kind of dumbed-down non-education. I haven't seen the other other Linwood Thompson course -- the first was so bad we didn't even want to try the second. I own about 20-25 other Teaching Co courses and IMHO the two high school history courses are not remotely on the same level as the others. (In fact, I'd say they're about 4th-5th grade level, if that. Even my 11 year old thought they were completely lame.)

 

Jackie

 

I thought the same about the American history. It is really boring to see a guy in costume just talking for the whole lecture. It would jazz up a class presentation, I'm sure, but for DVD, it was pretty bad, imo. It took me 2-3 years to buy another Teaching Company course after that.

[Corraleno]

Thank you Jackie. What about Foundations of Western Civilization? Or Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity?

 

I haven't seen Big History: Big Bang Etc, I was trying to choose between that one and Brief History of the World and unfortunately I chose the latter. I don't recommend it; I'm trying to decide whether to return it or not. I've heard good things about the first half of Big History (cosmology, evolution, etc), but mixed reviews about the second half (history).

 

I do have the Foundations of Western Civ course; we've watched the first half corresponding to Ancients and will do the second half next year when we cover the Middle Ages. So far we like it a lot. It doesn't go deep into details, but it provides a very good overview and hits the key points. The professor is reasonably engaging, and the graphics (maps, lists, etc) are helpful. I would recommend the DVD over the audio format; it seems like most of the negative reviews have to do with not understanding the professor clearly.

 

That being said, these ARE lecture courses. A college professor stands in one place and talks, with the occasional map or graphic thrown in. For kids who are used to watching Science/History/Discovery channel documentaries, this takes some getting used to! I watch them with my kids and have my son sit with a notebook and take notes, pausing the video as necessary. He has attention issues so this is sometimes difficult for him, but I think it's excellent training for college.

 

Jackie

[Caroline]

Thanks for all of your help. I ended up with Foundations of Western Civilization and Books that have Made History. I did audio download.

[Vida Winter]

Thanks for all of your help. I ended up with Foundations of Western Civilization and Books that have Made History. I did audio download.

 

I have the Linwood Thompson DVD which was mentioned. Eh. It's reasonably interesting but I'd put it at a 6th-7th grade level instead of high school. I used this set of DVDs as a filler because when we pulled our 8th grader out of PS this Christmas I had no history program in place. The set comes with an outline and workbook. I think the series is okay for what it is - a broad overview.

 

I recently purchased Books that Have Made History and Lessons of History (both by Dr. Fears). I finished Lessons from History (enjoyed it a great deal) and am about to start the Books course. Both audio download here, too.

 

I'll pick certain lectures to go with our history. I also bought the Low, Middle, and High Middle ages courses on audio. Mainly for me right now, and I'll pull in what I can for high school studies when we cover that time period.

 

For myself I like the audio download very much. Half the price of DVDs and I can listen on my Ipod.

[Julie in MN]

Hi everyone,

Have any of you viewed these DVDs from Teaching Co. and are they good? We are doing World History next year and my dd would like some interesting dvds to watch with it. These are on a one day sale for 79.99!

Thanks!

 

We just use the high school history as an extra, anywhere from about 6th grade to high school, reinforcing what we've already learned.

 

I think they cover as much as can be covered in one or two class periods, but the rest of the week he must spend on projects or reading or testing?

 

We add lots of DVDs to spice up our days & review what we've learned.

 

Also, do any of you buy Teaching Co CDs for listening in the car? What would you recomend?

 

(1) I'm listening to How to Listen to & Understand Great Music. It's pretty interesting to me, but I can only listen to so much at a time or it all runs together in my brain. That set is pretty extensive.

 

(2) My dd used the Jazz audios in high school as part of her fine arts credit. I thought it did a good job on that. It wasn't anywhere near as long as the Great Music series.

 

(3) I'm also listening to the History of the US (college version) in the car (I do a lot of waiting in the car). I have some trouble with the history & science at the college level because it's so very intelligent to be not a Christian. But interestingly enough, the US History one spends an awful lot of time talking about Christian theology that they don't believe in :) Anyways, I think it helps that I've just been teaching US History to my son, so I have a framework for understanding and am picking up new details and interesting perspectives. At the college level, history is quite opinionated. I am selling a science set because the non-Christian bent was stated in such a short, silly way that I couldn't pay attention after that...

 

 

A couple more notes:

- Your library may have these for you to try out

- When the prices get that low, you're likely to get a good return on the investment if you resell

- There's a yahoo group for the Teaching Company with lots of reviews (though I haven't seen any high school discussion)