Kathie in VA Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I'm thinking of supplementing our history with either of these or both: Drive thru History: Greece & Drive thru History: Rome (we have the one for America and the kids liked it) or TheTeachingCompay's Great Course: World History: The Fertile Crescent to the American Revolution (If I used this I'd only view the first 7 or so lectures and save the rest as we are only doing the ancients or maybe 1/2 of world history this year. I put a hold on the TTC one from my library but it will be awhile before it is available. This is the one for high schoolers where the Prof. dresses in costume. Is this a good one? BTW, it is on sale now for 70% off ... $79.95.) I'll be doing ancients with 4 kids using SOTW I, CC-Foundations, Guerber bks, and SWB's History of the Ancients so this would supplement for all. tia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I bought the Teaching Co HS World History course and hated it. Linwood Thompson seems to be far more interested in amateur dramatics than teaching history. Lots of bad acting and not much information, IMHO. Even my 11 year old thought it was really lame. For example, for the lecture on Egypt the teacher dressed not as a Pharoah or other Egyptian character, but as an "archeologist" with a bad "Noo Yawk" accent: "So deese Fay-roes, see, dey thought dey was gawds, see...." The only thing my kids remembered from that lecture was that during mummification "dey pull yer brain out through yer nose..." I know some people really like the course, but I thought it was the worst Teaching Company course ever. Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 We have both. My son has loved Drive-Thru since about 4th grade when we got it, and he would still tell you they are awesome. There is a lot of info, but the "main" thing he gets from them is a visual of Greece & Rome. The American ones are more "teaching" biographies & such. Another thing is that the narrator is young, "cool," and not afraid to say he's a Christian. My son has felt the Teaching Company videos were too long for the amount of topics that are covered in a particular lesson. The last one we watched was on the Gold Rush, and as a 7th grader he felt it was "enough already" on that topic. He doesn't mind the corniness, since he doesn't like all seriousness all the time, either. I'd say he looks at the dress-up as an attempt to be creative. But he finds the commentary to be too looong to keep his interest, with not enough stuff that he didn't already know about. I like reinforcement and using different mediums, so I still decided to get both. Yes, they're on sale, but that is the ONLY way you should purchase Teaching Company materials. Also, Drive-Thru is probably cheapest at LibraryAndEd Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntieM Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 FWIW, I have gotten both Drive Thru History and Teaching Company products from my local library, some titles through interlibrary loan. If you could get one for free, maybe you could work in both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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