A Spielvogel choice question, please advise me

[Sharon in MD]

I am going to be putting my own history course together for ds for next year, 12th grade. We have decided to do one semester on Ancients and one semester on Renn/Ref. Our idea is that we'd like to hit Egypt and some other ancient cultures, but primarily spend the time on Greece and Rome for the 1st semester....kind of looking at the origins of Western Civilization. Then in the second semester we would hit the Ren/Ref period to look at the way those seeds started to really grow. (I hope this makes sense...I know it does in my head, but I'm not sure if I'm translating my vague idea very well).

 

We are going to use the following TTC videos for the first semester

 

The Origins of Ancient Civilizations (Harl) 12 lectures

Ancient Greek Civilization (McInerney) 24 lectures

History of Ancient Rome (Fagan) 48 lectures

Rome and the Barbarians (Harl) 36 lectures

 

Then for the second semester we would use:

 

Renaissance, the Reformation and the Rise of Nations (Fix) 48 lectures

Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance (Kloss) 36

Art of the Northern Renaissance (Scallen) 36 Lectures

or maybe Art Across the Ages (Soltes) 48 lectures instead of the other two art ones

 

Obviously I've got way toooooo much here in the video content...any suggestions?

 

Now on to the Spielvogel question, which was the initial reason for writing...

Which version would y'all recommend? The Western Civ book or the Human Odyssey book? Or something else? I don't want to short change the text....but I also don't want to get bogged down in something that has too much detail for what we want to accomplish.

 

Help please....I'm:bigear:

[Chris in VA]

Each TC series comes with a booklet that contains the outlines for the lectures. Are you getting them from the library? You can just compare the booklets to see where there is overlap.

Without knowing the contents, I'd probably just go with the Harl lectures, then pick one of the others. Adding in readings from Spielvogel (and tying in primary source/Great Books would be of benefit, also) will give you a well-rounded approach. YOu could also just get the overview, then go deeper via selected lectures from the various courses.

 

2nd Semester--You could probably do all of RRRoN, but at about 3 lectures a week, it's a lot to cover. Again, get the booklets and see what you could skip. Spielvogel is very strong in both Ancient and Middle/Renaissance periods.

 

Oh, and use Western Civ. Try to get 5th edition--it's cheaper than the new one, and has lots of snippets of primary sources.

[Sharon in MD]

Chris, what video in the first semester were you thinking of as being more of an overview? I am planning to get these from my library. At first I was going to shell out a bunch of money for some of it, but then I started checking our local system and they have multiple copies of all of these between the tri-county area. So I figured to just borrow them. I hope they will have the booklets in the slip jackets....sometimes those go missing, but I'm hoping they will be there.

 

Your ideas, both Chris and Eliana, looking to eliminate overlap, is a great suggestion. I have a tendency to think we need to do it all, overkill is good right?

 

I do hope to mix in some lit and art, but that will depend on time.

 

Thanks for the tip of the 5th ed. too...I will try to find it used at the curriculum fair...who knows, I might get lucky.

 

Have either of you used the online material from Spielvogel?

[LisaNY]

I agree with Chris and Eliana. Western Civ will fit much better with your plan. This would also dovetail nicely with WTM Great Books selections. If you will be studying The Iliad or Odyssey, the Vandiver lectures from TC are excellent. We viewed the lectures on the Odyssey, and my dd and I really enjoyed them.

 

Oooh! I'm jealous! I wish I could have had the opportunity to do 10th-12th gr. with my older dd. I keep thinking of ways to bribe my younger dd to stay home, but no luck yet. :001_rolleyes:

[Sharon in MD]

Thanks Lisa...it is a relief to me to have three in a row say to go for the Western Civ book.

 

(Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't post if you have a contrary opinion....remember I want to hear!)

 

I'll have to check with my library for the Vandiver series....they have just about all TTC tapes and DVDs....especially with the multiple counties to pull from. I just wish we had more time to dig into it deeper, but I know we really won't.

 

I'm the history buff...ds is more science and math. But, he has like history more this year with mixing in the TTC stuff and specifically asked for the program I'm putting together for next year....so, here's hoping it won't be a flame out!